The initial partnership between Marvel and Netflix in the mid-2010s was a watershed moment for superhero television. It promised a gritty, interconnected street-level universe that would exist in the shadow of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, offering darker, more mature storytelling. While the roster of shows – Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher – varied wildly in quality, one series quickly became the undisputed darling: Daredevil. Its stellar fight choreography and Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock opposite Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin cemented its place in the fandom’s collective memory. Even after the series ended in 2018, it is still often hailed as the gold standard of the Netflix slate.
However, as the dust settles and Marvel revives its street-level heroes under the Disney+ banner with Daredevil: Born Again, revisiting the Defenders’ individual series reveals something else: Daredevil was never, in fact, the best show of the original run. That title belonged, without a doubt, to Jessica Jones. The recent confirmation of Krysten Ritter’s return as the cynical Private Investigator for Born Again Season 2 not only sent excited ripples through the fandom but ultimately reminded fans where the true brilliance of the Netflix era lay. If you look at each original Netflix series and examine what made the successful ones truly work, you will find a depth and dramatic integrity that Jessica Jones Season 1 had in spades. The excitement surrounding Ritter’s return to Jessica’s boots and leather jacket instantly heightens the potential for Born Again Season 2.
While Daredevil often impressed with its action sequences and the constant threat of Wilson Fisk, Jessica Jones Season 1 offered something far more rare and unsettling: a villain whose power was horrifyingly intimate and psychologically terrifying. David Tennant’s Kilgrave—with his ability to control minds—was not just a threat to a city, but a chilling manifestation of abuse, trauma, and the violation of personal autonomy. His presence loomed large over every frame of the first season, not through brute force or organized crime, but through the terrifying ease with which he could strip away a person’s free will, with Jessica being his favorite victim.
This dark thematic core was different from anything else Marvel had done up until that point and elevated the show from a simple superhero tale to a genuinely compelling psychological thriller about a survivor battling her abuser. Krysten Ritter’s raw performance as Jessica—a woman drowning her PTSD in whiskey and cynicism—was the perfect foil. Her trauma was her superpower’s origin and its biggest weakness, creating tension that felt incredibly real and painfully relevant.
The show’s success lay in its willingness to lean into uncomfortable, adult themes, delivering a character study where the emotional and psychological battles were far more gripping than any rooftop fight scene. Even the highly praised Kingpin storyline in Daredevil relied on more conventional organized crime tropes, while Kilgrave’s horror was personal, unsettling, and utterly unique in the superhero landscape at the time. The stunning cast around Ritter and Tennant, including Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth, built a world of broken, complex adults that other Netflix shows, even with their best moments and spot-on casting, could not replicate.
The official confirmation of Krysten Ritter’s return as Jessica Jones in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is more than just exciting casting news; it is a promise of a necessary thematic counterweight. The show’s first season is heavily focused on Matt Murdock and Kingpin’s rivalry and Matt’s struggle to come to terms with hanging up Daredevil’s cowl. While the season was lauded by fans and critics alike, it was still a structurally conventional story of a vigilante battling a corrupt top-tier force; in this case, Fisk as the Mayor of New York.
Though Born Again returned to Matt Murdock’s world, it took almost the entire season to see him back in action as Daredevil, and he was removed from Hell’s Kitchen, which felt like a character in and of itself in the gritty world previously established in the Netflix era. Jessica Jones, as a character, is fundamentally about survival, recovery, and the difficult, often messy process of healing from deep trauma—something that Matt Murdock is currently experiencing in the Born Again storyline. Her re-entry into the larger MCU canon alongside Matt Murdock will instantly rekindle the street-level Marvel story with a complexity that Daredevil, for all its virtues, often exchanged in favor of its stunning action and religiously tinged moral conflict.
Jessica is a reluctant hero whose internal struggle is her biggest enemy. Her presence alone challenges the black-and-white morality that often defines Daredevil’s world. Her signature blend of resignation and fierce protectiveness, a true masterclass in portraying damaged resilience, serves as a reminder that the greatest strength of the original Netflix universe was not its choreography or cinematography, but its unflinching commitment to examining the darkest corners of the human condition through a superhero lens; a feat that Jessica Jones Season 1 achieved with unparalleled brilliance. Born Again can bring back the tone, but Jessica Jones herself brings back the irreplaceable, cynical soul of the Defenders Saga, proving once more where the true quality of Marvel’s street-level era resided.
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