Editor’s note: The following contains mentions of sexual assault.
The Big Picture
Jessica Jones
is a groundbreaking series that distinguishes itself from other Marvel shows with its unflinching portrayals of gendered violence, trauma, and complex women characters.
The show delves into dark and important themes, with Jessica’s character being a raw, flawed, and powerful hero.
Krysten Ritter’s portrayal of Jessica Jones showcases both her vulnerabilities and her strength; Ritter and the series deserve a Disney+ revival in the vein of Charlie Cox’s
Daredevil: Born Again
.
With Daredevil: Born Again’s 2025 release date inching ever closer, hopeful eyes have awaited news about similar revivals featuring characters from Netflix’s The Defenders saga. Jessica Jones star Krysten Ritter sent hearts racing on Instagram by wearing one of her character’s signature shirts, the video captioned with “IYKYK.” But the moment was a coincidence. Ritter owns the shirt, and told Collider that the fanbase’s enthusiastic response “means a lot [to me]. The character means so much to me, as well. It’s funny that one little thoughtless Instagram story of my cute t-shirt that I love [got that reaction].”
A perceived Jessica Jones hint kicking up fervor is hardly surprising. Daredevil opened the door for mature depictions of Marvel superheroes, but its sister series left the door in infinitesimal splinters. Years before Captain Marvel, WandaVision, or She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, there was Jessica Jones, a traumatized, bleeding, but resilient private detective. Marvel’s first official woman-led and woman-created series still stands apart for its unflinching approach to formidable topics, and for centering a protagonist forever changed by gendered violence. A naturally jaded contrarian, aggrieved by guilt, and firing one-liners as dry as California’s Death Valley, Jessica Jones is a singular heroine with a broken heart of gold. We need her back as much as much as she deserves to return — and that return is as deserved as Matt Murdock’s highly anticipated resurrection.
Marvel’s Jessica Jones
Following the tragic end of her brief superhero career, Jessica Jones tries to rebuild her life as a private investigator, dealing with cases involving people with remarkable abilities in New York City.
Release Date November 20, 2015
Seasons 3
‘Jessica Jones’ Is An Important And Daring Story
Created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos for their 2001 Alias comic, and a long-term dream project for series creator and showrunner Melissa Rosenberg, Jessica’s street-level concerns contrast with the brightness of the MCU’s early films. Like Daredevil, darkness, violence, and death permeate New York City’s every corner, and these plights aren’t convenient plot points but lasting effects. That’s The Defenders saga’s bread and butter. Unlike the preternaturally trained Matt Murdock, Jessica’s powers are almost incidental. The series’ thematic bleakness, extensive film noir styling, and de-emphasizing of superhero tropes feels appropriately self-contained. Jessica might have enhanced strength, but her agonies are the horrifying commonalities virtually every woman faces. Her foremost villain is rape culture.
By adapting this character, Rosenberg swings for the fences by necessity. And even after the height of the Me Too movement’s awareness, Jessica Jones is an essential and daring story for high-profile media to platform. In many ways, it’s a female fantasy. Jessica’s powers mean she can stroll down a street alone at night without fear. When met with male posturing, she rolls her blasé eyes and turns the tables. Suddenly, she’s the one doing the intimidating, and the bewildered sexists are scrambling to catch up (or run away). In tandem, the series interrogates male reactions to literal female empowerment. Kilgrave (David Tennant), a man capable of manipulating anyone’s free will, tempers the fantasy. An unsettling ability winds up in the hands of the worst person imaginable, and it legitimizes Kilgrave’s existing impulses. In a world already predisposed to absolving cishet white males of their crimes, Kilgrave’s whims have no restrictions or repercussions. He expects, he dominates, and he takes.
Before Jessica Jones begins, Kilgrave subjected Jessica to his brainwashing for months. He held her captive and abused her sexually, physically, and emotionally. Season 1 tracks Kilgrave’s return from the “dead” and Jessica’s attempts to circumvent her abuser. Faced with a threat she can’t punch away, Jessica’s only weapon is her mind: something Kilgrave could effortlessly overpower. The only reason he doesn’t is because he craves her willing devotion. At every turn, he romanticizes himself. He couches his abuse in love, mocks consent, and deflects blame. The series, an objective observer, never lets Kilgrave escape accountability. Pedantic language and childhood torment doesn’t excuse his perpetuation of the abuse cycle. For narrative purposes, he’s rape culture personified, a sadist given free rein.
Jessica Jones Is A Uniquely Nuanced Protagonist Within The MCU
Returning to the female power fantasy that shouldn’t have to be a fantasy, Jessica becomes her own savior. Killing Kilgrave isn’t enough of an emotional purge to resolve her underlying trauma. The demons he left in her head and body aren’t magically fixed after Season 1. Triggers plunge Jessica into violent flashbacks and intrusive hallucinations. She grounds herself with cognitive therapy techniques as well as sympathetic, if poor, coping mechanisms, like alcohol and self-isolating behavior. It doesn’t matter when someone assures Jessica that Kilgrave isn’t physically nearby. “He’s always here,” she says, gesturing to her head. Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and She-Hulk address similar themes through a blockbuster lens, and they’re necessary progressions. Still, Jessica Jones’s uncompromising nature makes it the most harrowing Marvel series, and Kilgrave the franchise’s most terrifying villain.
Reduced to her rawest parts, Jessica is a human disaster. She’s remarkably and honestly flawed for remarkably honest reasons. Barely scraping through each day and doing so on a self-hating autopilot is emblematic of her PTSD. Her trauma manifests through her worst traits, which are also her most charming. She’s hot-tempered. She picks fights. Her undercutting dry sarcasm runs a mile a minute. Her blood-stained hands rule her waking hours and her dreams. Of course, erecting emotional barriers feels safer; she abhors vulnerability even though she longs for human connection. Being a damaged jerk is the only language she knows. Jessica Jones is an “unlikeable” female character — a predictable term applied to non-conforming women — who nurses a broken heart that’s overflowing with love despite its tattered and torn state.
Related ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Promises to Deliver “Much Improved” Versions of Your Favorite Characters
“The last few months of work we did was… written beautifully and directed beautifully.”
If Taylor Swift described her album The Tortured Poets Department as “female rage: the musical,” then Jessica Jones is female rage: the superhero. Because Jessica is indeed a hero — not despite her flaws and self-doubts, but because of them. Her series understands that heroism isn’t a binary but a spectrum. Sometimes reactive, sometimes proactive, one truth holds: Jessica never stops fighting, even when she’s terrified. Her trauma informs her life without eternally ruling her future. Because she’s habitually splintering her broken parts, Jessica has supernatural inner strength. Jessica Jones asks classic questions about heroism through a canted angle that avoids the traditional costume reveal endgame. Jessica’s uniform is her old, bland, and reliable clothes she dumps on the floor every night. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Krysten Ritter As Jessica Jones Is Perfect Casting
Image via Marvel Studios
Krysten Ritter, previously a stand-out performer on Breaking Bad and Melissa Rosenberg’s top choice for Jessica Jones, is as much a casting coup as Charlie Cox. She slips into Jessica’s leather jacket, worn jeans, haunted eyes, and hunched shoulders like a glove. Her presence intimidates and compels. She demonstrates a remarkable range, shifting between acidic sarcasm and blistering vulnerability. She’s every inch the young woman floundering between antiheroine and heroine. Conveyed through Ritter’s empathetic commitment, Jessica feels real, cut from a relatable cloth. Her justifiable rage is reckoned with but not disparaged or sanitized.
And after Season 1, Jessica evolves and heals. She snatches peace and wisdom as they float past, grows through her strained relationships, and rediscovers the purpose she sought before Kilgrave annihilated her life. Whether she’s outsmarting the patriarchy or running out of toilet paper, it’s a thrill to see her onscreen — a catharsis. We need her ugliest moments for her triumphs to resonate.
Disney+ Should Revive ‘Jessic Jones’
Image via Marvel Studios
Nine years later, Jessica Jones still distinguishes itself from its peers. The series dives head-first without a helmet into areas Netflix’s other shows couldn’t touch for all their shadowy lighting. Its distinctive flair and psychological focus, Jessica’s unique necessity, and Ritter deserve a proper return. There’s no one like Jessica in The Defenders world. Her closest Disney-era equivalent is Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness turns Wanda’s trauma into villainy. Give me Jessica, the detective exorcising her trauma and applying her cunning, brilliant mind to helping the overlooked survivors. She problem-solves with her brain and her fists. Her ongoing potential waits to be seized. Everyone loves Daredevil. Everyone should love Jessica Jones.
Jessica Jones is available to stream on Disney+.
Watch on Disney+