It’s almost hard to believe that Marvel’s Daredevil premiered
just two years ago. We’ve had four more seasons of Marvel Netflix properties
thrown at us in the intervening time, yet all along that prevailing
anticipation of a crossover loomed over us all. At some points it did feel like
many people were looking forward to the crossover more than the shows
themselves: constantly looking for Easter Eggs, hunting for hints at other
characters, or just a general desire to see all these characters come together,
even if we hadn’t met them, yet. And now, Marvel’s The Defenders, a
hodge-podge of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron
Fist elements and characters, is finally here!
The
Defenders runs at only 8 episodes long, the total runtime of each episode
running a bit shorter than we’re used to for most of these series. It was rare,
for example, for an episode of Jessica Jones or Iron Fist to
run closer to fifty minutes than a full hour. I can only guess that the
shortened runtime and episode length is due to budget. All the familiar faces
from these series (save for Kingpin and Punisher) are brought back in, new
characters are brought in, and there are lots of big fights and stunts that
require computer imaging, which means more money.
The episode length never really got in the way of anything in terms of
narrative. This crossover really does feel like an event, a single moment in
the lives of these characters. Having the episodes run a bit shorter helps that
aspect of the series, and it also puts things into focus. There aren’t any
filler episodes, nor are there filler moments. Each main character has an arc
they must fulfill, and having the episodes be a little short means that we need
to get to the meat of the story for each character as fast and as efficient as
possible.
Efficiency is the key here, too. You have eight episodes to fulfill several
year’s worth of fan anticipation, narrative build-up, and just tell a natural
conclusion to what’s been brewing in both Daredevil and Iron
Fist. Characters need to be shown in their finest, but most natural, light and
they need to get to know each other in the most realistic way possible. Time
truly was against them in making this show.
I can see why some would be disappointed with this series. It’s far from
perfect, and far from the best of the Marvel Netflix series. The Defenders
don’t gather right away and when they do gather it’s just a lot of egos
conflating around each other. That does create comedy, but it also gets a bit
annoying when characters are just repeating the same tired emotions over and
over again. Plus the fights, while impressive when visible, aren’t nearly as
intricate as they have been in Daredevil. You’d think that, with such a
big emphasis on action in Iron Fist and Daredevil, that they’d
put more effort into making the fights absolutely amazing. Sadly, it’s not the
best. It’s a little better than Iron Fist.
However, there is far more to like than there is to dislike. One thing
that The Defenders does well is make it easy for viewers who maybe
only watched one of the Netflix series rather than all four. I never got around
to watching Luke Cage and really I only remember certain aspects
of Iron Fist because I’m familiar with his lore, not because I
remember much of the actual show. If someone never saw Jessica Jones, they
would understand right away that she’s a super-powered P.I. with a chip on her
shoulder, a spunky radio-host friend named Trish, and an eccentric roommate
that likes to just wander into her apartment named Malcolm.
Even the villains of the show are fairly easy to understand: ancient ninjas
want to take over New York. Pretty basic, which is a boon and bane, but I’ll
get to that.
The notable show that most people skipped out on was Iron Fist, which
contained the lore of the Iron Fist, Colleen Wing, and the Hand. Most of that
lore is essentially superfluous and is played for laughs a bit during the early
interactions with Danny and Luke, like how Danny explains that in order to gain
his power, he had to kill an undying dragon. The Hand’s lore is really stripped
down to “underground bad guys that are also mystic ninjas.” There are complex
characters within the Hand, but they’re actions represent so little of that
complexity.
Now, The Defenders can’t be watched without having seeing Daredevil Season
2. That really is the most necessary of the series, The Defenders incorporates
several key elements, characters, and details from Daredevil. If you never
watched that second season, then honestly Daredevil’s emotional arc of the
season would be completely lost on you.
The Defenders themselves all do have good arcs, though, and all are true to
their characters. The one who suffers the smallest amount of development is
Danny Rand, and this is where the shorter run time begins to become relevant.
Danny, as the Iron Fist, was important as a service to the plot, not
necessarily to his character. His arc focuses around trying to find a home, to
find a place to really settle down and live. It’s hinted at in his own series,
and only a couple times throughout The Defenders. Perhaps if we’d gotten
even just a few more minutes for some episodes we could see that explored a bit
more.
Luke Cage has a good arc that some may see as the opposite as Danny’s. While
Danny’s is brought up every now and then under the veil of subtly, Luke’s arc
is very subtle and is shown entirely through his interactions with Danny while
he begins to realize that there is more to the world than meets the eye. Of
course he knows this, but not to the extent of there being a mystical
inter-dimensional kung-fu city in the clouds where you can go and learn to
punch things with a glowing fist.
The normal stuff.
Luke Cage shines as the true hero of the four of them, as the other three are,
in the beginning, driven by at least some amount of selfish desires. Luke,
though, just wants to do the good thing. He gets involved with the team as a
result of poking his nose where maybe he shouldn’t, but as My Hero
Academia has taught, getting involved where it’s not your business is the
essence of being a hero! He wants to protect Harlem, but he’s not so naïve to
think that everything in the outside world is clean. He wants to protect people,
and it really shines through. Mike Colter kills it as Luke Cage once again.
Jessica Jones has a pretty good arc over the show, tying nicely to her
character development over in her own series. While she’s still cold to most
people, by the end of The Defenders her coldness has an endearing
factor to it. She clearly cares for her two closest friends, Malcolm and Trish,
to the point where she gets involved with the Defenders to protect them, while
under the guise of solving her case. Still, this series shows her prowess as a
P.I. just as much as her initial series did. She’s quick on her feet and even
quicker to figure things out.
Jessica has the hardest time accepting all of this, and has an even harder time
accepting the fact that she has to actually get involved with the
fighting. There’s a level of unspoken exhaustion that Krysten Ritter brings
back to the role, and it’s hinted at that maybe Jessica is just done being a
P.I., all she does now is just wallow in some sort of self-pity, while Trish
and Malcolm are really finding their place in the world. It sets up Jessica
Jones Season 2 well.
Matt Murdock is the focal point of the team in terms of character development
(with Danny serving as the focal point in terms of plot). Charlie Cox
absolutely knocks it out of the park as both Matt Murdock and Daredevil. His
first scene in court is absolutely phenomenal and shows that he’s really
undergone a nice change since the end of Daredevil Season 2, and puts
up a convincing argument for him to permanently drop the Daredevil persona. He
wrestles with this idea throughout the series, even down to the little things
of refusing to initially reveal his identity to the Defenders when they all
first meet up.
The series has an interesting tone. It never gets as dark as Daredevil or Jessica
Jones, but it isn’t entirely light-hearted or fun. I’d say it has a similar
tone to Arrow, where there’s a sinister element to the villains but you’re
constantly aware that a gaggle of super heroes are ready to jump through a
window and punch them in the face. This is highlighted best in the middle of
the series as the group begins to come together. There’s a serious atmosphere,
but the action and soundtrack implies a light-hearted, fun affair. There’s not
nearly as much gore or skin shown in this series, and makes me wonder if that
was on purpose.
Was this one season created for, perhaps, a more inclusive audience? Maybe they
wanted to leave out gore and sex and language so that more teens could watch
(as if teenagers aren’t exposed to enough freaky stuff online), or so that more
casual Marvel fans would check it out without having to watch dozens of hours
of television already. I’d buy it.
That lightheartedness helps out a lot in one of the highlights of the season:
when all four Defenders finally come face-to-face and have to fight off the
Hand. A couple have met here and there beforehand, but the action sequence in
Episode 3 is truly a treasure and shows off most of the characters abilities in
a fight, as well as providing fun team-up moments, like Luke Cage and Danny
Rand taking out some guards with some banter involved as well.
However, the action is lacking in multiple places, and I think that stems from
there not being a focus on martial arts this season. While, yes, the Hand are
comprised of ninjas, two of the four Defenders aren’t martial artists at all.
When Danny and Matt are throwing down it’s pretty intense, but with Jessica and
Luke it’s more punching people through a wall than anything else. Danny’s fight
scenes are also often really hard to see, I’ve noticed, and I wonder if that’s
their way of compensating for the stunt actor not having a mask to cover their
face. Daredevil has awesome fight scenes (save for a few, which are shot
basically in complete darkness) but nothing quite like the hallway fight or the
stairwell fights from his shows.
But yeah, the fights in the dark. What was up with all that? It was impossible
to see anything. Not only that, but for some reason there were lots more cuts
than normal in fights, making it difficult to pinpoint where characters were.
Sometimes, if it were Matt and Danny fighting side-by-side pulling off complex
martial arts, it got difficult to distinguish who was doing what, and where. I
also find it a little hard to believe that Jessica would have such an easy time
with trained ninjas but whatever, she’s got plot armor, so it’s fine.
Now then, let’s talk about villains. Once again the star of the show is the
primary villain of the series: Alexandra, played masterfully by Sigourney
Weaver. Like the Kingpin before her, Alexandra is an absolutely sinister person
that you would never in a million years (at first glance) suspect anything of.
Besides what she does with Black Sky, we also never see her actually doing
anything evil. Sure she speaks some pretty mean stuff, but we see her: eating
dinner, going to the doctor, attending a private violin recital, and taking
medicine.
She’s convincing, and not in an intimidating way. Weaver brings an element of
charisma to the character that’s not unlike David Tennant’s Purple Man, only
Weaver’s character doesn’t need mind manipulation to get what she wants. She
has power through influence, and her mere presence is enough to send shudders
down even Madam Gao’s spine. I wish they’d played down the backstory of her
character a bit more before a big reveal rather than overt hints at it before
just outright saying who the Five Fingers of the Hand actually are, since it’s
a fairly big deal that’s never really played up for anything, especially for
Danny.
Still, Weaver carries the scenes she’s in and makes it look easy. She never
overacts or makes it seem that she’s intentionally playing a bad guy.
Alexandra’s line partway through the series of, “To have a war, both sides must
believe they’re the good guys” is entirely what her character is about, and not
in that cliché “the villain believes they are the one true good” motive. It’s
more of a “My solution is simply the best in a world of unsolvable problems”
and she commits to it, she fully believes in her ideals and wants to share them
with people. She believes in the Hand because she believes in herself.
I wish we’d seen more of Alexandra countering the Defenders. She has plenty of
good interactions with the other members of the Hand, but some of the best
parts of any of the Netflix series are when the villains and the heroes come
face-to-face and exchange no blows. One of the best moments of Finn Jones’
acting in the series is when he has to try and outsmart Alexandra, who is fifty
moves ahead of him and laid a perfect trap for him. It’s brilliant.
I’m curious how people will receive the Iron Fist aspects of The
Defenders. I’ve seen initial praise for Jessica Henwick’s performance as
Colleen Wing, and I agree, since I believed she was the best part of that
series. I never disliked Finn Jones as Danny Rand and put most of the blame
there on poor directing and writing, since Iron Fist feels like
something that just came together out of necessity rather than true creativity.
Finn Jones is much, much better in The Defenders, portraying at times a
Danny Rand that is fully committed to his cause, but also a guy looking for
just a group of people to relate to. He’s the one that initially wants the four
Defenders to be a team, but he’s also got too big an ego to rationalize when
his plans are the wrong plans. It can create some annoying moments, but the
fact is that it’s still growth. One of those plans is, indeed, smart: Danny
wants to use his power as owner of Rand Corporation to have a meeting with some
members of the Hand. A smart person would realize this as a probable trap, but
it is Danny thinking outside the box of kung-fu for once. I think, in
hindsight, people will forgive Finn Jones for what happened in Iron Fist and
think fondly of this Danny Rand, and hopefully this’ll be the one they stick
with going forward.
The true star of The Defenders is the interaction between the
characters, including the more unorthodox ones. Everyone knew that Luke Cage/
Iron Fist and Daredevil/ Jessica Jones would click, given how their characters
operate, but I found myself intrigued with Danny’s relationship with Matt and
Jessica. Matt served, for Danny, as the idea that he’d always wanted to do but
never could: use the powers bestowed upon you to fight for justice, especially
against the hand. It’s almost as if the Daredevil is the persona Danny would
have created if he weren’t forced right into the war with the Hand. His
relationship with Jessica was almost like that of two cousins: constantly
sparring ideas and not afraid to call each other out, but there’s still a
respect of the two worlds they come from.
Even Matt and Luke had a solid foundation upon which to grow, as while they
both operate for the same cause, they go about it in different ways. Matt will
fling himself into the action and start kicking butt but Luke will fling
himself in the action and try and avoid the inevitable fight, as he doesn’t
want to intentionally hurt someone he sees as redeemable. It stems from both
their character traits and their character backgrounds, as Luke is sick of
seeing people get hurt and Matt’s a Catholic, so a little punishment being
doled out won’t hurt that many.
The Luke Cage/ Danny Rand aspects are, initially, annoying, as the two
characters just butt heads and can’t get over their egos, but they have fun,
very minute chats throughout the series that make me hope that, in their show’s
second seasons, we get at least a crossover episodes where Danny and Luke meet
up for, like, sushi or something. They just looked like they were having fun
whenever the Defenders had downtime, and both have the same ideology with
regards to saving people’s lives.
Jessica and Matt were, though, the better team up, as they effectively cracked
the mystery lingering over Jessica for much of the season. Ritter and Cox had
good buddy-cop chemistry from basically the moment the two met. When they do
get together to do investigations it really feels as if they’re buckling down
and getting serious while their clashing personalities provided for brief
comedy. Plus she’s the one that gets in all the good jokes for how cheesy
Matt’s costume is in the world of the Netflix MCU.
One aspect of the show, from a narrative perspective, that I really enjoy is
how it ties into the greater MCU: it really doesn’t. The Avengers will never
know about this, the government will never know about Daredevil, Iron Fist,
Luke Cage, or Jessica Jones, and that’s kind of the point. The Defenders was
just a moment, but it was the most monumental moment for the city of New York,
as without four misfits getting together and somehow forming a coherent team of
people with abilities, the Hand would’ve claimed New York and no amount of
Avengers would’ve stopped them. You don’t need Captain America or Iron Man to
come down and give them the thumbs-up because this is a personal story with
major stakes, but keeping the focus on the person not the problem helped a bit
with solving the problem.
Imagine how weird it would be if, at the end of Daredevil, Captain America
had come strolling up to Matt Murdock and said, “Good job.” It wouldn’t feel
right. In terms of scope, all the Defenders do is guard a
neighborhood in New York City, which in the grand scheme of the world, might
not seem like much. But, again, that focus helps the show immensely.
Was it worth waiting two years to see these four characters come together and
fight ancient ninjas? Yes. It’s not perfect and at times it’s not even that
great, with some slower episodes and halting of the plot to go over the
intricacies of what people may have missed with the other shows, but the
character interactions were great, the main villain, Alexandra, is one of the
Top 3 (if we don’t include the Punisher) of the Marvel Netflix series, and it’s
just a fun time. There are just a bunch of little things that help prop the
show up to being memorable and enjoyable, and I do hope we get to see a second
season, after they’ve all been meeting up from time to time in their own shows.
It really did breathe some new life into this pocket of the MCU.
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