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.
I think the casting of all the characters were pretty good to the source material, and much like I said about the stand-alone Iron Fist series, they’ve actually managed to make Danny Rand into not quite such a square; a little bit more of a whiny bitch at times, but at least a character that’s possible to invoke a response at all.
The plot as a whole is a hair on the weaker side of things, but given the fact that they were really only given more like five episodes to come to light, have a conflict and reach resolution, it wasn’t terrible, given the short amount of time they had to execute. It’s a little predictable, and the ending of the series definitely was a little unpredictable and leaves a lot of question marks, I would still say it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I’d say the balance of spotlight was fairly even, with Jessica Jones probably getting the most short-changed, but at different times, Matt Murdock, Danny Rand and Luke Cage got some times to shine.
Ultimately, I would rank The Defenders kind of in the middle in terms of overall enjoyability, with Daredevil and Luke Cage ranking above it, and Iron Fist and Jessica Jones bringing up the rear. Not to say that those on the bottom are bad, in fact all of the series are enjoyable and redeeming in their own ways, but considering the whole Netflix Universe is built off of Daredevil, it’s no surprise that he gets the priority nod.
Regardless, I took a lot of enjoyment of getting to plow through The Defenders on its release, and I am optimistic that the Netflix MCU is not quite out of steam yet. I would definitely enjoy more of any of the individual series’ as well as seeing more of the foursome having more adventures as a team unit.
