It's a miracle! My wife and I finished all eight episodes of the Netflix series The Defenders in just eight days.
Many of you may be thinking, "What's the big deal? I finished that in one night."
Here's the big deal... we are a middle aged married couple with a twelve year old son and ten year old daughter. Not only that, this was the first week of school for them and for me (I'm a teacher). In other words, we are ridiculously busy. My wife and I have have approximately seven hours to watch TV each week. Hence the miracle.
We enjoyed The Defenders so much that we put all other programs on hold in order to reach the conclusion of this exciting season ASAP.
My wife and I have been faithful viewers of all of the previous Netflix Marvel series. To put things in perspective, here is our lists of the shows in order of preference.
Our lists are nearly identical (aside from the fact that she is totally wrong about her choice for #1).
While we truly enjoyed the action, story, and side characters in Daredevil, the real star was Vincent D'Onofrio as Kingpin. Not since Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker had we found a villain so compelling.
Although many people did not like Jessica Jones, we LOVED it (my wife just loved it slightly too much). We found the villain to be one of the creepiest and most destructive we have ever seen. We also enjoyed the side characters and Jessica's interactions with Luke Cage.
Conversely, we HATED Iron Fist. We found the casting, acting, and story excruciatingly bad. I almost wrote about it at the time but I was too angry. Here's one piece of advice for Marvel: comic book fans don't give a rat's ass about the inner workings of a billionaire's corporation. Billionaire superheroes use their corporation to fund their awesome toys and weapons. That is all we need to know. We also hate watching our heroes going to a seemingly endless stream of business meetings. Actually let's go with two pieces of advice. When you cast an actor to play a superhero, it is not a good idea to make the audience want to punch the whiny, annoying, petulant, spoiled, weasel-like millennial. The villains are supposed to take care of that. Unfortunately, in this show, when the villains do take care of that, the fight scenes are laughably bad.
Even the actor on the left can't keep a straight face.
Luke Cage was just O.K. Even though we loved the casting of Mike Colter as the hero, it seemed more like a lost season of The Wire than a superhero show. Don't get me wrong, we loved The Wire... but there is no place for a superhero in it. Luke Cage is nearly indestructible. This fact makes it difficult for him to have a realistic nemesis. Him fighting a crime family was actually fairly silly. There was not enough action in the show. When there was action, it was not very compelling. Aside form the last couple of episodes, you knew every fight with Luke Cage would end with him simply crushing the bad guys.
After finishing The Defenders, my wife and I had to adjust our lists. This time we agree...
The Defenders is the best Netflix Marvel series yet.
It was almost as if the previous five shows purposely got all of the boring setup out of the way so this show could be fast paced and action packed.
Here are six reasons why my wife and I loved The Defenders:
1.The Action
The choreography of the fight scenes in the first two seasons of Daredevil is some of the finest I have ever scene. Because all of the back stories have already been told, The Defenders has plenty of time to include equally amazing fight sequences. Every episode had a significant amount of action. When there wasn't action, it was only to set up the inevitable next action sequence.
2.Jessica Jones
Her character was PERFECT. She added just enough smart ass humor to break the tension of the 3 very serious brooding crime fighters. She honestly reminded me of an "R" rated female Han Solo. If Star Wars were rated "R", Han would drink, swear, gamble, fool around, drink some more... and then kick ass. That is Jessica Jones. She also shares the similarity of being a reluctant hero. Like Han, Jessica claims to be in this for herself. Then we find out just how far she will go for her team... even if she won't admit it. She is constantly making fun of the members of the team. However, it is never slapstick or corny. She is quick, sullen and witty. The show would have been far too serious without her.
3.A Villain Who Would Pose a Real Challenge to a Team of Superheroes
Without providing any spoilers (hence no picture), I believe Luke Cage could be hurt by these villains. That goes a long way when making a superhero show. I believed Luke was in danger of losing many battles. If he were in danger, the entire team was in danger. That fact helped create the right amount of tension and excitement during each battle.
4.Now I Get Why Danny Rand (The Iron Fist) was so Annoying on His Show.
Yeah it kind of did... but I get it now.
The Defenders actually made me like Iron Fist more (I still would never watch it again). Danny had to be portrayed as an annoying and impulsive "kid" who was searching for his parents. If he were a reasonable and smart hero, much of the story of The Defenders would not make sense. He had to be flawed in order to drive this story.
5.The Development of Luke Cage and The Iron Fist's Friendship.
Spoiler alert... in the comic books Luke and Danny are best friends. In this show it goes deeper. You start to see a relationship developing that resembles that of an older brother (Luke) to a little brother (Danny). Luke is calm and altruistic. He has a code he lives by. Danny is the impetuous little brother who will start a fight over something stupid... that his big brother will need to finish. Like all good big brother's part of Luke's code is to always take care of his little brother (and everyone else). Although it was not fully developed, I definitely saw the start of it.
6.Luke Cage
As previously stated, we thought Mike Colter was perfectly cast as Luke Cage. Unfortunately, we thought he was wasted in Luke Cage. That was not the case in The Defenders. Many would not expect the huge, indestructible, ex-convict to be the moral compass of a team... but that is a another lesson in why you should never judge a book by its cover. Luke Cage is just that. He is the most altruistic member of the team. At one point, The Night Nurse explains that, "You know what his [Luke's] true north is? Doing the right thing, no matter the consequence."
My son may not be old enough to watch the show yet, but in a couple of years I plan on pointing out that line to him and teaching him a geeky life lesson.
Unfortunately, by that time his response will probably be, "What I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys. See you later. Can I have them please?”
Geeky Guy’s Viewing Guide
Number of times I fell asleep: 0
Number of eye rolls: 4 (Every time Iron Fist and Colleen Wing were alone together on screen)
Number of face palms: 0
Number of times I checked steemit: 0
Number of times I said "That's ridiculous": 2 (Iron fist did some really stupid things)
Binge watch/weekly/take your time: Binge watch!
Would I watch it again: I may actually put it on in the background while I’m obsessing over steemit for the next few days
Appropriate for my kids: No (My oldest is 12. There is too much graphic violence and inappropriate language)
I've been waiting for a long time for this show to come out (technically since when they announced that they were making Jessica Jones and there was speculation about a defenders series being in the works).
It was very very good, although I did find the ending a little disappointing. Years of setting up for stakes that weren't actually that bad.
And I'm also definitely done with ninjas for a while;)
I thaught the different directing styles were perfectly blended together, and these people who had never met before come together in such a perfect way.
Would be a dream come true to have them interact with some Avengers, there were such few references of them in this series.
I mean, you'd think that if the entire city of New York was a stake you could at least hop over to Queens for some help from your friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler (aka Me). Certainly sounds more dangerous than some weird bald guy with mechanical wings selling weapons;)
Anyway, thanks for the post.
P.S. Did anyone else notice how, escpecially in the first episode, during every heroe's scene, their color was in the background? Like, during every scene with Matt, there was red light shining in the background cause of a stop light or something. Or with Jessica Jones, it was purple. Luke Cage, yellow. Iron Fist, green.
Just a little artistic thing they did that I found very intriguing.
So should you watch all the individual series before watching the defenders? Im looking for something like must watch individual series, recommended to watch, doesnt matter.
Watch Narcos,Suits or Breakind Bad :))
Narcos is one of the best shows I have ever seen.
I'd watch all of them except for maybe iron fist. Best show I've seen in a while is mr. robot. If you haven't seen the first two seasons, go find them.
Wow !!! Good post. I really like the defender, because in this film there are some very powerful main role players and have a very strong power to defeat the criminals. Thanks has shared information.
It's own perspective which should be on too list but all the series are quite interesting and very fun to watch.
Nice post and keep on posting :)
I have watched Iron Fist, you are right actors are not so professional but it was ok. Other series haven't watched yet, but looks promising... Which one you would recommend to watch next?
I'm always a fan of marvels and I can't wait to renew my account in netflix. Hahaha thank you for sharing. Great article 😊
Marvel...
LOL. Well played. Very few movies can stand up to The Dark Knight. And I mean across genres. It is one of my favorite films ever. But many of the other DC movies are really bad.
Food poisoning is really bad. Some of the DC movies are more like Ebola mutated to spread through the air.
Daredevil for me has been the best close second Jessica Jones... When I saw the trailer of Iron Fist, didn't take a second look at all, no...nada! I dunno is it the actor or the whole feels? Maybe both? lol! Thanks, your post gave me the excitement to finally binge watch it this weekend! :)
I still don't understand why they cast that guy.
He needed work after getting killed in Game of Thrones.
Time to check this out! Seems that they gave Iron Fist some justice here. :v
Watching Legion blew up my brain. ;)
I generally like super hero shows, as I enjoyed the shows underlying this series, but I honestly couldn't get through the first episode. I was a little disappointed, it didn't seem like one show, but rather 4 shows in 1. I will try again later, but first go through was a bit rough.
Interesting perspective. I was just so happy that the first one was better than Iron Fist that it may have biased me towards it. It does take a while but it does come together into one story.
I guess it suffers from the same thing all origin stories do... it takes some time to get into the full swing. This is unique because it is the origin of a team.
If you liked the first 4, you should give it another try. It will get there.
The first episode is painful compared to the rest because all you want is the four of them to get together. It is unfortunate they had to spend so much time getting them together but they absolutely had to do it. I do think they actually put too much effort into purposely making the first episode feel like four individual shows. Camera angle, music and general feel was clearly matching with the individual shows. By episode 2 that starts to fade and by 3 it is pretty much gone and the series has a unified feel of its own probably most resembling Daredevil which is good because that is clearly the best of the 4 individual shows.
Thanks! I forgot about Defenders -will take a look. Had not time to watch Iron Fist but I know one fan of it - my 19 yo son. He is for 10 years in aikido though, so maybe it's about technics..
That is really cool. Glad your done found such and amazing activity. Perhaps you are right and he really enjoyed the fight scenes.
Thanks for sharing this article with us, the audience. From The Defenders series I really liked Dare Devil seasons, but I still have to decide myself between season 1 or season 2. I tend to vote for the second season though. I totally agree with you on those lists you and your wife made, but anyone has the right to a point of view, right? Keep up the good work!
Ever since moving to Spain we don't have Netflix anymore.
Since they started geo-blocking I'm not interested, the stuff they show here sucks.
At least it did over two years ago when we moved, it may have changed now.
I do enjoy a decent superhero series, but found daredevil very long-winded to start.
Maybe I'll give it another go, but I also have to go and watch season 7 of Game of Trones, the new season of Suits and we just got into Underbelly.
I'll create a post about the series we're watching and why we like them, maybe someone can give us some more ideas.
Thanks for this post.
Can we have a debate on who can beat Luke Cage? Next post perhaps....
Great question. Someone with poison gas is a great start.
I just watched this T.V series because of the Daredevil.
I just wished they would made the villains more darker,which was in DD1&2
King pin was amazing!
So that Ninja too, with his principles n honor lol.
You know JJ is going to see this and make a prequal - "If Star Wars were rated "R", Han would drink, swear, gamble, fool around, drink some more... and then kick ass. "
Lol!!! That would be hilarious!
I watched all of them, then finished up the defenders! Was really really disappointed by iron fist, he was always one of my favorite super heros! He did Bruce lee wrong in these series
We are halfway through Daredevil Season 2 now. Moving onto Jessica Jones. These are shows that never would have been made by the main stream networks. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu...the future is here. It lets a lot of talented people show their stuff. I can't wait to move onto The Defenders!
I am so happy Netflix did this... and made it for adults.
I love that movie.. all of them are my Hero.. when i was a kid, i dreamed to be one of them. Now, sometimes, i also imagine that...Lo
I know what you mean by being busy, I know rather well. So, I understand what an effort it is for you and your wife to watch a show together, wow and with your first week of back to full classrooms. Well, with your recommendation, I think we'll give the Defenders a go. I know you won't lead me wrong
I love the marvel tv shows!!! Nice post @hanshotfirst
I just finished episode 1. Looking forward to the rest. I also watch it with my wife. Gladly, we have the same taste. :-)
Thanks for the heads up. I can't see our chat in Rocket Chat for some reason. It just won't show up, though all my other direct chats do. Crazy.
Got you resteemed from SNO. :)
This one was already in my Netflix queue. Looking forward to it.
I stopped watching Jones due to lack of interest. Cage was fun, but I only watched a few and something else took priority. Iron Fist was kinda interesting... just watched a couple. Daredevil was really good. I've seen them all, I think.
I hope the language isn't too much for me. :)
Thanks man.
That explains it. I sent you a dm a while back. I responded to your question in the affirmative.
The language is bad.. but not as bad as Deadpool.
I just sent a test message. Maybe if you search my name and start a new one?
We are now chatting. If it's not you, I'm certain it's a conspiracy!
It was pretty good but so far no marvel show has been better than Daredevil season 1.
Yeah I can't argue that. Maybe I should have called it a tie. But man I enjoyed it.
I love iron fist so much, an I even tried to make his cool effect in my visual effects videos.
I watched the and loved Jessica Jones and Daredevil season 1. Those were the only shows that I felt mattered out of the four. I felt Luke Cage and Iron Fist were Meh at best and not worth my time. Although I watched the first episode of the Defenders last weekend with a friend and I really enjoyed it. It was easy to pick up the stories of LC and IF and I really enjoyed watching their paths merge together.
I think we are on the same page. I hope you enjoy the rest of the season.
Defenders was a really daring move my Marvels on netfix as they had a huge success with avengers on the big screen.There's a question that always ring in my head which asks if marvel brought this on small screen as a test to see if they can really move a part superhero or the whole team to the big screen like avengers.They brought this to check viewers response.
Oh come on! Iron Fist is not that bad. He's actually one of my top Marvel faves in the comics. The first season was just not done right. I blame Scott Buck for the brunt of it. He just didn't get Iron Fist as a character. It should've been 80% jaw dropping action instead of 50% board room drama. The fight scenes were horrible and the storyline was so thin. I hope the second season gets it right. Though, I think the Defenders fixed his character for the casual fan.
I agree with your list, DD S1 is always at the top. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly), my favorite pairing in The Defenders was DD and JJ. It should've been the Heroes for Hire, but their chemistry wasn't all that great. Once their individual shows are done, I hope they're folded into one Heroes for Hire series.
I have to say though, I was a bit disappointed with The Defenders. Gulp. The Hand wasn't just as intimidating as they should be, like in DD S2. The other fingers should've been introduced in JJ and Luke Cage, with only Alexandra as the new one. For a shadowy, ninja organization, there was just no ninjas. The motivation was also a bit weak. I feel like if they had incorporated JJ and Luke Cage's stories in, it would've felt more complete.
Waiting for watching 😯
@hanshotfirst
Good one...congrats....not easy at all yo finish such a lengthy but interesting series... My regards to your family!
I was on the fence as to watching this on Netflix before reading your review. I'm now going to go have a peek myself. Thank you for your review.
I really liked the series
I believe, it should be really great tv expirience!!!
Jessica Jones 😍 🍆 💦 💦
I liked her better as a doomed junkie.
ma man ;)
Heroine, Yeah Bitch!
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No need to watch this, everything is in this post. Excellent review!
a very good film, with an interesting story and a suspenseful action, a film that very loss if not watchable, I really like the film like that. thanks for the posting you. because some days I don't read about film, so now I just found out that film.
Thanks yoy
Nice post 8-)
I likeit!
Great post
dude what? Villians are sucks.
What is Electra's motivation to killing?
They all said The Hand is powerful. Did you see any power? All leaders of organisation -an old one- is in a god damn building. They have army but we didn't see that. They can die and they are in battlefield. Why? Where is their army or power? So is The Hand wasn't powerful or they are stupid? And when I saw Iron Fist in the fight I wanted to be smash my screen (Hi for Hulk).
For my opunion;
1.Daredevil Season 1
2.Daredevil Season 2
3.The Defenders
4.Luke Cage
5.Jesica Joness
6.My baby videos
7.Iron Fist
LOL! I agree I would rather watch your baby videos than Iron Fist too.
I think Elektra did it because "she is nobody's slave".
Yes, but I think she should has done this step by step. I couldn't believe her motivation when I watching. Sudden transition is only made shock and dramatic effect. But at the same time the narrative structure has causes vacancy. BTW I edited spoiler, sorry for that.
Lol. Thanks for the edit. I agree it wa every quick. It I menut was like she just woke up out of a trance and went for it right away. I do get your point. And the villains did some really dumb things but I loved gao's force power. She reminded me of yoda. It was definitely not perfect but the parts I liked far outweighed the negatives for me.
I agree Gao's force power was good. BTW I was expecting more than Murakami. Because Stick introduced Murakami to us as very cruel. I think I get too much expectation or I'm looking for perfection 😄 Anyway, we watched and we funn. It's even nice to see these characters on screen.
I'll vote your comment later on. It has spoilers so I don't want to put it at the top yet.
If liked iron fist, but I agree that the second half of that show just completely fell off a cliff
I put your baby videos first place;)
😊👍
I like this film, superhero.
Outstanding ,,,,I really like the defender,because in this film there are some very powerful main role players and have a very strong power to defeat the criminals.....
Great post. Haven't seen "The Defenders" yet, but you gave me good reasons to check them out. Enjoyed the read. Thanks 🐓🐓
Very nice Post buddy i really like your hard work
i knew how you feel, we have a 1 year old baby and the time for us is very rare. thanks for sharing this post.
Pos yang sangat bagus,saya suka film itu alur cerita yang sangat bagus.
Nice post. I haven't seen the movie but with all you've said about the movie i think i will be seeing it soon.