Article first published as TV Review: THE DEFENDERS on Seat42F.
You may have been waiting impatiently
for years now for Netflix’s Marvel’s THE DEFENDERS, the small screen
version of the Avengers team-up. After all, the first series in the
build-up, Daredevil, was released back in the spring of 2015. Through
Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, a second season of Daredevil, and yes, even
the less-lauded Iron Fist, fans of the Marvel Universe have been lapping
up the installments, waiting eagerly for these D-list (see what I did
there?) heroes to come together. But just because THE DEFENDERS finally
went public today doesn’t mean the wait is entirely over.
THE DEFENDERS is an eight-episode
miniseries, and thus takes its time getting to what the fans want: the
four primary characters meeting one another. Instead, episode one is all
about checking in with where our people are and meeting the villain. It
isn’t until late in episode two that any of the quartet run into one
another, and it’ll be later still before they get together as a group.
I like this waiting strategy more than I
thought I would. Yes, I would rather THE DEFENDERS had arrived earlier.
But now that I’ve begun watching, I want the story to progress
naturally. It takes time for the story to weave each individual
together, and that’s OK. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
Danny Rand, a.k.a. Iron Fist (Finn
Jones) is seen first, kicking off the event with an action-packed battle
in the sewers. Although we don’t see the face of his shadowy opponent,
we do know who she is, which will become clear soon enough. He and
Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) are still hunting The Hand, and their
mission, while starting overseas, soon brings them back to New York.
Danny isn’t the only one on a mission.
Luke Cage (Mike Colter), fresh out of prison, begins looking after a kid
around his neighborhood that needs help. Meanwhile, Jessica Jones
(Krysten Ritter) takes a case that leads her to encounter the same
mysterious woman from the opening. This isn’t a surprise, because it
shouldn’t take the audience long to figure out that all three
investigations are leading to the same central baddie. They are well
woven, and this is the primary reason I’m fine with THE DEFENDERS taking
a while to bring its leads together.
In fact, even as other characters like
Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), Misty Knight (Simone Missick), and Hogarth
(Carrie-Anne Moss) cross worlds, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) is the
hold-out outsider. Having rejected the mantel of Daredevil and busy with
pro bono legal cases, he’s the one remaining unaware of what’s
happening. This will not last, as the end of the second hours reveals,
but it’s cool to have someone not falling into the pattern that the
others do.
I have to admit, upon realizing that The
Hand would be the villains in THE DEFENDERS, I wasn’t very excited.
After all, Iron Fist, though not as terrible as some have claimed, is
the weakest link, and its recently-released season featured The Hand prominently. Yes, they also appeared in Daredevil, too. But why bring over the criminals from the series no one liked?
That feeling goes away the moment we
meet Alexandra (the great Sigourney Weaver), a woman so formidable that
even Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho) cowers before her. Alexandra does much
with few scenes and few lines, a great presence that instantly makes The
Hand interesting again. She exudes danger as much as she does gravitas,
and she is the perfect foe for this adventure.
Two hours in, I am hooked. While not as
powerful in its messaging as Jessica Jones or Luke Cage, it is much more
gripping than Iron First or Daredevil, and its fewer number of episodes
makes for a carefully-plotted, well-paced miniseries. It balances the
faces we want to see with the story that needs to be told, and somehow
combines the tonality of all of the series it brings together. It even
finds a way to make the unavoidable fight between heroes caused by a
misunderstanding work. It’s been worth the wait, and I plan to savor the
remaining installments. I recommend you do the same.
THE DEFENDERS is available today on Netflix.
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