JESSICA JONES
SEASON 1

FROM A MAX COMIC TO AN ABC PILOT SCRIPT

ALIAS, MELISSA ROSENBERG AND THE ABC VERSION THAT NEVER AIRED

Jessica Jones first appeared in Alias, written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn mainly by Michael Gaydos. It launched in November 2001 as the first title in Marvel’s mature-readers MAX line and ran for 28 issues, following a former superhero turned private investigator and her history with the villain Killgrave.

Television reached the character at ABC first. By 13 November 2013, Melissa Rosenberg had been tapped to write the Netflix version, continuing work she had begun on an ABC pilot. Her pilot script featured three main characters, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel), and she said she wanted those three and then she would have a series.

A NETFLIX ORDER AND A REWRITTEN BEST FRIEND

THE NETFLIX DEAL, AND WHY CAROL DANVERS BECAME TRISH WALKER

The character got a second chance on 7 November 2013, when Disney announced its Netflix deal for series based on Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. The deal covered four 13-episode series and a four-episode miniseries, 56 episodes in all, set in Hell’s Kitchen and due to start in 2015.

The streaming version changed the supporting cast. In her ABC drafts Carol Danvers had been Jessica’s best friend. Rosenberg said in November 2015 that the MCU had shifted and Carol Danvers had been given her own movie. She said Patsy Walker, who appears in the series as Trish Walker, ended up a much more appropriate fit for Jessica, and that it was better for her best friend not to have powers.

Rosenberg also said that Marvel restricted only two things on the season: the F-word and explicit nudity.

THE LEADS AND THE VILLAIN

THE ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT FILLED OUT THE CAST

Marvel and Netflix announced Krysten Ritter as Jessica on 5 December 2014. Rosenberg said in the announcement that Ritter brings both the hard edge and the vulnerability the role demands. Mike Colter was announced as Luke Cage on 22 December 2014, and the character would later receive his own spinoff. David Tennant followed on 26 January 2015 as Kilgrave, the Purple Man, with Rosenberg praising his versatility.

The cast also includes Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, Carrie-Anne Moss as the lawyer Jeri Hogarth, Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse and Erin Moriarty as Hope Shlottman. Rosario Dawson also appears as Claire Temple, the nurse she played in Daredevil.

Ritter prepared for the role with her acting coach. She said in November 2015 that they worked together for hours every day for two months before she set foot on set. She also recalled that when she met Rosenberg and Marvel Television chief Jeph Loeb they told her the character needed to be funny, which she described as the moment she became truly invested.

CONTROL AND A SHARED CITY

HOW THE SERIES HANDLED KILGRAVE AND THE WIDER MARVEL WORLD

The season is an adult story built around coercive control. Jessica has post-traumatic stress, and the man who once controlled her has reappeared. The series deals directly with abuse and sexual violence, so it is a title where viewers may want to check the content first. Rosenberg described what she found most disturbing about Kilgrave.

“His power is to make you want it, which is even more disturbing.”

Melissa Rosenberg on Kilgrave, 18 November 2015

Ritter said that depicting Jessica’s trauma took deep character work, and that PTSD is when something feels like it is actually happening and you are back in that spot. The 2015 Peabody Award citation praised the series for using a popular genre to ask unpopular questions about power and consent.

The behind-the-camera team became part of the story. Three of the nine directors on the first season were women, and in October 2016 Rosenberg announced that every episode of the second season would be directed by a woman. That announcement came at the Transform Hollywood symposium.

The series shares the films’ New York. Characters call the Battle of New York “the Incident,” and Dawson’s Claire Temple appears in the finale as a connecting character across the Netflix Marvel shows.

THE REWATCH

A BINGE RELEASE, ESTIMATED VIEWERS, A PEABODY AND A SECOND SEASON

Netflix released all 13 episodes on 20 November 2015, with runtimes from 50 minutes (“AKA It’s Called Whiskey”) to 57 minutes (“AKA You’re a Winner!”). Netflix did not release viewing figures for it. NBCUniversal executive Alan Wurtzel presented an estimate from the analytics firm Symphony Advanced Media that the season averaged 4.8 million viewers aged 18 to 49 over its first 35 days. The figure came from a sample of 15,000 users, and Netflix had not verified it.

Netflix renewed the series at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on 17 January 2016, with Rosenberg returning as showrunner. Colter’s own Luke Cage followed on 30 September 2016, Season 2 was released on 8 March 2018, and the series ran for three seasons.

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 94% critics’ score from 81 reviews and an 87% audience score. Its consensus praises the show for building a multifaceted drama around an engaging antihero. Metacritic gives it an 81 from 32 critics. TheWrap’s Ned Ehrbar called it “the first superhero show really just for grown-ups” on 19 November 2015. The episode “AKA Smile” won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, and the series won a Peabody Award in 2015.

In the Marvel Marathon it sits in the Marvel TV shows in order guide between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 and Agent Carter Season 2, and in the MCU timeline guide between Daredevil Season 1 and Avengers: Age of Ultron.