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Review: 'Jessica Jones' arrives on Netflix...

20th November 2015

'Daredevil' was a critical success for the Netflix/Marvel team-up. Now 'Jessica Jones' arrives. So, pull up them dukes, let's get down to it...

It took two episodes for Netflix's Daredevil to find its mark - a double-whammy that showed the faithful that the series was aiming to deliver on both the personal, character-driven aspect of the concept AND on the action-front. By the end of that second hour it was clear it could do both... the series, unbound by networks' need to ruthelessly accommodate the widest audience, instead knew how to target a strong demographic without diluting the material.  It was darker, grittier, rough and ready - not the profanity-laden, full-frontal kind of attention-grabbing programming that had grabbed the headlines for s other cable-shows but equally one that could stand on its own merits. More importantly, it was an accurate reflection of the source material rather than finding a property and altering it to suit.

And so, here comes Netflix/Marvel's second collaboration: Jessica Jones. Based on the Marvel character originally created for the publisher's title Alias, this was initially a surprise choice... even within regular comic-readers, it was an eclectic title... another street-level outing but one created for Marvel's 'Mature Readers' - containing more sex and violence than anything else in your Friendly Neighbourhood block-party. Many would have thought the superhero-turned-hard-drinking-acerbic-and-snarky Jessica would have made a great supporting character, but to bring her front and centre? That was a ballsy move. 

The good news is that the show is immediately as stylish as the Matt Murdock series, the street-level, garbage-strewn sidewalk stories suited to a Netflix audience rather than the cleaner avenues of the main networks. Yes, it's occasionally (literally) too dark (like Daredevil you need to make sure your tv is tuned to the right brightness/contrast levels or some of screen seems completely enveloped in shadows), but the neon signs glow through the rain nicely and there's a tone set from the very start that day or night, it's never going to get too shiny.This is the black-sheep of the family and it aims to live up and down to that rep.

Krysten Ritter is very good as Jessica, her sullen eyes and take-no-prisoners attitude in full-force and the black hole around which other characters orbit at her event horizon. Initially unseen, except in shadows, David Tennant's bad-guy strips away any of the all-ages Doctor Who demeanour and provides us with a chilling character able to manipulate people to the most base level - making them their own greatest enemy. He's a character you'll ache to see get his just desserts at some point, though the weight of his presence is a completely different threat than D'Onofrio's coldly repressed Kingpin in Daredevil. HALO and The Good Wife's Mike Colter is also good as Luke Cage, who will be graduating to his own show as part of the deal.

However the story does move a little slower than its sister-show - the action, at least early on, is replaced by tightly-coiled nervous tension, establishing the crumbling world in which Jessica has found herself and the echoes of a world she almost left behind. She's a brazen, unapologetic survivor, but we quickly understand that she is far from unscathed. Something VERY bad happened to her and it informs every aspect of her life and decision-making even when she tries to deny it. Jessica Jones - as a person and a show - is often a walking, talking, thumping, kicking, drinking version of PTSD... the kind that will show you a good time but leave you with both a taste for more and a hangover. Netflix releases all of the episodes to watch from today but it may be a show, like a pub-crawl, for which you'll like the taste but will want to pace yourself rather than down in a single run of shots.

Likely to get good reviews, if not quite as strong as Daredevil, this is yet another strong, assured step for Netflix and Marvel and bodes well for the return of Daredevil and the arrival of other heroes in the months to come...

Review score: 8 out of 10

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