For anyone who doesn’t know, Jessica Jones is a Marvel Comics hero. She is not your typical superhero. She has super powers, but when she tried the hero thing, it didn’t go so great. So, now she is a PI. It gives a different slant to the whole superhero theme.
Netflix recently released season one of a Jessica Jones series. It’s a good show. The only thing I really didn’t like was it was at times excessively, and needlessly, gory. Other than that, though, it’s very enjoyable.
It is also getting a lot of attention in certain circles, mostly for its strong feminist point of view. People have good reason to be excited about a feminist show that is vying for the mainstream. It is nice to see. The same people who are excited about the show’s feminism are also excited by the show’s sex scenes. That is where we differ.
While there is no nudity, the sex scenes are quite graphic. There is nothing at all left to the imagination. Aside from the novelty (Netflix series are considered television, and sex is never shown on TV like this), the people talking about it seem to like it because it reinforces the show’s feminism. I kind of see what they are talking about, the sex tends to focus on the women’s pleasure. And the women are always in control of the situation. That’s all good.
My problem is that the sex scenes are completely gratuitous. They don’t advance the plot. They could be seen as reinforcing character, but if you are watching the show, it is obvious that Trish tries to see the best in people and Simpson really cares what people think of him. There’s no need to show them in bed together, we already know everything the scene is telling us.
When I read people praising the sex scenes, I tried to think of a good sex scene to compare them to. That’s when I realized that I have never seen a sex scene that was anything but gratuitous. That’s not to say there has never been a sex scene that advanced the plot or gave real insight into a character. It’s possible that I just haven’t seen all of the necessary, high quality sex scenes that are out there. But, I can’t help but wonder why sex scenes are so common if they are all gratuitous.
