Jessica Jones Season 1 Episode 3 Review: “AKA It’s Called Whiskey”

By now, the basic premise of Marvel’s Jessica Jones has been established, and the majority of our characters have been introduced. From here on out, story progression and character development should be the most important things for this show. I absolutely loved the first two episodes of the new Netflix series, and “AKA It’s Called Whiskey” manages to be another solid entry.

After the last episode, Jessica and Luke form a connection through their shared abilities, and they begin exploring this connection. Right now, it may be more sexual than emotional, but this is a very sexual show. Really, one of Jessica Jones‘ strengths is in its exploration of sexuality. This isn’t a show where you’re going to get a lot of gratuitous nudity or unnecessary sex scenes like Game of Thrones (in fact, I don’t think there’s been any actual nudity so far on the show — a Marvel mandate?), but it absolutely doesn’t shy away from the sexual sides of the characters. Jessica is someone that is very much in control of herself and her sexuality, but it isn’t what defines the character. Luke is exactly the same way, and it’s perfectly understandable that the fact that they have the abilities that they do would attract them to each other in this way. I’m extremely impressed with how the writers are treating this.

Jessica’s relationship with her best friend Trish is such a strength for this show that I almost can’t believe it. Melissa Rosenberg announced recently that the role of best friend was initially planned to be filled by Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel in the comics and upcoming film), but it’s clear that they made a great decision replacing her with an un-powered character. Trish manages to be the perfect mirror to what and who Jessica is, and the exploration of their past and friendship should prove to be one of the more engaging aspects of the show throughout the season.

Something that stands out to me about Jessica Jones is the storyline with Hope being incarcerated for the murder of her parents because of Kilgrave’s influence. The thing that makes this stand out to me is that, for the first time in the MCU, we’re getting to see what it’s like for a normal person to be affected by a supervillain. This isn’t Tony Stark taking on The Mandarin or Bruce Banner battling the US military: this is an average, everyday person that is having to deal with the aftermath of a street-level villain working his magic. How would a lawyer deal with one of Hydra’s underlings? What would the police do with one of Loki’s henchmen? Stuff like this would never be explored on the big screen because they’re such large stories, but it’s something that has so much potential on serialized television like this.

Jessica Jones, like I mentioned in my review of “AKA Crush Syndrome,” has been showing some great restraint in its use of action sequences. At its core, this is a superhero series. There’s going to be superhero fighting and superhero action. But this isn’t Daredevil; Jessica isn’t going out every night in a costume and beating up thugs. This is a mystery series, a noir series; when there’s a fight on Jessica Jones, its sole purpose is story progression. We get an extremely well-choreographed fight sequence in the final third of the episode between Trish and someone under Kilgrave’s control, but it’s clear that this is for story purposes. Such great restraint.

We also finally get a much better look at Kilgrave and his past with Jessica in this episode, and the reason behind the trauma she feels because of him is made very clear. There’s obviously much more to this story that I know we’ll get to learn later on, but, for now, the deliberate pacing of the show is helping to keep from revealing too much at once. Why keep watching if we find out all of the backstory in the beginning? Luckily, that isn’t a problem with this series.

“AKA It’s Called Whiskey” is another solid episode of Marvel’s Jessica Jones that proves itself capable of sustaining quality and tension while progressing the story at a delightfully slow (but very deliberate) pace. This series is going to end up being something really special for both Marvel and Netflix, and I hope the streaming service follows suit and gives us another season of this as they are with its predecessor. Either way, we’re in for a very fun thirteen episodes.

Other Thoughts:

• It’s obvious that Jessica Jones is relying on a lot of noir tropes, but instead of falling into parody, it’s embracing them and making them its own. Success isn’t always in subverting cliché; often, success can be found when cliché is used well.
• “You born this way?” “No, accident. You?” “Experiement.” This show is doing a fantastic job with the hero aspect of the universe. Luke’s subtle reference to Hulk and The Avengers (“the green guy and his crew”) successfully places the show in the larger universe while not being forced to rely on the lighter characters.
• Jessica Jones, even moreso than Daredevil, is entirely a show for adults. Between the themes, content, language, and violence, the target for this one is very clear. It’s managing to be the darkest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, and I applaud the studio for letting something like this play around in their world.
• The inner monologue that Jessica has with herself is used just enough that it neither feels ever-present (like on Dexter) nor conveniently forgotten (like the asides in the later seasons of House of Cards).
• Mike Colter is doing such a fantastic job as Luke Cage that I’m more excited than ever for his Luke Cage series to debut. That said, I really hope it doesn’t keep Luke and Jessica apart, but I guess we’ll have to wait ten more episodes of Jessica Jones to see where things go with them first.
• This will be my final review of Jessica Jones as we’re splitting the load for the season among the TVOvermind staff, but feel free to tweet me your thoughts throughout the season as I will definitely be binge-watching this one!

What did you think of “AKA It’s Called Whiskey”? Are you still on the fence about Marvel’s Jessica Jones, or has the show hooked you already? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!

[Photo via Netflix]