Krysten Ritter, a deserved young woman with brilliant upside, plays the titular character in this Marvel adaptation. She plays an off the cuff, alcoholic private eye. Really any use of the suffix -holic could be used to describe Jessica Jones.

Jessica, as a character, is of particular esteem though she does have a very good supporting staff. Luke Cage, who will be subject of a Netflix show down the line, is played with literal and emotional strength by Mike Colter. Mostly literal strength. His performance warrants his own show. Jessica’s confidant and closest friend Trish Walker is played by Rachael Taylor. In lesser hands, this character would have been a one-off, but she is given enough storyline and baggage to be a force throughout the first season. Malcolm Ducasse, played by Eka Darville, brings a sense of humanity through drug addiction and AA meetings to the show.

Jeri Hogarth, played by Carrie-Anne Moss, treacherously explores her character to new lengths. The extent at which she victimizes her friends and befriends her enemies will have you reeling with thoughts of the last time you encountered a lawyer. Will Traval plays Will Simpson, a cop with a dark side, with an ill-ridden yet romanticized charm that turns into malice without losing a beat. This switch proceeds to be flipped on and off as though a little kid were trying to annoy his parents. All these characters are moreso obstacles for Jessica to overcome in her quest for vengeance against the main villain, Kilgrave.

With a name that implies wrongdoing, Kilgrave’s sympathetic charm and easy impression belies his under-the-mask actions. Played by David Tennant, Kilgrave seduces and clouds his victim’s judgement through use of mind control for lack of a better term. His potential of great villainy is through the use of other people making him particularly dangerous. In the show, you learn of his and Jessica’s haunting pasts together and apart. Parallels can rightfully be concluded from accompanying events. At one point, Jessica leads the audience to her childhood home as fever dreams of her early life reveal themselves. Similar events transpire with Kilgrave in following episodes.

An interesting dichotomy forms between these two. We learn that Jessica was held mentally captive by Kilgrave for months beforehand, driving her to the drunken stupor that she embodies. The relationship between Jessica and Kilgrave is that of a victim and the one who raped her. Mentally and physically. This show is dark, but it never loses it’s noire facade. Nor should it. It’s a dark detective story, featuring heavy undertones, narrative voice-overs, and mysterious jazz that would make the likes of Seven and Chinatown proud.

Marvel properties have shined in recent years with vast displays of identity. Whereas Jessica Jones is a haunting noire picture, Daredevil, last year, was a crime thriller. The best movies that marvel offers are genre movies. Captain America: Winter Soldier, was a Cold War-esque espionage movie. Guardians of the Galaxy was an epic and fun space opera. Antman was a fun little heist movie, emphasis on little. Here is to hoping that Marvel realizes their advantages here that just being a superhero movie is not good enough for modern audiences.

This might not be the fault of the movies themselves. I don’t doubt that Avengers: Age of Ultron is probably just as good as the first Avengers film, but there was nothing to separate the two. Once the planet is threatened once by faceless, often flying aliens or robots, the design loses creativity. You never have any reason to believe that your heroes are in trouble so the least that the studio can do is give the heroes a unique theme to play around with. I want to see Thor in a fantasy story that takes more from Tolkien than any comic storyline. His homeworld is rich with possibility and fish out of water concepts have been derivative concerning him. I want to see Planet Hulk, the potential of a great scifi adventure. Black Widow’s character would lend itself nicely to a Bourne-adjacent thriller.

Diversity within the Marvel movies is a very good thing, and I hope that Marvel has figured it out. Both Doctor Strange and Black Panther could bring thematic diversity to the MCU. Daredevil will continue to push the boundaries of classical superheroes through use of violence and dark themes. Here is to hoping that Luke Cage and Iron Fist find their own identities. Captain America’s third installment, Civil War, if done right could feature a cool political undertone, though the words “cool” and “political” contradict each other.

At the very least we can hope that none of these movies or shows include faceless, probably flying, henchmen beasts of some sort. Probably shouldn’t have any hope for Infinity Wars.