film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

jj cover.jpg

Two Huge Glaring Problems With Jessica Jones

By Joe Starr | Think Pieces | December 8, 2015 |

By Joe Starr | Think Pieces | December 8, 2015 |


Here come them Jessica Jones spoilers!

This show is pretty amazing. But it’s not perfect. In fact, there are two huge problems that made it almost impossible to enjoy once the finale was over.

HUGE PROBLEM NUMBER ONE: KILGRAVE IS DEAD

jj kil 2.jpg

Jessica Jones’ Kilgrave is without a doubt the best villain that the MCU has given us. He’s horrible and unforgivable, yet somehow three dimensional and charming thanks to the fantastic acting of David Tennant. Most importantly, he’s not a big CG stakeless wankfest. Kilgrave wasn’t throwing an army of computer graphics at other computer graphics only to be defeated by Tony Stark saying some science words and pewpewpew. Kilgrave is male privilege personified. He’s darkly obsessive love, problems with consent, and ‘but I’m one of the good ones!’ personified. Just like problems ranging from domestic abuse to college rape statistics, no one wants to acknowledge he exists. There are traces of Kilgrave in all men on earth to some degree that they have to choose what to do with. Kilgrave is real. He’s truly, truly horrifying.

And he’s fucking dead.

Come on, Marvel. I don’t want ‘SHIELD shows up’ to be the conclusion of every Marvel project, but I was really hoping ‘SHIELD shows up’ would end this one. Throw the Purple Man in SUPERMAX. Kilgrave shouldn’t have died, because the fucked up world view he represents probably won’t, either, and that’s scary. That’s a real, visceral reaction to a superhero project beyond ‘all of the things on my checklist happened and that is good enough for me.’ He’s absolutely real in a universe of infinity stones and dark elves. Let Thanos get all of the gems. He’ll never be as scary as the fucking Purple Man and he’s a literal purple man.

jj thanos.jpg
“I’m overcompensating.”

HUGE PROBLEM NUMBER TWO: KILGRAVE IS NOT DEAD ENOUGH

jj kil 1.jpg

Moments before Jessica Jones made her final move on Kilgrave, my wife and I were both sitting there, imagining the fucked up and insane things that he deserved to have happen to him. Pull out his jawbone and put it through his eye. Remove his sinus cavity and make him trumpet it like a conch shell before he dies. Switch his knee caps with his testicles and make him run for a while just to see what happens. Fuck this guy. He needs to be dead. Horrifically dead. But a neck snap? Too clean, JJ. Too clean.

HUGE PROBLEM NUMBER THREE: EPISODES OF THIS SHOW STOP AFTER A WHILE

jj kil 3.jpeg

I haven’t had this strong of a reaction to a super hero thing since Tony Stark was just super neat in the first Iron Man. I can’t remember the last time a superhero property was this challenging, and actually ABOUT something. Winter Soldier flirted with the idea of America being it’s own worst enemy but then said ‘JK it was a Nazi science cult, America is pretty rad you guys who here loves Pepsi?’ A Marvel series about a woman dealing with the PTSD of rape facing off against her own rapist who is his own walking gray area? Holy shit. This is why we make art. This is what comics are supposed to be: punching with a message and a point.

More please.