Jessica Jones ep 8-9 update and rant (bc I figured out what’s bugging me)
Two more episodes in, and I’m liking a lot of this series a lot more, but unfortunately that’s made me narrow it down to what bugs me about this series.
It’s Trish. Trish is the weak link in the show.
And it pains me to say that, because they’re obviously trying with her. She’s studying krav maga! She has a job! She and Jessica pass the Bechdel-Wallace test!
But none of that has been relevant in ages; all her characterization was front-stacked, and now she’s completely defined by her friendship to Jessica.
Take Trish’s job, for instance. We haven’t seen her do anything related to it since episode 3. Is she even working any more? Has she taken time off? Or is she still producing shows? If so, how is searching for Kilgrave affecting her work performance? Are her co-workers aware of what’s going on? What is her relationship with her co-workers? Are any of them her friends? Does she even have any friends other than Jessica?
Then there’s her emotionally abusive mother. It’s referenced, but they never interact. We’re told her mom leaves her drunken messages, but wouldn’t it be nice to be shown that? Or to see her dealing with self-esteem issues related to growing up in the limelight? Some flashbacks, maybe, to her life as a child star? Right now it all feels like an Informed Attribute, not something that affects her character.
I mean, compare her to Foggy and Karen, who, yes, were Matt’s friends, but were much more than that. Starting in the second episode, we had them interacting together separately from Matt, and then they each got things to do that had nothing to do with him, centered on Elena and Ben and everything else that’s going on. We see Foggy’s life with Matt before the series began, we know he’s got a family that he jokes about and has affected his career goals. Karen’s got a past that isn’t just mentioned, it also prevents her from coming forward as a witness the way she wants to.
Hell, in the last two episodes of Jessica Jones, Malcolm’s become involved in the survivor’s group, Simpson’s starting to get a story line, Hogarth’s plot is becoming more important, and even Kilgrave is getting a ton of characterization and background.
Trish, meanwhile, is Jessica’s Best Friend, and she’s completely trapped in that role. Her life revolves around Jessica. It’s the pebble in the shoe of this series, an irritation that keeps me from enjoying it as much as I want to.
They’ve got four episodes to fix that, but I’m not sure I want to hold my breath.
