Jessica Jones: A Marvel hero for grown ups

You've heard the hype: Marvel's Jessica Jones, streaming now on Netflix, is the best Marvel adaptation ever to come to television.   The bar hasn't been set all that high, of course, and I've only watched half the series, but I have to agree. 

Krysten Ritter as Jessica perfectly embodies the mood of the series, which unspools as an old-fashioned film noir detective flick.  It just so happens that this private eye has super strength, her on-again, off-again boyfriend is invulnerable, and she's up against a villain who can control minds.  The cast features mostly unknown actors who all make strong first impressions: Mike Colter makes for a dark, deeply wounded Luke Cage, Rachel Taylor perks up the show as Jessica's mentor and best friend, radio host Trish Walker, and Eka Darville brings vulnerability and hidden resolve to the role of Jessica's sidekick Malcom.

If there's a weak spot here, it's the former Doctor, David Tennant, as Jessica's arch-enemy Kilgrave. He's been written not so much as a supervillain but as an obsessed stalker, serial killer, and psychopath.  Kilgrave is very clever, and seemingly always one step ahead of Jessica, but what's his agenda?  He seems content with using his mind-control powers to make Jessica's life miserable, when he could easily just kill her and move on with conquering the world.

Jessica Jones the character debuted in 2001 in Alias Comics, long after I had stopped reading comic books, so I'm going into this series with only a bare bones idea of her (considerable) backstory.  And that's fine; Jessica Jones has been written so you don't have to know anything about the comics. Instead of ham-handedly giving us an origin episode (like seemingly every other comic book franchise to date,) Jessica's story unspools slowly in flashbacks and dialogue.  There are "cookies" embedded in the stories that will give comic book nerds goosebumps, but you don't have to get all the in-jokes to enjoy the series.

What we do learn is that a freak accident gave Jessica powers, including super strength and a limited ability to fly (although Jessica says it's more like "controlled falling.")   She set out to use those powers as a superhero, only to fall under Kilgrave's control and forced to commit horrible acts.  So Jessica decided to hide her powers and took up a new career as a private eye, albeit one with an edge who can snap open the strongest locks  and perch atop rooftops like Spiderman.

Like Netflix's Daredevil and ABC's  Agents Of SHIELD,  this series takes place in the familiar Marvel universe, a world with costumed super heroes and alien invasions.  We don't see them, though, they're just casually mentioned in throwaway dialogue, often jokes. The Avengers and the attack on New York depicted in the first Avengers film get mentioned and even figure in a sub-plot, although it would be more believable if Jessica's New York City showed some of that devastation.    (Apparently all those skyscrapers destroyed in the film have been rebuilt overnight; compare that to how long it took NYC to just clean up the WTC site at Ground Zero.)

If Jessica Jones reminds me of anything, its Watchmen, the film that convinced critics that  super hero movies could be "art."  With its gritty New York streets, jazzy score, and film noir voiceover narration, Jessica Jones deserves to be taken seriously; but don't worry.  It's also engrossing entertainment.

Into The Badlands: Steampunk Kung Fu With A Side of X-Men (Hold The Zombies)

AMC's  Into The Badlands (following Walking Dead on Sunday nights at 10 pm) was created by the same team  (Alfred Gough and Michael Millar) that gave us Smallville. But this time,k instead of reimagining a classic superhero story, Gough and Millar borrow from a half a dozen different genres, mixing kung fu with King Arthur,  Mad Max, and Heroes (or, if you prefer, X-Men.)

In a post-apocalyptic future, we're told, guns have been banned and seven rival baronies keep an uneasy peace through the use of Clippers, highly trained martial arts assassins.  We know this because in the first scene, an unarmed Clipper named Sunny (Daniel Wu) kills about a dozen "nomads" who scavenge the Badlands for sustenance.

If you're lucky in this world, you live on an estate protected by one of the Barons.  Serfs - or Cogs, as they're called here - till the fields (each Barony is responsible for one vital resource, like oil or food; Sunny's Baron Quinn grows poppies for opium.)  A select few get to live inside feudal castles, lit by candles and filled with young cadets hoping to be trained as Clippers.  Despite this being an apparently agrarian society, somehow someone somewhere still manufactures automobiles and motorcycles, as well as refining gasoline and producing rubber tires.  (It's a fantasy, people; you're not supposed to think about those things.)

After quickly disposing of those aforementioned nomads, Sunny pops open the trunk they were transporting and discovers a kidnapped teenager named M.K. (Aramis Knight.)  It seems a rival Baron (well, Baroness) named The Widow had hired the nomads to bring the boy to her.  Sunny brings M.K.  back to the Baron and lets him compete with the others in the training arena, but soon learns the kid has a secret:  Any time he bleeds, his eyes glow bright white and he develops the strength, speed, and martial arts skills of a super-ninja.

Back at the castle, it turns out the Baron's latest wife is shagging his grown son, and the Baron is having some serious migraine issues.  (Poison, maybe?) M.K., for his part, is on a quest to find his mother and return to his birthplace, a city called Azra that supposedly lies outside the badlands and is depicted on a medallion he wears around his neck. 

But the Baron's son ends up with the medallion, and M.K. is captured trying to get it back.  Rather than let the boy be executed, Sunny helps him escape, perhaps thinking Azra may be where he's from too (even though the Baron assures him there's nothing beyond the Badlands.)

So that's where we are.  Who is M.K. and where do his powers come from?  Why is The Widow plotting against Baron Quinn, and will it erupt into warfare?  And will Sunny be satisfied with his life as an assassin, or will he rebel and try to live a normal life with the woman he secretly loves?

As an accompaniment to The Walking Dead,  Into The Badlands should easily tap into the same audience - it's got plenty of thrills, violence, gore, and fantasy - without actually dragging zombies into the conversation (like the awful Fear The Walking Dead.) There hasn't been a good kung fu show on television in ages, so expect the body count to stay high, the fight scenes to be epic, and the plots to remain just clever enough to keep fans tuning in from week to week.  No, it's not Game Of Thrones, but it looks like it'll be a fun hour of escapist TV.

Miss Fisher's Muder Mysteries: Roll over, Hercule, and tell Miss Marple the news

PBS has just started airing Season 3 of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, providing the perfect excuse for me to bring this perfectly delightful period series to your attention.  (All of Season 3 is  available on Netflix, if you feel like binging. And you should.)
 
Based on a series of novels by Kerry Greenwood, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries  whisks us back to Melbourne, Australia in the late 1920's, where the terribly modern Miss Phryne Fisher has taken up the occupation of female private detective, much to the chagrin of unflappable Detective Inspector Jack Robinson (Nathan Page) and his industrious constable, Hugh Collins (Hugo Johnstone-Burt.)

But the gem here is Essie Davis as Phryne Fisher, a woman raised in poverty but risen to great wealth and title. She looks like a Betty Boop cartoon come to life in her chic Twenties couture, stylish hats, and racy autombobile. But those who underestimate her will soon learn that there's a razor sharp mind under those bangs, (as well as a gold-plated pistol under those sheer nylons.). 

In fact, everything and everyone on this show captures the Twenties as convincingly as the BBC's great Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries bring back the Thirties and Forties.  The show is filmed in blushed pastels, looking for all the world like an old black-and-white film that's been colorized for modern audiences.

The mysteries are consistently well written and will keep you guessing, but the real fun is watching Miss Fisher slowly win over Detective Jack Robinson, just as Miss Fisher's companion Dot (the winning Ashleigh Cummings) wins the heart of Constable Hugh. Other standouts in the cast include the ineffable Richard Bligh as Miss Fisher's butler, Mr. Butler, and Miriam Margoyles as Phryne's empirious Aunt Prudence, who's always looking down her nose at her flapper niece's latest goings-on.

Although it's mostly light entertainment,  Miss Fisher doesn't shy away from some of the serious issues of the day - especially the very British concerns of class and religion - as well as introducing us to the birth of innovations like racing cars and aviation.  The shadow of World War I (in which Miss Fisher served on the front lines as a nurse) hangs heavy over many episodes as well.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries airs several times a week on different PBS channels; check local listings, or just dive headfirst into the show on Netflix.

AGENT X: 007 Should Be Licensed To Kill This Turkey

[SPOILER ALERT]
What were they smoking at TNT when someone decided to greenlight this laughably implausible yet creakily old-fashioned secret agent series?   Created by The Bourne Identity director W. Blake Herron, Agent X posits that a secret codicil in the Constitution empowers the Vice-President (played by Sharon Stone!!) to employ a covert agent to protect the nation, removed from  oversight by Congress or any other federal agency.  If you can believe that, then get ready to swallow a Batcave-like headquarters buried beneath the vice-presidential residence, Gerald McRaney as the Veep's Alfred The Butler-like major domo, and 40-year old journeyman actor Jeff Hephner as the dashing, two-fisted superspy John Case.

Let's not even think about what Spiro Agnew would have done with this kind of power, let's just look at  the series; can it rise above its patchwork mishmash of Batman and Bond with good storytelling, compelling characters, and well-directed action scenes?  Not based on the two-part pilot, which starts with Case rescuing the FBI chief's daughter from terrorists and then defusing stolen atomic missiles stolen by Chechen rebels.

Sharon Stone plays the widowed vice-president (a storyline about her husband's death can't be too far off) like a combination of Hilary Clinton and sexy Cinnamon Carter from the original Mission: Impossible, who jumps at the idea of carrying on deep espionage behind the back of fictional President Eckhart (the usually reliable John Shea,) the CIA, and the FBI.  McRaney comes across as stiff and phony as her butler and accomplice-in-espionage, while Hephner as Case lacks James Bond's gadgets, elan, and  sense of humor.  Hephner looks like a waiter in a tuxedo,  and is barely more believable as an action hero.  

The action scenes include the usual nonsense, with heavily armed terrorists spraying machine gun fire and hitting nothing while our heroes take out bad guys with a single shot. The big plot twist in the episode about the stolen missiles - it turns out the kidnapped scientist who can unlock the nuclear codes has doublecrossed the Chechen warlord and wants to auction the missiles to the highest bidder - is delivered so clumsily that it delivers no real surprise.  Case and the beautiful Russian mercenary he's recruited infiltrate the auction and kick major terrorist butt so effortlessly, it makes The Man From UNCLE seem sophisticated in comparison.  And when the evil warlord nobly sacrifices himself to save Case and help blow up the missiles, whatever small credibility the story might have had goes out the window.

Send Agent X to the shredder and look for thrills almost anywhere else.