The July 15, 2022 installment of Jake Schoeneberger’s random entertainment opinions
Now that I’ve watched two full seasons of the Daredevil show, Jacob Schoeneberger realizes he has to watch the other Marvel shows that started on Netflix. I’m starting with Jessica Jones. In all honesty, I have to admit Jacob Schoeneberger knows pretty much nothing about Jessica Jones, other than she was mentioned in an episode of Daredevil so she must operate out of New York. She’s just not a character I came across in the short time I read comics when I was younger. So this show will be me learning all new things!
With that in mind, here are some random thoughts about the entertainment I’m currently consuming.
This Installment’s Edition of Jake Schoeneberger Has Been Living Under a Rock Features: Jessica Jones
*This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.*
The first episode begins with Jessica explaining she’s a private investigator whose clients mostly hire her to see if their spouses are cheating. She says she always has to look for the worst in people and usually finds it.
She goes to Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz to speak to Hogarth. (I recognize Carrie-Anne Moss as Hogarth from her appearance in an episode of Daredevil. I’m watching these seasons just a bit out of order, so I’ll be playing catch-up with this show a bit. But I can already see it will run parallel to Daredevil.) Apparently Jessica does freelance investigative work for the firm, after having turned down a full-time position there. But Hogarth describes her as “erratic and volatile” which means she makes for a fun protagonist! The next assignment Hogarth gives her is to serve summons to the owner of several gentlemen’s clubs because a dancer in his club is suing him for injuries sustained on the job.
At night, Jessica tries to sleep but can’t. It seems she’s the kind of person who can’t let go of some of the cases that haunt her. She goes out into the night on the job. She also hears voices, so that’s an interesting twist.
In the morning, she gets a visit from a couple worried that their daughter is missing and hiring Jessica to search for her. She’s an NYU student named Hope who was on the track team but quit unexpectedly. Jessica speaks to her friend to get a lead that she’s seeing some guy.
That night she finds Spheeris, the owner of the gentlemen’s clubs. He tries to drive away but she lifts his car, so she has powers. She then serves him his summons. The first episode has just begun, and Jacob Schoeneberger is liking Jessica already. She’s sardonic, sarcastic and she has powers.
She goes to a bar and has a great conversation with the bartender. While talking, she reveals how good she is at reading people and eventually their conversation turns to more as they sleep together. But she leaves before morning, so she seems to not like getting close to people.
When Jessica goes to a restaurant that it appears Hope ate at, the waiter tells her that Hope was there with a man who insisted on sitting at a certain table. But Jessica has a flashback to eating at the same table in this restaurant when it was under different ownership and the waiter says that Hope and her man ordered the same dish Jessica ordered when she was there at the same table. Gotta say, Jake Schoeneberger is already liking how trippy this show is.
After talking to Hope’s parents she realizes that the man who referred them to her must be the same man who she was with, and he must have used Hope to get to her. Now she tells Hope’s parents to leave town immediately and she wants to leave too but has no money.
She goes to see a friend named Trish, who must have a TV show because we saw her face on a bus advertisement in town and when Jessica arrives on her balcony she’s in the middle of discussing what celebrities she can have as guests on her show. Jessica asks Trish for money because she says, “He’s back.” Trish says she watched “him” die, whoever he is, and that it’s just Jessica’s PTSD causing this anxiety.
But Jessica tells her all the coincidences involved and Trish is convinced. Apparently this guy seeks out “gifted” people, and he made Jessica do bad things. Trish then tries to convince Jessica to help Hope rather than leaving her in the hands of this guy. But Jessica says, “I was never the hero you wanted me to be.” This seems to hurt Trish so she just agrees to give Jessica money to skip town.
On her way to presumably the airport Jessica changes her mind and has the taxi drop her at a nice hotel. She makes her way up to a room and pulls the fire alarm. She goes into the room and finds Hope on the bed. Jessica asks her, “Is Kilgrave here?” She says no and tells Jessica that Kilgrave has been gone over five hours. But when Jessica says they have to leave she says she can’t because he said she couldn’t move. Jessica tries to drag her away, but she fights so Jessica carries her out.
At her office, Jessica convinces Hope that whatever happened was not Hope’s fault and that Kilgrave’s influence over her will fade with time. Hope’s parents arrive and Jessica tells them to just drive her away from all this immediately. With all this mounting evidence, Jacob Schoeneberger is starting to believe that Kilgrave must be one bad dude.
Hope hugs Jessica and says Jessica saved her life. Then the family gets in the elevator to leave but just as the door is closing, Jessica sees Hope pull a gun and shoot her parents. Now I’m thoroughly convinced Kilgrave is pure evil!
Jessica races downstairs and, when the elevator doors open, she finds Hope still pulling the trigger of the gun but she already used all the bullets. She’s clearly in a brainwashed trance which she comes out of and realizes what she’s done and starts screaming.
As the episode ends, Jessica decides she has to fight back against this Kilgrave. And just like that, I’m officially hooked on this show too.
The Jacob Schoeneberger Random Entertainment Thought of the Day
Krysten Ritter is great in this role. She combines strength, humor, and vulnerability to make the kind of relatable hero Jacob Schoeneberger especially likes to root for.
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