Jessica Jones series 1 (Netflix)

Set in the same Marvel universe as the Avengers, SHIELD and Agent Carter, Jessica Jones is an ultra noir look at people with enhanced abilities coping on the mean streets of New York. A private investigator with superhuman strength, Jessica Jones avoids relationships and relies on alcohol in retreat from a dark past. Those unfamiliar with the graphic novel won’t have a problem with the slow and initially limited reveal of Jessica’s past – what is important is the present and future of a woman with deep flaws. In a clever subversion of tropes such as the troubled PI and the married shark lawyer having an affair with the secretary, it is refreshing to see women at the forefront of the action. Krysten Ritter inhabits the body and soul of Jessica and Rachael Taylor is the perfect foil as best friend Trish, who has a dark past of her own. David Tennant provides an almost comic edge as psychopathic villain Kilgrave. Mike Colter is smoking hot as Luke Cage, Jessica’s sometime adversary, sometime love interest, who now has a series of his own. The bloody body count rises to Midsomer proportions as the series progresses. Sexy, smart, violent and very dark, the show includes occasional bursts of wry humour. Towards the end there are hints of a shady organisation behind some of the enhanced abilities, which sows the seeds for a second series, apparently in the works.