Jessica Jones Review

Kilgrave is the strongest villain concept the genre has produced, because his power is not a threat, it is a metaphor made literal. David Tennant plays him as a spoiled, wheedling boyfriend who genuinely cannot understand why the woman he raped will not simply come back, and the show refuses to let him be charming without also being repellent. Krysten Ritter builds a survivor who deflects every question with contempt and drinks in the middle of the day, and Rachael Taylor's Trish gives her a relationship to damage.

The first season also solves the streaming pacing problem by capturing Kilgrave halfway through and turning the back half into a hostage negotiation. Then it runs out. The second season, built around Jessica's mother and a secret laboratory, is slow and shapeless, and the third repeats the first with a lesser antagonist and a betrayal that has to break a friendship the writing has already worn out. Carrie-Anne Moss is superb throughout as a lawyer who treats decency as a billable expense. One great season, and a show that never matched it.