Oh look, it\u2019s that girl who choked to death on her own sick in Breaking Bad. Krysten Ritter stars in a new Netflix series as Marvel\u2019s Jessica Jones \u2013 a private investigator with super strength and the ability to jump higher than you can be bothered to crank your neck. If that sounds ridiculous it\u2019s because it is. Although, it\u2019s not half as unbearable as the other superhero\/comic book shows out there, like Supergirl or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, which I can\u2019t watch without a doctor in case I cringe my way to a stroke. In fact, it\u2019s actually quite impressive; the reason being it\u2019s not really about superheroes.<\/p>\n
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Not really about superheroes? There\u2019s a line to throw off all the comic book geeks. It is really, but only as much as porn is about plumbers and pizza deliverers: it doesn\u2019t matter who or what they are; what matters is the fucking. Jessica Jones might be set in a world filled with people who can lob you through walls and survive a shotgun blast to the head, but they\u2019re merely there to decorate what is essentially a human story.
\nIt\u2019s actually about manipulation, abuse, and addiction. Yeah, you\u2019re interested now, aren\u2019t you, you weirdo. Jessica is haunted by a traumatic past involving a mind-controller called Kilgrave, who can quite easily be interpreted as the manipulative ex-boyfriend figure. Played by David Tennant, he made her stay with him against her will, like an evil Doctor Who refusing to let his companion out of the TARDIS, while commanding her to spread her legs whenever he sees fit. Bloody hell, Marvel, you\u2019re doing rape now? That\u2019s a considerable shift in tone from the primary colour-clad, computer-generated business you usually spunk at us.<\/p>\n
This Kilgrave guy can make anyone do anything he wants by simply speaking a command, which is a pretty terrifying power for a total bastard like him. He uses it to make people commit suicide, throw boiling hot coffee in their own face and stare at a wall \u2018forever\u2019. The last of which renders one chap exhausted and soaked in his own piss, which is obviously funny, but I couldn\u2019t help but think that Kilgrave was lacking ambition. If I had mind control I\u2019d be known by the leaders of the world as \u2018King Ramrod Twelve Inches\u2019 in a matter of minutes. It\u2019s more his style, however, to go round head-fucking people one-by-one, making them feel violated after they involuntarily eat their own shit.<\/p>\n
So using her private eye skills, Jessica tries to track down Kilgrave before he makes everyone in the city a support group-dependent mess. Typically \u2013 which is the word I\u2019m going to use so this can\u2019t be interpreted as a spoiler \u2013 Jessica builds up an immunity to his powers because she\u2019s the main character and it\u2019s convenient to the story, so fuck you. Apart from that, there\u2019s no satisfying explanation for why he can no longer control her, unless he\u2019s like an antibiotic that loses its effect after continual use.<\/p>\n
While Kilgrave could be considered a metaphorical representation of addiction, there are also some literal examples, such as Jessica\u2019s fondness for the bottle and her neighbour\u2019s appetite for heroin. There\u2019s also the complex character of Will Simpson who\u2019s at the center of an ill-contrived subplot about pills that turn him into a rampaging maniac. It\u2019s one of the few things I can criticise in this series, and that\u2019s high praise from someone who usually rants about cultural genocide whenever the word \u2018Marvel\u2019 is mentioned. But this is nothing like The Avengers. It\u2019s socially relatable, dark, brilliantly shot and carefully written \u2013 all the things you expect from a Netflix Original. Just don\u2019t tell Batman and the other guys at DC that I enjoyed this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"