Netflix’s new Marvel series, Maraiah, had a pretty solid start with the first five episodes essentially forming a nice bloc to watch in one sitting, these three episodes (well, two and a half, I’ll explain in a bit) accelerate the plot somewhat which makes some of the slower early character driven episodes make more sense. From here on there’s spoilers so be warned.
After having a building dropped on him and surviving, Luke has to deal with his position as Harlem’s Superman as he takes the fight to clean up it’s streets of Cottonmouth’s influence. In the meantime, detective Misty Knight’s partner is exposed as a bent cop in Cottonmouth’s pay, though when trying to bribe Cottonmouth for $100k to give him the hi-tech Justin Hammer weapons (you’ll recognise the name from Iron Man 2) ends up being shot. Though he manages to escape and find his way to Pop’s barber shop where he runs into Luke and Claire, Rosario Dawson’s character who provides the connective tissue between all of Marvel’s Netflix series.
They manage to get the evidence Misty needs to put Cottonmouth away, but lawyers manage to free him and he’s back on the streets to cause Luke more trouble, but now he also knows that Luke’s an escaped convict and threatens Luke to reveal this to the police unless Luke works for him. Luke refuses planning to go on the run, and meantime, Cottonmouth’s cousin Mariah (Afre Woodard) does something drastic, while Luke’s threatened by something spinning out of The Avengers.
And here’s where it ends for me this time round as Netflix had an outage during episode eight which left me in the lurch and by the time it came back on Match of the Day was on, and the football never stops…
As you may gather Luke Cage is reliant upon having a fair knowledge of the cinematic Marvel Universe. It doesn’t harm the series but I’m not unaware of continuity. Someone coming fresh to this may well be left scratching their heads at times which is a pity as although Luke Cage doesn’t (so far) hit the heights of Daredevil’s first season or Jessica Jones, it’s carving itself a distinct identity outwith of what we’ve become used to with Marvel’s superheroes. Whether it maintains that I’ll find out assuming Netflix doesn’t pull the plug on me again.
This series spins off Jessica Jones where Cage (played by Mike Colter) played a crucial part of it, and the first episode of Luke Cage takes places some months after the events of Jessica Jones, which you’re probably best having watched before settling down to this as there’s a plot-thread involving Cage’s dead wife that spins from that series into this not to mention there’s a returning character in episode five that links all the Marvel Netflix series so far.
Luke Cage starts glacially in pace. The first episode revolves round Pop’s, a barbershop in Harlem in New York where Luke sweeps hair for Pop, a reformed criminal who tries to help the neighbourhood kids and keep them out of trouble. It feels like an American version of Desmond’s and all of the characterisation is nice, but like much of the first episode, it goes on too long. When Luke Cage does get going with the second episode it moves forward at a blistering pace in the second to fifth episode as we see how Luke moves from a man reluctant to use his powers, to one embracing them to help Harlem and stop the gangster Cottonmouth from his dastardly plans.
Out of all the series so far, this is the most openly superheroic. Luke’s almost like a Superman sweeping in beating up baddies and rescuing old women from rubble, and it’s also nice to have a superhero discussing literary works from a more working class background rather than being a brilliant scientist and/or a billionaire. Also the soundtrack is spectacular here as well as helping drive on the story to the point where at times it nearly feels like a musical. In fact there’s an idea. a Marvel musical?
So far so good on the whole. Mike Colter makes a great Cage, supported by a strong ensemble cast, though there are problems. The main villain so far is a bit too like The Kingpin, and then there’s the pacing which switches from frenetic to glacial, but this is promising, and yes, there is an origin episode which contains a moment that is simply glorious if you’re a fan of the character from the 1970’s.
Just over a month ago I had a stroke, not the most fun experience I’ve ever had in my life but it could have been worse had there been bleeding in or on my brain. What I had was a blood clot on my left corona radiata of around 1cm in size that pushed on my brain causing severe right sided numbness.
In English (and if I get things wrong, it’s because this is outside my medical knowledge which stops at buying plasters and paracetamol) this means the corona radiata (essentially a tissue that covers the brain) is where the clot took place, and not the brain itself. If you’re going to ever have a stroke hope for this one because the effects of bleeding on the brain can be fatal. This is why as soon as they whisked me to A & E they performed a CAT Scan to see if any bleeding was happening on my brain.
Can I feel it? Yes, I think so. There’s a dull pain where it roughly is but it’s a case where my brain has been slightly damaged so they expect this to go on for as long as it takes to heal. If you want an idea of how bad bleeding on/in the brain can be then I strongly recommend you go to Netflix and watch My Beautiful Broken Brain which tells the story of a woman in London who suffered a massive brain haemorrhage as well as surprisingly featuring the great David Lynch in a small but highly influential role.
Now my stroke isn’t anywhere near that severe. I had what’s called a Lacs Stroke. In particular I haveAtaxic hemiparesis which basically means that the clot pushing on my brain caused right sided numbness. Essentially imagine Two Face from Batman.
Everything down my right side was numb as the brain had the signals it sends to it blocked and cut off. This resulted in me being virtually unable to walk, or at least walk safely. One of the things our magnificent brains do is ensure the knee and ankle does what they’re supposed to do which is support your weight and aid your walking. What happened with me is the brain wasn’t doing that so muscles failed to work. This meant walking wasn’t just hard, but dangerous as my knee was bending the opposite way it should have as the muscles and tendons there were essentially turned off.
Now you’ve all got rid of the wee bit of sick that’s popped into your mouth, I’ll continue.
This numbness down my right side (I’m assuming everyone’s aware the left side of your brain controls the right side and vice versa) was a result of the clot on the left side of my brain. Now at the moment the doctors in the BRI and the NHS don’t know what caused it. They’re putting it down so far to hypertension, stress and me generally not looking after myself properly. There is a chance it could be my tumour Jeremy pushing on my jugular but they’re not sure, hence why I’ve more tests for that in a week or so. This has nothing so far to do with my cancer (it never rains but it pours) in my neck, but there’s a high chance it may end up being so. Until they open me up and look they can’t rule that out, so that’s nice. I’ll do a similar one of these once they’ve operated to remove my tumour and pumped me full of radiation and drugs, but sadly I’m probably not going to turn into Captain America.
The bottom line is that my walking is restricted. My speed of recovery was very good but I was warned about it plateauing out which I feel it has. Again this shouldn’t be too much of a worry but I’m also restricted in what sort of strenuous exercise I can do due to the hypertension my my high blood pressure.
And this brings me to the scary stuff. My BP when I was brought in was over waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy over 200. That should have killed me. It didn’t. I win!!!
It’s now around 160, but needs to be lower (they want it down to 130 at most) but they need to carefully manage it’s decline so in addition to working out (I can do one armed standing press ups against a wall now!) I’ll be on drugs that I’ll be on for the rest of my life.
The numbness still remains. I get tingling when parts of my body come back online, but even when they do it’s hard for them to be the same they were before. Sometimes it feels like the entire right side of my body is dead and I’m half a corpse, but that’s only when I’m really tired which brings me to post stroke fatigue. This is a bastard. It’s the body, brain and mind all saying ”right you, sleep!’ so I’ll quite literally shut down for a nap for up to an hour. There’s no way of predicting it. No drugs to manage it. It literally is about trying to suss out the early signs of it and acting ASAP to deal with it which means sitting or lying down. I’ve looked into meditation and it seems to help so I need to look into that further.
You’ll also have noticed I separated the brain and mind as separate things. That’s because they are. Consider the brain as your PC and the mind as the software on the PC.Your PC can still run if it’s a bit knackered and that’s my brain, but it’s changed how I perceive things slightly.I can hear a bit more acutely than before which is really odd. I also perceive temperatures differently due to a part of my brain called the thalamus being kicked out of line. It’ll reset in time but right now how I interpret heat or cold is all over the place.I have discovered by playing with the central heating that I’m comfortable around 17-21 degrees.
Now, the bad stuff. The fact I have to have cancer treatment isn’t going to help my recovery from the stroke, but there’s priorities here, plus if I’d not have had the stroke they’d have maybe found the lump in my neck in say, a decade’s time when it was far, far too late to do anything about it. Right now it seems to be at an early stage but all the evasive procedures (I spent last Wednesday afternoon having needles in my neck to draw out samples which was interesting) have left the left side of my neck sore. Again this is early days. I have more test next week and probably surgery the week after, and depending on blood and tissue results I’ll probably only need some radiotherapy so hopefully I’ll avoid chemotherapy.
This all means the planned move back to Glasgow which would have happened this weekend is postponed. It’d be insane at this moment to break up my treatment/recovery at this crucial stage. Also this means being stuck in a job I thought I’d be leaving in a few days time. and quite frankly they’re a pain, well the upper management are, most other people are fine. Some of the ways they treat people are frankly shockingly regressive considering it’s 2016 but unfortunately for now, I need to remain.
However as one of their frighteningly regressive practises are only paying people a maximum of one week’s sick pay I’m forced to either burn up holiday, rely on the goodwill of my line manager (who has done as much as he can and for that I’m grateful for) or fall back on the money I have for moving to Glasgow so sadly it’s a mixture of all the above.And oh, Glastonbury is definitely off this year for me.
Bugger.
However I’m still going to do what I want to do. Life really is far too short and what’s happened to me can happen to any one of you (I obviously hope it doesn’t) at any time. Yes, I’m facing a few months being nearly broke, and there’s days where the body just isn’t going to work, plus I have no firm idea how the cancer will pan out, and oh, I have a urinary infection too which needs to be dealt with but I least I don’t have diabetes!!
I’m in the hands now of the NHS and things could be worse. At least I’ve got a job and people around me. There are some out there who don’t and indeed, my time in the ward showed me that as I saw fellow patients who never had any visitors which is sad. I’m under no illusion that the worst isn’t behind me and could still be lurking ahead waiting to kick me in the bollocks (which will only hurt one, as the other is still numb so ha! I win!), nor do I think my recovery/treatment is going to be a few months as I’m aware this could be for the rest of my life.
But if my body wanted shot of me, it’d have done it five weeks ago. It’s just dragged me into hospital for an overhaul to get everything sorted out so things will be ace for decades to come.
Though I’d like the next four or five months to be lived like a Rocky montage. That’d be cool!
Obviously, massive fuck-off spoilers ahead if you read on……
The end of episode eight upped the stakes as Jessica realises that Kilgrave can’t control her anymore and as we head into episode nine the series makes it clear that Kilgrave doesn’t just think that he isn’t a rapist, but that Jessica was repeatedly raped by Kilgrave. This makes the previous episode where Jessica spends a long time alone with Kilgrave to find out how to either stop him, or change him to become a better person all the more heroic.
And it’s these episodes that Jessica’s arc to become a hero is made clear, though she’s only doing what she’s doing to stop Kilgrave not to mention get some justice for herself and Hope, the girl forced to murder her parents by Kilgrave. In fact Kilgrave can’t be redeemed or saved but it’s also here that it becomes clear just why David Tennant picked this part rather than playing a heroic role in another Marvel project. Apart from Jessica and Luke, Kilgrave is the best role in the series, and Tennant plays him at times as someone that thinks he’s doing right, not to mention as someone that has finally found someone he genuinely loves in the shape of Jessica. It’s not as blatant as the comics thankfully..
I enjoyed Alias, and the Kilgrave story was very good, but there’s no escaping that there’s a huge element of titillation in a story about the main character being raped and abused by the villain. There’s none of that here as the viewer is forced to confront the result of rape as Hope’s not just tried to abort Kilgrave’s child, but is clearly such a damaged human being that painting Kilgrave in a titillating light would be grotesquely offensive. So Tennant plays him as a damaged monster, especially as Jessica finds the videos of Kilgrave’s parents experimenting upon him as a child.
But the big fanboy event in episode nine in the revelation about Simpson, the cop controlled by Kilgrave that became Trish’s lover. After being blown up by Kilgrave’s bomb in the previous episode, he’s seen by a specific doctor, Kozlov, he’s asking for who isn’t part of the hospital he’s in, but seems to be part of the military unit he used to be involved in. This up til now seems pretty pointless filler going nowhere until the moment Simpson asks for a red……
Simpson is being set up to be Nuke from the fantastic Daredevil story Born Again. For the casual viewer it’ll still work as it helps set up a superheroic fight later on in the series, but for the comic fan it’s a major moment setting up Born Again in either a future series of Daredevil, or a potential film.
The only problem is that these final episodes do become more superhero comic booky. Kilgrave changes from a stalking, creepy rapist to more of a megalomaniac comic book baddie at times, but it’s Tennant’s performance that holds it back from getting too over the top.
Episode nine is a pretty packed episode. There’s a lot of exposition, a lot of dialogue and a lot of huge plot revelations such as the discovery of Kilgrave’s parents (including some of the shittest accents you’ll ever hear as Jessica calls Manchester Uni) and the one about Simpson and oh, Kilgrave has been captured by Jessica and imprisoned in a special cell designed by Simpson. It’s all pretty breathtaking stuff but it’s a big, big episode that feels a wee bit too crammed full after the thoughtfully paced previous episodes.
As we move into episode ten Kilgrave has murdered his mother, taken his father captive, escaped after taking control of Hogarth and episode ten features Simpson losing his mind thanks to the drugs he’s on, but it’s Hogarth that becomes the victim of Kilgrave as she’s forced to take him to a doctor after being injured in the previous episode. This doctor is Hogarth’s wife, Wendy, who she’s divorcing and in order to clean up loose ends Kilgrave orders Wendy to cut Hogarth 1,000 times. Hogarth’s mistress Pam smashes Wendy’s skull in so in one fell swoop Kilgrave has destroyed another three lives.
Having his dad as prisoner means Kilgrave can concentrate on making himself more powerful in order he can control more people over a wider radius, not to mention a longer period of time, but also so he can control Jessica who’s realised she’s immune to Kilgrave’s powers. Episode ten is a bit of a relative breather as it allows characters to breathe a bit, until the ending where an escaped Kilgrave holds members of the Kilgrave survivors group hostage as they stand on a bar with nooses round their necks. He’s also got Hope under his control again.
At this point Jessica’s faced with the bad guy decision as to who to save? Hope takes that decision out her hands by breaking a glass and sticking the broken end into her neck as Jessica saves the others from hanging. At the end of the episode as Hope lies dying Jessica promises her that she’ll kill Kilgrave.
The final three episodes are where the series becomes more like a superhero programme. Episode eleven features a knock-down fight between Simpson (who is now quite mental and is hunting down Kilgrave himself) and Jessica (who’d normally pound even a pumped up Simpson easily, but she’s broken her ribs in a car accident) so we get a pretty brutal fight that wrecks most of Jessica’s flat and is only stopped when Trish turns up, drops one of Simpson’s red pills and batters Simpson long enough to give Jessica the chance to put him down for good.
We also get more flashbacks to Jessica’s childhood in these episodes, including the start of Trish and Jessica’s friendship not to mention Jessica discovering what she can do.These scenes are lovely little scenes and the kids playing young Trish and Jessica are fantastic. One of the other highlights of these episodes is the character Malcolm who started the series under control of Kilgrave and hooked on drugs but by the end of the series becomes a strong, reliable person that helps people.
But by the end of episode 11, Luke returns but he’s under control of Kilgrave and is forced to blow up his bar as Kilgrave continues to torture Jessica. Episode 12 is the Luke and Jessica show as the pair work together (Luke obviously survives the bombing and Kilgrave isn’t aware of his super powers) to track Kilgrave down so they can kill him. At this point it’s worth mentioning the fact that there’s some setting up of either a second series of Jessica Jones or The Defenders as Trish tracks down who IGH are as they’re the organisation behind Simpson’s and possibly Jessica’s abilities. Frankly this bit of plot development sticks out like a sore thumb but back to the story..
Problem is that although Luke would normally be free of Kilgrave’s power after 12 hours, once Luke and Jessica find him, his powers have increased and in fact his powers last 24 and spread a wider radius so he’s still under orders to kill Jessica which results in a huge Avengers style fight (albeit on a vastly smaller budget) that only ends when Jessica fires a shotgun at Luke’s head at point blank range knocking him unconscious for most of the final episode which avoids the easy situation of having Luke and Jessica save the day.
The final episode is good but the end feels empty. That’s because it’s been built up that Jessica is going to defeat Kilgrave, or kill him, and then she’ll embrace her being a hero and we’re in Marvel territory. Before that though it’s worth mentioning the connective tissue between Jessica Jones and Daredevil with the appearance of Rosario Dawson as nurse Claire Temple who helps Jessica with Luke who is still unconscious, but after some pretty eye-watering procedures from Claire, is nursed into health.
The big climax is set on the New York harbourside as Kilgrave tries to escape on the boast owned by more of his victims. He thinks Jessica is walking into the trap he’s set, but it’s Trish wearing a pair of headphones to block out Kilgrave’s power. Jessica simply walks into the carnage as Kilgrave has ordered the large crowd on the harbourside to kill each other but it’s hear that Kilgrave orders Jessica to stop, and she does. Kilgrave’s got power over Jessica again.
Kilgrave takes control of Trish (who’s had her headphones knocked off), and quite clearly threatens to rape her in a line that’s vile but Tennant manages to deliver it perfectly. Ordering Jessica to smile to check that his powers work he agrees to swap Jessica with Trish, but Jessica’s been bluffing and once Kilgrave’s close to Jessica and everyone else is safe she lifts him off the ground and snaps his neck killing him. It’s the logical end to the series, and as Jessica returns to her office to find Luke gone and Malcolm cleaning things up the expectation is that once she listens to her voicemails and hears the cries for help that she embraces her heroic journey because this is how the superhero genre works right?
Nope, not here. Jessica’s just killed someone. They were a psychotic rapist bastard but she’s had to give up so much that she doesn’t want to be the hero people think she is because ultimately she was only trying to keep herself alive.But there’s a lot going on at the end as Malcolm takes a call for Jessica as the suggestion is that she’ll be helped into a more heroic role.
Making Jessica a hero at the end of the series would have been false. It wouldn’t have worked because she’s still recovering from the abuse dished out to her by Kilgrave, not to mention the effects of killing Luke’s wife but Jessica’s not unchanged by the end of the series. She’s just overwhelmed so there’s the opening for a season 2 when it comes, which it seems isn’t going to be til after The Defenders in 2017 which is a pity. There’s a lot more that can be done with this idea, especially the idea that Jessica doesn’t want to be a hero but just do a job to pay the bills.
Jessica Jones is highly recommended. It does get into real superhero territory near the end, but for casual viewers this is probably Marvel’s most ‘adult’ project yet so I’d not recommend sticking the kids on front of this over Christmas to keep them quiet. If however you want something with a bit more meat to it than say, Ant-Man or the last Avengers film, then this is for you. The acting from all the cast is superb, but it’s Krysten Ritter and David Tennant that hold the programme together as both turn out the highest levels of acting, which is tough when both at times have to say some difficult lines. Also I have to say that they use New York as a character in itself here as the story moves from the cold, frozen months of winter through to spring and summer. They take every chance they can to liven up scenes of exposition or dialogue by using the city of New York as the backdrop and it’s perfect.
It’s a triumph for Marvel as was Daredevil who returns next spring for a second season, and think I believe Luke Cage is due near the end of next year with Iron Fist and The Defenders the year after.There’s also rumours that The Punisher’s appearance in Daredevil’s second season is going to spin the character off into his own Netflix series, plus the stories of a Netflix Moon Knight series (one of Marvel’s many Batman copies, but made more interesting because of it’s supernatural aspects) aren’t going away.If all this maintains the same quality then great, but I just hope they find the time to sneak in a second series of Jessica Jones in there so we can see more sooner rather than later.
I wrote in my previous blog that so far Jessica Jones had skirted round the subject of rape, abuse it handled, but it’s not made clear if Kilgrave raped Jessica, or indeed, any of his victims. In episode six this ambiguity is truly dumped as the girl Hope, who Kilgrave ordered to kill her parents arranges for another prisoner to beat her up. Jessica and Jeri Hogarth thinks this is prison bullying, but it’s not. Hope paid the prisoner to beat her up in order to try to induce an abortion so she can’t carry to term the child growing in her that’s the result of Kilgrave raping her.
It’s a case that in episode six Kilgrave becomes more and more disturbing as we realise just exactly what he’s doing not just to Jessica, but to her friends like her upstairs neighbour who he commands to kill himself and leaves lying in Jessica’s bed. In one scene a comic character becomes a tragic victim of Kilgrave, but it becomes worse for him as Jessica plans to use his corpse to get herself imprisoned in a Supermax prison so she can keep her friends out of Kilgrave’s way and lure him to her at the same time.Of course we’re in the Marvel Universe, so the smart thing to do is go see Tony Stark and the Avengers. explain the situation and let Stark send one of his Iron Man drones to capture Kilgrave and sort things out. That series though only runs ten minutes…..
After ripping her neighbours head off from his corpse and taking it to the police, she finds out that Kilgrave isn’t going to allow that to happen as he’s taken control of everyone in the police station in a great, and quite menacing scene that shows the level of power Kilgrave has, plus it allows David Tennant to turn on his acting chops.
Problem is Kilgrave is tearing Jessica’s life apart but she’s alienating friends like Luke who she’s admitted to that she killed his wife while under the control of Kilgrave. This prompts Luke to call her a piece of shit, and to dump her. It’s tragic because Luke and Jessica worked as a couple, thanks mainly to the chemistry of Krysten Ritter and Mike Colter. Then Kilgrave steps things up by buying Jessica’s childhood home (the scene where is dawns on the viewer just what house Kilgrave is buying is a fantastic scene), so not even this happy memory is sacred. He’s defiled that place while his plan is to have Jessica come to him willingly rather than use his powers to get her to stay with him, but can Jessica escape with the help of Trish’s friend Simpson? Best get watching to find out!
At the end of episode eight Jessica Jones is on a par with Daredevil. There’s not been the procession of big set pieces there was in Daredevil, and the easy trick of making the series just about Luke Cage and Jessica Jones has been avoided (after all, there’s a solo Luke Cage series coming soon on Netflix) and Jessica’s supporting characters are a glorious mix of people. This though is a very focused story based upon the actions of two people that influence everyone around them so in some respects there are similarities between Kilgrave and Jessica.
I’d highly recommend Jessica Jones. If the last five episodes meet the quality of the first eight this this could be a series that surpasses Daredevil and that’s some feat if it does.
The Netflix binge is part of this century’s culture now which makes this latest 13-part series adapted from the excellent Brian Bendis penned Marvel Comic Aliaspretty essential binge watching. Jessica Jones is the second Marvel Netflix series after Daredevil and has a lot riding on it, as it’s not only got to keep up the quality of their first series, but also show that a series can succeed with a female lead. After watching the first five episodes I’m happy to say it’s on a par with much of Daredevil, not to mention it provides a very,very good female lead character. From here on in lie spoilers so you’ve been warned…..
The first episode opens with a pretty raunchy sex scene for Marvel which aims to set the tone that this isn’t the cheery bright superheroics of something like Supergirl, or even the Marvel films which are big bursts of escapism as the opening explains that this is Jessica taking pictures of people cheating behind their partners back in order to give them evidence. It’s all perfectly seedy so it sets up that Jessica isn’t heroic, but is trying hard to make a living in a New York that looks even more seedy and broken than it did in Daredevil.
Much of the first episode is about setting things up, We’re introduced to Jessica gloriously played by Krysten Ritter who manages to look like she’s not washed, or been sober in days. She looks like a fuck up in most of this episode. We’re also introduced to Luke Cage played by Mike Colter who looks the part but isn’t required to do much acting in this episode, but is a little nugget in later episodes as Luke and Jessica’s dysfunctional relationship develops.
We also get hints of Kilgrave played by David Tennant, who sadly isn’t called The Purple Man, who until Alias was a pretty crap Marvel supervillain that occasionally faced off and got battered by Daredevil, the Fantastic Four or Doctor Doom…
Alias made Kilgrave a serious threat, not to mention made clear this was essentially a rapist both mentally and physically as it’s made clear Kilgrave rapes Jessica in the comics hence why she’s suffering from PTSD, and the same connection is made clear here in the Netflix series. For American fans of Tennant used to his role in Doctor Who seeing him play a complete bastard and a rapist is going to be shocking but Tennant’s played such a role before in the ITV drama, Secret Smile, not to mention he’s clearly loving being a complete bastard.
The star of the programme though is Ritter. This lives or fails because of her, so if she gets it wrong it could backfire badly. It doesn’t. In fact at times she’s a revelation especially as the series develops in these early episodes as she moves from a pretty sad drunk hiding from people, to someone trying to deal with Kilgrave while protecting the lives of people like Luke and her best friend Trish Walker (who is actually one of Marvel Comics oldest characters they’ve stuck on screen so far, and you’ll hopefully have the same wee smile I had when they reveal it’s Patsy Walker), not to mention Hope, the young girl kidnapped by Kilgrave and forced to murder her parents that sets off the events of the series.
It’s Hope that Jessica is fighting for mainly though. Hope’s an innocent and at the start of the series Kilgrave is presumed dead by Jessica after being hit by a bus during an accident that also killed a woman who’s importance isn’t made clear til a few episodes later. Once Jessica realise that Kilgrave is manipulating Hope the fear becomes clear on Ritter’s face in a lovely little scene in a Chinese restaurant where she relives part of her time with Kilgrave.
This is all as rooted in reality as possible. Manipulative people like Kilgrave exist, though of course they don’t have superpowers and unlike the Kingpin in Daredevil who was also a monster, Kilgrave hasn’t (as five episodes in) any sort of sympathetic backstory to make him even remotely relatable to by the viewer. Tennant plays him as a bit of an arsehole too, but a charming one, but he’s quite clearly a bastard as can be seen in this scene.
There’s an edit in that clip, and for good reason as it outlines just how indiscriminate Kilgrave is when it comes to humiliating, and hurting, people including children.
From the second episode it also develops the supporting cast, especially Luke Cage who Jessica ends up having a highly strung relationship with especially when they both learn they’ve got superpowers. I also have to mention that the programme does ‘that scene‘ from the comics onanistic fanboys always talk about when talking about the comics, but in the context of the series (and indeed the comic) it works, but taken outwith the context of a woman desperately trying to feel something it’s just titillation. In fact all the sex (for a superhero programme there’s a lot in the five episodes I’ve seen so far) in Jessica Jones stays on the right side of context rather than just to be there to appear ‘adult’. It also portrays a highly sexed interracial relationship which to me seems to be a rare thing on American TV or film.
The way superpowers are handled is good too, not to mention it’s helped by trying to stick to a Netflix budget so there’s no big scenes of Jessica flying as it’s an ability she sorts of has as she can only jump really high and sort of land badly, which is suggested in one scene where she saves a police officer under the influence of Kilgrave from jumping off a building.
If I have issue with these episodes is that it doesn’t form as strong an opening narrative as the first six episodes of Daredevil did, though the series is a slower burn in terms of ramping up the threat of Kilgrave compared to that of the Kingpin, it’s for good reason as the story also deals with the trail of broken lives Kilgrave leaves behind him as he manipulates himself around the city of New York. There’s also a clear set of weaknesses for Kilgrave; his influence upon people only last a set amount of time before he has to top up his influence on you. and also distance makes it less effective. It is though the discovery that surgical anesthesia neutralises his powers that provides the main story for one episode.
There’s also another episode where part of the story deals with the aftermath of the first Avengers film as a woman hires Jessica to prove her husband is cheating on her, but really it’s a ploy to capture Jessica alone and kill her in revenge for the battle in the Avengers film killing a loved one. It’s a similar plot beat to one being used in the stupefying dreadful Heroes Reborn but done with more skill in 50 minutes than hours of that angst ridden bollocks.
Jessica Jones so far is fantastic drama. Yes, it does push the superhero comic elements more than Daredevil did in terms of superhumans, plus it does draw the Netflix corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe closer to the main body of work, but at the same time it starts to carve out a stronger voice for a more adult style of telling superhero stories that deal with some strong subjects (they’ve danced round the issue of rape so far, but I’m not sure how long that’s going to be the case) for a slightly older audience. This isn’t a bad thing as the flashy fun of the Marvel films are good, but this means that Netflix can be home to the ‘dark, gritty’ stuff. Which isn’t to say Jessica Jones is humourless, it isn’t. It just deals with subjects that when discussed using the genre of superheroes on the printed page normally are done so in a very, very bad way. So far, this isn’t the case.
At this point the story has seen Jessica go from a scared young woman to someone with the aid of her friends, taking the fight to Kilgrave, but the full story of how Kilgrave got his hooks into Jessica hasn’t been told, plus I’m sure Luke Cage is going to play a larger part as the series progresses. I’ve also not mentioned Carrie Ann Moss in her role as lawyer Jeri Hogarth who simmers along quietly as the other manipulative force in Jessica’s life. She’s developing nicely too beyond the ice queen cliche I thought she’d be at first. She’s yet another strong female character in a programme that’s full of them but makes it feel perfectly normal which of course it is, and it’s nice to see an American drama series do that.
So, let’s see how many episodes I get through in my next session……..
In the early days of the 21st century Marvel Comics were pulling themselves together after a decade that very nearly saw them go out of business, but thanks to new editorial policies from the likes of Joe Quesada revamped titles like Grant Morrison’s X Men, and new titles likeAlias gave Marvel the sales and critical boost they needed.
Alias was one of the titles that made it clear Marvel were moving away from the frankly, fucking dreadful spandex crap they pumped out in the 90’s. Even though it was written by Brian Michael Bendis, a writer I don’t have much time for normally, this was an exceptional comic ably drawn by Michael Gaydos that showed that Marvel’s Max imprint (their supposed ‘adult’ imprint) was something a bit more than just sex ‘n violence.
Fast forward 15 years and we’re weeks away from title character Jessica Jones appearing in her self-titled Netflix series so Marvel have released this 12 page freebie comic to tag onto the series but it’s very clear from the start this isn’t in normal Marvel continuity (whatever the hell that is after that Secret Wars bollocks) but the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though it’s created by Bendid and Gaydos.
As a comic this is pretty thin pickings, plus it reads more like a Daredevil story that has Jessica Jones in it, but it does it’s job in raising the anticipation level while not giving anything away at all.
So don’t expect this to be anything more than a teaser, but it does make me long for a return of Alias in some shape or form. assuming of course Jessica Jones is a hit which to be honest is pretty much going to be the case. We’ll see come the 20th of November…
After the last set of episodes I was pretty excited for the final four episodes and on the whole they don’t really disappoint but although there’s more positives than negatives, these episodes are wonderful but exceptionally annoying at times. Before I get stuck in again, as usual, huge massive spoilers ahead.
After the end of episode nine, Daredevil has been given the beating of his life, plus his partner, Foggy, has unmasked him revealing his secret identity; something Foggy doesn’t especially like as he now realises the scale of the lies Matt’s been telling him for as long as he’s known him. In this episode we get a lot of flashbacks to Matt and Foggy meeting at university, becoming friends, drinking, chatting up girls (including a massive line dropped that shows Elektra is definitely on the programme’s agenda) and deciding eventually to go into partnership to fight for the little guy in Hell’s Kitchen.
It’s a decent episode though Foggy’s anger at Matt is just a wee bit too contrived for it to really convince but the actors do as good a job as they can, though the script doesn’t quite work in this episode. This basically sets up the final episodes with a separate main trio of Karen, Matt and Foggy all trying to work out what to do next as Wilson Fisk consolidates his grip on Hell’s Kitchen. Unfortunately for Fisk at a reception he hosts for the great and good of New York, it turns out someone has poisoned the drinks and that Vanessa, Fisk’s girlfriend has drunk the poison and passed out.
Episode eleven and twelve outline how Vanessa recovers but for a couple of episodes Fisk is just sitting around useless in a hospital waiting room as people around him scheme his downfall. His Chinese allies have their operation stopped by Daredevil (in a fight scene well directed by former Doctor Who director Euros Lyn), while Karen and journalist Ben Urich have tracked down Fisk’s mother in a nursing home but as she’s suffering from dementia, she doesn’t provide any useful information apart from telling them that Wilson murdered his father. Unluckily for Karen, Fisk’s mother manages to tell Wesley, Fisk’s assistant, that she was visited by Karen and Ben. Leaving Fisk without telling him where he’s going, Wesley kidnaps Karen,points a gun at her and offers her a job. Foolishly for him, he leaves the gun on the table thinking that even if Karen picks up the gun, she’ll never use it. She does. Wesley is shot dead, and Karen legs it after cleaning up fingerprints and throws the gun in the river.
Meanwhile Matt has tracked down Fisk’s tailor, Melvin Potter (AKA The Gladiator) and after a small fight discovers Melvin is being blackmailed by Fisk, but he promises to help him if Melvin makes him a special suit. More of that in a moment…
A lot happens in episodes eleven and twelve. Vanessa is poisoned, recovers and moves in with Fisk having now fully embraced who and what he is. Major supporting characters are killed:Wesley by Karen and Ben Urich by Fisk. Matt’s secrets are found out by Foggy and he eventually tries to come to terms with who and what Matt is. Basically, there’s an awful lot of plot and characters become big broad strokes at times but as we reach the final episode things don’t look good.
The last episode starts with Urich’s funeral. An event that eventually brings the trio of Matt, Foggy and Karen back together in order to bring down Fisk before he becomes too powerful to stop. Luckily one of the crooked policemen from the first half of the series still lives and is being protected by Fisk’s accountant Leland, who is keeping him alive as collateral against Fisk as Leland is stealing from Fisk. He also poisoned Vanessa. Thinking he’s got the upper hand Leland tries to leave New York, but Fisk kills him. Before Fisk’s men kills the corrupt policeman who’s evidence would bring Fisk down, Daredevil turns up to save him. He tells him to turn himself into one of his friends in the police he can trust, and Nelson and Murdock will represent him in court.
This unleashes the authorities to arrest everyone connected to Fisk, or at least all the people they know about but they manage to nick Fisk though not before he’s given Vanessa instructions.
As Matt, Foggy and Karen celebrate in Josies, their local bar, they find out that Fisk’s police escort has been intercepted by Fisk’s troops and that they’re trying to free him, and whisk him out of the city. Matt sets out to stop this happening but not before he picks up that suit from Melvin..
It’s not a bad version of Wally Wood’s classic design, but that mask annoys me. It does look better on the screen, but it’s decent enough, but I hope they tweak a few things before we see it again.
Daredevil manages to stop Fisk’s truck, and the pair have a massive climatic fight in a dark alley, and Daredevil manages this time to reverse the result of last time the pair fought and he beats Fisk, in every sense. As the series ends Fisk is in prison, Matt, Foggy and Karen are back as friends and are trying to make Hell’s Kitchen better, and Daredevil is finally accepted as a hero by the people of the city. It’s a great ending setting up more Daredevil in the future
So what of the series as a whole? Well, the first six episodes are fantastic and although the rest of the series is of a high standard, it’s not of the same quality as the first half of the series. As a whole it is fantastic and Marvel’s insistence on casting good actors pays off big time here, though the scripts need tightening up so that it decides if it’s grim crime drama or superheroics, rather than trying to straddle the pair. Also, for a programme based around lawyers there needs to be more of Nelson and Murdock defending people in court using the system to protect them. Then there’s the costume that needs a bit sorting out here and there, but really it’s minor stuff. Daredevil is a fine attempt to bring Bill Everett and Stan Lee’s creation to life, not to mention it bodes well for the future Netlfix Marvel series, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and thenall four combine in The Defenders.
I’d highly recommend this. It’s got me sucked into Netflix as well so now I’m going to finally see what the fuss is around Breaking Bad, a programme I’ve not seen a second of….
I’ve managed to get through the first six episodes fairly quickly but sadly real life is intruding on watching all of the Netflix adaptation of Marvel’s Daredevil, but I will see it before its ruined for me! As I don’t fancy spoiling this for anyone, as usual, big massive spoilers ahead….
After the end of episode six Matt has seen Fisk wipe out the Russians with help from his Chinese mobster allies, plus Matt now realises that vast parts of the media and police are in the control of Wilson Fisk. As episode seven opens we’re introduced to Stick (grumpily played by Scott Glen), the Frank Miller created character that trained Matt in how to use his powers and become a kick arse ninja superhero. This allows a bit of flashback action à laArrow and it’s not quite as effective as some of that series due to the fact the plot set in the present day is more interesting than the past, but that aside it’s a chance to offset Matt’s moral centre with Stick’s.
This is due to the fact that he’s returned to stop some villainous weapon called The Black Sky obtained by Fisk’s Yakuza allies to do something very unpleasant to Hell’s Kitchen. After a fight scene (there’s a lot of those this episode) Daredevil discovers The Black Sky is a child and Stick intends killing him; something he stops but instead of sorting things out he stomps off in a giant flounce enabling the script to kill the child off camera and therefore reducing the impact a tad of how terrible a weapon (and this is the first real major hint of superpowers beyond Matt’s abilities in the programme so far) The Black Sky is. It’s an odd choice considering the brutal violence a few episodes earlier and in the following episode. There’s also a massive bit of foreshadowing about Matt being trained as a warrior in a ‘Great War’ still to come, for readers of Frank Miller’s run in the 80’s they’ll know right away this is The Hand.
The next episode is a Wilson Fisk focused episode dealing with his childhood in 1970’s New York. On the whole this is a far better episode after the patchy previous episode as it paints a simply dismal picture of Fisk’s life as a child as an abused child suffering under the fist of his abusive father, though his mother tries to protect him she ends up being beaten too. We learn Fisk’s father Bill, tried running for the local council but failed to be elected owing money to a local mobster. One night things turn out for the worst as Fisk’s father beats his mother so severely that Wilson grabs a claw hammer and beats his father to death in a pretty nasty scene. To lay on the grand guignol his mother tells Wilson to fetch the saw so she can cut his father up and dump in the river. It’s a brutal, if possibly cliched story of how a young boy became a monster but it’s effectively done. By the end of the episode we feel sorry for the child Fisk but as the adult Fisk finally reveals himself to the city as a millionaire philanthropist rather than the monster we know he is, there’s little hope that Daredevil can fight this man, something emphasised in the next episode.
Episode nine is yet another episode where Daredevil takes a total kicking; this time at the hands of Nobu (like the restaurant) the leader of Fisk’s Yakuza allies who happens to be a kick arse ninja. Fisk decides enough is enough, and a trap is laid as the kindly old Hispanic woman Matt, Foggy and Karen have been helping in her problems with her slum landlord is murdered by a junkie hired by Fisk.The junkie only tells Daredevil where he’s supposed to be and although he doesn’t go into the deserted warehouse where a trap is obviously being set all guns blazing, he does quickly get the living shite kicked out of him by Nobu who he only manages to stop by killing him, breaking Matt’s one big rule.
At this point a lesser drama would leave it here, but the makers of Daredevil pile it on as Wilson Fisk, his assistant Wesley and a heavy turn up to confront a badly beaten and serious bleeding Daredevil. After an attempt to fight Fisk, Daredevil is beaten to a pulp, and left to be executed by Wesley and the heavy, but Matt manages to jump out the window into the river and escapes. At the same time Foggy is trying to see if Matt’s in his apartment after drinking with Karen, but there’s no answer at Matt’s door, but Foggy can hear strange noises inside so he manages to get in and finds Daredevil in a bloody heap on Matt’s floor. Foggy unmasks Daredevil to find out he’s really Matt Murdock and there ends episode nine.
These episodes are really the most ”comic booky” of the series so far with superpowered child weapons, ninjas and mysterious powers everywhere, not to mention that classic superhero cliche, the unmasking by a friend/partner/relative. On the whole it’s all done so well that you don’t notice the creaks in some of the dialogue at times (especially in Stick) or the odd duff performance (the injured corrupt policeman could have been played by 13 stone of mince and nobody could notice the difference) because the entire thing just cracks along.
I did mention previously that the makers have decided not to credit Wally Wood, the creator of the famous red outfit and the double DD logo, but they could do worse than crediting Will Eisner as at times it feels less like a Daredevil story and a story of The Spirit, one of the big influences of Frank Miller whose run this draws heavily from and who’s DNA runs deep in this type of superhero. It’s not a huge thing as Miller has always credited Eisner at every opportunity but it’d be nice in this age of a supposed new ‘creator friendly’ Marvel Comics that people got their due.
But that’s an aside. I seriously recommend this series but I’d have though after the 17th time Matt takes a kicking he’d actually be in the red suit by episode nine!
Next time, I’ll do a rundown of however many episodes I get through tonight…
After starting my Netlfix Daredevil binge yesterday I’m now six episodes in and on the whole, it’s very possibly the best superhero TV series bar The Flash around at the moment. These are my comments on those six episodes so obviously massive spoilers ahead.
Daredevil isn’t without some issues but it’s effectively managed to draw together a good solid elongated origin story for not just Daredevil, but the Kingpin/Wilson Fisk while at the same time touching on issues like gentrification and the insanely fucked up American healthcare system. And there’s one of the problems with the script. It’s flagging issues up in such a way that it’s the equivalent of Stan Lee running around every time it happens to quip about Marvel’s social responsibility. It sometimes works, it sometimes gets in the way of the narrative.
As for the story the first episode kicks off with young Matt Murdock losing his eyesight in a road accident that sees him saving an old man, but thanks to some mysterious toxic waste, he’s made blind but also develops super senses and a sort of ‘radar sense’ that’s never called ‘radar sense’ so far, even though in a later episode it’s quite wonderfully described as Matt seeing everything as an ‘impressionistic painting’. After this opening we see Matt as Daredevil breaking up a human trafficking gang in New York in what is possibly his first time out fighting crime in order to clean up Hell’s Kitchen and New York generally.
We’re also introduced to Foggy Nelson, Matt’s partner in the legal firm they’ve opened up in Hell’s Kitchen to fight for the people that fall through the cracks. This sets up Matt as a person fighting for what’s right by day and by night. It sets Matt up as a moral and just man, and in the hands of a lesser actor than Charlie Cox this could have easily be played in the most cliched manner possible but Cox does a fantastic job in these episodes as someone coming to terms that he’s dropped himself into something he can’t actually grasp because it’s far too big. this becomes clear as Matt and Foggy take their first case in the shape of Karen Page, a young woman seemingly bang to rights for the murder of one of her work colleagues but after some questioning from Matt and Foggy, they realise there’s more to the case. It turns out that Karen has stolen something from her employer and that her employer works for someone far bigger further up the food chain. After some work from Matt and Foggy, not to mention with help from Daredevil, Karen is found innocent and she offers to help the pair’s new legal practice as their secretary.
The first episode doesn’t mention at all who the villain is. His name isn’t mentioned in this first episode, and he’s not seen for a few episodes later when we first get introduced to Wilson Fisk he’s portrayed as a man of wealth and taste at an art exhibition. Comic readers know that Fisk is The Kingpin, the crime lord of New York, but this story has Fisk setting his career up as he helps rebuild New York after the battle in The Avengers, an event often brought up as a major plot point often, It’s a smart use of Marvel’s cinematic continuity to drive the plot of this series that connects this to the larger Marvel Universe rather than have say, Iron Man fly past in one episode and everyone going ”oooOOoooo” and thinking no more about it.
From the second episode on things ramp up. We find out that Japanese, Russian and American mobs are all in alliance with Fisk’s organisation, and that the Russians especially are being hammered by Daredevil’s activities. At this point it’s worth mentioning that Daredevil crosses the streams with Arrow and Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, except they all draw from the same source material, Batman: Year One and Frank Miller’s Daredevil stories. They all do different things with them, so Nolan started with a gritty street level Batman, and Arrow started off as a vigilante trying to clean up his city (and at times Daredevil even hits some of the same beats as the first series of Arrow) but in all three cases the execution is different. Arrow is vaguely campy melodrama, Nolan’s Batman films went from gritty crime drama to pompous shite while Daredevil (so far) has maintained the same tone in the six episodes I’ve watched so far. The DNA however is pure Frank Miller, with a little bit of Wally Wood and Gene Colan in the heavy use of black, not to mention sodium streetlights in the palate used to light the programme.It is basically, it’s own beast. Showrunner Dean Goddard does an impressive job holding it all together and making it look cinematic most of the time, though it does at times look like and feel like a TV programme in lots of shots of two people sitting/standing around spouting exposition to each other.
Where Daredevil does work perfectly it’s in its fight scenes. There’s a brilliant fight scene at the end of the second episode that uses almost Kubrickian zero point perspective perfectly as a battered and beaten Daredevil fights a load of Russian mobsters in a long corridor to rescue a young boy kidnapped to trap Daredevil and to be sold to human traffickers. There’s also a great scene in the fourth episode as Daredevil rescues his ally and friend Claire (played by Rosiario Dawson and better known in comics as the character Night Nurse) from the Russian mob in a darkened garage.
But where Daredevil does step out from all of Marvel’s cinematic and TV output is the violence. Yes, they use terms like ‘shit’ and nearly say ‘fuck’ but the violence is at times extraordinarily brutal. No so more than a scene where after having Fisk built up as a crime lord, but one that likes fine women, art and adopts good taste on advice of his assistant Wesley, finally shows the monster he really is by killing one of the Russian brothers running their gang by beating him to a pulp and smashing his head off by a car door. It’s brutal and is up with that scene in Irreversible in terms of turning one’s stomach and I’m saying this as someone that likes my gore.This is much nastier but it’s essential to reveal Fisk’s true nature.
By the end of the sixth episode Matt realises that there’s large swathes of the police, the New York legal system and the political class in the pocket of Fisk, and that he’s quite possibly out of his depth completely. It’s also worth mentioning that his costume (a black top, trousers, and a mask) is hardly providing him protection but Matt describes it as a’work in progress’ not to mention Claire does a little bit of foreshadowing by saying he should wear armour. At some point in the second half of the series we know Daredevil starts wearing the traditional red suit, so it’s being signposted from nearly the start that Daredevil is going to look very different by the end of the series.
Daredevil so far is an excellent series. There’s some great attempts to build character in nearly everyone (though the Russians are just too cliche for words) with extra effort put into Matt/Daredevil and Fisk/The Kingpin. Everyone operates in a grey moral world, but that’s not stopping the baddies being really bad, and the goodies being really good because after all, this is based upon a comic where superheroes are just moral tales of good versus evil.
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My Little Underground 