I love The Defenders! I could have easily watched the eight episode Marvel Netflix series in one sitting if I didn’t have to get enough sleep to function at work the next day. The Defenders successfully mashes up the worlds of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist into all peaks, no valleys. It retroactively made the flawed second season of Daredevil and first season of Iron Fist better than it actually was. The problem was that until now, The Hand was less mysterious and more poorly conveyed by the aforementioned series. It felt like the series’ creators had not fully worked out the details until now.
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Shame on you for not telling me that Sigourney Weaver is in The Defenders! I would not have waited so long to watch these shows. She looked fabulous (who can wear gold pants without looking like a clubber or a hooker), and a series has succeeded at creating a good villain when I find myself agreeing with her. Gao is still awesome as always and is clearly the Jessica Jones AND Luke Cage of her crew. Bakuto’s priorities are out of wack because he keeps focusing on the little people instead of the broader objectives that his life literally depends on. The other two fingers of The Hand, Murakami and Sowande, probably should have been introduced earlier in Daredevil Season 2 and Luke Cage Season 1 respectively because while the actors did a good job portraying them, we did not really get to see them do their thing. I was particularly disappointing that there were so many teasers that Murakami and Alexandra, Weaver’s character, were finally going to have a showdown, which we never got.
Elektra was as devastatingly deadly as promised and was as impressive as they teased in Season 2 of Daredevil. I would love to know how Black Sky works. Is she the Buffy of evil? Apparently there are a handful of people with the potential to become one, but how does it work? She is strong enough to knock out Luke Cage and carry Danny like a bookbag, smart enough to outwit Alexandra, skilled enough to beat Matt and balanced enough to just tuck away her trauma and stay functional enough to reach her goals. Dumb ass Danny will never be ready to face off against her.
The Defenders stays grounded in reality by balancing the more outlandish aspects of its plot, an international immortality conspiracy cult that has fingers in every sphere of power, with its heroes’ practical responses and styles. Jessica Jones is still my favorite and emerged as the smartest one in the bunch. Everything that she said in response to the madness was what I was thinking. While she may not have any martial arts prowess, she makes up for it with her ability to improvise and irreverence. She hit Elektra with a car! Side note: whenever the cops pick the crew up, she is always the one in handcuffs! Damn, the legality of her actions is even more of a concern for her than Matt, the lawyer. Jessica and Trish are still my favorite functional relationship among the heroes, but Jessica and Malcolm are a close second with their college friend dynamic. She was trying to get her guilt fix by talking to teenagers. Side note: I want to meet the geologist who called Trish’s show.
Luke Cage is the moral authority and heart of the crew. His constant checking of Danny and concern for individuals was the exact response needed after watching the first season of Iron Fist. I was not thrilled that Claire was more firmly relegated to sexy times instead of a powerful and integral member of the team than she usually is. I’m happy for Jessica, who lights up every time that Luke says anything remotely nice to her, but concerned that Luke has not made Claire into the primary voice in his life. He is definitely divided between Claire, Jessica and Misty, whom I liked more in The Defenders, but still is queen of getting her hands on the wrong person while winning the best hair award. I loved how Claire and Misty interact with each other. Luke needs to figure out who is his go to person. Jessica and Luke are the most relatable members of The Defenders, but Luke works best when paired with the other two heroes.
Side note: is Hogarth the Claire of the legal world? She may be evil, but she clearly is on the good guys’ side. Is Danny paying her, self preservation or she genuinely is rooting for them? I’m glad that Foggy got a hair cut, but if you are going to offer your services to Luke, maybe get him a plane ticket and don’t make him ride the bus on his first day out of the joint. To be fair, seeing the New York skyline when you take the bus is breathtaking. I was so happy that Luke’s legal drama was dispatched in the first scene. Hey, Marci! Glad to see that you and Foggy are still employed and together. Marci wins the self-preservation award for dipping the minute that something shady started happening.
Matt is the best fighter. I’m glad that he got his courtroom groove back, but I need The Defenders to understand how pro bono works. Every client can’t get free legal aid unless funding is coming from somewhere else. An individual lawyer can’t be pro bono all the time. I’m so glad that Matt finally dumped Karen and admitted who he is. Why would you stop being Daredevil for the promise of a relationship with her? I get it when Foggy asks because he is family, but not Karen, who was my least favorite part of the series. Out of every one of the fighters, he really needs to figure out his life, but he is clearly essential in the fight against evil. His interactions with Jessica were priceless because she was the only woman not charmed by his looks or personality. He was jonesing for weirdness like a drug addict and looked like a jackass running around with her sweater on his face. How did he breathe? How is he more unbalanced than Jessica? How did he survive? Did Elektra and Matt gnaw on dragon bones the entire time?
At least Danny wore bulkier clothes, got a haircut and looked moderately better in The Defenders. For a man whose most traumatic moment was in a small plane, he never gets a bigger one. He got lucky when he met Connie because without her, he would be floundering. I liked Connie more in this series than when she was originally introduced because she takes center stage and is processing everything. Danny scoffed at everything as if he isn’t one of the weirdest aspects of his life. He is one of those guys at a meeting who shoots down all your ideas without offering anything tangible or useful. I wouldn’t have been mad at Stick if he succeeded. He also wins the jerk award for hurting his friends when it was clear that they were protecting him. During his fights with Elektra, he was so clearly being manipulated. He acts like a Bond villain with Alexandra when Ward did a better job off screen fighting her. His powers are still unreliable. He isn’t even a good fighter. I loved that everyone on the team basically called him an idiot. What is he good for? He is really good at having one solid idea by proposing that they should be a team and footing the food bill. Make him the team’s housemother and leave him at home base. It is so New York that Chinese food is the one thing that everyone can agree on.
Visually The Defenders was stunning because just by looking at the color shift, you knew which hero was going to be the focus of the scene. The superpower fights were a joy. The music was on point. As Madame Gao would say, I want more of the devil of Hell’s Kitchen, the man who does not break and the unyielding woman teaming up. Danny can bake cookies for them while reading the Iron Fist manual.