Defending THE DEFENDERS

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.

Does IRON FIST Punch Land?

Article first published as MARVEL'S IRON FIST Review on Seat42F.

MARVEL’S IRON FIST released today. The fourth in a series of Netflix shows from the comic creator, it is designed to set up the final piece of the quartet for The Defenders team, a crossover series coming soon. In an effort to get you a review in as timely a manner as possible, this only covers the first hour of IRON FIST (mainly spoiler-free), although all thirteen have been released.

We open with our hero, Danny Rand (Finn Jones, Game of Thrones), returning to New York City for the first time in fifteen years. Barefoot, dirty, and scraggly, Danny fits in better with the homeless denizens of the park than he does in the upscale home and office building of his youth. Reintegrating back into the life he has been missing from is, predictably, not an easy task. Especially when his childhood friends, siblings Joy (Jessica Stroup, The Following) and Ward Meachum (Tom Pelphrey, Banshee), think Danny died in a plane wreck with his parents and don’t trust his sudden reappearance.

There’s no suspense for viewers as to whether Danny is who he says he is. He is the title character of the show (Rand is famously Iron Fist in the comic pages), so Marvel wouldn’t tease us by focusing a series on an imposter. His martial arts skills and seemingly superhuman moves confirm that for any who might still wonder, though we don’t get the First itself right away.

What there is suspense about is what the motive of the central villain is. It takes quite awhile for IRON FIST to even get around to showing us the presumed bad guy, though he is there before the end of the hour, and even after the reveal, little is known about him. While other Netflix Marvel shows have taken their time in their reveals, we usually get a bit more than this in the early stages.

Instead, we’re focused on Danny’s core problem: no one knows, or believes, who he is. This makes it impossible for him to start over, and fans will probably be unsure as to why he even wants to now. Why has he come home and what does he want? That isn’t stated. Instead, the focus just seems to be on how Danny will eventually convince the Meachums that he is legit, a frustrating and anticlimactic question.

There are some twists in the pilot, and while some are obvious ones, some are not. This means it is entertaining and moves along. The pacing is in line with the other Marvel shows, and the lack of information given to the audience does entice me to want to watch more right away. This isn’t a show meant to be served in single-hour portions.

But what works against IRON FIST is that it doesn’t have as strong an identity as Jessica Jones or Luke Cage. Both of these quickly came out of the gate with an obvious style and mission that made them unique. IRON FIST seems much more a typical superhero show, with Danny’s own abilities making him look more like Spiderman without the sass, and his upper crust upbringing not feeling especially unique.

Will IRON FIST overcome these drawbacks, its lack of immediate hook and more typical tone? Or will this be the weak link of the Marvel franchise, the one Netflix series from the studio that doesn’t earn itself a second season? I like Jones and Stroup, as well as Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones), who plays likely love interest and Danny’s tie back to Asia Colleen Wing, so I hope there’s something here. One hour is just not long enough for me to make that determination.

MARVEL’S IRON FIST complete first season is available now on Netflix.

DAREDEVIL Darker, Gritter Direction for Marvel

Article first written for Seat42F.

Each of Marvel’s films has been quite different from the others since the comic book formed its own movie studio. Look at Iron Man, Iron Man 3, Thor, and the two Captain Americas and you will find very different pictures in terms of tone, story structure, and purpose. What I’m getting at is that, as Marvel expands to the small screen, don’t expect their newest efforts to match those of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Agent Carter, which aren’t all that much alike, either.

The first entry in Marvel’s latest television project is DAREDEVIL, which posted its entire first season on Netflix yesterday. DAREDEVIL is far darker than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., opening with a boy (Skylar Gaertner, I Smile Back) being blinded by acid, then transitioning to a Catholic, guilt-ridden man (Charlie Cox, Boardwalk Empire) who wants to save his neighborhood, but unhappy about the methods he must use to do so. Both characters are Matt Murdoch, a.k.a. Daredevil.

Matt is a blind lawyer with extremely heightened sense who dresses all in black at night to beat up bad guys using his martial arts skills. As DAREDEVIL begins, Matt is just beginning this quest, though we don’t know why he has chosen now to do so, in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York destroyed during the battle in The Avengers film, simply referred to as “the incident” in this series. A crime lord named Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) has staked a claim over the area, and Matt is going to make sure he doesn’t keep it.

The methods Matt goes by are vicious, and the violence in DAREDEVIL is pretty brutal. An exec’s earlier assertion that show would be PG-13-equivalent is not at all accurate, with some R-level stuff present in the first hour alone. There is blood, sure, but also just some gritty, gruesome stuff that would not be allowed on the alphabet network, so it’s good Netflix is carrying this arm of the company. The show does stop short of nudity, thus far anyway, and there isn’t a lot of bad language, but the program is definitely not for kids.

Kids may be bored by it, anyway. Between fight scenes, the story plays out fairly slowly. Daredevil’s origins are not revealed in the pilot to any real extent, nor is Kingpin visible, working through his minions, including Leland Owlsley (Bob Gunton, Royal Pains, 24, The Shawshank Redemption) instead. The writers are not in a hurry to tell viewers everything, preferring to let the tale play out over thirteen episodes, not one.

This running time, about double what two trilogies of films would give the character, allow for a more complex approach. Many of the movie Marvel heroes get two or four hours to be introduced before being thrust together in The Avengers, and have to go through much of their growth arcs off-screen, between movies. Daredevil and his peers (three more superheroes are getting their own seasons on Netflix) are allowed at least thirteen before The Defenders series brings them together, which is quite welcome given the complexity of the protagonist, and allows for more depth in the character.

Matt is a complicated individual. More so than others in his field (I’m talking both lawyers and vigilantes), he has qualms about what he does. He’s a man of faith who thinks he is betraying his principals, but doesn’t see any other way to save people, which he feels an irresistible calling to do. He’s a tortured soul, and this adaptation does a top-notch job of illustrating that.

Which is not to say there are not lighter moments in DAREDEVIL. A Hallmark of the Iron Man and Avengers pictures, among others, is the humor, sometimes expressed in odd moments. For that purpose, this series gives us Matt’s partner at the firm, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson, The Mighty Ducks, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay), a larger-than-life individual who frets and schmoozes in equal measure. There’s also a possible love interest for one or the other lawyer, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll, True Blood), who (SPOILER ALERT) is involved in their first awful case, but who sticks around to help them out, and will probably be a brighter light after the pilot.

In short, DAREDEVIL really does have it all. It gets to take its time telling a complex, engaging story of a hero unlike those we’re used to in the Marvel franchise. I’m really looking forward to binge watching the entire season.

DAREDEVIL season one is available on Netflix streaming now.

Legal Drama 4 Pack: Chase, Detroit 1-8-7, The Defenders, and The Whole Truth

     Every year there are a slew of cop and legal themed procedurals, but this year, it felt like more than usual.  To save myself some time, I'm combining four of the shows into one review.  This works, because the basic premise of each is the same.  A team of people investigate or defend or prosecute crimes in the name of justice.  The viewer is supposed to root for them.  As a general rule, I have no patience for this type of show.  It tends to be the same thing every week.  If the show title contains Law & Order or CSI, I stay clear of it.  But occasionally a Bones or The Good Wife will slip through, so I try to give them all a chance.  Hawaii Five-0 last week was amazing, and it got it's own full review, which you can read here.  Blue Bloods was also pretty good, and here's my review for that.  Finally, Outlaw, because it aired first, got it's own review.  The rest of these weren't nearly as special.  All right, here we go:



Chase (Mondays, 10pm, NBC): Typical cop drama.  I only made it through ten minutes.  I really have nothing more to say about this totally unoriginal snooze fest.

Detroit 1-8-7 (Tuesdays, 10pm, ABC): This reminded me a lot of the quickly-canceled-by-network-and-rescued-by-cable Southland, but with lighting that is easier on the eyes (I can't stand the harsh southwest colors).  It had the documentary feel, which was originally more pronounced, but as backed off a bit when it was re-edited.  It seemed to have smart writing and layered characters.  I acknowledge that this is probably a pretty good show.  It is not my cup of tea, though, so I didn't even make it through the first episode.

The Defenders (Wednesdays, 10pm, CBS): Starring Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell as the owners of a small firm, this entry is set in Las Vegas.  It is a bit wilder than most lawyer dramas, with the characters stepping a toe over the line occasionally.  As a big fan of Boston Legal, The Defenders does seem tame by comparison, but there may be a glimmer of something here.  Enough to earn a second watch, as I already set my TiVo to catch it again this week.  It is helped along by Jurnee Smollett (Friday Night Lights) as a new member of the legal team.

The Whole Truth (Wednesdays, 10pm, ABC): This was my favorite of the four.  It reminded me of old school episdoes of The Practice, but with a new formula.  Maura Tierney (ER, NewsRadio) is the prosecutor and Rob Morrow (Numb3rs) is the defense.  The show alternates viewpoints between the two, up through the trail.  After the verdict has been given, the truth comes out.  As both main characters seem to be good, interesting people who really care about what they do, no matter how the courtroom drama shakes out, the audience is left satisfied.  Plus Tierney and Morrow's characters have a history, and a possible romantic connection, so there's plenty going on.  This is the one that I am rooting for, and will continue watching for the time being.  Unless it gets stale.