The Defenders

I have obviously come late to this one-off Marvel series combining its four then-active solo heroes in one big arcing storyline. Moreover I haven't yet watched the Luke Cage or Iron Fist series so these characters, back stories and supporting characters weren't known to me apart from remembering Luke Cage as a brief boyfriend of Jessica Jones series 1. I have however watched all three series each of Daredevil and Jessica Jones and was attracted by this mega-crossover to see how these very individual characters could possibly be combined.

After watching all 8 episodes I'm bound to say it was all done well. My two pre-watched faves combined well, Matt Murdock's passion for his city of New York and ever-present humanity contrasted well with JJ's cynicism and selfishness. The Iron Fist character escaped me a little but I enjoyed getting better acquainted with Luke Cage after he left JJ series one early for his own show.

The story involving an unholy alliance between the five leaders of the worldwide crime syndicate The Hand, yes they are known as the fingers, to capture Iron Fist and use his power to access some kind of resurrection substance for their own nefarious ends was incidental, I found, to the interplay among the four reluctant heroes and by extension their group of friends and contacts. Sure there were a lot of reasonably entertaining ninja-style fight scenes, too many of them though enacted in the dark, but like any crossover, the fun for we comic-lovers is in seeing, for example, Cage and Iron Fist start to bond after initially knocking heads together, Jones pricking Murdock's "Protect my city" seriousness with acerbic one liners ("Love the ears!" she asides to Daredevil, the only one of them to go full super-hero and don a costume, "They're horns" he peevishly counters) plus it was just cool to see all their significant others hanging out too, as ever on the sidelines.

The big story, which principally revolved around a super-weapon known as The Black Sky, which turns out to be someone close to Matt, had enough twists and turns about it to keep me interested but it was incidental to just seeing the fab four gradually cohere into something capable of winning their fight to protect the Big Apple once again. Sigourney Weaver was the big surprise guest star as the head, or maybe that should be index-finger of The Hand and I also enjoyed seeing the return of the mystical Stick too.

Shorter than the usual 13-part series of the individual shows and noticeably less heavy on the psychology as the action-ante was exponentially increased, this for me was an enjoyable detour from the sometimes drawn-out problems of the individual heroes and probably will lead me too back to the series I've missed on Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

As a huge fan of Marvel I'm a little biased because I pretty much like everything they put out. My bias aside, The Defenders is a pretty good show. If you don't believe me just read through the reviews here and look at the ratings. Even the critics loved this show. It's definitely not as good as the characters original shows but it's still worth watching. This wanted to be like Avengers where they take a bunch of Superheroes from their core shows/movies and bring them all together for one amazing team up. This is not the Avengers. All four of these heroes (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist) are used to working as individuals but quickly realize that won't work this time and have to have to come together and team up to save New York City. The show starts a little slow but after the four heroes finally come together the show finally picks up and becomes a lot of fun. It blends the best of the four shows into one and makes it pretty enjoyable. This is a must watch for any fan of the MCU.

The Hand are going to destroy New York. It's not clear exactly what they are after. Something that is unmistakable, however, is that they need to be stopped. And it will definitely require four (preferably reluctant) heroes. The ones the budget will allow for.

This is the Netflix version of the first Avengers movie. In some ways it is superior. This includes the supporting cast showing up and being given things to do. There are even connections made. The story is more interesting and fleshed out. Now, aspects in which it is inferior include smaller stakes, less name recognition. So it boils down to the money and general expectation. This really delivered everything that I hoped it would.

With eight episodes instead of the usual 13, this is the tightest of its kin, of everything leading up to it. The story starts right away and keeps moving throughout. This is never slow or rushed. We yet again get a mystery and they continue to master the drip feed of information. They wisely don't give in to the urge to have everyone get together right away. Instead, they encounter each other, and the idea to form a team comes up very organically. Since all of them are used to going at it alone, they take some convincing. Each comes across what's going on in a way that fits what they've been doing.

The action is quite fun. In order to make it a challenge that requires multiple good guys, this features all Five Fingers. I've seen some say "I got tired of all the ninja punching", and for sure, there is a lot of it. Personally, I loved every second. No one is nerfed. Everyone uses their skills and abilities well. It's great to see so much use of the Iron Fist, not to mention how many times the user is called out. Too little super jumping. Good use of the enhanced strength: hitting people really hard, smacking them with heavy objects, throwing them into heavy stuff, folding metal like it's tin foil.

I felt like there was a proper sense of threat. No one ever felt truly safe. That might sound ridiculous considering how much some of them can take without getting knocked down. Trust me, everyone in this has some weaknesses, something that can be used to defeat them.

Perhaps the best part of this is the character interactions, and note that every major one has an arc. For the similarities between them, there are definitely some huge differences as well - level of experience, goal, who they usually face and how they handle them. Not a single note rings false. Not a single one of them just disappears into the background, as is the case with every single X-Men movie other than New Mutants. Keeping in mind that I do love those first two movies, and respect a lot of things about the sequels. And obviously Logan and the two Deadpool movies are amazing.

Jessica Jones still does not want to be considered a hero. Despite Malcolm's best efforts, she refuses to take new cases. She even covered the "Alias Investigations" sign on the door. When she begrudgingly agrees to look into a man who's disappeared, with his wife and daughter not knowing where or why, she ends up Involved. And at that point she can't let it go without resolving it.

Luke Cage is released from prison thanks to some excellent legal work by Foggy. He has coffee with Claire, who is surprisingly not as big of a part of having them all meet as theorized. It is suggested that maybe he could be the new Pop's, he's not sure. He does agree to talk to the last surviving brother of Candace. When he is unable to convince the kid, Cole, out of the shady things he feels he needs to do for money, he decides to follow him. This helps him uncover some of what is happening.

Danny Rand and Colleen have been traveling the globe to fight the war, and are told to return to NY. Since I was worried that their inconsistent writing would follow them over here from the solo show, I was very relieved when that turned out not to be the case. Don't get me wrong. He can still be ridiculously frustrating, making obvious mistakes. At least he doesn't jump back and forth between what his stance is, leaving it almost impossible to keep up.

Matt Murdock has not put on the cowl since hanging it up. When he helps people now, it is only as a lawyer. One of his first scenes has him talk to a child who will be disabled for an uncertain amount of time - possibly indefinitely. He tells him the most important thing is how he deals with this. To not give up. It is exactly the kind of thing that he can comment on. He is the only of the 4 to insist on a secret identity, which does cause some trust issues.

So this has to follow shows with very different tones. The use of color helps define whose world we're in, and later, shows their world's merging. Whether it's a cool icy blue, urban yellow, green, or red, you can immediately tell who you're with. When they all get together at a Chinese restaurant, the neon sign outside features all of those hues. It is true that this struggles with finding a balance between the fantasy of the billionaire, and the street level of the rest.

Ultimately, I understand why some people were disappointed by what they got here. I'm not going to claim that they are wrong for their opinion, or that their expectations were unrealistic. I tried to address some of their criticisms here, and make my case for why I think it is great.

This features some moderate to strong language, bloody gory violence including detached limbs, and brief sexual content. I recommend this to any fan of comic books. 8/10.

While not as good as the original shows, The Defenders is still a pretty good superhero show that brings all of the Netflix Marvel heroes together in one show (except The Punisher). I have to admit that it wasn't as good as I hoped for a crossover, because most of the original shows were so amazing, but it's still a pretty good show that's absolutely worth watching!

...and I don't get it.

Certainly not a big budget, heavy on the special effect blockbuster like the Avengers, but then again it wasn't supposed to be.

On the good side:

Excellent choreography of the fight scenes. Not quite up to the Daredevil series, but definitely well above average.

Cinematography and use of color well done.

Well acted by all 4 of the lead characters and excellent work by the supporting cast. Personally thought the actors had a decent chemistry.

Plot...not overly original but not bad.

Writing...again not overly original, but gives a workable vehicle for the actors.

The not so good:

CGI...not much here...the glowing fist doesn't see too impressive.

Directing and especially the pacing could have been better.

Overall:

I found this to be a highly watchable show, though well short of great. While I found Luke Cage and Iron Fist series heavily mired in mediocrity, this one holds its own in my opinion.