"Jessica Jones" showrunner Melissa Rosenberg has shared her thoughts on the relationship of abuse, rape, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the entirety of the Marvel-Netflix series.
In its first few episodes, "Jessica Jones" has successfully presented its dark tone. In her interview with Los Angeles Times, Rosenberg said that playing elements like abuse, rape, and PTSD as honestly as possible had been very much the aim of the series from the start.
According to Rosenberg, the tone of "Jessica Jones" was meant to be very grounded and real, so one had to be very grounded and real with whatever subjects one was dealing with. With regard to rape, the showrunner explained that people had seen a lot of it on television. While she had not had any need to see it, she said she had wanted the audience to experience the damage, the scars that it left.
Rosenberg also discussed that even a grounded sexuality as an element enhances the totality of "Jessica Jones." She explained that she had no interest in romantic sequences with hands crawling up the back as she wanted to portray female sexuality as anything other than empowering and a natural component of the series.
Krysten Ritter's character is motivated to live a normal life in the series, following the psychological assault she had experienced from big bad Kilgrave (David Tennant). While she Jessica Jones had become Kilgrave's victim, she had not acted as one since she believed that her fate could not happen to others.
For Rosenberg, "Jessica Jones" had been about an exploration of a survivor and her healing, to the point that she did, in facing the demons quite literally.
After the events in "Jessica Jones" season 1 episode 1 and episode 2, Jessica Jones is set to discover a weapon she can use against Kilgrave in episode 3 titled "AKA It's Called Whiskey."