I watched the first episode, and all I could think of while watching it was all the things about the individual series that I disliked.
One of those being how completely separate it is from the rest of the MCU when it's supposed to be part of the universe. I don't need Iron Man or anyone to show up, but it would've been nice to see them someone comment about calling in the Avengers.
in other news, the sky is blue!
netflix is very unlucky to share universe with big superhero movies that cant and wont acknowledge their existence cause every single one already has a lot of shit to put in
so, since netflix series cant be meaningfully connected to movies, they do their best to keep attention away from a giant inevitable plothole of "wheres Avengers?" because reminding you of that risks ruining your immersion and making your story look meaningless as agents of shield would attest
trust me, it would be way dumber if they thought to call the avengers and didnt for some bullshit reason.
Honestly I would buy it if someone asked "why can't we call the Avengers?" and someone else was like "why, so they can show up, fight each other, and level the neighborhood???"
in other news, the sky is blue!
netflix is very unlucky to share universe with big superhero movies that cant and wont acknowledge their existence cause every single one already has a lot of shit to put in
so, since netflix series cant be meaningfully connected to movies, they do their best to keep attention away from a giant inevitable plothole of "wheres Avengers?" because reminding you of that risks ruining your immersion and making your story look meaningless as agents of shield would attest
trust me, it would be way dumber if they thought to call the avengers and didnt for some bullshit reason.
Honestly I would buy it if someone asked "why can't we call the Avengers?" and someone else was like "why, so they can show up, fight each other, and level the neighborhood???"
Personally, I would totally accept a response of "They're in X dealing with Y." Or even just having like Hawkeye or someone explaining to them that 'no, the Avengers won't be getting involved with this because it's too small scale for us.'
Edit: Basically, either acknowledge they exist and justify why they never show up, or split away entirely and stop pretending to be part of the MCU.
Personally, I would totally accept a response of "They're in X dealing with Y." Or even just having like Hawkeye or someone explaining to them that 'no, the Avengers won't be getting involved with this because it's too small scale for us.'
Edit: Basically, either acknowledge they exist and justify why they never show up, or split away entirely and stop pretending to be part of the MCU.
Frankly just talking about calling in SHIELD would probably serve the same purpose. Picture this as they head in to deal with the plot point at the end of the season:
Danny - "Why don't we call SHIELD?"
Jessica - "Didn't they get disbanded?"
Matt - "They got reformed."
Luke - "Does anyone actually know how to get their attention in the next five minutes?"
Everyone - " ... "
but every excuse and justification possible will be so fucking dumb
like, entire new york is endanger, theres no excuse for avengers to sit out something like this
its gonna be the same stupid thing when chtistopher eccleston rampaged through london and avengers didnt care
paying jeremy runners paycheck for a cameo? monsieur knows the sickest things, i see.
but every excuse and justification possible will be so fucking dumb
like, entire new york is endanger, theres no excuse for avengers to sit out something like this
its gonna be the same stupid thing when chtistopher eccleston rampaged through london and avengers didnt care
paying jeremy runners paycheck for a cameo? monsieur knows the sickest things, i see.
but every excuse and justification possible will be so fucking dumb
like, entire new york is endanger, theres no excuse for avengers to sit out something like this
its gonna be the same stupid thing when chtistopher eccleston rampaged through london and avengers didnt care
It's unlikely any of them could have gotten to London from other continents in the 20 minutes or so Dark Elf Eccelston was fighting Thor.
Also, given the current state of the Avengers, even if anyone in the Defenders knew how to contact them, it's questionable whether or not Tony could get UN approval to act in New York City in the time they had.
Also, given the current state of the Avengers, even if anyone in the Defenders knew how to contact them, it's questionable whether or not Tony could get UN approval to act in New York City in the time they had.
I haven't finished it yet, but if the plot goes like the other shows, where its half in the shadows, I don't see the Avengers or SHIELD learning about it in time to do anything but investigate wtf happened, if even that. There's like 2 1/2 Avengers left (Spidey doesn't really count yet to me and he's busy with the Vulture) that wouldn't have at least a special forces team descend on them the moment they came out of hiding (or shit SHIELD themselves). And I'm sure Iron Man and Vision are busy doing other shit for the UN or whatever. So its completely plausible for these folks to all be in the same universe where the Defenders are fighting these bad guys while the Avengers fight others.
The heroes were great. Iron Fist is still annoying but in an acknowledged manner that gets called out. He also has better fight scenes.
Really wasn't impressed by the villains. The Defenders sets up The Hand as being led by 5 figures who have been around for centuries.
The 2 we know already are:
Madame Gao. She worked in Daredevil because she tended to stay out of the action and created an almost eldritch atmosphere ("How many languages do you speak? "All of them.") that really worked. The Defenders loved sticking her in the action scenes (even more than fucking Sigourney Weaver) with some very unimpressive Iron Fist-style seizure-inducing editing, so she could get punted by Jessica Jones and then suddenly become an urban Sith Lord.
I honestly hope she comes back at the very least so a decent writer can give her a better exit
And then we have
Bakuto. Just like he was in Iron Fist. Woo.
3 of them were completely new and would have probably benefited from a longer season that delved more into their characters:
Firstly, we have Alexandra, played by Sigourney Weaver. She's basically a perfect example of why "show, don't tell" exists as a rule. She was continuously hyped up but everything she did was underwhelming and disappointing. Normally when a new villain is introduced you have a period of build-up/hype before a spectacular reveal/demonstration (or you just open with the demonstration to shock the audience). But when you're three quarters of the way through the plot and still hyping up one of the main antagonists then the audience just becomes impatient.
And then disappointed when nothing actually happens.
Then we have Sowande, the African warlord. Here was a clear opportunity to show how The Hand weren't just stereotypical Asians but rather an international organisation. In the end, he was filler and did nothing. Very disappointing.
I mean, what the actual fuck, Luke Cage literally defeats him off-screen and then he dies. That's it.
Finally, we have Murakami, the Japanese leader who essentially acts as a Nobu replacement (his senior, somehow), except he manages to be far less imposing and threatening. Outside of fights, I actually quite liked him but during the major fight scenes he was honestly difficult to differentiate from the random gang-members, both in stature and in effect. He basically never wins a fight, especially since 90% of the time he's up against Luke Cage, who he can only poke aggressively.
