Jessica Jones (AKA 99 friends) continues on the suspenseful thriller of it’s first three episodes by following the clues which are left behind by Kilgrave. In the episode supporting characters get a little more time (excluding Luke Cage) exploring their own personal issues. Jessica Jones however is in a constant battle as to whether she’s the one doing the watching or the one being watched.
Hilly Hicks, Jr manages to write an episode where not a lot happens but stays compelling throughout its run time. Hicks start to give us more of the inner dialog which was promised mostly in the first episode. We get to hear the inner working of Jessica’s mind and her perspectives. Whether it’s the conflicted feeling of being watched which flies in the face of what she does, or her views on being single. Hicks also continues on with other episodes have been doing by peppering hints to past events and possible future events as well. In the past couple of episodes something has started to happen, the series has slowed down to about half speed in its storytelling. This isn’t necessarily a negative, shows like Mad Men have their whole series built on this, but let’s hope Jessica Jones doesn’t slow down much more.
Returning to direct from the last episode is David Petrarca who has been tasked with directing these slower paced episodes. To be honest, in the first five-to-ten minutes some of the cinematography that was used seemed uninspired. The staging of the scene between Jessica and Audrey Eastman feels out of place with what we had seen up until that point.
However it gets back on track later on with the noire style shots that I have personally loved. It gives us certain shots of that comic book feel by taking away large parts of the screen by blacking it out.
As mentioned previously a lot of the supporting characters get more screen time in this episode. Trish Walker is still dealing with after effects of her attack at the hands of Sergeant Will Simpson and start to see her experiencing the paranoia Jessica deals with every day. For me inn this episode it actually started to believe a lot more in their relationship. Their banter really started to come through.
Speaking of Will Simpson, he made a surprise and welcome return. In a show where there are so many female characters (which I applaud) it was good to introduce another male considering Luke Cage has been sidelined for the time being. There still is something strange about the actor I just can’t seem to put my finger on, but the character itself seems to organically have purpose.
Hogarth also got some screen time dealing with her escalating divorce circumstances and looks like a woman who is losing control of a situation. Something which doesn’t happen very often and Hogarth’s anxiety seems to be building alongside Jessica’s. This will make for even greater confrontations I feel as the series goes on between the two.
Another thing I really appreciated from this episode was showing the other victims of Kilgrave’s powers. It shows that while he has been affecting people in different ways they aren’t all something they could go get justice for in the court of law. The example of constantly smiling or the fact he took someone’s jacket. Very minor compared to what the character Hope is going through but it gives us more about what makes Kilgrave tick.
Review by Daniel Clements
Twitter: @clemo_24
