Netflix ’s long - awaited Defenders finally came together on Friday and we largely enjoyed it . There was plenty to love , mostly in how the four chief character worked together and the banter between them . Technically the show was also fire on all cylinders . And yet , there were some thing — thing Marvel ’s mess up before — that did n’t put to work . Here are the six affair we loved most and four things we loved least about The Defenders .
We Loved…
…That Each Character Felt Impacted by the Events of the Show
With the death of Stick , temerarious re - confronting a resurrected Elektra , and then , you be intimate , the whole “ had an entire construction and ancient dragon skeleton collapse on him only to survive somehow ” thing , it ’s debatable Matt Murdock came out of Defenders as the most affect , but vital beats happen for every grapheme . Jessica Jones is re - coordinate as someone unforced to be a hero to other people in her investigative work , as does Luke Cage in reconciling how he wants to be the Hero of Harlem . Arguably , from an interview linear perspective , Danny Rand is the one most importantly built on here , given a newfangled purpose , invigorate by Daredevil ’s seeming sacrifice , to protect New York , and having had some of the overblown naïveté that made him so unlikable in Iron Fist checked by his metre with his more jaded counterparts . Even major side characters — especially Colleen Wing and Misty Knight — get their dues here , with Colleen bookendingthe journey she take in Iron Fistby closing the book on Bakuto for good , and Misty lease one step closer to superheroics by … gravel her arm sliced off so hopefully we can see her with a robot one by the timeshe appears in Iron Fist ’s 2d season .
You could ’ve skipped some of the serial before Defenders and been fine to jump in here ( with a little research)—but honestly , at the moment , this crossover voter feels crucial to the future news report and character arcs to be told across the four other shows .
…Sigourney Weaver as Alexandra
There are many thing to love about Sigourney Weaver ’s operation as Alexandra , loss leader and one of the original member of the Hand . She ’s statuesque , intimidating , and calculating , and sincerely believes that she ’s in this fight for all of the right reasons , which is what reach her the idealistic villain for the Defenders to take on . As electric as all of the scenes involving Alexandra are , though , after look on about two or three of them , you begin to agnize that the presence you ’re responding to on screen door is Sigourney Weaver ’s and does n’t exactly have all that much to do with Alexandra .
The mark of a fantastical actor is their ability to so wholly inhabit a fiber that you lose survey of the actor themselves and only comprehend the character . peculiarly , the opponent is what happens with Alexandra . Alexandra ’s a entrance adversary because of what Sigourney Weaver is doing with the part and not so much how the character was written . All of Alexandra ’s goals and desires are objectively perceivable , but there is n’t a single minute where you forget that you ’re watching Sigourney move her ass off as she glide across the screen swathe in change styles of Au lamé , reminding everyone just how many lifetimes she ’s survive .
…That the Show Anticipated Some Fan Grumbling
There were a lot of moments that feel like the author of this show recognise thing that devotee were thinking and sought to at least pay heed a lampshade on as a termination . thing like Colleen enunciate that Danny will tell anyone who will mind that he ’s the Iron Fist , or Luke lecturing Danny on his privilege all seemed design ( even if the showunnersays they were n’t ) to mitigate some of the problem people had with that character and Finn Jones ’ portrayal of him . It also helped that Danny got walloped a spate .
Another bit that stands out is when Matt has Jessica ’s scarf wed around his boldness while the rest of the Defenders are out there with nothing but even day clothes . Everyone pointing out that it ’s eldritch and silly that he ’s the only one that does that — and Matt ’s valid comeback that people have it away who you are cast them in danger — nicely dealt with the fact that he ’s the only one who wears his comic Good Book costume . Jessica also made playfulness of his rig every prison term he show up , put a skillful button on that .
Everything about the heroes that a normal person would react to with skepticism was met that way in - creation , which made watch the show way more fun than if it had all been played straight .
…The Lighting
One of the larger review article of Netflix ’s individual shows has been that , at prison term , they feel as if they ’re all set in wildly dissimilar versions of New York City . withstander cleverly addresses this power point in its opening credits by shew us each of our chief hoagy , color - coded and projected onto various New York neighborhoods .
Those colors reappear afterwards in the series as a serial publication of general lighting choices , and colouration cues were used to reflect when a scene was orient toward a finicky character . Luke ’s early scenes in Harlem , for example , are drenched in yellow tones while Jessica ’s sprightliness in Midtown is largely purple and blue . Though the people of colour palette gimmick can at time be a small heavy - handed , it feels like a natural and smart selection if you think of the show as trying to skew more toward its origins as a comic book and less as a prestige action show .
…The Meeting in the Royal Dragon Restaurant
The much - foretell hallway fighting might have preceded it , but the climax of episode four , “ Royal Dragon , ” is one of the most solid here and now of all of The Defenders . With the squad already fractured — thanks to Jessica ’s desertion of the whole venture and the three guys hesitating to trust each other — and the returned Elektra ready to strike , it feels like shit is about to go down in a major direction . But then Jessica , having realized she actually wants in on this whole mystical Hand mystery too , makes a grand takings by smashing a car through the restaurant ’s storefront and right into Elektra , making her path to stand side - by - side with the group once and for all , as the show ’s theme tune clamor in victory . It ’s the most brazenly risible - Word - y moment of heroics in the whole Marvel / Netflix - verse .
The Defenders had been together before this in the series , but this is the moment they were sincerely united and trust as a team for the first time . Plus , there are few things as screaming as Jessica Jones coolly ambling through the mess she made , recognise full well how goddam coolheaded she looks .
…Jessica Jones and Matt Murdock Becoming Bros
This was the crowing surprisal of the show . Colleen and Misty get together up and Luke and Danny spending clock time together were pre - consecrate by the laughable book gods . Jessica and Matt were paired fundamentally because they had to be , and they cease up being keen together . Matt ’s play with Elektra , Stick , and the Hand were made much more toothsome by Jessica have the pee all the time . Jessica and Matt ’s mutual stalking of each other was a stand - out scene in a pile of them .
It ’s obvious that Krysten Ritter and Charlie Cox are the safe histrion out of the four main withstander and that , even if their character were being serious , they were having a ball playing their percentage . Even though the team as a whole had good chemistry , this was the coupling we wanted more of .
We Didn’t Love…
…How the Hand and Elektra Were Handled
The 2nd time of year of Daredevil spent an dreadfully prospicient time endeavor to impress upon us just how unsafe the Black Sky would become were it ever to be assure by the Hand . When we all watch out Elektra decease and then finish up in that terra cotta pot , we knew that when Elektra made her inevitable return from the dead , she was die to be a much more significant threat than any of Marvel ’s NY - based heroes had faced before .
But then , when Elektra ’s resurrected in Defenders , we see that the Black Sky turn over Elektra a few lifetime ’s Charles Frederick Worth of knowledge about scrap and weaponry . And that ’s it . It certainly made her more dangerous than she ’d been , but she also just became kind of a criticise - off living artillery to face off against the Iron Fist . Considering how the Hand of Marvel ’s comics is often see essay to rally a literal demon from another dimension to reach its malign plan , the idea that the MCU ’s Hand just wanted to teach a fighter how to … fight easily ( ? ) was a fleck of a letdown .
This was really how we felt up about the Hand as an organization now that we ’ve met the Hand as people . Part of the allure of an external , shadowy organisation is that no matter how high you go up , you never quite learn all of the reasons why they do what they do . Now that we experience that the Hand ’s entire reason for subsist is to ultimately detect more flying lizard share to make the meat , the Hand finger kind of small-minded and slow . Like , yeah , a bunch of robust previous masses wanna subsist forever . What else is new ?
…That the Hand’s Plot Was Way Too Nebulous
So we know the fingers of the Hand , having used mysterious dragon goo — frustratingly referred toin the elan of “ the Incident”as “ the substance”—to keep themselves alive for centuries , need to go back to K’un - Lun after being exile for year and age . But … what did that have to do with whatever the hell they were trying to accomplish in New York ?
We have so many questions about what the Hand was actually try on to accomplish , and even how they were doing it . What was responsible for for the tremor that rocks Hell ’s Kitchen at the end of the first episode ? What was the degree of give Elektra , resurrected as the Black Sky , on paw ? Why did they want to dig down to the big ol’ hole from Daredevil season two — god bless that bedevil thing — and get at the Draco os obscure there if they just wanted to get back to K’un Lun ? And how on Earth would get access to them somehow level the entirety of New York ?
The Hand ’s plot of ground was so apart and mostly unanswered that the fact they represented a huge terror — one that Daredevil and Iron Fist had spent the last few years building up to — never really feel unmistakable in The Defenders . Hell , outdoors of the bickering among themselves until Alexandra is depone by Elektra , the fingers of the Hand did n’t really do much at all . They amount , they blabbed on about the meaning a lot , and then most of them got their heads lopped off . And we ’re still really none the wiser as to what they need other than to go home , a destination seemingly far separated from their isolated plans for New York .
…The Pacing in the Back Half
It ’s lurid that even with four leads and a truncated episode order The Defenders still managed to have the same problems with tempo that have plagued almost every Netflix show . Once the team actually got together and Jessica drove a car into the eating place , everything should have taken off .
It did n’t . alternatively , everyone split up again . And while that was a boon to seeing more of Matt and Jessica together ( Daredevil found a full of life hint by playing his own paper call ) , it meant that we had taken a giant step back . We also keep going back to the police precinct where , realistically , only a few support characters actually made an impact on the plot . Foggy , Misty , Colleen , and Claire all had things to contribute , but the rest of the type gummed up the works . Malcolm especially seemed to be there just cause he was . The show could have used more development time that was wasted in other areas .
…The Forced Comic Book Connections
Part of the joy in comic book crossovers like this is getting to see the first meeting between heroes who , thanks to the comics , we recognize will go on to form unbelievable bail bond with each other . But in some representative , The Defenders leaned a little too intemperately on its audience already being mindful of those partnership to betray us on team - ups that have n’t quiet yet earned it yet .
This most notably can be feel in the connexion between Luke and Danny in the series . In the comics , they ’re life - long friends lie with as the Heroes for Hire ; here , they finger far too unlike from each other to gel quite so much . Their first meeting well meditate that divided relationship as Luke angrily arrest Danny on his privilege and naïveté . But by the metre they ’re slowly begin to buddy up — while the former keep the latter tied up to stop the Hand from capturing him in episode six — the banter does n’t strike in good order . It ’s as if the fact we already know Luke Cage and Danny Rand are designate to be best Quaker is being used to sample and jump to that point quicker , even if character - wise to the two are n’t there yet .
A similar thing happens among the supporting cast too , with Misty Knight and Colleen Wing being push up together at any available chance , no matter how awkward it is , to get them in each other ’s circle of awareness so the show can nod at their future partnership as the Daughters of the Dragon . But given that protector is already try out to do so much in a decreased phone number of installment , any attempt to fast track these duos feels rush , and done for the interest of checking off a long tilt of comic book citation rather than a move that really makes sense for the character reference .
Where The Defenders ’ team chemistry really worked was in the end in the unexpected partnerships it created . Where it did not : stress to force together character who we know have tight ties — thanks to age of comics history that let those tie develop naturally — in such a limited period of metre .
DaredevilMarvelmarvel studiosNetflixStreamingThe protector
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