Sunday, November 22, 2015

Marvel's Jessica Jones - AKA Ladies Night


The opening episode of Marvel's Jessica Jones not only introduces us to our troubled heroine, the former super-hero turned hard-drinking private eye with a troubled past, but "AKA Ladies Night" also delivers Jessica's (Krysten Ritter) first encounter with Luke Cage (Mike Colter) while delving into tragic events both past and present that tease the complicated motives of the series' main villain (David Tennant) whose power to influence others and bend their will to his own makes him nearly unstoppable.

I had my doubts going in with the casting of Ritter as Jessica Jones. While I still have some lingering doubts, given the version of the character the creators chose to go with she seems up to the task so far (even if the scenes of using her super-powers weren't as strong as the more dramatic moments). The episode works hard to tease Tennant as Kilgrave without ever letting us a get a good look at the monster who controlled Jessica's life and has now done the same to a college girl (Erin Moriarty) from Nebraska for the sole purpose of bringing their worlds back into contact. Even without ever seeing him in full-frame, "AKA Ladies Night" sells us on a kind of psychological villain neither Daredevil nor Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has managed to deliver.

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