This Netflix original chronicles the life of one of the darker Marvel characters, the mysterious Jessica Jones. When a tragedy puts an the end to her short-lived career as a superhero, Jessica settles in New York City and opens her own detective agency, called Alias Investigations, which seems to be called into cases involving people who have special abilities. Suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, Jessica wants to do good, but her primary interest isn't in saving the world, it's saving her apartment and getting through each day. Based on a graphic novel intended for adults, this is not a superhero story for the kids.

 

Over the last few years, Netflix has proven to be uniquely invested in shows that don’t shy away from the dark side of women’s experiences. But if its most celebrated series Orange Is The New Black is a survey course designed to explore a vast array of experiences, their new show Jessica Jones is a one-woman deep dive into a single facet of women’s lives—namely, the nature of abuse.

The post traumatic stress of private investigator Jessica Jones stemming from the violent end of an abusive relationship makes for much of the show’s dramatic drive, but she is not alone in her pain and confusion.

 

In the world created by show runner Melissa Rosenberg based on Brian Michael Bendis’s Alias comic book series, no one makes it through life unscathed. There are action scenes, there are sarcastic quips, there are sidekicks and sex aplenty, but at its coreJessica Jones is a show about unprocessed trauma.

 

There’s Jessica’s best friend Trish, whose ass-kicking skills are hard won to restore her sense of safety after years of enduring her mother’s emotional and physical violence. There’s Jessica’s sometimes-love interest Luke, whose physical strength marks him as an outsider like Jessica and who is mourning a lost wife. There’s Malcolm, the junkie in recovery whose addiction makes him vulnerable to further exploitation. And even in Kilgrave, the mind-controlling villain who caused Jessica’s pain, there is a question if his sociopathy is the result of nature or nurture.

 

No matter where you turn in Jessica Jones, there are remnants of the wreckage someone has left behind, and part of the anxiety for these characters comes from living with the knowledge that it will be impossible to save people from more trauma. Trauma in Jessica Jones is a tragedy, but also an inevitability.