If you enjoy complicated, thrilling, and humorous, female led TV shows then you may find yourself binge-watching Netflix’s latest collaboration with Marvel, Jessica Jones, this weekend.
Based on the Marvel Comic series, Alias, the titular character Jessica Jones is played brilliantly by Krysten Ritter. Jessica lives and works as a private investigator in the less-gay, more crime-ridden Hell’s Kitchen that the first season of Daredevil on Netflix established. Whereas Daredevil was mostly an archetypal superhero origin story, Jessica Jones is a personal tale about the inner demons of a woman coping with PTSD and living as best she can. Similar to Marvel’s other female-led show, Agent Carter, Jessica is a strong, independent female and “wears the pants” in most character interactions, including those with potential love interest Luke Cage (Mike Colter). An example is the role reversal that happens when Jessica gets dressed and leaves Luke looking a little forlorn after a steamy sex scene.
The first two episodes follow Jessica as she snoops on philandering spouses and serves court summons as part of her job at Alias Investigations. Her super-powered status is revealed but it’s not shown how or when she received her extraordinary strength and athletic abilities. It’s almost an after-thought that this is a “superhero show” since the plot is more of a mystery and character study rather than a “villain of the week” episodic. Jessica Jones also has elements of horror as she’s haunted by the mental abuse she suffered at the hands (or head?) of Kilgrave “the Purple Man” (David Tennant), who is barely seen but looms large. Carrie Anne Moss and Rachel Taylor round out the robust female cast respectively, as powerful attorney Jeryn Hogarth and Trish Walker (who comic fans will know better as Patsy Walker or “Hellcat”).
What I watched of Jessica Jones excited me more than the whole season of Daredevil and I hope the show continues to develop the strong female cast and explore Jessica’s superheroic past. I would recommend this show to fans of the comic as well as anyone looking for something unique on TV—an independent, complex, and strong female character.
The first season of Jessica Jones is available for streaming on Netflix starting Friday, November 20th.
