The Defenders Season 1

4.5/10 Tied for my lowest score along with the first season of “Jessica Jones”, the sole limited series in the Netflix Marvel universe could have been an epic collaboration between all of our heroes. With Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, the Iron Fist and supporting players like Stick, Colleen Wing, Claire Temple and the return of Elektra plus a new character played by Sigourney Weaver, “The Defenders” should have been an “Avengers” level achievement. With eight episodes, the series wouldn’t even be constrained to a two to three hour run time that an actual “Avengers” film has to abide by. While some aspects do work well and it was fun seeing all of the clashing personalities come together, the series felt incredibly underwhelming and less epic, with less on the line than individual seasons of these heroes’ shows. As for what works, the acting remains solid with the core cast, even if Weaver just seemed bored out of her mind to be there, with not much to do besides monologue. Some of the action worked well, particularly in the first half of the season. The characters coming together felt natural and not forced and even though it has been done before, their infighting before turning into allies was entertaining to watch. Most of the visuals worked really well and the pacing of each episode moved along nicely so episodes never overstayed their welcome. I really dug the inclusion of supporting characters despite having the main four heroes being at the center of the story. Finally, I enjoyed that certain characters were either killed off or maimed pretty badly, showing that there are meaningful consequences to the action unfolding. Unfortunately, there is a lot that doesn’t work here. One problem with having different directors helming certain episodes is a lack of consistency. While earlier episodes had great fight choreography that the audience could visibly see, episodes in the second half of the season from a different director or two had shakier cameras, quick chop editing and dimmer lighting, making the fight scenes messy and hard to see. Even the overall plot, which seems like it is another season of “Iron Fist” with the other three just tagging along, was smaller in scale. Sure, The Hand wants to destroy New York City, but A) did we really think at any point in the show that they would succeed? and B) with all of the heroes combined, you’d think more would be at stake. So little was at stake in fact, that several characters like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage didn’t even want anything to do with the fight. If the stakes were incredibly high, you wouldn’t have to convince Luke or Jessica why they should join up with you because they would all want to. Weaver as the head villain did nothing and even Black Sky was a disappointment. While most of these shows have around 13 episodes and overall have been able to stretch out the story without including too much filler, this series feels rushed since there are fewer episodes. You’d think you’d want the full 13 episodes since you have four times as many protagonists as usual, with the first half of the season feeling incredibly rushed. The ending of the season was ridiculous as a character who 100% would have died somehow only has a few scratches and bruises and it was such a weak note to end the season on. The score was unimpressive and the entire season overall felt incredibly forgettable with no moments that wowed me or that I found to be awesome/cool or blew me away. Luckily, next on deck for my Netflix Marvel shows to watch is “The Punisher” season one, which I have heard good things about. I can’t see “The Punisher” being worse than what we got here with a huge missed opportunity.
   
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