You know how the BBC used to (probably still does) wait forever before actually and often quite randomly confirming a start date for the next season of modern day Doctor Who? They don’t operate the same way an American network because they are not as behold to rigid schedules and advertisers. They can do what they want.
Well, hello Netflix. The streaming giant just announced the start date for its upcoming Marvel series Jessica Jones, the second of the four distinct Marvel shows which will culminate in the The Defenders team-up mini-series. The first show in the deal was obviously Daredevil, which for the longest time was simply that thing which would arrive sometime in 2015 before Netflix finally told us to circle April 10th as the release date. When asked when Jessica Jones might follow, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos said, “You should think of it about as roughly a year. Some will roll in as early as eight months and others in 15 months apart, and basically what it is is we’re not trying to meet a fall programming schedule or trying to hit a grid number, so really we want to give the shows enough time. Jessica Jones hasn’t started production yet, so a lot happens from the first day on the set to the last day of production. So we want to give them enough room and enough time to make a great show, so I don’t want to set up a rigid timetable and deliver a show every eight months or every twelve months, but you should expect them about a year apart.”
Krysten Ritter, whose The B in Apartment 23 sitcom was hilarious
Apparently, the production went well because Jessica Jones is arriving less than a year after Daredevil, with a premiere date of November 20, 2015 (fyi, also the date Amazon drops its Philip K. Dick adaptation The Man in the High Castle). Of course Netflix would announce Jessica Jones‘ start date after Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and all the other mags have already published their big “Fall TV Preview” issues. Why be lumped into a listing with 38 other shows when you can have headlines all to yourself on a slow news day?
Here’s the teaser:
What does any of it mean? Throwing it to you THR, “The impressionistic teaser offers clues for what viewers can expect from the series: A camera shutter, identifying her current career; a spilled glass of booze, doing the same for her current state of sobriety. More tellingly for fans of the original comic book are glimpses of a door reading “Alias Investigations” (the original comic book series was titled Alias after Jones’ detective agency) and a sky that turns purple — an allusion to David Tennant’s character Kilgrave, better known as the Purple Man, the villain responsible for ending Jones’ superhero career.”
Here’s what I expect from Jessica Jones: a film noir superhero show, kind of like the first season of Angel. This marks Jessica’s first foray into the mainstream after having been a comic book-only character for over a decade, although a Jessica Jones TV show from Melissa Rosenberg had been in development at ABC since 2010. Her comic book origin story involves gaining superpowers like super-strength and flight via radioactive chemical exposure during a car crash, but having to deal with survivor’s guilt since that same crash claimed the lives of her family members. At that time, she was still a teenager attending the same highschool as Peter “Spider-Man” Parker. Inspired by Spider-Man, she sets out on a superhero career of her own. Then things got dark fast as she was psychologically tortured and mind-controlled by a Darededevil villain named Kilgrave, clearly being played by Tennant in the show. From that point forward, her story involves brief stays as a private investigator and then as a journalist alongside Peter Parker at the Daily Bugle. The TV show has been thought from the very beginning to focus on the former-superhero-turned-private-investigator portion of her career.
Here’s the official Jessica Jones plot synopsis from an Amazon listing for a book about the making of the show (as per ScreenRant):
Ever since her short-lived stint as a Super Hero ended in tragedy, Jessica Jones has been rebuilding her personal life and career as a hot-tempered, sardonic, badass private detective in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. Plagued by self-loathing, and a wicked case of PTSD, Jessica battles demons from within and without, using her extraordinary abilities as an unlikely champion for those in need… especially if they’re willing to cut her a check.
Done. I’m all in. It’s from Marvel, and it has Krysten Ritter and David Tennant! That last part about “especially if they’re willing to cut her a check” sealed it for me, pleasantly recalling memories of Charisma Carpenter’s money-conscious gal Friday to David Boreanaz’ private investigator on Angel.
What about you? Are you not quite as enthusiastic about a private investigator/superhero show as I am? Or are you, but you don’t get my comparison to the first season of Angel because you’ve never seen that show? Gasp! For shame! You must rectify that mistake immediately, although, honestly, that first season is a bit uneven. Perhaps you can binge the best parts of it sometime before Jessica Jones drop in November.