Back in April, I wrote that Marvel’s Daredevil, on Netflix, was a home run. Well, I’m here to tell you that Marvel’s newest offering, Jessica Jones, is also a power hitter – a big one. I’ll be blunt, it’s a better series than Daredevil because the character of Jessica Jones ranks extremely high on the list of least well-known superheroes. But she is also one of those who has the most baggage.
In my April review of Daredevil, I wrote that that series succeeded because it trusted and immersed itself in 
the Frank Miller source material. Jessica Jones follows that path where it can and that pays huge dividends for the audience. But that is also why Jessica Jones is so hard to watch more than once. Jessica Jones is not the story of someone who suddenly realizes they have superpowers and wants to help people. You see, the superhero gig didn’t work out well for her. In fact, she was mentally and physically abused and repeatedly raped by the mind control villain, Kilgrave (AKA The Purple Man) for eight long months. And no one (super or otherwise) came to her rescue during that time. In fact, no one was even looking her. Jessica Jones is a survivor and this is the woman we meet in the opening episode. She’s not a costumed superhero. She’s a private investigator who drinks too much in an effort to cope with her trauma. Per the series tagline: she is broken, but still fighting. This is the Jessica Jones we see and ultimately learn to care about.
Make no mistake, Jessica Jones is a winner for Marvel and for us. It introduces us to Luke Cage (who will get his own series next year), Trish (Patsy) Walker who will become Hellcat and Frank (Will) Simpson who becomes Nuke. Furthermore, we now know that the worlds of Daredevil and Jessica Jones are the same because both Jones and Luke Cage are both medically treated by Claire Temple, a nurse, 
who also treated Daredevil. Just as Nick Fury and Phil Coulson connected the separate Captain America, Iron Man and Thor movies together before we got the Avengers movie; it appears that Claire Temple, our Night Nurse (played by Rosario Dawson) will be the common thread running through the Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist series before they combine into The Defenders, an Avengers-type group.
Jessica Jones is superbly acted with Krysten Ritter in the title role. But it is David Tennant in the role of the mind controlling Kilgrave, the Purple Man, who makes this show rock. He is terrifying and insane and you fear for all who cross his deadly path. He is definitely NOT Doctor Who anymore. Jessica Jones proves that the performances and story telling in Daredevil weren’t a fluke.
Jessica Jones is a story that needed to be told, needed to be witnessed because Jones is an example of what happens when the hero is beaten (physically and mentally), but refuses to give up. She doesn’t have the skill set of most of the major Marvel heroes, but no one has a bigger heart or a stronger will to survive than Jessica Jones and that makes this show worth watching.