SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading if you have not seen Season 3 of “Jessica Jones”
Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety‘s television podcast. In this week’s installment, Variety TV reporter Joe Otterson chats with Melissa Rosenberg, the creator, showrunner, and executive producer of Netflix’s Marvel drama “Jessica Jones.”
Centered around the Marvel Comics character of the same name, the series follows former superhero Jessica Jones, played by Krysten Ritter, as she opens her own detective agency and hesitantly uses her superpowers to combat numerous villains that find their way back into her life. The first two seasons sees power-wielding Jones catapulted into a series of dramatic turns, from battling the evil Kilgrave throughout Season 1, to having her best friend Trish (Rachael Taylor) kill her mother, and subsequently gain her own powers, in Season 2. In the third and final season, released June 14, the many open wounds and unresolved conflicts finally have a chance to be reconciled.
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“What we really wanted to do was to have Jessica’s character look forward,” Rosenberg said about the last season. “The first two seasons were really her digging into her past, her past trauma, her family history, her origins, all of that. And she’s come to some sort of conclusion with those and so now we’re gonna see what does it look like for her to move forward, what is her place in the world? Can she find her place in the world?”
Her place in the world still seems to be right by Trish’s side in Season 3. Despite added tension following Trish’s newfound powers, and her murder of Jones’ mother, the pair go through the latest installment side by side. “They’re now, at least from a physical point of view, they’re equals,” Rosenberg said. “They both have powers, they both can defend themselves and fight for good or bad or all of that.
“How they approach that is what brings about the conflict because Jessica has always been someone who sees all the different angles, who has a very hard time seeing things in black and white. It’s always shades of grey,” she continued, noting how each characters almost polar-opposite viewpoints complement each other perfectly.
“Both of them have always had this desire, to be able to come together and stay together and they’ve also always sought a partner in each other,” Rosenberg said. “They’re both very isolated in their own so it is the perfect team-up. They really complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They get to be together. It’s fun, it’s sort of the culmination of a three-season long arc between them.”
The new season also sees new relationships blossom as Jones begins dating Erik Gelden (Benjamin Walker) who, much like Trish, has a stark outlook on the world. But despite their differences, Rosenberg thinks the pair work well together in much the same way that her and Trish do, as their contrasting perspectives balance each other.
“For her he’s the ultimate partner, even more so than Trish, in that he can absolutely concretely see if someone is good or bad,” Rosenberg said. “It’s a very concrete, tangible skillset that he is and one that has evaded her her entire life.”
Later in the podcast, critics Daniel D’Addario and Caroline Framke discuss the phenomenon that is “Stranger Things.”
New episodes of “TV Take” are available every Friday. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or anywhere you download podcasts. You can find past episodes here and on Apple Podcasts.
