When ‘The Defenders‘ was first announced, I thought to myself–meh. The idea of a bunch of superheroes that I didn’t quite know that well having a team-up series didn’t really seem that appealing. Leading up to this series, I had only seen about half of all the Marvel shows that Netflix had to offer (‘Daredevil‘, ‘Iron Fist‘ & most of ‘Jessica Jones‘). It was during this time that my excitement for ‘The Defenders‘ began to grow as did my love for these characters. Now that the show has been released, it’s safe to say that all of the build up was well worth the payoff. In many ways, ‘The Defenders’ feels perfect for what it’s trying to accomplish. The story of the show is fairly straightforward. Our four Heroes – Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) – are all unwillingly forced to work together to defeat a nefarious plan by the shadowy organization “The Hand” to destroy New York City.
Even though the story may be simple, the plot is a little less so. Both the good and bad thing about a show like ‘The Defenders‘ is that it acts as a pseudo-sequel to each of these characters’ previous storylines, as well as it’s own individual story. While this may prove to be frustrating for some in the beginning of the series, establishing these characters for people who may have not seen any one or all of the previous seasons is essential to making this show work. Without taking the time to build up the characters relationships as they do in the first three episodes, all of the great moments thereafter would have no emotional weight for the viewer. One of the greatest attributes of ‘The Defenders‘ is how concise of a story it is. At a lean 8 episodes, the show doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, but it also carries enough heft to work structurally speaking. More so than any of the past series in this universe, this story feels like it has a more traditional beginning, middle, and end. There are clear act breaks at the end of certain episodes, and this ultimately helps to give more of purpose & finality than any of the series’ beforehand.
Another thing that ‘The Defenders’ does so well is giving each character their due. Although it’s clear that Daredevil is positioned to be the leader of the group, the show never really focuses on one character more than the others. Everyone is well fleshed out, but perhaps the most interesting character arc in this series is that of Danny Rand (Iron Fist). Even though I mildly enjoyed the character’s solo series, I think that he is by far the most improved upon character of the series, and maybe even my favorite. In this show, Danny is basically a child with very narrow – albeit pure – views on the way the world works. This is highlighted early in the third episode between an extended integration with Luke Cage, which really sets up Danny to be the one who matures the most in this story. By the end of the show, I really felt that Danny had the most clear character arc of our protagonists. This isn’t to say that any of the other characters didn’t get their due, but some of the things that work best in the show are the character interactions. Episodes 3 & 4 are loaded with moments that had me geeking out more than I have in a good while. This is a testament to both the caliber of talent in front of the camera, but also the care taken in giving each character specific interactions with one another and an overall sense of finality by the end for each of them.
Although the show does many things well, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t without it’s problems. Perhaps my biggest issues with the series is actually how it ends. I won’t spoil it here, but the final shot of the series is something that proves supremely frustrating, negating much of the goodwill that the show had built to that point. This sequence should have either been left on the cutting room floor, or simply repurposed for a later storyline. In addition, the threat (aka The Hand) in this story felt flimsy at best. The story tries to present various members of The Hand banding together (along with a familiar face) as a threat so large that it thrusts our heroes into their unlikely relationship, but it often feels that the threat isn’t big enough. The relationship between the leaders of the Hand are never really developed in a meaningful way, despite a decent amount of screen time. We never truly see how this threat would impact the city other than a few expository scenes of the characters talking about it’s disastrous consequences. The final battle feels relatively low stakes, but that’s also because it feels so confined. And if there’s one thing that I wish this show would have done differently, it would have been to expand the stakes and scope of this threat more than they did in the final product.
Despite having a variety of flaws, the memorable moments between the characters still made me want to root for them. By then end of the series, I was excited for more. If there’s one thing that makes ‘The Defenders‘ so great is that it completely gets the tone right. The series knows how to straddle the line between being serious in tone, while also accepting that the show does have it’s goofy moments. It uses those more goofy moments to create memorable character interactions for a team dynamic that feels fully fleshed out. Through all of this however, the show never forgets to have fun, and ultimately accept what it is. There’s certain level of confidence in telling this story, even if the scope does feel smaller than it should at times. And unlike the previous seasons of this universe, this confidence is something that makes ‘The Defenders’ feel like something unique.
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