‘Jessica Jones’ Struggles in Life — but Triumphs on Screen
Marvel’s Jessica Jones, a powerful Netflix series debuting today, is about a broken ex-superhero. She seems like every other angsty crime fighter on film and TV, until you learn why she’s so wracked with PTSD she drinks herself into a stupor most nights.
Turns out, Jones (played by Krysten Ritter, known from ABC’s Don’t Trust the B- - - - in Apartment 23) is recovering from her time with Kilgrave, another superpowered person who can telepathically make anyone do anything he tells them to do. A typical comic book villain-style narcissist and psychopath, Kilgrave — played with elegant, bratty menace by Doctor Who alum David Tennant — kept Jones as his enforcer and plaything until a chance bus accident took him out and broke his hold on her.
But as the first season of Netflix’s brilliant series unfolds, Jones learns that Kilgrave survived the accident and may be coming for her. Her first reaction — a blind panic that involves trying to scrape together as much cash as possible to get as far away from her Hell’s Kitchen apartment as possible — seems ripped right from the playbook for survivors of abusive relationships
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