10 Reasons to Watch Jessica Jones
Krysten Ritter takes on great roles for women.
Krysten Ritter has a tendency to take on strong female roles that allow for promiscuity, signs of intelligence and tenacity, and some of the best sarcastic one liners ever written. While this role is a great fit for the actress, she has already slayed as the lead on “Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23,” Jane on “Breaking Bad,” and Gia on “Veronica Mars.”
Mind control serves as a metaphor for abusive relationships
Jessica and Kilgrave’s relationship started when he decided to manipulate her via mind control (after seeing her powers in action). No time during the relationship does Jessica give consent, which is a major aspect of abuse in the real world. Not only does this show give a voice to survivors of these relationships, but reveals the true danger of a abuser's charisma. Kilgrave isdangerous because of what he represents more than who he is.
This show ties into the Marvel Universe
If you’ve been paying attention to pop culture, at all in the past five years, you will understand how important it is to understand the complexities and nuances of the Marvel cinematic universe. Between the “Avengers” films, the standalone hero films, and now the TV shows “Daredevil,” “Agent Carter,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Jessica Jones,” there are a lot of storylines that have to be followed. Jessica constantly talks about the “Green Guy” and the attacks on New York City, and Rosario Dawson’s character from “Daredevil” even makes an appearance in this show. If you wanna keep up with it all, and the upcoming Luke Cage show, you need to watch this.
Jessica and Luke make for some steamy scenes
While their backstory is complicated, their lust for each other is not. Luke Cage is played by the yummy Mike Colter, and acts as a very sensitive, yet tough, piece of eye candy. He also helps Jessica against Kilgrave, who had a role in ruining Luke's life. Their sex scenes have already been listed in Buzzfeed’s “Hottest Sex Scenes of 2015,” and their bed breaking antics in the first couple episodes are already legendary.
There are lots of heroes in the main cast
When Melissa Rosenberg was originally creating this show at ABC in 2010, she intended for the role of Jessica Jones’ best friend to be for Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, but it was changed when it came to Netflix. Trish, or “Patsy,” is known as Hellcat in the original Marvel comics, alluded to when she tries to get Jessica to dress in the same costume as her alter ego, Jewel. Also in the show is Luke Cage (Power Man), Simpson (Nuke), and Kilgrave (Purple Man).
Characters are gender swapped
Most notably the gender is swapped for Carrie-Ann Moss’ role as Jeri Hogarth, who in the comics is portrayed by Jerryn Hogarth, a man. One reason for the switch might be for the want to have a heavy female cast, or to have more LGBT characters. Hogarth is also not a perfect character, as she is a ruthless attorney who doesn’t care about anyone or anything, including her wife, who she cheats on with her secretary. Hogarth starts to become an antagonist later in the series.
If You Don’t Know the Marvel Universe, You Can Still Watch
As just a show about a sarcastic, alcoholic, private detective with super powers, this is a great show to watch. The characters are fun, and you don’t need a ton of backstory to understand their motivations. While the characters aren’t all thatsimilar to the comics in backstory and tone, there are underpinnings and asides to the audience. These will not distract from your experience if you aren’t a huge comics nerd.
Jessica Fights Her Own Battles (Though she Sometimes Gets Help)
While Jessica isn’t given a huge backstory (where she has great martial arts training and a knack for self-defense) she does have super strength, and more times than not she’s taking down baddies with little to no help from her supporting players. Yes Simpson and Luke help her out with armies of henchmen, but it’s Jessica who more often than not will take down her foes, arrange plots, and take responsibility for her actions.
There’s Nothing PG about this Show
The reason that Marvel has become so popular within its cinematic universe, is because they don’t treat our favorite heroes like false idols. Yes, Captain America is boyishly moralistic in almost every iteration, and Spiderman could use yet another makeover, but that’s not how we want to see our heroes. It’s why Batman films have been so big in the last decade, it’s why Marvel is making billions off its wordwide releases, and why you will love Jessica Jones. She is swarthy, biting, edgy, and realistic, making for seriously adult content.
Kilgrave
While it breaks my heart that David Tennant plays a baddie in this show, what an interesting, complex one he is. In the Marvel universe he goes by the name Purple Man, but here he is just Kilgrave, a power hungry lunatic who constantly lies and plays cat and mouse with our PI. Between his charisma (meaning mind control) and his blatant threats against anyone who could stop him, he makes for a menacing villain. More than that he is quite interesting, as he doles out complex, hard to watch punishments to those who oppose him, and has a rich backstory.