Nic Woolfe - Film, TV, and Comic Aficionado

A few months ago, I tried watching TNT’s new drama “The Alienist,” and got frustrated with it after two episodes. Shortly after, I wrote a stream of consciousness posts about my grievances.

Not too long after, The Mary Sue contacted me and said they wanted to publish my article, and I took the opportunity. Last Friday, they posted it to their website.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, mainly because I had a professional editor helping me polish everything. If you have the time and are curious what the original unedited article looks like, feel free to check it out here.

I generally like all the MCU films, but being a good fan means recognizing what you love’s weaker aspects, and maybe brainstorm on how they could improve. Don’t be afraid to list your own pet peeves as well! (SPOILERS FOR ALL MCU MOVIES)

Iron Man

The twist villain of Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane is fun because Bridges’ good at being nice, but on paper it’s sudden and jarring. Would have been better if Bridges could have been friendly but slightly antagonistic in the beginning so it plays better. The film also peaks at Gulmira, so save that until Act 3.

Incredible Hulk

Reinsert the deleted scenes. That bit in The Avengers where Bruce talks about putting a bullet in his mouth and Hulk spitting it out? That was this film’s original opening. Also cut out is a funny scene where General Ross tells his men to retreat if Bruce stas to flee. More quality scenes like that on the DVD.

Iron Man 2

It kills the drama of Stark slowly dying if S.H.I.E.L.D. won’t let him die. If all Tony had to do was drown his sorrows and watch old clips of his dad and realizing the EXPO model was a blueprint, the movie would’ve been much shorter. Also, maybe Natasha AND Hawkeye as assistants (for comic fans)?

Thor

Establish that time on Asgard flows differently on Earth, if only to mitigate how Thor goes from outcast to hero in only 3 days. Also, don’t use dutch angles for establishing shots. Dutch angles work to show something gone wrong or unsettling, like Thor unable to pick up Mjolnir, or The Destroyer marching on Earth.

Captain America: The First Avenger

I find this movie to be somewhat underrated compared to Iron Man, but there’s one suggestion I have that would help both this movie and it’s two direct sequels: give Bucky Barnes characterization outside of being “Steve Rogers friend.” Make me care when he “dies,” comes back, and goes on the run.

The Avengers

This movie is great as it is, but I would’ve liked it more if Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill had more to do. Maybe her deleted subplot of being a mole for the World Security Council should’ve been reincorporated (but not the alternate opening, it’s not the right tone setter).

Iron Man 3

No, The Mandarin Twist and Tony’s impulsiveness do not bother me. What does mother me is how Killian breathes fire once in the film and never again. Maybe have him use it twice in the final battle and then stop because it drains his abilities. Also, maybe don’t kill Maya Henson if it’s not necessary to the plot?

Thor: The Dark World

The movie is kinda jumbled up as it is, but one thing to give it clarity would be to not end the movie with Loki impersonating Odin. With the movie as it is, the ending feels dramatically confusing and somewhat pointless. Let Odin encourage Thor in his endeavors, and stick the impersonation plot thread into the post-credits scene.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Have Agent 13 be the one who travels with Steve instead of Natasha. Natasha is a strong  character played by a strong actor, she can come back in the big Winter Soldier fight without affecting her arc much. Steve interacting with Peggy’s niece sounds more intriguing, and sets her up for Civil War better.

Guardians of The Galaxy

The casual sexism towards Gamora is atonal in an otherwise gangbusters movie. She’s a hired gun for Thanos, that’s reason enough for people to hate her. Also, people need to stop going “but the rules of the universe make the sexist comments justified” when referring to Drax’s remarks about Gamora.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

I actually have a lot of pet peeves with Age of Ultron, but the big one is it doesn’t focus more on how Natasha was designed to be an object rather than a person. You can keep the sterilization part of her backstory, but don’t make her sad she can’t be a mom. Also, axe Tony’s “prima nocta” line.

Ant-Man

After Scott reconciles with his daughter, pan out to show Janet in the Wasp uniform, having been in the background in case Scott needed help. Yes, this is Scott’s movie, but there should be better payoff to how Janet is more qualified than him. Also, Scott’s company he was fired from could’ve been owned by Darren Cross, making things personal.

Captain America: Civil War

Don’t end the movie on a somewhat triumphant note. I’m fine with Steve sending Tony a letter, but Tony’s (and the music’s) response to that should be out of sadness and frustration, not hopeful. If Ross is going to call Tony about the outbreak, Tony should angrily dismiss it.

Doctor Strange

Stephen needs to realize early on that the man who told him about Kamar Taj was channeling magic that allowed him to walk again. If he does, that makes the conflict of whether he stays in Kamar Taj stronger, and makes the moment where he debates doing surgery on The Ancient One more powerful.

Guardians of The Galaxy Volume 2

I wish that Mantis got more to do in this film. It’s bad enough that Drax (who I think is a delight most of the time) says hurtful things to her and is the butt monkey of the film, reducing her role to a submissive Asian woman is a sore spot in an otherwise great movie.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Again, lots of pet peeves, but the big one is how late in the game Peter and Toomes have a real conversation. Peter is right in the middle of Tony’s elite, super genius corner and Toomes’ struggling working class corner. If that aspect were capitalized on more, the movie would stand out more. Also, Tobey Maguire cameo as Uncle Ben.

Thor: Ragnarok

I don’t get why Thor can go Super Saiyan when fighting Hulk and then not again until the climax. It would help if between that time Thor tried accessing that power but couldn’t because he hasn’t come to terms with Odin’s death. Either that, or save the godly power until the end of the movie.

Black Panther

Black Panther is better than The Avengers, but why was there no scene mourning the loss of Wakandan lives in the film’s climax? We take time to mourn the loss of the Americanized Killmonger, but none to Wakandans who died in an unnecessary battle? The closest the movie gets is Daniel Kaluuya’s character, but it needed that Avengers denouement.

Trigger Warning: The following post may touch on volatile topics such as rape, sexual abuse, PTSD,  and discussion of a white woman who had slept with a black man under false pretenses.

I am not an expert on any of these subjects, and I do not claim to be. If you are offended by anything I say, please let me know.

It looks like Kilgrave is going to get away. He has the boat he stole from the couple he was staying with, both his parents are dead, and he aims to make both Jessica and Trish suffer by taking the latter as his new companion, believing the former is just faking being under his control. Eventually, it seems that he has finally reasserted control over Jessica, even managing to get her to smile when he says so. When he asks her to say she loves him, she does say “I love you,” but to Trish, in keeping with the code word the two had agreed on for Jessica to prove she was in control, as it’s something she “would never say.” After covering his mouth and lifting him off the ground by the head, what’s that last thing Jessica says to Kilgrave before snapping his neck? “Smile.”

After “WWJD?” this is the best episode of the series. If the former was about the embodiment of being stuck in a horrible place, this episode is about reaching the tipping point that determines whether you escape or fall back in. Kilgrave’s powers have never felt more dangerous, as he is able to control the police, hospital workers and patients, and even ordinary people to track Jessica down, and he can even do it over a speakerphone, not having to be in the room at all. On top of that, Luke has a concussion from the shotgun blast, and because his powers render his skin unbreakable, conventional surgery is unable to properly treat him. Fortunately, Jessica took Luke to a hospital with an unconventional nurse, as Claire Temple is able to properly treat Luke after getting him out of the hospital and back to Jessica’s apartment (it goes without saying, but Rosario Dawson is the Netflix MCU MVP and potential national treasure in her own right). After Jessica leaves for the final battle, Claire looks after Luke while talking with Malcolm about how important it is for the Gifted people of the world to forge connections, with each other and “regular” people, essentially forshadowing The Defenders.

I haven’t really talked about Malcolm since episode 5, which is unfair, because the dude has shown to prove himself as a fairly above average human being. He used to go to church as a kid, admired his dad or the community projects he did, and grew up wanting to be a social worker becuase he truly believed in helping people. Which makes it all the harder when it feels like Jessica is pushing him away, either by not going to the Kilgrave support group, or when she decides to dive into the river Malcolm personally dumped Ruben’s corpse in to literally rip the head off of in order to present it as evidence that she should be in a supermax prison. It gets worse when the support group breaks up in episode 11, and Robyn (you know, the person directly responsible for the group breaking up) tells him that you can’t count on anyone and that he’s an idiot for wanting to help other people, to the point where he wants to leave and face his parents wrath than the lonliness he’s been feeling with Jessica. It’s only when Robyn *finally* shows humanity and sadness from the loss of Ruben is his faith renewed, and the season ends by with him becoming Jessica’s secretary for Alias Investigations. I would call him too good for Jessica, but Eka Darville used to be a Power Ranger for Disney, so he’s literally too good for *anybody.*

Speaking of people who are probably too good for Jessica, Luke Cage. Fortunately he manages to wake up, and, at the very least, doesn’t want her to be arrested for killing someone like Kilgrave. That’s good and all, but hopefully no one tells him about how Jessica laid upon Luke’s unconscious body and poured her soul out about how she wished she could have a future with him. Yeah, I get the intention, but even taking into account the (dis)qualifiers I drop in order to feel talking about this show (i.e., I’m not a woman, I’m not black, etc.,), this action makes Jessica look creepy. I could see maybe laying her bed on a pillow with the rest of her body off the bed, but anything else is bad touch. Just to be clear, I still like Jessica Jones as a character, but I don’t like what the writers let her get away with.

Still, maybe things will get better as the show continues. Like Jessica says in the seasons final words, if she keeps working on making herself out to be a hero, she might start to buy it herself. And if the writers work hard and work on their mistakes, focusing on social justice aspects outside of white women, the show can become even better than it already is.

Trigger Warning: The following post may touch on volatile topics such as rape, sexual abuse, PTSD,  and discussion of a white woman who had slept with a black man under false pretenses.

I am not an expert on any of these subjects, and I do not claim to be. If you are offended by anything I say, please let me know.

On the day Hope died, Luke Cage followed Jessica to the restaurant where it happened. She didn’t come out immediately, but Killgrave did. Luke tries to go after him, but is caught and told to stop. Killgrave learns that Luke ran after him because he wanted to kill him, and in response tells Luke to “Take a Bloody Number.”

Watching this episode is… difficult after episode 6. Starting on a positive note, though, it mostly handles itself well. Last episode ended with Luke having been told by Kilgrave to burn down the bar he’s been working at throughout the season, as long as Jessica watches him do it. Afterwards, Luke proceeds to help Jessica relocate Kilgrave and put him down. Along the way, Jessica convinces Luke to talk about his experience under Kilgrave’s control to try and deal with it. It seems to help, since when Jessica still insists on being self-deprecating, Luke tells her that he forgives her for everything, and that “I’ll say it every day for as long as you need to hear it.”

I’m of two minds at this point. On the one hand, it’s made clear in previous episodes that Kilgrave never had sex with Jessica, he was just inside her mind. Still, he did so over the period of 6 months non-stop, so she would be completely mortified as a result. Luke’s exposure to abuse like this has, objectively, been over the course of a few days, maybe a week, and Jessica did tell him about Kilgrave before, he was just (rightly) in no mood to consider what she had said. It’s entirely plausible that Luke did some soul searching (albeit offscreen, which sucks), rationalize that Jessica had been through horror objectively worse than his, and found it in his heart to forgive her for what she did.

On the other hand, it would be unwise to forget that Luke isn’s just a man, but a black man, and as mentioned before, and I doubt that the show has truly really earned the right to ask Luke to forgive Jessica at this point, if he should even forgive her at all. It’s one of the problems of trying to add to a shared universe while also doing mature, “grown-up” stories. You have to be really careful when tackling heavy subjects, especially when you’re setting up a side character who might get a potential set up (and Luke Cage did), because if you’re not, future attempts to try and portray the members of your team as a chummy sort runs the risk of feeling forced. To quote a Jessica line directed at Kilgrave, “saving someone doesn’t mean unkilling someone else.” Because Krysten Ritter (Jessica) and Mike Colter (Luke) have fantastic chemistry on screen, I’m willing to buy into it, but I am in no way asking potential black viewers do the same.

Which is why the episodes twist at the climax was probably a smart call. See, Kilgrave managed to get his hands on both on his father Albert and Hope’s dead fetus that Hogarth collected, and he’s been injecting the fetus’ stem cells in him bit by bit in an attempt to increase his power and regain control over Jessica. While he doesn’t regain control, he manages to increase the range and control over others, revealing that not only has Luke still been following Kilgrave’s orders, but that Kilgrave wrote the “every day you need to hear it” line. It’s devastating, especially, especially when Luke, unprompted, asks Jessica if she really thought he could forgive her for killing Reva. Still, I would have wanted him to have brought up sleeping with him as well, but again, that might’ve messed up the Defenders dynamic. Gag me. That said, while he might not forgive her, it’s implied he doesn’t want her to die. In the final fight scene of the episode, when Jessica says that Luke doesn’t really want to fight her, he doesn’t give a verbal response.

Moving from one questionable part of the episode to a more mixed part, Dorothy Walker comes to visit Trish at the hospital after her near-O.D. on the Combat Enhancers. Dorothy acknowledges that she was not a good mom back then and wants to be now, even bringing up

IGH (Dorothy “didn’t eavesdrop” on a phone call Trish had with Jessica until the company was mentioned) and giving Trish a file on how they had paid for Jessica’s medical expenses (probably as a charity write off), but then torpedos any good will she built up in the episode by asking Trish to endorse a clients water brand. Trish then ostensibly pushes Dorothy out of her life for good, but then keeps all the IGH baggage, which weighs down Jessica’s subplot when Trish meets Luke (for the first time in the series), and even gets Jessica caught during her fight with Luke when Trish tries to text her more information about everything.

However, Jessica still comes out on top in the fight, managing to get her hand on a shotgun (the police arived on the scene to try and fail to stop Luke) and shoting Luke in the head, with him telling her “do what you gotta do,” the same thing he said when she tried to break things off i episode 3.

Trigger Warning: The following post may touch on volatile topics such as PTSD, sexual abuse, drug abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse, and murder.

I am not an expert on any of these subjects, and I do not claim to be. If you are offended by anything I say, please let me know.

In an odd case for this show, no one ever says “I’ve Got the Blues” as part of the dialogue. The only justification we get in the episode is through two separate actions. The first is when, before getting interrupted by Simpson, Trish is interviewing a Diane Masagi, a flute player, but Trish specifically refers to her as a “rock flutist.”  The other instance is when Simpson is hyped on his combat enhancers and ready to kill Jessica for not killing Killgrave earlier, Trish, who is held up inside Jessica’s bathroom with her, reveals that she stole the whole bottle off of Simpson, ready to take them and gain a fighting chance. Neither Jessica nor Simpson wants her to take such a dangerous pill, with the latter saying Trish has no built up tolerance and will die without the counter pills. To that point, he pulls out a vial of blue pills, says that they would tell Trish’s brain and lungs to breath, and then throws them out the window.

Like the last recap, this one will be discussing two characters who may or may not enhance one’s viewing of the series, depending on who you ask. The first of these characters is Will Simpson, who is a little of both, actually. Starting with the bad, his connections to the secret group IGH feels mainly boring compared to everything else in the series, since it simultaneously ties into his past but doesn’t tie into his story. After being hospitalized by Kilgrave, he begs Trish to take him to a hospital where a Dr. Kozlov will see and provide him with a series of Combat Enhancing pills that will help him fight through the pain and get him ready to help kill Kilgrave. Alright, but you could streamline this part of the story by having his injuries not be so severe, getting the pills either on his house or a secret area only he knows about, and then save the IGH reveal until the end of the series. It wouldn’t be so hard to believe that Simpson would take an equivalent of caffeine pills to keep him alert when fighting Kilgrave.

There’s also some of his actions after taking his pills that feel weak. After Kilgrave escapes, Simpson heads to his CDC bunker where he finds Detective Clemons, having waited for backup to arrive and secure the evidence of Kilgrave’s powers. After learning of Trish’s current location, Simpson, in another shining example of Jessica Jones’ racial sensitivity, shoots Clemons in the head, burns his body, and then destroys the evidence. Aside from the obvious blunder, Simpson destroying the evidence feels incredibly artificial, much like Robyn’s tirade in the prior episode. It’s another instance where I’d have an easier time buying Frank Castle in this role. Sure, some people might not want to follow a cop killer, but seeing Louise Thompson, Kilgrave’s mom, dead on the floor would probably trigger him into doing something he wouldn't normally do. Frank’s insistence on putting Kilgrave down himself would carry more weight, as opposed to Will whom while don;t know what kind of man he was on the battlefield, leans towards bad given how coldly he executes Clemons.

Aside from that, though, Simpson has mostly been an addition to the show. Between his borderline invasiveness on apologizing to Trish, to his insistence on killing Kilgrave, to shoving Trish in a spur of the moment while on his Combat Enhancers, Simpson;s journey showcases how absue affects men as well, with his experience with Kilgrave making him paranoid and controlling, because he feels like he has to in order to do, what he believes, is the right thing. Simpson still tries to make things right with Trish as well, trying to apologize again, even quitting Kozlov’s program just as he rejoined it, but the damage has already been done. Not only is Trish in no position to forgive him any time soon, but it’s clear that he’s addicted to the high of his Combat Enhancers, as shown as he disobeys Kozlov’s orders of only one red pill, bites down on two when Kozlov’s men try to come after him before he shoots them, and two more when he attempts to kill Jessica for not killing Kilgrave earlier. It’s satisfying to see Trish smack him around in the climax, even if she almost OD’s on the enhancers as a result.

The other person who plays into the shows abuse and control angles is Trish’s mother, Dorothy. Dorothy Walker is a talent agent, and evidently focused her all her efforts into turning Trish into a child star icon called “Patsy,” a la Hannah Montana or another Disney Channel starlet. However, the audience has been told to be wary of Dorothy as early as episode 2, with Trish taking major offense from Jessica when the latter compared the former to Dorothy. While this episode is not Dorothy’s first appearance (that would be episode 7), this episode lays it all out on display, going back to the time shortly after Jessica lost her family, with Dorothy adopting her solely as a publicity stunt for Patsy. If Jeri Hogarth is a shark, then Dorothy is a killer orca, as she regularly calls her daughter Patsy as a child, beats her to the point of bruising (young Trish tries to hide her injuries from young Jessica), and forces her to binge and purge after having pizza at a party.

She may have a small role, but Dorothy leaves a big impact, as she’s the lynchpin that formed Trish and Jessica’s friendship. Shortly after he accident, Jessica started discovering her abilities, with Trish finding out after one of her beatings. The two then proceed to keep each other’s secret, because Jessica doesn’t want to be exploited like Trish, and Trish doesn’t want anymore undue attention, she doesn’t want to be “saved.” Thankfully, that doesn’t last long, as during the binge and purge attempt, Jessica finally throws Dorothy to the wall, not wanting to stand back anymore. Jessica’s protective nature existed longer than we thought and continues to the present, as shown with her managing to save Trish from od’ing.

Trigger Warning: The following post may touch on volatile topics such as rape, sexual abuse, PTSD, domestic abuse, divorce, murder, and suicide.

I am not an expert on any of these subjects, and I do not claim to be. If you are offended by anything I say, please let me know.

After cutting his cage’s failsafe wire, Hogarth gets told by Killgrave to take him to “someone [she] trusts” in order to tend to his wounds. This someone turns out to be Wendy, meaning the poor nurse gets even more roped into Hogarth’s maelstrom. Stuck, Wendy decides to talk about how badly she’s been treated in their marriage to Killgrave, asking how one goes about avenging a death by “1,000 Cuts.” Once the creep is all patched up, before he leaves, Killgrave tells Wendy to get her get her vengeance, cut, by cut, by cut.

A common complaint lodged towards Jessica Jones season 1 is that “it only has 9 episodes of story,” that the narrative of Jessica vs Kilgrave runs out of steam, that there are too many false stops when Jessica should have gotten Kilgrave under her control, going as far back as episode 5, and the season should have ended there. Personally, the story of a rape victim trying to both remain in control of their life while also trying to find a way to stop their abuser from hurting them anymore sounds like a story that doesn’t lend itself to a clean and easy narrative. Real life stories of fighting back against their abusers can feel drawn out past the point of caring, and damn near hopeless (for example, look at the lawsuit between Ke$ha and her former producer Dr. Luke, where for a time I had feared that her career would be over once the judge ruled against her). More often than not, these stories can feel like they were all for nothing, which feels like the point come this episode’s end, when after being released from prison by Kilgrave, Hope Shlottman opts to kill herself, which was foreshadowed as early as episode 2. This isn’t entirely all for nothing, though. While, yes, Jessica’s desire to free Hope from prison legally is shot down in a truly cruel way, Hope did what she did so that nothing would stop Jessica from killing Kilgrave and finally putting an end to him.

True, not every scene in the series has Jessica or Kilgrave, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not serving the story. A good example of that is Jessica’s occasional employer, Jeri Hogarth. Jer’s been present since the first episode, asking Jessica to serve that guy a subpoena, as well as having an affair with her secretary, Pam, while still married to Wendy. What I haven’t mention, and wasn’t brought up until the latter half of the season, was that Wendy pulled a number of shifts at the hospital to put Jeri through law school. In return, Jeri expressed her appreciation through distance, to the point of still taking business calls during their tenth anniversary. In addition, she avoided telling Wendy about the affair (in the second epiosde Pam tells Jeri that Wendy found out anyway), tries to take Pam to the same restaurant the she proposed to Wendy to before coincidentally bumping into the latter on said date, cashes the favor Jessica owes her for supplying Hope’s abortion pill by asking her to find dirt on Wendy so the divorce process turns in her favor, and then keeps Hope’s fetus in hopes of using it’s cells to try and replicate Kilgrave’s power. It’s now wonder, after Jessica’s failed attempt to make Wendy sign the papers, that Jeri’s wife promises to unleash all the dirt she has on her unless she gets 90% of Hogarth’s assets.

Basically, Jeri Hogarth would be boarderline unwatchable were she not played by Carrie-Anne Moss, exudes an authority, self-assuredness, and charm that a character like this needs. To her credit, she does appear to genuinely care for Pam, saying she wants to spend the rest of her life with her, and even proposes to her. Still, she is suspect the moment she starts talking about how good a man with Kilgrave’s skill set would be good for her law firm, clearly obsessed with winning than she is with actually being in the right. When experimenting with Hope’s fetus goes nowhere, she decides to cut the wire in Kilgrave’s cell that would have electrocuted him and saved his mother, before realizing what a horrible mistake she’s made and tries to run away. It’s too late though, since again, Kilgrave makes her take him to Wendy, and subsequently makes Wendy kill Jeri slowly. It’s only due to Pam’s intervention that Jeri is spared, with Wendy winding up dead and Pam getting arrested for her trouble.

Poor Pam. All this time she’s been portrayed as this sweet woman who happens to be a mistress, her patience with Jeri’s hands off as possible approach to the divorce slowly but surely eroding, as well as her temper cracking when Jeri lies to her face and Pam knows it. By the time she is in jail, she’s fully convinced that Jeri manipulated her into murdering Wendy, turning her into a criminal. Obviously, it never comes across that Jeri is that predictive, but it doesn’t matter because Pam is done with her, refusing to even let Jeri serve as her lawyer. Jeri’s journey throughout season one serves as a counterpoint to Kilgrave’s, showcasing how women are capable of being active abusers as well, ultimately serving the shows themes.

Conversely, there is a character in the show who does feel tacked on, doesn’t feel organic to the show, and who’s major point is to make things worse: Robyn. Robyn is the sister of Ruben, the man who Kilgrave killed in episode 6. Unlike Jessica, who the show takes so much care into showcasing her flaws to the point where I still watch the show despite her actions in episode 6, everytime she is on screen she is loud, shrill, and just unpleasant to listen to, constantly accusing Jessica of being a “cougar” because she talked to Ruben occasionally. At the very least, Pam had the line “I’m catholic,” which was used both to deliver background information as well as slyly letting Jeri know she won’t be buttered up so easily by an engagement ring, helping to create dimensionality for the character. Robyn does hang up posters looking for Ruben, but the attempt to make her come across as worrying for her safety are tinged by what it came before, making it feel like she just wants him in her site at all times (intent vs execution and all that) Both Ruben and Robyn just feel less like characters than they do plot devices, with Ruben’s biggest contribution to die, and Robyn’s biggest contribution being to LEAD THE KILGRAVE SURVIVORS IN A REVOLT ON JESSICA’S ROOM, FREEING A TIED UP KILGRAVE, AND ULTIMATELY RESULTING IN HOPE’S SUICIDE!!! Admittedly, the group was already getting antsy over Jesica not giving any updates on Kilgrave, but this still feels really tacked on.

It’s these series of events that makes me think the twins were added on in the last minute, since neither of them are mentioned or appear in either the pilot or the finale (Melissa Rosenberg, the showrunner, wrote the former and wrote the teleplay for the latter). What’s worse is that after checking the time code for each episode, AKA 1,000 Cuts is the shortest episode of season 1. When you take away the 80 second intro and the 2 minute credits, the episode is only 43 minutes long, and the rest of the episodes rest on an average of 50-55 minutes. Episode 12, Robyn’s last appearance, does a better job at humanizing her, but too little too late. If you don't want her to feel crowbarred in, add more time to give her backstory (how exactly do Ruben and Robyn afford to live in the same apartment as Jessica, exactly?) instead of giving Jessica a fantasy sequence of running away rom Kilgrave on a white horse (seriously), or make her more upset and blithering when she learns the truth of what happened to Ruben. As is, though, this is by default the worst episode of season 1, barely beating out the bottom because of AKA You’re a Winner.