Netflix’s Jessica Jones and the BBC’s Happy Valley, on the surface, may seem to provide different viewing experiences, yet they share certain distinctions beyond the obvious element of both series depicting leading female detective/crime-solving characters. Both programmes are examples of a female-centric or feminine style of film/television making, that in the words of Chris Holmund (2016) offer an alternative or different television language, and that as a consequence serves to “bring forward ethical perspectives often missing from action-driven movies” (Holmund 2016). Central to this idea is Holmund’s observation and examination of Mutual Muses’ (2016), or the critical and artistic relationship (“alliance”) between female directors/producers and their female leads. This dynamic, largely examined by Holmund through film, has however become more common in television.
Both Jessica Jones (Netflix) and Happy Valley (BBC1) not only depict female-led dramas, but they are also created, written, and produced by largely female teams – Melissa Rosenberg for Jessica Jones; Sally Wainwright for Happy Valley. Holmund’s work in female-led Independent Cinema therefore, along with other academic work in this area (Caroline Bainbridge’s A Feminine Cinematics, 2008), suggest that women-led productions not only represent and construct female characters differently to the largely male gaze cinematic/television experience, but that this dynamic also offers a “feminine subjectivity” (Bainbridge 2008) to the viewing experience. Both Jessica Jones, Happy Valley, and other examples, such as Scott and Bailey, and most recently, Vera (ITV) can be described as television involved in “the need to speak the feminine, to articulate it and to give it room for enunciation” (Bainbridge 2008).
A WOMAN’S WOMAN. ‘MUTUAL MUSES’ IN JESSICA JONES AND HAPPY VALLEY by Kenneth Longden
