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Jessica Jones

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Paul Asay
Kristin Smith

TV Series Review

Sure, Jessica Jones sometimes moonlights as a superhero. She doesn’t wear a cape or don a mask or anything, but she’s been known to take out the occasional supervillain or team up with a cadre of gifted do-gooders.

But frankly, neither tights nor heroic moral rectitude fit her so well. Mostly, she’s just a private detective trying to pay the bills—drinking too much, sleeping too little and shedding her clothes for the occasional guy who strikes her fancy.

Her particular set of skills are on-the-job assets, too. Her super-strength comes in handy when she needs to, say, break into a mark’s apartment. She might not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but she can lithely jump onto a fire escape to better peer into a bedroom window.

The law? It’s more an impediment than anything else. Order? Have you seen her office? If you’re looking for one of those truth-and-justice types, best head to National City (to find Supergirl) or Central City (for The Flash) or, hey, even look around Jessica’s own Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood for Daredevil. This girl doesn’t have time for rigorous do-gooding.
“She’s not really trying to save the city,” Krysten Ritter, who plays Jessica, told Collider. “She’s just trying to save her apartment.”

Do Bad Guys Make Good Good Guys?

Are we being too hard on Jessica? Perhaps. She still wants to help when she can. She’d like to put some bad guys away, and sometimes does so terminally.

“I’ve killed,” she tells her sometimes best friend, Trish. (Their relationship is on the rocks as of Season 3, given that Trish murdered Jessica’s mom at the end of Season 2).

Nope, Jessica is no innocent and doesn’t pretend to be. “There’s no tidying her up,” executive producer Jeph Loeb told Entertainment Tonight. And that makes for a very messy show.

In keeping with the noirish, hard-boiled private eye vibe, Jessica drinks like a thirsty St. Bernard. When she’s not actively drinking, she’s likely drunk. If she’s not drunk, she’s probably hung over. (Liquor bottles litter her nightstand. Eighty-proof alcohol fills her canteen.)

Rotten language, though, goes far beyond what you’d hear Humphry Bogart’s Sam Spade say back in the day: S-words are common, for instance. And while she may feel bad about killing, she feels no remorse when it comes to sleeping around. When Trish tells Jessica that she can’t fritter away her life lost in booze and meaningless sex, Jessica snaps back, “Hey, don’t knock meaningless sex.” More often than not, we see that meaningless sex play out on screen.

But while Jessica may willingly look for one-night stands, the show doesn’t hesitate to engage even more disturbing sexual elements involving harassment, coercion and assault. And while the show certainly doesn’t condone such behavior—some have called Jessica Jones the perfect program for the #MeToo movement—its sexual exploits can get pretty grimy, graphic and very noisy here.

“[Jessica Jones] is dark, and I mean dark,” writes Alisha Grauso for filmschoolrejects.com. “It deals with adult themes that not even Daredevil touched in its first season. While both series have earned a TV-MA rating, Daredevil earned it largely for violence, whereas Jessica Jones will earn the rating mainly for sexually explicit scenes and themes, and a lot of them. … Rape and sexual abuse aren’t themes often explored in our entertainment. They’re too real, too raw. They fill us with a repulsion and horror from a place that comes from deep within, because it’s the sort of violent act that breaks not just the body, but the spirit. Jessica Jones will not tone down that damage for the sake of delicate sensitivities.”

A Matter of Superhero Maturity

With Jessica Jones, Netflix confirms that it’s not messing around with its grim, sometimes gruesome take on superheroes. Based on Marvel’s gritty, risqué source material, Jessica is as unlikable a hero as you’re likely to meet, dispensing with the aspirational heroism typically associated with superheroes. She’s no hero: She’ll tell you that to your face. The “mature audiences” label the show bears can be largely attributed to the immaturity of its central character. And while Jessica’s many flaws makes for a very different, pretty compelling superhero series, it makes for a supremely uncomfortable one, too.

Episode Reviews

June 13, 2019: “AKA The Perfect Burger”

Jessica tries to recover from her mother’s death and thinks about what it means to be a hero. Trish, Jessica’s best friend, goes missing and Trish’s mom, Wendy, asks Jessica to track her down. Lawyer Jeri Hogarth grapples with a life-threatening diagnosis.

A woman is stabbed in the stomach and blood gushes from her innards. Jessica throws a kidnapper into the air. Men and women are physically threatened. A man cuts his hand by smashing a shot glass. A woman attempts to steal a valauable work of art and is nearly shot.

Jessica invites a strange man to her apartment where the two talk about sex and make out. We see him kiss Jessica’s stomach, unbutton her pants and take his shirt off, but their escapade is cut short. Women wear cleavage-baring tops. Two women flirt with one another.

Jeri asks Jessica to kill her (by overdosing) if her pain becomes too severe. Jessica is worried a friend may be using drugs. A famous baseball player hits a man with his car while driving drunk and, later, is himself purposefully hit by a car and severely injured. Women and men alike consume wine, champagne, cocktails and hard liquor.

God’s name is abused six times, often paired with “d–n,” and Jesus’ name is misused nearly five times. The s-word is heard ten times and other profanity includes many uses of “a–hole,” “h—,” “a–” and “b–ch.” A drunk couple yells “screw you” at one another.

Jessica Jones: Mar. 8, 2018 “AKA Start at the Beginning”

In the wake of killing Kilgrave and her involvement with the Defenders, Jessica’s become a low-key superhero celebrity. But Kilgrave’s death weighs heavily on her heart, and she seems even more messed up than usual. Best friend Trish suggests it’s because Jessica’s missing 20 days of her memory—from the time she was involved in a car accident (that killed the rest of her family) to the time she walked out of a mysterious medical facility with superpowers. What happened to her in there? Trish wants Jessica to find out.

Jessica discovers a pizza delivery guy has been cheating on his lovestruck employer. When she brings the proof, the employer tries to hire Jessica to kill the delivery guy: She knows that Jessica’s a vigilante superhero who’s killed before. “A hero would have you locked up for soliciting murder,” Jessica shouts after chunking a pizza plate into a wall. “I vigilante would beat the s— out of you. Now, which one am I?”

Jessica later beats up a rival private eye, leaving him bloodied and at least partly broken. (We learn later that the man spent some time in the hospital.) She’s ordered by the court to attend anger-management classes. (“Probably a good thing,” Trish suggests.) A would-be client is killed after a bunch of construction debris falls on him. (A metal rod sticks out of his bloodied chest.)

Trish sings at a kids’ birthday party hosted by a gay couple. Jeri Hogarth, a tough-as-nails lawyer who had a falling out with Jessica some time ago, identifies as a lesbian. We hear some crass references to her former “relationships” with underlings that had, we’re given to understand, a coercive element to them. Jessica admits to having “meaningless sex.” Some characters wear tight or revealing outfits.

Jessica drinks a lot. She’s hung over often: She drinks from a bottle of whiskey at her desk. When next we see her, she’s passed out at the same desk and the bottle is empty. Trish and Jessica both drink near a movie theater, and other characters consume wine. Characters also use the s-word 13 times. Additionally, we hear several uses each of “a–,” “d–n,” “h—” and “crap,” along with a couple of “p-ssed.” Someone says that something is “f-ed up.” Jesus’ name is abused nine times, and God’s name is paired with “d–n” once.

Jessica Jones – Nov. 20, 2015 “AKA Ladies Night”

Jessica tries to find a girl who’s gone missing—and discovers that the unfortunate soul is under the influence of Kilgrave, Jessica’s mind-twisting ex-boyfriend. She finds the young woman in a hotel room wearing lingerie, convinced (by Kilgrave) that she can’t leave the bed.

Jessica engages in loud, rough, noisy and explicitly filmed sex with bar owner Luke Cage. While on the job, she takes pictures of a naked couple groping, clutching, mouthing and then having obvious intercourse. A woman makes out with her female assistant and kisses another woman. Luke gets with another woman, who wears just a bra and skimpy underwear. We hear a discussion about “gentlemen’s clubs” and exotic dancers.

Jessica drinks and drinks and drinks. She pours whiskey into a canteen, then sips it while spying. She downs shots at a bar. She breaks into places, lies, connives, etc. She vomits in the street, and we see her sitting on a toilet. There’s talk of a girl wetting herself. A woman shoots her own mother and father to death. (We see the bloody bodies.) We hear at least a half-dozen s-words. Also: “b–ch,” “a–,” “p—” and “h—.” God’s name is misused about 10 times, about half the time with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is abused twice.

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paul-asay
Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

kristin-smith
Kristin Smith

Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).

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