the watch: praise of "Jessica Jones" streaming on Netflix

Jessica sums it up: 'if you want it done right...'

Netflix/Marvel's Jessica Jones buck the staid trends of comic book television by offering a character devoid of the tired pretensions of costumes, expected invincibility and dubious villains.  Where Daredevil, another Netflix/Marvel collaboration, has Vincent D'Onofrio to center the overall arc as Kingpin, I felt the series fell short with uneven acting.  It never truly allowed Kingpin to explore the horrors he inflicts on the city in the comic books.  The Kingpin on newsprint is an ever-present demon and Daredevil the only one that is willing to take him on.  At least by the last episode, they pull some of the arc together.

With Jessica, they start the arc quickly, with the villainous Zebediah Killgrave (David Tennant) already the driving force of the entire series through his unstoppable mind control 'virus'.  He is no empty suit.  The manipulation and utter abandon with which he inflicts suffering is downright disgusting.

Expertly handled by Krysten Ritter, her Jessica's nail-biting fear is our first exposure to his evil.  Her reaction is at first odd, but when we get bits and pieces at Killgrave's true abilities, they, increasingly, become well-founded.  ("Just go," she'd say.  And 'go' is what they must.)

The series introduces well rounded characters, who, quelle surprise, don't act like vacuous idiots that just dance around the screen.  All of them seem to know their arc through the entire series, making sure to allow the story to run its course in a very fulfilling way.  Carrie Ann Moss plays a hard-as-nails attorney where her sexuality is not the 'thing' - her characterization underlined as gay plays at a true tone and not minstrel-y.

It was a nail-biter to the end, and I won't ruin it, of course.  I am interested, if it runs into a second season, how they will pull off such a well honed story again.

No, there is definitely not the hair-flipping, come hither blink in Jones.