maybe it goes back to my own time in creative writing, both fiction and non, but I always resented the idea of there being any rules to how a thing is told.

I don't discredit anything that this guy says, because it's a "fundamental" argument and is hard to argue against. But that wasn't my experience with the show.

Episode 1: Introduced to all the characters, curious how all of them are going to act and factor in.

Episode 2: See the first depths of Kilgrave's evil (man who drove him to the hospital forced to donate both kidneys to him), learn Luke's power, learn Kilgrave's primary weakness, learn why Jessica watches Luke at night.

Episode 3: Introduced to Nuke, Jessica and Kilgrave see each others' faces and she learns he's having someone spy on her. Also a cute rom-com episode squeezed in the middle.

Episode 4: Jessica discovers who's been following her and it's her junkie neighbor who's possibly not actually a junkie at all, Simpson makes his way into the group, Jessica realizes no one can get close to her at this time especially not someone as strong as Luke and cuts him off.

Episode 5: Jessica captures and then loses Kilgrave, realizes that he is always going to have a plan for the situation at hand which affects how she approaches every attempt to capture him afterward, and her neighbor begins his redemption arc.

Episode 6: Jessica and Luke have more cute moments as a buddy cop team, building their bond to its strongest point on the surface while Jessica's anxiety is secretly burning it all down. Luke discovers why Jessica cut him off and is understandably angry about it.

Episode 7: Ruben is killed, Jessica realizes how close Kilgrave will get to Jessica's personal life just to drive her towards him, Jessica becomes so desperate that she attempts to go to super-max prison in the hopes he'll be drawn to her there, we get rewarded with Kilgrave exposing what his motivation is. Jessica moves in with Kilgrave at her childhood home.

Episode 8: Great comedic banter between two enemies trying to figure out how they can manipulate the other into getting what they want out of each other. Simpson reveals he's losing his grasp on what's going on, Jessica nearly becomes Kilgrave's right hand before deciding he can never truly be redeemed.

Episode 9: Everything happens. One of the most thematically cohesive episodes of television I've seen since the peaks of all those Golden Age shows we love to talk about.

Episode 10: Kilgrave goes ballistic, everything hits rock bottom for all of our heroes, and Kilgrave learns that what he wants most just may be a thing he can never have, beginning his descent into considering killing Jessica rather than attempting to own her.

Episode 11: Simpson begins his transformation into Nuke, becoming a far more interesting character, and the show also allows its central thesis on male abusers and female victims to take center stage, with Nuke essentially performing the role of several variants of abusers in a single episode to fantastic effect. Kilgrave begins his long con with Luke as a test of his new powers (unbeknownst to the audience).

Episode 12: We learn about IGH, Jessica's childhood, Kilgrave's enhanced power, Kilgrave's enhanced cruelty (that apartment scene was seriously brutal, even compared to the restaurant), get to see the best (of an admittedly weak selection) of the series' fight scenes and watch a woman shoot the man she loves in the head with a shotgun on the off chance it might not kill him thanks to his skin.

Episode 13: Awesome showdown between the best live action villain in comic history and the most unique live action hero in comic history. All the themes of abuse and power and betrayal and weakness and obsession come to a head, and in my opinion BECAUSE the central conflict has remained in stasis throughout the entire show, it's impossible to know (within your suspension of disbelief) whether Jessica will come out ahead in the end. Personally, I really thought Kilgrave was going to get on that boat with Trish and we wouldn't hear from him again until the Defenders mini-series.


This writer makes a great case that not a lot happened in terms of the backbone of the story, but whenever I see someone making that argument I also see them missing all the things that DID happen. Each episode of Jessica Jones changes something about the show itself, whether a character finds a new role (several characters play both hero and villain across its thirteen episodes, even Jones and Kilgrave) or discovers a new piece of information or the plot itself moves forward.


This show doubled down on "Jessica Jones is a cynical, traumatized superhero being harassed and threatened by the incredibly powerful mind-controller Kilgrave, who can strike at her at any moment," and then explored what that means for everyone around her. It dove DEEP into that ONE thing, and maybe it was an episode or two too long (I personally found sober Malcolm to be a fairly wooden, childish character and wouldn't have missed him much) or that's not enough capital-letters CHANGE for some people, but I just don't buy that it's a thing that makes the show actually, truly bad just because it didn't follow some "rule of writing".


Within it's confines of "Jessica vs. Kilgrave, abusers vs. survivors" I would love to argue this show was one of the most thematically rich I've seen since AMC retired its two flagships. Not written as well, directed as well, or even acted as well. But thematically, Jessica Jones gives you a lot to unpack, and I disagree with the premise that it could provide all that it does if it kept expanding its lens. This was a story about a villain with a power subtle enough he could rule the world with it, and yet all he wanted to use it for was to be with the woman he "loved". The stakes began small, yet were so relatable they didn't need to get much bigger to tell a great story.


That's what season 2, Nuke, IGH, Luke and all the rest can be for. Season one was a very intimate story and I think they fucking nailed it.

That he adds Kimmy Schmidt to his defense only furthers my point that sometimes a strict adherence to "forward momentum" can cloud someone's judgement. That was a funny, fine show, but it wasn't 30 Rock, it wasn't Parks & Rec, hell I don't even care if there isn't another season of it. It was just a dumb comedy with some great Jon Hamm cameos.

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