'The Defenders' Season 1 Review

Image from Coming Soon

By Diego Coya

            The Defenders is the most recent marvel Netflix show that follows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist; it is essentially The Avengers for the Netflix Marvel superhero shows. The story follows the five fingers of The Hand, who are teaming up to bring destruction to New York. This leads to the superheroes uniting together and to try to stop this destruction from happening. The series also shows the personal challenges that each individual hero is going through and progressively they realize that they will become stronger if they team up with each other. This leads to the Marvel Netflix show that is simply a blast to watch.

            I had many expectations regarding The Defenders. Even though I was disappointed with Marvel’s previous Netflix series Iron Fist, it never diminished my excitement for this series. As someone who really enjoyed Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and absolutely adored Daredevil, I was excited to see how all these characters would interact with each other. I can say without hesitation that the two years of build up to this series was certainly worth it. This show is a lot of fun and it is consistently entertaining. The action scenes are also really well done, particularly an action scene that is at the end of episode three. While they never reach the heights of Daredevil, they still hold on their own fairly well

            Even though the series is only eight episodes long, it felt like it was the perfect amount of episodes that it needed to be. A big part of that is due to how well the pacing is. I have heard many complaints about the pilot episode having too much build up, which is silly because realistically the characters wouldn’t meet right away and start teaming up. Even though the first episode shows what each character is going through, it is still riveting to watch. I never felt like the show dragged.

            The performances from everyone are exceptionally good. Charlie Cox once again knocks it out of the park as Matt Murdoch/Daredevil; the viewer is able to see no matter how hard he tries to move on from Daredevil, he can’t seem to move on from his hero lifestyle. Krysten Ritter once again shines in her role as Jessica Jones; she’s sarcastic, hilarious, ad has no remorse for anything she says or does. Mike Colter as Luke Cage was also terrific; he really plays the role of Luke Cage perfectly and I honestly can’t see anyone else playing him because Colter embodies the character so well. Finn Jones improves immensely from Iron First and brings a more likeable presence to this character. The chemistry between these characters is also just fantastic.

            When I heard that Sigourney Weaver was going to be the villain, I was incredibly excited. I seem to be in the minority when I say that I was disappointed with her character. Weaver does not give a bad performance in the slightest, but her character is just fine. Every time she was on screen, I wanted to go back to The Defenders, which is unfortunate because this is Sigourney Weaver. The other Marvel shows on Netflix have done a wonderful job with the villains in the past, but I felt like this was one of their weaker ones. Without spoiling anything, the ending was a little predictable and it was a little messy. Other than that, this is another great hit from Netflix.

            If you are a fan of the Netflix Marvel series, please check this out. It is guaranteed that you will have a blast if you go see it. While it most certainly isn’t as good as Daredevil, it is on par with the other shows; it’s way better than Iron Fist. I am totally down for a second season, and can’t wait to see how The Punisher goes.

9/10