Marvel's The Defenders Season 1 Netflix Series Review

Marvel's The Defenders (2017-)
Season 1 - 8 episodes (2017)

Watch Marvel's The Defenders on Netflix
Developed by:  Douglas Petrie, Marco Ramirez
Starring: Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter, Finn Jones,Sigourney Weaver, Jessica Henwick
Rated: TV-MA

Plot
Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist team up to fight crime. They each have their own series, now they're together.
Sigourney Weaver plays the villain.

Verdict
This brings four heroes together, but doesn't go anywhere. This season could have been three or four episodes, and that would have been a benefit. There's nearly an entire episode of them sitting in a restaurant talking. What this season needed was an enigmatic villain. Weaver does a great job, but she's too far removed from the action. The Defenders fight the hand, but it's hard to hate a faceless group. If The Defenders returns, it needs a good bad guy to rally our ire. Danny Bland... I mean Danny Rand being at the center of the story doesn't help either. Iron Fist may have ruined Netflix-Marvel properties for me.
It depends.

Review
I enjoyed Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Luke Cage had potential, but by the end I was barely paying attention. Iron Fist peaked in the first couple of scenes while OutKast was playing "So Fresh, So Clean."

The Defenders is inherently fun because it combines characters from four television shows. The best parts are when they work as a group to fight, but there is a lot of lead up to The Defenders teaming up as we catch up on each character. This pulls in all the side characters from the shows which often feels like unnecessary filler. Danny Rand being a major component doesn't help either. Iron Fist may have soured me on the Netflix-Marvel ventures. That might be the only accomplishment from the show.

Episode three finally gets going. That's a long time to wait before the plot unfolds and the super heroes are paired off. The show did a great job using color for each hero and maintaining their unique voices. They don't become a unified weapon, and I like the tension between them. The internal conflicts from their respective shows carries over. It's just strung out too long. Eight episodes is too many and the story feels the full effect. The Defenders are fighting the Hand again. They want to rule the world or something, who knows.

Sigourney Weaver does a nice job as the villain as the show weaves in hints that she's immortal. I don't think anything came of that, but by the end I wasn't paying much attention. She's once removed from most of the action, I don't know what her goals. Jessica Jones had an enigmatic villain with David Tenant's Kilgrave and the faceless hand just don't match up. Heroes can't be heroic without a good foe. The Defenders relies on its inherent qualities without delivering anything new or unique.