This weekend, a host of Marvel Comics fans will be staying indoors on the couch, binge watching Jessica Jones, the newest Netflix series based on one of the comic book company’s characters.

The casual fan, though, who knows Marvel because of the Avengers movies, ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or even Netflix’s Daredevil series from earlier this year might be asking themselves, “Jessica who?”

Not since Guardians of the Galaxy has Marvel Studios based a movie or TV project on such a little-known property. At least the Guardians of the Galaxy title gave audiences an idea of what the group did and where it was operating. But Jessica Jones? That title only suggests her parents might have had a thing for the letter “J.” In fact, it’s a question Reddit user Exodan brought up in the Ask Science Fiction community: Who the hell is Jessica Jones and why should I care?

Yet this new series could well be one of Marvel’s most intriguing. The studio proved it wasn’t afraid to delve into the dark and excessively violent side of its characters with the Daredevil series—Jessica Jones appears to be continuing that trend. The difference? This series, starring Krysten Ritter, seems more interested on examining the psychological toll a grim and brutal lifestyle takes on a costumed adventurer as opposed to simply showing the obvious bumps, bruises, and major lacerations that result.

For the curious Netflix watcher and the casual Marvel fan, here are five reasons you should care about the new Jessica Jones series.

1. It’s a Genre Mashup That Shoots for the Head

The premise of Jessica Jones is simple: The title character is a washed-up superheroine who now pays the bills as a private investigator. She’s also a woman haunted by the reason for her career change (no spoilers, but it has to do with David Tennant’s violet-attired bad guy, Zebediah Killgrave). That creates a series with one foot in the superhero genre and another in the neo-noir, hard-boiled detective category.

Although past movies and TV shows have flirted with that mashup—the aforementioned Daredevil and Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy come to mind—those examples tend to use any noir style as atmosphere and window dressing, relying more on fisticuffs instead of psychodrama to illustrate conflicts.

Jones looks to change that by showing the psychological effects that the mental and physical violence would have on a superpowered individual trying to live a normal life. Watching a hero being stitched up after a fight and sent off to pound the crap out of the bad guy is pretty standard fare. It’s much more interesting to see the heroine struggling to get out of bed just to face the day because her real battles are with her inner demons.

2. Jessica Jones Isn’t a Spinoff Character

Although she lives in the same world as Daredevil (the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Marvel’s New York City), Jessica Jones isn’t a secondary character trying to escape the costume vigilante’s hornheaded shadow. In the series, this is Jessica’s world, everyone else is just living in it. Agent Carter has the distinction of being Marvel Studios’ first solo female-led TV show or movie, but Hayley Atwell’s Cold War-era spy still fights with the image of being Captain America’s World War II girlfriend, because she was introduced in that Avenger’s first film. To mix comic book universes, it’s a bit like Robin always being associated with Batman, even if the former is running the Teen Titans and isn’t hanging around the Batcave.

Jessica Jones shouldn’t struggle with that type of unfair perception. If anything, when Luke Cage—a character played by Mike Colter and introduced in the series—stars in his own Netflix show, maybe he’ll be dogged with the “Jessica Jones’ boyfriend” label.

3. Her Adventures Are Being Helmed by a Woman

Should the sex of the Jessica Jones showrunner matter? In an ideal world where the creative voices of men and women are equally represented, no. But this is a world where TV programs and films featuring women as the leads are rare and those that have a woman in charge of them, even rarer. That’s why it’s great to see veteran TV producer and movie screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg guiding the series.

Does that give the show an automatic seal of quality? Not necessarily, as some will immediately point out that Rosenberg was the writer behind the Twilight scripts. What this does give Jessica Jones is the opportunity for a unique perspective, which is important for a show that seems intent on exploring the interior world of its female protagonist.

4. Krysten Ritter Is Good When She’s a Little Bad

For a chunk of the viewing audience, Krysten Ritter’s résumé begins and ends with Breaking Bad, which is a pretty great single entry. But one of the actress’ best roles was as the titular “b****” in Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23. In that short-lived ABC sitcom, Ritter needed to pull off being the most horrible New York City roommate imaginable and still be appealing to viewers. And she did it while scoring laughs, which is no mean feat. That charming edginess—for lack of a better term—she gives her characters without alienating the audience suits her well for portraying Jessica Jones, a woman who wants to do the right thing but whose inner turmoil sometimes forces her to make bad choices.

5. The Source Material Is Worth Checking Out, Too

Adaptations should always be judged on their merits. Deciding whether a movie was as good as the book it was based on is an exercise in frustration. They’re different beasts with different strengths and weaknesses. Still, it’s nice when an adaptation comes with a strong pedigree, which is the case for Jessica Jones. The show is based on Alias, a Marvel comic that ran from 2001 to 2004 written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Michael Gaydos. Although it was firmly based in the traditional all-ages friendly Marvel Universe, the comic definitely focused on the seamier, for adults only aspects of it.

But its amped up sex and swear words aren’t what makes it worth reading. Bendis and Gaydos created a complicated protagonist trying to put to rest the pain of past psychological abuse while trying to build a life in the present that made her happy. She wasn’t always successful, but that complicated journey—played out against the backdrop of a private eye solving cases in a world populated with people possessing steel-hard skin and mind-control abilities—was always compelling to follow.

Jessica Jones is using Alias as its road map, which means even if the show follows an alternate route to a different destination, it should still be a worthwhile trip.