REVIEWED: SEASON 3 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX

All good things must come to an end, and sometimes those endings are timely and appropriate. Jessica Jones ends on its third season, and though we are sad to see it go, we suspect that this will be a good thing.  For those who don’t know the setup, Jessica Jones is a detective drama set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Jessica has a set of superpowers (limited flight/jumping, super strength) and is very much a reluctant hero. Like all of the Netflix Marvel shows, she’s a street-level hero who doesn’t dress in gaudy colours. Jessica is a Private Investigator who’s life has been made much worse through her interaction with the weirder elements of her world. She drinks, sometimes to forget but mostly just to cope.

By Season 3, Jessica has been outed as a hero. She’s using her powers to try and make the world a better place and even has a competent secretary covering her calls. Her relationship with her best friend, Trish ‘Patsy’ Walker is still frayed following the events of the last season. Jessica is still trying to be the hero, though in the way her now deceased mother defined it; “someone who gives a shit and does something about it.”  Of course, this is New York, and they’re sceptical of any hero who isn’t draped in a flag or wearing a billion dollars of technology.

Meanwhile, former associate Malcolm is now working for the rather sinister lawyer Hogarth. Malcolm has finally found his groove as an investigator and detective of sorts, but no one who deals with Hogarth ever comes out of it with their soul untarnished. Hogarth also has her own story-arc and continues to be one of the most interesting bits of the MCU; a powerful woman with a remarkable talent for coercion who will still never get their heart’s desire. Arguably because they long since sold their heart for power.

Trish’s story arc is most engaging, however. Whereas Jessica, conscious of the responsibilities that power brings, has always been careful and reluctant, Trish’s desire to be a paragon of justice ramps up here. In the previous seasons, Trish’s foolhardy quest for justice was always bubbling under. In season 3, we see exactly how little control she has had over her life thus far, and understand why she takes such stupid risks.

All of these storylines (plus the main arc, which is about bringing a killer to justice) take a long time to mature. As the show continues though, it really does find its feet, and things blend into each other effortlessly. Jessica Jones is all about doing the right thing even though you really don’t want to. It ends on a perfect note for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one that Stan Lee would be proud of.