Jessica Jones Season 2 Review: Needs More Kilgrave

Of the pre-Defenders line up, Jessica Jones was the stand out series that everyone raved about. Whatever people’s opinions of the other three (Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist) most would agree that Jessica Jones, with it’s no nonsense kick-first, blackmail later main character, it’s charismatic and manipulative villain and strong story structure, made for riveting entertainment. So now that we’re post-Defenders and looking down the barrel of what can only be considered phase two of the Netflix-Marvel partnership all eyes were on Jessica Jones season two as it launched this week.

And it’s disappointing. Though some disappointment is to be expected given how good the first season was. Doing that twice was always going to be a feat in of itself. But what’s most disappointing is just how far the series has seem to sunk. It’s not actively bad or irritating in the way that Iron Fist was. It’s just sort of lackluster because you can see so many of the beats and turns of the story coming from a mile off. Season one kept viewers on their toes, never quite knowing that Kilgrave was up to or how Jessica would decide to deal with him. Unfortunately, so much of season two is so predictable that it almost feels like I’m watching a show that I’ve already seen.

Following on from Defenders, Jessica Jones, played by Krysten Ritter, is back in business and working as a private investigator. Mostly this means taking pictures of cheaters. But she’s also dealing with some of the fame and trauma left over from killing Kilgrave. Now, everyone wants to pay her to deal with their problems, despite her insistence that she’s not a killer.

Not featured: Copious amounts of booze.

Meanwhile, Trish is busy trying to investigate IGH, the group who paid for Jessica’s medical bills, in a bit to do some real journalism rather than the puff pieces she’s known for. But her investigation drags up a lot of old personal memories for Jessica, including her parent’s death. At first, Jessica doesn’t care, as she’s never done when terrible things have happened to her. But when the terrible things start happening to other people, Jessica sets out to uncover what IGH is and what it did to her, which puts her and Trish squarely on their radar.

Of course it’s not quite as simple as that. Which is great, but IGH also isn’t as much of a consistent threat as Kilgrave was. In the first season, Kilgrave unified the whole case. Through his actions with Hope Shlottman and his pursuit of Jessica, it became personal or pertinent for Jessica, Trish, Malcolm and even Hogarth to capture or bring an end to Kilgrave. . Kilgrave was a complex character, at times almost sympathetic, despite how heinous his crimes were. In part, that was down to the fantastic casting of David Tennant. With IGH, it feels like they want it to be as complicated or sympathetic as Kilgrave, but without a central actor behind it all, IGH just doesn’t have the same looming, dread and the season as a whole falters because of it.

This season of Jessica Jones also doubles down on the feminist message, though it’s a lot more heavy handed in the earlier episodes. Jessica Jones has always been inherently about the strength of women and how men use them. Kilgrave’s mind control powers were a clever and powerful way of tackling rape culture and Jessica’s ability to overcome what had happened to her allowed her to no longer be controlled by him. But the best part about it is that those themes are inherently in the story. No one has to spell out that Jessica as a super powered woman, being controlled by a man with mind powers is about moving blame from the victim to the manipulative men who commit the crimes.

Perfectly under control.

Unfortunately, season 2 wants to continue that thread, even when it doesn’t make much sense. Jessica constantly levies the criticism of  ‘a man who likes to control women’ against the scientist behind IGH, and phrases like that get thrown around a lot in the early part of the season and it becomes increasingly laboured and heavy handed. Mostly because this season seems to be more about post-trauma, family relationships and addiction than a specific women’s issue.

The problem here is not the message itself. The problem is when the message begins to interfere with the story. These shows are written as entertainment, and while entertainment can highlight important issues through a medium where people might not be exposed to it otherwise, when that message gets in the way of good storytelling, then it’s no longer entertainment. At that point, it becomes propaganda. And, hey, propaganda is fine. Sometimes propaganda is necessary. But here, in an series intended for entertainment, it comes off as clumsy and distracting from the plot.

Basically, Jessica Jones season two is good, but predictable and you’d be far better off just re-watching the first season. If you thought it was amazing or that the feminism in the series was spot on, feel free to correct me in the comments below. Or hit me up on social media. I’m on almost all of them. If you enjoyed this article, check out my previous posts, such as my review of The Defenders or Black Panther. Of if fiction is more your thing, you can also read my second novel, Carrion Youth, for free online exclusively at swoonreads.com. Until next time, thanks for reading

The Punisher Review: Draws out the punishment to a poignant, visceral conclusion.

While everyone has been talking about Justice League, and not necessarily for the reasons that Warner Bros or DC wanted, Marvel’s The Punisher series arrived on Netflix largely unnoticed. I suppose WB and DC could chalk that up as a win, but on the other hand, I’m not sure The Punisher was ever going to garner much fanfare. This is a spin-off of a side character from Marvel’s Defenders’ lead in project, Daredevil, itself a b-project from the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are a lot of degrees of separation there so I’m not sure The Punisher was ever expected to be a huge release for Marvel.

That said, the character was very well liked in Daredevil. Frank Castle was interesting and largely faithful to the comic book character on which he is based, with actor Jon Bernthal bringing an honest, down-to-earth charisma to the character. Within the story, The Punisher was a worthy foil to Charlie Cox’s Daredevil. While Daredevil wanted to do good and help the people of Hell’s Kitchen, he struggled with the morality of how he himself should treat the criminals he fought. Elektra’s view point was that she enjoyed killing, and while she could use it for good she didn’t seem to care much one way or the other, so long as there was a good fight. Castle’s view was that criminals deserved to die. Within Daredevil season 2, these three perspectives created the consistent theme of morality and responsibility of superheroes in the modern world.

The Punisher Netflix series largely continues this theme with Frank Castle himself struggling with his identity and role in the world, especially now that his mission of revenge for his family has been fulfilled. The completion of that mission doesn’t seem to have soothed Castle’s loss any, but it doesn’t seem that he expected it to, which is interesting. Castle understands that he has to live with his grief and anger. Killing the men responsible wasn’t about elevating that; it was just what they deserved. And that’s a very understandable and relatable stance. Every day people experience loss and grief and want justice. Regularly families of victims appear in interviews decrying short sentences for murderers or rapists. It’s quite easy to see how one could go from that to taking things into their own hands.

Given proper intel, this series would have been over by episode 2.

Of course, Frank Castle isn’t just any one. He’s an ex-soldier, specially trained and highly capable, so when he takes things into his own hands, not only can he get the job done, but he is targeted and efficient. For all that the theme of this show is thought-provoking and relevant, it’s action scenes also stand out as being well choreographed and visceral. Honestly, the last 3-4 episodes have some of the most brutal and engaging fight scenes that I’ve seen in a long time. Viewers knew that The Punisher was going to be violent so there was a danger that the action could have fallen flat of expectations but The Punisher more than delivered on that front.

The story follows Frank Castle after he has dealt with the criminals who killed his wife and kids. That is until he is approached by a hacker known as Micro who seeks to enlist Castle’s help to clear his name. Micro also reveals that the death of Castle’s wife and children may go deeper and might be connected to some illegal military operations that Castle was a part of during his time as a soldier. They hatch a plan to uncover the names of those in charge and bring them to justice, which initially means murder but evolves into having the perpetrators apprehended by Homeland. This doesn’t go to plan in a number of ways and most of the people wind up dead anyways.

Though it sounds somewhat complicated the narrative is rather straight-forward. The main hitch in the plan which takes up most of the first hand of the season is that Castle and Micro don’t know the real name of the man in charge, only knowing him as Agent Orange. There are some run-ins with the law and government, who obviously don’t agree with Castle taking it upon himself to dole out his particular violent flavour brand of justice, and some missions to procure weapons and ammunitions as well some family drama as Castle has to keep showing up at Micro’s home to help his wife and children. They’re interesting scenes and necessary (because The Punisher needs guns) but they do feel like they’re drawing out the central question because once Castle and Micro find out who Agent Orange is the plot kicks up a gear and begins moving rapidly towards the end. There’s the sense that this could easily have been an eight episode season rather than thirteen, without losing a lot of story or character development.

The Punisher highlights the very real tragedy of those traumatised by the wars they survived.

Sometimes a slow build can be effective in building anticipation for the viewer. The b-story in The Punisher does make good use of this build up, dealing with the character Lewis Wilson, another soldier attempting to reintegrate himself into society. Wilson becomes disillusioned with the government and how his experiences at war are unacknowledged. He struggles to find work or even sleep in a normal bed. This disillusionment becomes manifested in violence, with Wilson utilising terrorism to make a point to the government. It’s a heavy side story that draws The Punisher into the discussion of gun crime, gun control and the treatment of veterans, but where it becomes particularly interesting is in the comparison of Wilson and Castle.

In much the same way The Punisher was a foil to Daredevil, Wilson acts as foil to Castle. They are both soldiers, felt betrayed and angry who decide to use their skills to take the justice they were denied. Castle argues that he would never hurt innocents and not with bombs but is that any different that Daredevil admonishing Castle for using guns rather than allowing the system to obtain justice? At certain points they all become shades of grey with one simply being slightly darker than the other. Wilson also is depicted sympathetically rather than outright evil, so while the viewer may agree with Castle that Wilson is a coward, it’s hard not to feel bad for the kid who just couldn’t find a place for himself outside of war.

Following on from weak outing by Iron Fist and Defenders failing to meet expectations, The Punisher is a return to form for the Netflix-Marvel partnership. Part of The Punisher’s strength is its message and the fact that it has something to say for itself. But that can be subjective. So let me know in the comments below or on social media whether you found The Punisher to be challenging or if it was unpersuasive. As ever you can also follow this blog here or on social media profiles to keep up to date with new content that I publish regularly. If you enjoyed this review the archives are full of similar reviews, editorials and opinion pieces for you to catch up with. And lastly, if you enjoy reading fiction as much as reviews, you can find my novel, Carrion Youth, over on swoonreads.com.

Defenders Review: A phase short of great.

Welcome back. This week I’m going to take a break from Game of Thrones to talk about Marvel’s The Defenders. I do have a few Game of Thrones articles planned for the future that you will likely see before Christmas but it’s going to be a long night between now and Season 8 so I will have to talk about something else at some point and now seems like the perfect opportunity to talk about Marvel’s big next Netflix team up series.

In case you haven’t been following, The Defenders is a serial version of The Avengers, the big superhero team up set in the MCU. The Defenders is set in the MCU as well and sets superheroes center stage as well, but instead individual movies it’s heroes got individual shows. Like the cinematic version, these shows ranged from great (Jessica Jones, Daredevil season 2) to ‘has potential’ (Luke Cage, Daredevil season 1) to the bad (Iron Fist). All of these individual shows were building, or so we were told, to The Defenders where these four heroes would come together to form a collective unit to defend New York.

What we got though didn’t feel nearly as cohesive as it needed to be. For instance, Rosario Dawson is present in every individual show as Clare Temple, acting like Nick Fury or Agent Clouson. Several times during their series’ Clare suggests that she knows the other heroes and could bring them in to help but the heroes always decline because it’s something they need to do alone (despite already usually having help). So it stood to reason that the easiest and most logical way of uniting these heroes would be to have Clare do some introductions.

Defenders clumsily assemble.

Not so in the show. Instead, Luke Cage and Iron Fist meet by coincidentally following two separate leads to a single location and duke it out for a bit. On the other hand, Foggy, now working for Hogarth from Jessica Jones, passes some cases on to Matt Murdoch, one of which happens to be Jessica Jones who is arrested after a death in her apartment. It’s an awfully convoluted way of bringing all of these characters together and it winds up feeling like they’re stumbling around and bumping into each other rather than actually needing each other.

Part of the problem is that only two out of the four shows seemed to get anything up for The Defenders. Daredevil introduced the Hand, Madame Gao, Nobo and the Black Sky, characters and organisations that Iron Fist then developed, whereas Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are doing their own thing. The Defenders tries to tie Luke Cage’s character in by having one of the five leaders of the Hand (known as fingers) be involved in the criminal operations of Harlem, but it feels tacked on because it was never mentioned in Cage’s own series and White Hat is never developed enough in The Defenders for it to have any real significance.

Annoyingly, it seems like it would have been simple to tie the Hand into the character’s stories. Replacing Diamondback, who was already less interesting than Cottonmouth, or simply making it clear that Diamondback answered to White Hat would have integrated Luke Cage into the story seamlessly and the series would already have invested some time in making the leaders of the Hand a credible threat. This is especially irritating with Murakami, who is revealed to have been pulling the strings behind Nobo but has none of the character history and the audience is simply informed that he’s an incredible hunter. With Nobo, we’d already seen his brutality and skill. It would have made much more sense for Nobo to simply be one of the five leaders, which would have added another level of complexity and depth to the conflict with the Hand. My only explanation for this is that someone has plans for Nobo in Daredevil season 3 and didn’t want him dying (again) in The Defenders.

Yet another red woman who defies death.

On the whole The Defenders simply just feels like a third season of Daredevil. Sure, Iron Fist has his purpose of defeating the Hand, and supporting characters from every series such as Misty Knight, Collen Wing and Trish Walker make appearances, but much of the central conflict is exclusive to Matt Murdoch. He’s the one having an identity crisis about whether to be who he wants to be, he’s the one who mistrusts Stick, he’s the one who has history with Elektra and the ending is there to set up his third season. This isn’t an issue that necessarily bothers me because I loved the Daredevil series but this wasn’t supposed to be Daredevil and friends, it’s meant to be The Defenders. In The Avengers, the titular team all had reasons to be invested in Loki attacking Earth with the Tesseract, it wasn’t just a Captain America or Thor story with others slotted in. All of the heroes needed to be invested in the narrative ofThe Defenders and sadly that just wasn’t the case.

It sounds like I hated The Defenders but on the contrary, I enjoyed the series as a whole, but it does have some glaring issues that pulls it down from great to ‘had potential’. Characters are all on point though, with the actors doing a phenomenal job of bringing the same uniqueness of their characters from their own series to this team up. Matt Murdoch and Jessica Jones especially are easily the most fun pairing when the foursome breaks up into doubles. But for all it got right, there was too much attention to aesthetic and not enough focus on the story.

That’s my verdict, but what’s yours? You can share your thoughts in the comments below or through social media. I’m on most of them. If you want to read my reviews of Game of Thrones, check out the archive, or to keep up with upcoming content, hit the follow button on the right. Or check out my novel, Carrion Youth, on Swoonreads.

Expectations

Did Gotham live up to expectations? Given that the first series reached its conclusion this week, that question is on the lips of many viewers. Early episodes made it clear that is was not the gritty realism that we’ve come to know Christopher Nolan and Zack Synder for. It was lighthearted, fitting more with The CW adaptations of The Flash and Arrow than the DC films. At times though, it was goofy and cheesy, leaning more towards the days of Adam West than Michael Keaton. But, having been renewed for a second season later in the week, the indication would be ‘yes’.

But renewal does not always equal success. A series can be renewed despite low ratings because the channel hasn’t picked up enough new shows to fill the slot. Or it may appeal to a certain demographic that producers want to watch, yet draw poor overall ratings. If we were to measure success by ratings, Gotham would not come out smelling sweet. Gotham’s premiere drew a respectable eight million viewers. That grows to fourteen million when taking in DVR views. Looks good until you consider that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. first season premiere was watched by twelve million, a number that reaches seventeen with DVR added in. The Gotham finale was just shy of five million viewers. That’s three million viewers who lost interest.

It is slightly unfair to blame the quality of the show. Audiences can lose interest simply because of work and social obligations. Life, and the unpredictability that comes with it, is the most common interruption of our routine. It may just happen that we no longer have time for that show that we once loved. Conversely, it may be a scheduling conflict with the network. Gotham had a pretty consistent airing pattern and even a early mid-season hiatus didn’t slow down ratings. A month long break from March until April did hurt the series though. That gap lead to a drop from six million viewers to four and a half.

Selena, Cats eat Fish, not cops.

So a drop in ratings doesn’t necessarily indicate that Gotham was no longer entertaining. In fact, those last few episodes were better written than some of the higher rated mid-season episodes. The focus, both of the show and Jim Gordon, on a recurring, despicable villain helped reinvigorate some characters who felt like they were constantly repeating the same moves. Milo Ventimiglia’s ‘The Orge’ serial killer was refreshingly down to earth compared to the wacky ‘Balloon-Man’ and ‘Spirit of the Goat’. This being a Batman universe, some wackiness is to be expected, but some of Batman’s best villains, such as Black Mask and Penguin, are very straight forward characters.

Speaking of Penguin, the season finale wins up with Maroni dead, Falcone retired and Fish Mooney presumed dead which leaves Penguin in charge. At this point in time, that feels rather premature. Penguin was revealed to have been in Falcone’s employ prior to working with Mooney and Maroni in the series but we’ve actually seen him do very little to gain any support. Even Butch, his right hand man, once worked for Mooney and was turned by Victor Zsasz under Falcone’s orders. Penguin is a master manipulator, even here in the early stages, but he has no basis or support to be the mafia crime boss. That may be the point. Claiming to rule and ruling are two different things and his struggle to assert his dominance will likely be a theme for next season.

If anything, I’d prefer for Gotham to dial back on how much screen time The Penguin and Bruce Wayne are given in the second season. I touched on this briefly in the Daredevil review. Between Jim Gordon, Bruce Wayne and The Penguin there’s little time to develop any criminals for Gordon to chase. There usually ends up being four stories running in any one episode: Gordon clashing with his bosses in the police department or having a relationship issue with Leslie Thompson, Bruce investigating his parent’s death or his father’s business, possibly including Selena Kyle, The Penguin almost being killed by Mooney or Maroni or caring for his mother, and the crime of the week. In the later half of the series Mooney also had her own story, a rising through the ranks of an odd frankenstein alcatraz, which often felt like a dull and random aside to the main stories.

Don’t mind if I do.

Gotham is at its best when the story is narrowed in on one villain, such as the aforementioned ‘The Orge’. Unlike most villains in the series, Ventimiglia’s character was developed and pursued over the course of three episodes. In that way ‘The Orge’ came across as important and rounded as either The Penguin or Bruce Wayne which made the threat that he posed all the more formidable. While Gotham can’t devote three episodes to very villain, reducing the screen time of side characters would allow more time to develop the weekly villains so that they appear significant.

Bruce Wayne actually already pops up in Gotham much more than anticipated. David Mazouz is well cast and the role and I’m glad they’re making use of such a talented, young actor. However, Bruce is only twelve in the series. Even if he were to become Batman in his early 20’s, that’s a decade before we can see him don the cowl and cape. Imagining that the show can stay on air for ten years, Bruce is already displaying the intellect and deductive reasoning needed for his future detective work which means all he really has to do is learn to fight. And if the finale is to be believed, he just found the Batcave. Part of me wonders whether Gotham’s producers are so worried about being cancelled they’re rushing through these character’s overarching stories.

In terms of living up to expectations, I believe Gotham has done so. This first season has been a bit of trial and error and there is still room for improvement, but Gotham is entertaining. The writing is lighthearted and conscious of it’s audience, the acting is lively and engaging. If you can get past the more outlandish moments, you’ll find Gotham and it’s characters strangely endearing.

Judgement

This was a big week for television enthusiasts. Last Sunday saw the return of Mad Men, Monday brought us the finale of Better Call Saul and tonight sees the premiere of season five of Game of Thrones. Sandwiched between those blockbuster, monster shows, Netflix also released the first fruits of their partnership with Marvel Entertainment; Daredevil. By making all thirteen episodes public in the same week as the Better Call Saul finale, Netflix has managed a smooth transition from one popular show to another, keeping its subscribers hooked for another few weeks. Or at least a couple of days.

The story of Marvel’s Daredevil, in case you’ve blocked the Ben Affleck adaptation from memory, focuses on Matt Murdoch, a small time lawyer operating out of Hell’s Kitchen who was blinded by radioactive materials as a child. Borrowing from the popular myth, instead of blinding the kid, the loss of his sight elevates his other senses to the point where he can hear a person’s heartbeat just by standing nearby. His enhanced balance also allows him to execute martial arts techniques flawlessly. Murdoch, following the death of his boxer dad who refused to throw a fight, uses these newly developed abilities to fight crime and clean up Hell’s Kitchen.

So, Daredevil plays into a lot of the superhero tropes that we’re all familiar with by now; powers caused by exposure to an outside source, dead parent. But the Netflix series is very aware of that. While the show opens with a scene depicting Murdoch as a child having his sight destroyed, when we catch up to Charlie Cox as the adult superhero, he’s already fighting criminals and stopping human trafficking deals. It’s clear he has only just started but this isn’t his first outing in the costume. Which is nice. By now, viewers are getting bored with origin stories. It’s in the best interest of superhero media to show the origin in as succinct and concise as fashion as possible, which Daredevil does.

“It’s ok, I just bit my lip.”

Later episodes do develop Murdoch’s relationship with his father but in some senses this show was made for fans of the character. It doesn’t dwell much on the origin and comic book readers will recognise some of Daredevil most anti-heroic actions from Frank Miller’s run. But then it baffles me why Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin is treated as a secret for three episodes. Fans of the comics, especially those reading post-Miller, will recognise Kingpin as Daredevil’s biggest and most notorious foe. And Marvel already announced that he would be in the show. Therefore the only reason to hide his face is to make Vincent D’Onofrio’s appearance a surprise. But it’s just not. We’ve already seen D’Onofrio bald as Private Leonard Lawrence in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. And Wilson Fisk just looks like Gomer Pyle stole a few too many donuts.

Along with the lack of focus on audience, there is also a lack of focus on character. While the show is predominantly about Matt Murdoch and his adventures as Daredevil, he also has to share screen time with Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Debrorah Ann Woll as Karen Page and Fisk’s romantic storyline with Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna. It’s good to develop supporting characters, and I actually like Foggy because he manages to be Murdoch’s partner without playing a wholly comic relief role, but at 50+ minutes, the episodes could benefit from being trimmed back slightly.

It’s not that I want the characters to be two dimensional or every scene to include Charlie Cox. However, I am sitting down to watch a show titled Daredevil so I do expect the character to be at the centre of the show. Instead I’m watching Fisk court his future wife. Yes it gives him a human side so that he’s not just evil for the sake of evil but it still detracts from the main character. Daredevil suffers from this in the same way that Fox’s Gotham devotes a lot of screen time to The Penguin and Fish Mooney as well as Jim Gordon. Gotham at least has the advantage of being about an entire city rather than just one man, but the problem is the same. I don’t want to see what the bad guys are doing. I want to see the good guy figure it out.

Not shown: a lot of recurring side characters.

Daredevil also suffers from a second structural issue but it’s one that seems to plague other Netflix original programming too. Daredevil, like House of Cards, and other shows that have all of their episodes released at once, episodes tend to lack a hook to entice the viewer to watch the next one. It doesn’t seem like a big deal if the viewer doesn’t watch another episode right away when all of the episodes will be available for months. But they’re looking at it wrong. Not watching the next episodes reflects a lack of interest. I can tell you now, if HBO released all of Game of Thrones at once tonight, I’d have the entire season watched by sunrise.

With Daredevil, I’m just not that eager and I don’t feel that the show is demanding to be watched in the same way other shows do. Even if the episode itself isn’t exciting a hook can still entice the viewer. Person of Interest does it all the time. A particular case might be dull but often the episode will end with a revelation or twist that will make me desperate to tune in next week. On demand shows are relegating this device, treating it as a remnant of weekly televised shows but its not. It’s a tool to draw the viewer into the next episode. Remember, there’s only a few seconds between episodes. The hook only has to stall them for that long and then the next episode can do the rest.

Most of the problems are structural. The acting is good, with Charlie Cox as the clear standout, and the choreography is great. It’s a joy to see a fight scene where the camera doesn’t move with every punch. I can actually see what’s happening. I like the neo-noir theme too; it fits the moral quandaries of the character. I’m hoping that the problems are due to producers or writers, as the series is created by Drew Goddard, the man who will direct the next solo Spider-Man. Otherwise I’m expecting good fight scenes but I’m a little worried that Aunt May might end up with as much screen time as our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.