One day we’ll be able to talk about our favourite movies, bands and TV shows – you know, all the stuff that makes life more interesting – without mentioning, or even noticing gender. We won’t need to say ‘female director x’ or ‘all-girl rock band y’ because it won’t be a surprise or a victory, it’ll just be normal.
But we’re not there yet, so I’m going to tell you why *Jessica Jones*is the best superhero (who happens to be female) show of 2015, and why she’s the millennials’ answer to Buffy Summers.
Played by actress Krysten Ritter, Jessica Jones is the latest superhero from the Marvel universe to get her own show on Netflix and all 13 episodes were released on Friday, 20 November so you can immerse yourself in this slick, noirish thriller ALL WEEKEND if you want to.
Each age gets the superhero it deserves. Compared to today, the ’90s seemed like an innocent time and so we had Buffy Summers, a typical Californian teen who every season was pitted against a ‘Big Bad’ with good ol’ fashioned ambitions that involved dragging humanity into the gaping maw of Hell.
In contrast, Jones’ New York is a battle-scarred city, physically and emotionally damaged by the apocalyptic alien attack of the Avengers movie, and she’s a fitting heroine for the times. A cynical private investigator, she’s traumatised by an event in her past and suffering from PTSD, using a combination of CBT and cheap whisky to get her through moments of panic and anxiety.
The grubby claustrophobia of the city, where everyone is uncomfortably close to one another but trying to pretend otherwise, could just as easily apply to London as it does to New York.
So here’s why Jessica Jones is a worthy successor to Buffy:
1. Not afraid of the F word
Ritter has described Jessica Jones as a feminist show, but not because Jones is a major badass. It’s to do with the fact that there are as many women behind the camera (it’s written and directed by Melissa Rosenberg) as in front of it. It’s refreshing to realise you’re watching something that isn’t all about the male gaze, but represents a female point of view.
Jessica Jones would definitely pass the Bechdel test. While Agent Peggy Carter has to deal with unreconstructed misogyny from colleagues, baddies and society in general in 1950s Manhattan, the everyday sexism Jessica faces in the same city in 2015 is equally problematic. Her clients don’t respect her because she doesn’t look like a ‘typical’ PI, sleazy guys harass her in bars and David Tennant’s villain Kilgrave oozes real menace as a mind-controlling serial rapist.
Buffy battled the same stereotypes but usually turned her opponents’ mistaken assumptions about her to her advantage.
2. Just a girl in the world
Like Buffy struggling with boy (OK, vampire) problems, worrying about money and her grades while simultaneously trying to save the world, Jessica Jones is refreshingly ordinary in many ways. She’s always running out of loo roll, forgetting to charge her phone and having sex then feeling awkward afterwards.
She has a crappy apartment in Hell’s Kitchen which doubles as her office, with weird hipsters upstairs and a junkie next door. Everyone else lives in equally lousy apartments and struggle to find new non-psycho flatmates on Craig’s List – apart from her celebrity mate Trish who’s apparently made a success of her life while she’s floundered (and doesn’t everyone have one of those major FOMO-inducing buddies?)
3. Super, but only just
The first episode barely shows her being ‘super’. There are glimpses of her special powers – one skeezy guy mutters ‘You’re one of...them!’ but as a street-level hero in the Marvel universe, Jessica doesn’t have Iron Man’s suit or Thor’s hammer – she’s just really strong and can jump really high.
Most of the time she seems like a lonely girl struggling with isolation in a menacing world where the noise in the kitchen could as easily be an intruder or your feckless friend eating peanut butter straight from the jar. In true millennial style, said friend is also a great fan of ironic pop psychology – ‘You use sarcasm to distance people...’
Similarly, Buffy has super strength and ninja fighting skills, but she’s still mortal and vulnerable both physically and emotionally. That’s why we love her (sob) and why Jessica is as compelling.
4. #squadgoals
Every New York-based millennial show from The Mindy Project and Broad City to Girls and Don’t Trust The Bitch in Apartment 23 (which Krysten Ritter also starred in) feels like it’s had an influence on Jessica Jones, from the grotty apartments to the loyal, if dysfunctional supporting cast of bosses and best friends.
And it’s this group that surrounds the main character, like Taylor Swift’s squad, that has its roots in the original ‘Scoobies’ – the name Buffy’s mates gave themselves to define their role as the Slayer’s cheerleaders and support crew.
Xander, Willow, Anya, Giles and Cordelia supplied the hugs and the gags when necessary and that dynamic set the template for every superhero show since. Jessica’s ‘squad’ consists of her on-off BFF Trish, a cop, her fierce boss and the junkie neighbour. Weird, but it works.
5. Charisma
Superficially, Buffy and Jessica couldn’t be more different. Buffy is blonde, ditzy and optimistic, all of which could make her extremely irritating, yet we love her anyway. Meanwhile, Jessica is a dark, prickly tomboy – but just as attractive. The quality they share is charisma.
There’s something compelling about them which means the viewer can’t help rooting for them. We don’t need our heroes to be perfect – who can identify with that? It’s their flaws that make them human and therefore relatable. Jessica is prickly, complicated and funny as f**k – in other words, she’s a real live human girl in her twenties trying to figure her sh*t out.
Like Katniss Everdeen, Buffy Summers or Arya Stark, the fact that she’s carrying the heavy burden of protecting innocents from evil makes her awe-inspiring, too.
Jessica Jones marks a watershed in television where a superhero show becomes more than just a show with a superhero in it (although let me be clear, there’s NOTHING wrong with that). It’s an addictive thriller where the lead just happens to have super powers, so you can enjoy it whether you read comic books or not.
It just so happens that the coolest, hardest superhero on our screens right now is a woman. Buffy would be proud (but not surprised).
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Follow Phoebe On Twitter @PhoebeFrangoul
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.