Because I’m an individual who likes to not live on the internet and let the actions of others and the ensuing social media shit storms dictate my life and emotional well-being, I found myself in a fortuitous situation where I had all weekend to watch the just-released Netflix’s The Defenders; all of it. It’s not often that I’m at the forefront of freshly dropped television, and I’ve made no secret that I’ve been high on all of the Netflix Marvel Hell’s Kitchen Universe, so this was a tremendous delight in getting to shotgun the series from start to finish pretty immediately.
If I had any genuine gripes, it would probably have to be the fact that the series as a whole is but just eight episodes, instead of the 12-episode standard that all of the comprising characters’ individual shows had. I mean, as I’ve aged, I haven’t had a problem with stories getting to the point and finding resolution in an expedient manner, but the mark of good television is when the viewers are wishing there was more of it; more time for characters and their relationships to develop and hash out more. The Defenders was definitely not in the camp of being too long and drawn out, but quite the contrary, I simply wished there was more time and more interaction between the stars of the show, instead of just so constantly rapid-fire progressing the story.
In fact, the best imagery of the entire series occurred in one of the rare downtime moments of the show, when, and this spoils nothing, the foursome of the Defenders are all at a Chinese restaurant, some eating more reluctantly than others, but they’re just kind of hanging out and getting to know about each other before they really start working together. It’s reflective of my favorite imagery in comic books, when super-powered characters are simply existing in the same real world as us readers, doing mundane things, like gathering with peers and eating Chinese food together.
Anyway, as a whole, I will say that The Defenders was a good and entertaining series. Not mind-blowingly good, but not at all terrible. Whereas Iron Fist was kind of mediocre but better than expected, Jessica Jones was a little too long and repetitive and Luke Cage lost some steam late in the series, The Defenders’ short series made a lot of those shortcomings impossible to have. Instead, the show feels kind of like a really fast-paced whirlwind, where the plot exists in just a few days and almost never stops once the show gets moving.
Continue reading “The Defenders: entertaining, good but not great”
