While David Tennant was voted "The UK's favourite Doctor," on the original Netflix show Jessica Jones he's just plain brilliant as Kilgrave, the elegant psychopath with a creepy super power.
Kilgrave can make people do the simplest or most appalling things just by speaking a few words. If he tells someone to walk away in the middle of a conversation because he's bored, she will. If he tells someone to put his head through a post because he's feeling perverse, that man will keep pounding away till he's unconscious.
He can simply divert people from their path; he can make them kill themselves or others in horrible ways. Or torment them for sport: Imagine a large malign cat playing with a world of helpless, hypnotized mice....
In the show which is adapted from the Marvel comic book Alias he's the nemesis of Jessica Jones. She's a sarcastic, raven-haired, funky PI in Hell's Kitchen (aka Clinton, which isn't as noir a neighborhood name). An under-achiever until this new line of work, Jones can stealthily employ her own powers of superior strength and the ability to leap and fall (it's not really flying, she's quick to point out). Her mouthy earthiness and his elegance are oil and water, and he's not only stalking her but once held her hostage for a month while he in effect raped her body and her mind.
He leaves destruction and despair in his wake, she tries to heal the wounds of the world. Both have horrific pasts they're trying to escape. It's a surprisingly subtle, thrilling combination and the Netflix show fields a superb supporting cast, fine writing in each script, and lots of surprises. Including his plans for Jessica and how she responds.
But perhaps best of all there's the suavity of Tennant turned pure evil. He's played broken characters like Hamlet before, but who knew Dr. Who could do the voodoo he do so well?
Lev Raphael is the author of the thriller Assault With a Deadly Lie and 24 other books in genres from memoir to mystery.