# The Defenders on Netflix - SPOILER THREAD



## FifthView (Aug 22, 2017)

Ok, I'm not really sure how much I want to discuss the Netflix _The Defenders_ series, but I'm pretty sure spoilers will be necessary so DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!

I'll reiterate: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!

I give the show a 7/10 and feel I'm being generous. The first half might be around 8/10, but the last half is closer to 6/10 or maybe 5.5/10, some aspects are worse, so I'm hedging.

*The Pros:*

Seeing these characters again was great and seeing them interacting was great. This is one of the reasons the first half was better than the second: having these characters come together for the first time.

The plot was pretty good — in theory. The execution of that plot, not so much.

Finally having a better view of The Hand was good. If you are going to keep forcing The Hand on us, then cluing us in was a good thing.

Sigourney Weaver is almost always a "Pro" for whatever she appears in.

*The Cons:*

Any of the promises made in the first half were pretty much obliterated in the second.

The promise that Iron Fist/Danny Rand might actually _work_....but no. Funny/great seeing him interact with Luke Cage, yes. But whiny, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid Danny Rand from his own show sank this show. "I know what you want," he tells Elektra, then proceeds to give it to her; obviously, that giant wall/lock right behind her became invisible.

In fact, I'm absolutely done with hearing about Kunlun and the Iron Fist, blah blah blah. And the whole show swiveled on these. 

The promise of these diverse, very abled superheroes coming together was obliterated in the second half. Any time they were fighting together, it looked like a mish-mash brawl that could have appeared in almost any show featuring brawls. Absolutely no stunning choreography for the battles.

Luke Cage stands solid when Danny Rand fights him in the first half—great promise! But then almost every other person who fights him has little problem knocking him around.

Jessica Jones is strong as heck but is always vulnerable to weapons and punches. Until she's fighting in an all-out brawl. Then, she can walk around throwing people, but not a single blade strikes her, no bullets even come close.

Daredevil: reduced to basic brawling at the end. None of the cleverness, agile weapon use, etc., from his own shows, are used during the major brawls.

Danny Rand continues to be a worse martial artist than just about any other martial artist main character anywhere on television or in the movies. Putatively the greatest martial artist in the Marvel universe, but absolutely mediocre as depicted.

Carrying on the now-established tradition of the "villain" plot twist for these Marvel shows, The Defenders spent time building up Sigourney Weaver's character then just dumped her and forced Elektra into the position of main villain. (S1 of Daredevil and Jessica Jones are the only two Netflix Marvel shows to do it right: Build the villain well and bloody heck keep that villain to the very end.)

We were TOLD repeatedly how all of New York was in danger, but we were never shown this. There was one tremor....and that's it. The heroes told people, Stick told the heroes, the members of The Hand talked about it. But absolutely no _showing_ of this danger. So basically the whole show devolved, defaulted to a Daredevil-Elektra love story.


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## Gryphos (Aug 22, 2017)

I totally agree that the show did not do a good job with the heroes' powers and supposed strengths/weaknesses, especially with Luke Cage. Like, I can kinda understand Elektra being able to shove him around, since she clearly has some form of enhanced strength. Apart from her, only Jessica and Danny should realistically be able to take him on. Maybe add Gao to that, since she has her powerful force push ability (which I admit was pretty cool). Otherwise, Luke should just be strolling through swathes of bad guys.

Also, I don't feel like Jessica got any chance to really show off her power. Isn't she supposed to be able to jump really far? She did that once or twice in her series, but never pulled that trick out here.

In general the action scenes ended up rather stale because of a lack of variety. The team basically consists of: a strong dude, a strong chick, a dude who knows martial arts, and a dude who knows martial arts _with a special fist_. None of them even had unique weapons or anything. For all intents and purposes, they may as well have all been the same person in some of the brawls. Compare this to the climax of the first Avengers film, which has: a dude flying around shooting lasers, a big strong green dude, a lightning-wielding dude with a hammer, and a strong dude with a shield. Even Hawkeye and Black Widow are useful in that they add variety to the action. But in Defenders, the fights are boring by comparison.


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## FifthView (Aug 24, 2017)

I had the feeling that the writers and directors were far more comfortable doing the interpersonal, character-based interactions than doing the action. Maybe I'm spoiled by GoT, seeing the way spectacle can be done in a....spectacular way, heh.


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