"Theres always a detective, theres always a dangerous man in an impeccable suit, theres always untrustworthy clients and lucky left hooks, and theres always a dame, right at the centre of it all. Cherchez la femme fatale, as fancy waiters say.
(Not that youd call her that. Not unless you want to eat your meals from a sippy cup.)
Marvels Jessica Jones begins as a love letter to film noir that verges on pastiche. The private eye swigs bourbon in her grubby office, talks wise, cases joints. Saxophones wail, people die and the city shrugs its shoulders to shake off the rain. You expect Humphrey Bogart to wander in, except Bogey never looked so swell in jeans.
This is the least superheroic (Marvellous?) of Marvels output despite its grim grittiness, Daredevil spent a lot of time zooming into Matt Murdocks supernostrils and fighting ninjas.
Jones has perfunctory superpowers, but theyre treated in a matter of fact way, a tool of the trade, like the long zoom lens she uses to snap pictures of cheating husbands. Jessica is decidedly not a superhero. Unlike the Hulk, the damage at the heart of the character isnt her powers, but her past.
(Lock the door twice, say a dozen Hail Marys and sleep with a gun under your pillow, it doesnt matter. Your past is always waiting.)
Krysten Ritter is superb as an indestructible woman whos broken inside, hiding from her history. (None of which well spoil here.) Funny, foulmouthed, brittle and ballsy, Jones feels like the role the Breaking Bad actress has been waiting for. The superstrength is almost a distraction; shes at her best simply playing a shopworn gumshoe in the big city.
Jessica Jones comes close to exposing the limits of Marvels every genre
and superheroes method by being too good at the genre part. Often youll wish there were no superpowers at all.
But then theres Kilgrave.
David Tennant plays one of the most loathsome villains of recent years. Like Vincent DOnofrio in Daredevil, Kilgrave gets a long build-up, but from his first rumblings he is all you can think about. Appropriate, given his ability is to control peoples minds.
Tennant allows himself to be utterly vile. Adopting that familiar posh English accent, he takes glee in stamping all over memories of Doctor Who. You dont love to hate him, you simply hate him. He is every abusive spouse and controlling boyfriend youve ever had, the ones who made you not yourself, the ones you cant escape.
Its for this reason that Jessica Jones is ultimately a more successful merging of genres than most of the Marvel films. Daredevils adult tone sat uneasily with its four colour origins brutal violence followed by lighthearted banter in the office. Jessica Jones has fun smashing the clichés of comic books and film noir into each other, but more than that it finds their shared heart. These are superpowers as metaphor, and noir is a form of modern legend.
Noir is dark hell, its in the name but for all the unhappy endings, the genre is compassionate at heart. No, wait, that's going too far; it understands why we cant help being bad.
The scummy people who live in its midnight bars and alleyways are trapped by their needs; whether thats the greed of money or lust, or the cynical detective who knows better than to get involved, but cant help doing the right thing. Just like superhero comics, the best noir runs on hope, the drive to be better its just that hope can be a cruel ***** sometimes, and were not always good enough.
Thats why this harrowing series is both more accessible for non-superhero fans and can exist in the same world as Thor and that purple android. For some people, being a hero means flying through the clouds. For others, it's pulling yourself out of the gutter, spitting the blood down the drain, and taking the next punch."
Rare situation when I actually like a commercial. 
Hold on. It's not that far away. 
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