The one thing that shit me the most about Jessica Jones was it really brought the conversation of superheroes out into the public in places you felt it didn't belong. I was shocked people at work were into Arrow as much as they seemed shocked I played D&D. So these "cool kids" had nerdy tendencies basically but still threw nerds under the bus. But people raving about Jessica Jones annoyed me more, beyond the fact she was one of the first third tier or lower superheroes that nobody had heard of who was getting their own show. Because I didn't like it. And I think the second season highlighted what I'd disliked about the first.
I didn't like her as a character regardless of how damaged she was. The exploration of her being a rape victim by way of hypnotism was interesting and well developed, but Kilgrave to me seemed like a stupid villain with weird tendencies. I can't even remember what his motivation really was but he did have one. He reveled in manipulation, and I guess I've created a character who's almost identical to him who was also less focused. But I didn't enjoy the show. I saw why others did, but I didn't. Firstly, I got so confused by the casting of two blonde actresses of similar appearance and age that I mixed them up and thought they were the same person. When one was having sex with a guy I was like, "Wait, isn't she the lesbian lover of the lawyer?" I won't make that an alliteration but feel free to use it. No, one was Jessica's step sister, (the one character I did like) and the other was the disposable lesbian girlfriend. So you've lost points on casting. Couldn't the lover be a redhead? I liked Carrie-Anne Moss more in this as well, I always hated she was an ex-Model's Inc actress who got a break via the Matrix. But I hated Luke Cage, and most of the other characters didn't enthrall me either. I guess maybe Jessica's junkie friend, but not in the second season, which really butchered his and Moss's characters. You were supposed to think it wasn't really Jessica's fault she let the junkie get desperate but she was never sympathetic enough for me to buy her guilt over it, or anything else. Moss was overplayed as the predatory lesbian whose suffering is meant to justify her bitchy behaviour. And introducing Jessica's mother was overkill as well, she pretty much ruined the second season. And I just didn't buy Krysten Ritter all the time. She had the look down-pat and she had the right amount of cynic sneer required, but she didn't make me like the show. So when people cut into the second season I was thinking, "Okay, so now do you see what I hated about the first?". If she felt that bad about getting Cage's wife killed, why was she just boning him selfishly to begin with? I didn't think that made her complex, just selfish. So I never really felt bad for her. Dragging Kilgrave back into it because people love David Tennant and think his character was the best was such a pathetic play for attention. He's in the third as well. Netflix effectively cancelled the series, it wasn't enough to really bolster the MCU outside of the cinematic component. It felt like an experiment if nothing else. So I probably won't bother with season three. And I'm not the only one.
All of this was happening as my disinterest in the genre was starting to grow. I thought I was the only one suffering but it was becoming a real thing: superhero fatigue. So, it turns out comic book writers were also afflicted with this back in the day and they had to write "anti-hero" narratives. Fortunately for assholes like me, the Boys actually holds up.
I heard about it through Red Letter Media but wasn't down to get into it. The pilot had enough to hook me in. Every character has enough nuance you're surprised by their actions rather than underwhelmed. The casting was nearly spot-on. The irony was there in right amounts. You got which character was the corresponding Marvel/DC analogy without really cringing at it from a parody perspective, since the characters were fleshed out in their negative aspects as well as the stock-standard positive ones. Nobody's a hero, everyone can have the propensity for villainy but you're not ever 100 percent sure if they're going to follow through or not. I loved Starlight most of all, she could've been butchered but they handle her arc so fucking well. This show has all the sardonic nature Jessica Jones failed to really deliver. Angry but innocent Hughie goes through one of the best character arcs depicted in a long time. You're down to get revenge as much as you're backpedaling when the sight of blood makes this shit a bit too real. I didn't buy Simon Pegg as much as his dad, I think my familiarity with him made him that too much out of place. Elisabeth Shue fucking rocked. She was the right amount of evil without losing any humanity. The Deep and Homelander have your skin crawling while still selling the tortured backstories. There were plenty of squeamish moments by way of moral dilemmas. The #MeToo movement isn't shat on in the process, the commentary is spot on, respectful and still capable of highlighting any inequities that have arisen so you're not taking anything at absolute face-value. I wasn't fond of A-Train so much but he had some great moments. Queen Maeve as the previous "It" girl of the crew imparting her wisdom to Starlight while still learning too many hard truths on her own was pretty cool. I don't know if her having a lesbian lover wasn't too shoehorned but once you know she had to pair up with Homelander to disguise her less "wholesome" preferences, it makes sense. You buy them never being in "civilian" clothing, it's pointed out how ridiculous it would be if superheros lived in their ridiculous costumes. The show basically nails the "road to hell being paved with good intentions" premise Zack Snyder tried to play with in Man of Steel and Suicide Squad. There's a clearer understanding of the characters, their intentions, their faults and their broken moral compasses. They weren't bad guys trying to be good, they're good guys effectively gone bad via celebrity and the allowances that grants, all the while toying with the idea of them being bought and sold like cattle for political gain. And the politics in this is convincing as well. It all works in ways other movies and shows couldn't make it work. Including Jessica Jones.
The craziest thing was, the production value on this show was above the level of even some recent DC and Marvel films, especially in terms of special effects. It didn't need to go into massive disaster scenes because you didn't necessarily have a "big bad" to fight, which made it subtle. But when they had to pull off something convincing, it worked. I'm sure Zon had bags of money to throw at this, maybe even more than HBO paid for Game of Thrones, because you've seen where they've really flubbed with their special effects. The point is, they spent the money well where it absolutely counted. Even the fundamentals like colour pallets and basic direction and cinematography and editing, it's still better than something you've paid to see in a fucking cinema in the last five years. It's standing on its own merits and kicking so much ass. It's not perfect but I'm so into it. I'd read the books, and I can't say that of any comic series I've seen in movie or TV format. Including Jessica Jones.
Sorry, feminists. I'm backing the Boys and I'll be annoyed if Amazon doesn't keep renewing it. I'm not upset Jessica Jones is over. Did it really have the legs to carry it beyond a first season to begin with? Of course it didn't. Maybe the Boys doesn't either but there's a lot more to play with in terms of premise and plots. Or maybe it'll play out for two solid seasons and end satisfyingly. I hope either way it doesn't make me more sick of the genre than I already was.
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