The Defenders was Netflix' answer to the Avengers, except on the small screen and with a group of gritty, street-level heroes. While this culmination of nearly 2 1/2 years of world-building delivers on the fun & fan service, it also feels like it was less than it could have been. It would be going too far to call the series "disappointing," but in spite of some great plot-mapping and production design (the scene transitions between characters in the first 3 episodes are a great touch), some of the pieces never quite fit, and Finn Jones sticks out like a sore thumb as the weak link among his clearly superior co-leads, Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, and Mike Colter.
The show smartly resists the urge to bring everyone together quickly, instead giving each member of the (eventual) team time to work their respective mysteries until they all meet up at the same place. And when they do, the fun really starts. The action set pieces are all done well. The production team has even figured out how to (mostly) shoot around Jones' ineptitude when it comes to martial arts. On the negative side, while Krysten Ritter plays Jessica Jones well, the writers never give her enough space to shine. Jessica isn't a "team" kind of person (none of them are, really) but her skillset is never required to move the story forward once her case leads her to her first Hallway Fight Scene. Also, beyond Misty Knight & Colleen Wing (who have important roles in the comics that they inch closer towards here), none of the supporting characters from each of the Defenders' own shows has any reason to appear beyond a passing scene or two, yet precious time is wasted on them, extending the series longer than it needed to be.
Unlike with their previous appearances, The Hand's ultimate goal is one that makes sense, and the stakes are high. (Ironically, the MacGuffin at the center of it may feel like it's coming out of nowhere until you've watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which didn't hit theatres until 4 years after this series was released.) What's disappointing is that more breadcrumbs weren't laid out in Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' first seasons. That would have gone a long way towards making their joining of forces feel much more earned. Instead, they each make useless arguments against getting involved that play out less like drama and more like wastes of time. By the time I finished my rewatch, I felt fulfilled as a fan and like I'd had fun, but that The Defenders just didn't quite live up to the high standards set by Jessica Jones season 1 and Daredevil seasons 1 & 2. Here's hoping that Disney gives them another chance to do it better.
Review by Mike ShawVIP EP 2BlockedParent2023-02-04T23:24:34Z
The Defenders was Netflix' answer to the Avengers, except on the small screen and with a group of gritty, street-level heroes. While this culmination of nearly 2 1/2 years of world-building delivers on the fun & fan service, it also feels like it was less than it could have been. It would be going too far to call the series "disappointing," but in spite of some great plot-mapping and production design (the scene transitions between characters in the first 3 episodes are a great touch), some of the pieces never quite fit, and Finn Jones sticks out like a sore thumb as the weak link among his clearly superior co-leads, Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, and Mike Colter.
The show smartly resists the urge to bring everyone together quickly, instead giving each member of the (eventual) team time to work their respective mysteries until they all meet up at the same place. And when they do, the fun really starts. The action set pieces are all done well. The production team has even figured out how to (mostly) shoot around Jones' ineptitude when it comes to martial arts. On the negative side, while Krysten Ritter plays Jessica Jones well, the writers never give her enough space to shine. Jessica isn't a "team" kind of person (none of them are, really) but her skillset is never required to move the story forward once her case leads her to her first Hallway Fight Scene. Also, beyond Misty Knight & Colleen Wing (who have important roles in the comics that they inch closer towards here), none of the supporting characters from each of the Defenders' own shows has any reason to appear beyond a passing scene or two, yet precious time is wasted on them, extending the series longer than it needed to be.
Unlike with their previous appearances, The Hand's ultimate goal is one that makes sense, and the stakes are high. (Ironically, the MacGuffin at the center of it may feel like it's coming out of nowhere until you've watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which didn't hit theatres until 4 years after this series was released.) What's disappointing is that more breadcrumbs weren't laid out in Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' first seasons. That would have gone a long way towards making their joining of forces feel much more earned. Instead, they each make useless arguments against getting involved that play out less like drama and more like wastes of time. By the time I finished my rewatch, I felt fulfilled as a fan and like I'd had fun, but that The Defenders just didn't quite live up to the high standards set by Jessica Jones season 1 and Daredevil seasons 1 & 2. Here's hoping that Disney gives them another chance to do it better.