This past Friday Netflix finally released the long awaited marvel superhero series called The Defenders. This series has been about 4 years in the making now, and was built off of 5 seasons of separate series on their own. And, boy, was it worth the wait, at least for the most part. This series features the 4 main characters consisting of DareDevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand (Aka Iron Fist), which you'll recognize if you've kept up with the past Marvel/Netflix shows.
The Defenders brings us to the climax of each of these series thus far, where we get to see our 4 favorite street level vigilantes come together to fight off, you probably guessed it, The Hand. This has been several built up to, and I doubt it's much of a surprise that the shadowy organization filled with undead ninja's gunning to take over New York City is the big baddie.
I think fans of the previous series will definitely delight in getting to see these characters all sharing the stage together while also kicking plenty of ass. I think a good comparison of how it felt to finally see these 4 together is like when we got to see all 4 of The Avengers on the big screen years ago. However, this is on a smaller street level scale and gives a more intimate feeling and look in many ways which is a pleasant thing in my opinion.
To be honest, after watching Iron Fist a few months back I was a bit worried with how development would go with this series. As I think that Iron Fist really messed up in a few ways that held it back from being a great show. I was very happy to see that I was proved wrong, however. Because it is by far a much better sight to behold with the amount of effort and care that went into developing the show. It by no means feels rushed or disorganized in anyway like Iron Fist did at times. In fact, I would say Iron Fist has become quite an engaging protagonist and has grown quite a bit as a character throughout this season thanks to the shared spotlight.
As the show starts we're shown what has become of each of our characters since the departure of their respective series. Jessica Jones has become quite content to live her life in a bottle going bar to bar, while very rarely taking on any P.I. cases in recent times. DareDevil has retired his costume and has been wrestling with himself to lead a straight life solely as a public defender attorney. Luke Cage has recently just gotten out of prison and is trying to find the best way for him to help out the people of Harlem. The main driving force of the series comes with Danny Rand and his love interest Colleen Wing, who have been hunting down members of The Hand around the world, until their crusade leads them back to where they started, NYC.
We're also quickly introduced to our main antagonist of the series who's named Alexandra, a menacing leader of The Hand. We're also shown quite quickly that she's just found out she is dying, which she has a hard time accepting considering how long she has lived. I honestly have to say I believe they could have done better with this character, especially considering the acting talent they had available with Sigourney Weaver. Some lines of dialogue given to her are extremely tacky or straight up bad, and there seems to be a repetitive trend when we're introduced to her in scenes that have nothing to do with the story which keep trying to drop hints at something that most of us had already guessed.
I would say that most of you could agree with me that most of Marvel's series all have an issue with keeping a good pace going consistently. And, while this show still suffers from that, it's at least been improved upon by a fair amount. With the amount of story stretching they had to do, I think this was as good as it could have gotten. In my opinion, had they cut down this season from 8 episodes to 6, I believe it could have handled it's pacing much better.
We already get past two episodes in before we're done recapping on what each character is up to as well as getting any of the characters to meet one another. And, even at that point they're still only in two pairs. At the very least, the interactions the characters have with one another are entertaining enough to carry us through these early episodes. I especially got a good kick out of Danny meeting with Luke for the first time and I think it was a pretty good moment in the show overall.
We also get a nice show of cameos from the supporting characters/cast from each previous series. An obvious one that is returning would be Claire Temple, as she has been a beacon spread across and connecting the series in a way. Some of the other supporting characters brought back are Foggy Nelson, Misty Knight, Karen Page, and Trish Walker. The most important support cast used in this series however come from DareDevil's series and are Elektra Natchios, and Murdock's teacher and mentor, Stick.
Something I'm sure that most of us expected was the cinematography being excellent, as each of the previous series did a great job on that. It definitely doesn't let us down, and has a very stylish look which is just as good looking if not better looking than the previous shows. The attention to lighting is also a great aspect, and transforms some simple background settings into something interesting and gives them a more creepy atmosphere at times. The only thing I can say I think might bother some people about it is that a lot of the scenes in the series are shot at night time, though I personally don't mind that at all.
Probably one of the best traits this show has under it's belt is the choreography. The action filled scenes really hit pretty great for the most part, and there was definitely some massively entertaining fights in this season. The most interesting and entertaining parts of the action scenes we get to see have to do with each characters different abilities, powers, and fighting styles being either quite different from one another, or in some cases pretty cohesive.
It was really interesting seeing how martial arts fares against someone with super strength, or how someone with bullet proof skin reacts to dealing with Iron Fists ability. I think there is room to improve though, because although I really enjoyed the fights throughout this season, I don't think they hold up as quite as good as the fights we got out of DareDevils seasons. Like the prison corridor scene with The Punisher in season 2, or the hallway fight scene in season 1.
Overall though, I really liked The Defenders. I think it kept it's promise at being exactly what it was supposed to be, giving the quippy dialogue, great action scenes, entertaining character interactions, and some great performances by the cast. We also get good character progression for Iron Fist, where I think the next season of his show should be improved by heaps and bounds.
Fans of the past shows will definitely feel content and happy with this new series, and anyone who is venturing into new territory here should be kept quite engaged with the story, characters, and action to finish it out with no problem. Personally, I can only say I'd definitely recommend you sit down and binge watch this show when you have the time, as you'll definitely not want to wait :)
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