Some people call The Defenders a “low-rent” version of Marvel’s The Avengers. In the run-up to The Avengers movie, Marvel carefully launched movies about Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America. In the run-up to The Defenders series, Marvel launched Daredevil (starring Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (played by Krysten Alyce Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) on Netflix.
Now, these four characters are brought together to fight The Hand, a secret organization led by five Immortals with Sigourney Weaver plotting to destroy New York City! Of course, these four super-heroes have plenty of problems and getting them to work together takes four of the eight episodes. But, when Jones, Cage, Iron Fist, and Daredevil finally start working as a team, there’s plenty of action.
Yes, The Defenders don’t have the fire-power of The Avengers, but I found this Netflix series entertaining and compelling. How about you? Are you a fan of The Defenders? GRADE: B+
I watched the first two episodes and gave up,. Maybe it helps if you watched the other series the characters came from but I felt lost watching this.
Steve, you’re right about the confusion and the slow start of THE DEFENDERS. As I mentioned, it takes FOUR episodes to get the lead characters to work together. Too long!
I had seen all of the run-up series so i watched this and was mildly entertained while also being mildly annoyed. Like its Netflix predecessors, THE DEFENDERS was very slow from the getgo and wasted much of its energy on prolonged fights. The premise was silly and sometimes the handling of the main characters was inept. On the plus side, the interplay among the characters was well handled and Madame Gao made a remarkable villain.
Jerry, I was mildly entertained by THE DEFENDERS, too. I was hoping for more. Maybe things will get better in THE DEFENDERS 2.
I liked the JESSICA JONES and LUKE CAGE series rather well, for comics heroes drama (anything Rosario Dawson is willing to do, I’m willing to give a shot). Saw the pilot for DAREDEVIL when it was new, but it didn’t make much impression, and IRON FIST’s atrocious reception was persuasive, and I hadn’t gotten around to it. Made the mistake of watching THE DEFENDERS’s pilot while sleepy, and thus was out by about twenty minutes in.
Todd, we liked JESSICA JONES and LUKE CAGE, too. I skipped IRON FIST because of the poor reviews.
We’Verizon watched JESSICA JONES (with Luke Cage, supporting), well done if somewhat of a downer, what with the wallowing in guilt and self-hatred. There was, however, a truly evil villain.
We’re watching the first series of DAREDEVIL now, generally lighter with a less depressing lead, plus Foggy. Loved the episode introducing Stick, but the Fisk back story and angst put me to sleep.
We’ll get to Luke Cage and the group series next.
I liked DAREDEVIL 1 better than DAREDEVIL 2. Foggy is under-utilized. I’m looking forward to JESSICA JONES 2.