Does that mean The Defenders is amazing? No, not really. It's a serviceable crossover with solid acting, fun set pieces, and great character interactions. It doesn't compare to The Avengers, that's for sure. The reason I sat through it all in one sitting is, unlike any other Netflix season, it actually lives up to the idea that it's just a very long movie. One episode leads directly into the next in a pretty tight narrative. That said, the mini-series does have its share of major faults, many of them carried over from Daredevil season 2 and Iron Fist, but we'll get into those.
The series begins immediately after the events of Iron Fist, with K'un-Lun in ruins after the Hand destroyed it while Danny Rand was off being an idiot in New York City. After an extremely poorly lit and framed fight scene between Danny and some mystery woman, he's promptly sent back to New York to continue the fight. The rest of the first episode begins setting the pieces in place, with five distinct storylines converging. Danny and Colleen return to America with Danny haunted by the deaths of his comrades. Matt Murdock continues living as an ordinary lawyer, still grappling with wanting to become Daredevil once again. Jessica Jones, still fresh from killing Kilgrave, struggles with being dubbed a hero and begrudgingly takes on a strange missing person case. And Luke Cage returns home from prison, only to throw himself back into trying to help the little guy.
Meanwhile, all these characters are slowly brought together by Alexandra, one of the leaders of the Hand with designs to destroy New York City with the help of the revived assassin, Elektra. Alexandra is played by genre legend Sigourney Weaver, who brings the right amount of gravitas to the role. We are introduced to her in a moment of weakness, learning she merely has weeks or months to live. This emboldens her to speed up her plan, and she does so with cold, calculated maneuvers. She carries herself gracefully, has accumulated tastes over a very long life, and always seems to be in control. She also shares a strange mother-daughter bond between herself and Elektra, one of the more interesting subplots in The Defenders. For Alexandra, she's not just using Elektra as a tool of death. There does seem to be genuine care for her as she grooms Elektra into one day becoming leader of the Hand.
As I've mentioned previously, each Defender has a unique color scheme. This show makes the point very clear as the colors pervade almost every frame with each respective hero. When the heroes finally do meet and interact, the colors literally blend together in one set. All four worlds have collided. It's a bit heavy-handed, but it's an interesting visual trick that works well. Meanwhile, Alexandra is very obviously represented by white, a blank canvas that all of the Defenders have to cross paths with. Finally, Elektra mostly is seen wearing black with shades of red (she's evil, but Daredevil is still there in her heart). All that color theory!
Now, does the show work as a crossover event? I'd say for the most part it does. Like any good crossover, it takes its time bringing the characters together. The Avengers didn't have the whole team together until almost an hour into the film, so The Defenders doesn't even have any of these characters interact at all in the first episode. The closest we get is a scene between Luke and Foggy after Luke gets out of prison. In episode 2, the interactions start to form as Luke crosses paths with Danny, and Matt meets up with Jessica. Finally, all paths converge at the end of episode 3 with a big fight where all four heroes just happen to stumble upon each other, immediately joining forces.
Of course, things don't go that smoothly. There are rough patches between the characters; tension between Luke and Jessica over the death of his wife, Matt and Danny differ in their methods on fighting the Hand, etc. What's most interesting in all of these moments when these characters interact is just how far behind Finn Jones is compared to the rest of the cast. Sure, he's improved here thanks to stronger writing, but he noticeably has issues keeping up with Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, and Mike Colter. They all have way more charisma and a better understanding of their characters than he does. Still, Finn gets some great moments too, including hints of a potential partnership between Luke Cage and Iron Fist in the future.
Perhaps my favorite story; however, belongs to the back and forth between Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Belonging to the two strongest Netflix shows, this was the partnership most people should have been looking forward to the most. Charlie Cox and Krysten Ritter have amazing chemistry as their complete apathy towards each other grows into something resembling a friendship built on mutual respect. Both people have almost completely opposite ideas of justice, so that makes this arc all the more enticing. The cat and mouse game they play figuring each other out is seriously entertaining too, definitely one of the highlights.
Now, The Defenders still has one big issue. I'll give you a hint: it's Elektra. I'm sorry, but I will never, ever find her fascinating. She's just one big roadblock for Daredevil thanks to a melodramatic romance with almost zero spark. She makes a turn in episode 6 that makes absolutely no sense, completely undermined by her actions near the show's end. Once again, Elodie Yung tries her best, but she is given a character that is just uninteresting at best and nonsensical at worst. As far as villains go, Alexandra is far more interesting to watch, so the insistence on Elektra is grating. I sincerely hope her arc is done.
The final plot of the Hand is also pretty odd. Something about dragon blood? It's bizarre, and seems like a weird escalation from the mostly grounded Netflix shows so far. If anything, this is definitely something the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. should have had on their radar. But of course, we just have to accept that the Netflix shows are basically their own thing at this point, virtually disconnected from the rest of the MCU. Still, it's obnoxious that something on the level of the Hand's plot was handled by a bunch of street-level heroes and not bigger names.
The show also struggles in justifying the presence of a couple of characters. Luke Cage is immediately let out of prison in episode 1, even though it was a pretty big deal for him at the end of his season. It undercuts his arc pretty hard, and should have been saved for maybe episode 2. Still, we had to have our requisite PG-13 sex scene to remind us this show's on Netflix, so whatever. A lot of the minor characters from each show also pop up here, mostly to lay down the groundwork for future seasons. Misty Knight is thrown in mostly to set up her partnership with Colleen Wing in Iron Fist season 2 (Daughters of the Dragon hype though). Finally, Jessica's involvement is mostly through happenstance, but this does work in her favor since it's her entire arc just how out of place she is compared to the other Defenders.
At 8 episodes, The Defenders still drags just a bit. They probably hold off on teaming everyone up a bit too long, and there's way too much focus on Elektra's romance with Matt. The fight scenes are underwhelming, and some characters have trouble fitting into the narrative. However, I would still call The Defenders a worthwhile build-up to the two-plus years of planning that went into it. It successfully sets the stage for each character moving forward, while also feeling like a big climax to the first phase of the Marvel Netflix universe. It's not entirely successful, but it does its job. It's an entertaining 7-hour event filled with fun character interactions, fanservice in its purest form.
Next time: Inhumans...oh Jesus Christ, no.
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