SPOILERS: Marvel's The Defenders (Netflix)

[protector2814]

Spoilers galore
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Finished it last night & really enjoyed it. As a comic book reader & lover, it was really fun in a few ways -



- We really got to see the makings of Heroes For Hire w/ Luke & Danny becoming friends.

- Misty Knight & Colleen Wing hanging out together in the hospital in the end set up, or at least acknowledged Marvel's Daughters Of The Dragon team.

- Misty minus an arm can only mean one thing.

- Is Danny going to pick up & substitute for Daredevil like he has in the comics. Mat might have also whispered this to him also in the pit & Danny's final shot on the rooftops of Hell's Kitchen certainly implied it.

- The team-ups throughout the show really reminded me of comic book team ups.

- Elektra, in her new costume, felt more like the comic's Elektra than she ever has before on film.

- The police station grouping brought all the netflix' shows minor & side-kick characters together in one place & it was so much fun.

Finally - Matt waking up in a convent + Foggy's mention that the lines crossing between Matt & his super-hero-alter-ego becoming dangerously thin in terms of public discovery, can only mean one thing! The true set-up for Born Again has truly begun.

Danny was redeemed. Seriously though, give the character his mask. It will not "dumb-down" his character in the slightest. Jessica Jones, I enjoyed so much more, in small doses like we had her in The Defenders. She was actually enjoyable, fun & brought the only lighter moments in a series that seriously lacked them. The Defenders could have used a bit more joy. All in all, a great show. Short, & for the final 4 episodes, to the point.

[RichBamf]

Spoilers of course....

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So six episodes in, I genuinely thought Defenders had cracked it again, back to the the DD series one level of creative storytelling that I was legitimately hooked on.

I really enjoyed the interactions between the main stars, for me the highlight of the show. The episode in the Chinese restaurant was phenomenal, and the episode after it....well these two episodes together really worked to show the yin yang in each character, them at peace and then them at war, and the differences between them.

I actually like the almost monochrome thematic colour panelling when we switched to a scene, Red for DD, Blue for JJ, Yellow for Cage and Green for Iron Fist. It was quite smart and gave the show a look until they all came together and the palette opened a bit. A little subliminal nod to their worlds and egos opening up a little.

Jessica Jones was the star of this show in my opinion, the reluctant hero dragged into it. Her lines were clever and the most human out of all the characters, sometimes I or my wife would say something when a character said something truly stupid and Jessica would echo it, the rational outside observer to the chaos of a world with superheroes.

The turning points of the series for me though (ie when I went from enjoying to almost disliking the season), I can identify as two major elements. The first was the entry of Stick, as it was with DD season two. This started souring the experience and making it more about mumbo jumbo than the characters themselves.

When the war, and the K'un Lun was being mentioned every two to three seconds, it became crucially less about the characters and more about the cliched major event they needed to stop. All of a sudden, the gang became soldiers who lost a sense of their own personalities, or said something in character only to then change their mind a second later.

The second major downfall of the show was the death of Alexandra. Here we had a villain I could sympathise with, a personality. She had been around throughout history with the other four fingers of the Hand, and all she wanted was to keep living. She wanted not to die. She was scared, very human, relatable concerns. While the other four wanted....well here was the problem. What did they, and by extension, Elektra actually want? They made such stupid decisions and muddled their objectives so many times once Alexandra was dead I couldn't tell anymore. Even Madame Gao, the nasty piece of work from DD that had already become a little diluted through Iron Fist association, had now been reduced to henchman. They wanted to live, then they wanted to get back to K'un Lun, then they wanted control, then they were back as a central unit, they fought and then ran away, it was comical, laughable even. They were pantomime villains, more suited to filler than a main show.

Elektra...I just don't understand anymore. She flits between emotion and the cold, dead Elektra she should have been so much that I lost interest. What was her plan after 'freeing herself' from her master and taking leadership - exactly the same thing. That's not character growth or development, that's sloppy, lazy writing. I expected her to want something worse, something more dangerous. But no, just the same plan.

Bakutu is without doubt the worst thing about the series, and the worst Marvel villain, delivering the cringiest lines in the whole series - "So Colleen, we meet again." He was painful to watch.

Jesus, is that writing?

The team's decision to leave Matt, didn't really ring true, and his death and return was so tired and cliche it really didn't do anything other than cheapen his 'sacrifice' immediately, as well as set up Karen going to Punisher for a season.

Even over eight episodes, these last two still managed to make the series feel stretched out and overlong.

I really hope that the show runners learn something from this...DD season 3 needs to move away from the mysticism and get back to it's grass roots of vigilante street crime. And for God's sake bring back Kingpin and get Bullseye in. The next Phase of the Marvel TV stuff really needs to get back to ground level. Make Kingpin the Primary villain building his empire and using assassins and crimelords to take the heroes on and distract them.

No more Hand...please.

[Bullseye]

I enjoyed the show but did not love it like I did with the DD show.

[marvelboi77]

The woman dominated in this series. Elektra was awesome. Sigourney and Krysten were fantastic. Heck Coleen, Mysty, Claire and the old Asian woman were very impressive. The men not so much.

[jpuli28]

Finished.
I still thought Danny was too impulsive and immature. I mean really... Matt; You're acting like child. Danny; Stands up forcibly pushing chair back "What did you call me?!" just to name one scene.
I wont be looking to watch S2 of IF anytime soon.

I liked JJ coming into her own. I wished they dipped more into her backstory though.
DD was on course no complaints.
Stick, cynical bastard lol.
Elektra/Dark Sky thumbs up.
LC a little too righteous considering the stakes at hand (no pun).
Froggy and whats her face, do they share a vagina? Sheesh. However, Froggy did man up a bit compared to DD show.

I too thought the fights scenes were a little over the top with the exaggerated flips.

From a reality perspective, they could've used the police in a more realistic way, the interactions in those scenes in no way shape or form would've happened that way.

[MONSTER]

I love Froggy and what's her face. lol

[joefixit2]

Finished it last night and loved it. Was it perfect? No but it was great seeing them all team up in a relatively believable way that showed future potential (Heroes for Hire, etc). And it didn't drag on too long.

[candyrocket786]

I still hate the way these Netflix series are treated by the MCU.

- No Avengers Tower.
- No direct reference to any of the Avengers.
- Chitauri Invasion always referred to as "The Incident ". No mention of Aliens.

[RichBamf]

Did anyone else notice Jessica Jones' hilarious run when her and DD were rushing to save Danny and Stick from Elektra?

As he's jumping over boxes, she is running like she's never done it before.

[wktf]

Jerry, I was hoping Fisk's brief role and what happened between him and Matt in DD season 2 presaged Born Again.