Defending The Defenders
After falling in love with the Daredevil (not like that….though they say love is blind), Luke Cage and Jessica Jones (literally), I was over the moon to hear that they would be teaming up in a new show: The Defenders. Marvel clearly know what they’re doing in regards to superhero team-ups and the solo TV series were hits both critically and commercially.
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What could go wrong?
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Well, a lot apparently. Being Marvel’s worst-performing Netflix show, The Defenders clearly didn’t live up to the hype. After re-watching the series I’m here to give my opinion on why the show underperformed with fans and critics.
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I would love to hear your feedback, whether you agree or not. So comment below with what you either loved (or hated) about the show. With that out the way let’s get into my list!
Most interesting character is a mute
Elektra is by far the most interesting character in the Defenders Universe. After debuting in Daredevil Season 2, her embodiment of the femme fatale made her a joy to watch. She really shook up the show and was one of the highlights of that season so most fans were excited to see what she would bring to this crossover. As intelligent as she is beautiful, Elektra is the perfect anti-hero. She has travelled the world, been CEO of a billion-dollar corporation, learnt a plethora of martial art styles, done a tonne of cocaine, stared Death in the face and been resurrected. Surely there’s a lot she has to tell us?
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Well not really.
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Being mute for the majority of the Defenders, she becomes a lap dog. A henchman who shows up from time to time to fight the team. It gets very repetitive than the lyric ‘Around The World’ from the Daft Punk song ‘Around The World.’ Whilst she does eventually get the redemption that we desperately want for her…it’s a long time coming and the wait isn’t worth it. Elektra should have been silent for, at most, two episodes. The fact that it takes double this before she even begins to emote makes it very difficult to become as invested in the character as we once were. Sure my Grandad thinks that women should be seen and not heard but everyone else wants to hear what Elektra has to say. It’s a massively missed opportunity.
Too much Iron Fist
Juxtaposing the most interesting character, we have the least interesting one: Iron Fist. I never really got the thinking behind putting him in the lead role. Iron Fist was panned critically and is one of the worst performing Netflix shows…well….ever. So it’s baffling that Marvel decided to put him in a central role where all of the plot elements relied on him being a major part of the team. The character is so bland and boring. The most intriguing thing about him, his fist, gets used about 4 times throughout the entire show and even then it looks like he’s just been eating too many Wotsits. It’s just. So bad
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The producers possessing neither the budget or charisma to truly present him as a Billionaire, he’s basically just a guy in a suit and I have no idea why he was picked as the lead when there are three far more superior characters to focus on in the same show.
Too Much Focus On Side Characters
When watching a show called: The Defenders, I want to see THE DEFENDERS!!! I’m guessing many fans felt exactly the same, so I have no idea why we spend so much time with Stick, Colleen Wing, Karen Page, that radio host Jessica hangs around with, Misty and the rest of the sidekicks. We see more of the Police Department office than we do the New York Skyline. Having such a beautiful city to film in and instead pointing your camera at a desk so we can see Misty walk around asking questions that we already know the answer to is a complete waste of time.
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Marvel really dropped this ball with this. It would be like watching The Justice League from Alfred’s perspective and it really made it difficult to engage with the characters we should care about. I want to give the writers a sidekick in the balls.
Boring Villains
I don’t want this to come across as disrespectful. Sigourney Weaver is one of the greatest cinematic actors of all time. Alien is undoubtedly as classic and there is very little wrong that she can do in my eyes. She wasn’t even bad in Alien 3 and that film is terrible.
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However, when all that is required for her character is to stand in a room or sit at a restaurant, there’s very little she can do. I really wanted to see the fear of death driving her to fight no matter what…but spoiler alert…she goes out like a punk. Stabbed in the back, she is written out in Episode 6 and the rest of her evil team do not possess the onscreen talent to carry the show’s finale.
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Killgrave, Kingpin and Diamondback were all incredible villains. These brutal leaders were intimidating every time they appeared on screen so it’s a shame that that magic couldn’t be recaptured in The Defenders. We are left with the old ‘We are not so different, you and I’ speech about ten times and everything feels toned down. Where was the moment that Kingpin went Lock Stock on someones head. Where Killgrave murdered his family?
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The Defenders just didn’t have any moments like this and it made it very hard to invest in the villains at all. They were completely lackluster.
Too Many Episodes
My biggest complaint about The Defenders is that the plot was stretched far too thin. The main plot points could have easily been covered in a two hour film so I have no idea why it need to be dragged out to eight.
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Elektra gets brought back to life by the Hand, the four heroes team up, they stop the villains. That is the entire plot summary for the series so it’s baffling that it was stretched out longer than a Gareth Gates wedding speech.
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In addition to this we got more endings than The Return Of The King and by the 17th one I just wanted to cancel my Netflix Subcription and buy some Cyanide instead.
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Who has 8 hours to kill when it’s this boring. I prefer real TV shows that don’t use any padding or dragged out plot lines in order to make more revenue. That’s why I’m going to watch The Walking Dead.
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JOKE!
So what did you think of my break down of the Defender’s main problems. Do you agree? Is there anything that I should have included in this list? Am I completely wrong and The Defenders was better than Breaking Bad? Comment below and let me know!
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