The Defenders


Molly

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Arguably the best move they could make. Instead of changing up Danny Rand's whiteness, they bring in an actual Asian character. PLUS, in Ultimate Spider-Man, Shang and Danny were bros, not Luke and Danny. That'll be interesting to see develop towards whichever way.

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I'm two episodes in and while the first season was something I considered to be the best thing the Marvel Cinematic universe had, I'm totally unimpressed with this season. It's only in the vicinity of interesting when Punisher is onscreen (about 10 minutes out of 90). Whose fucking show is this? Terrible writing. Zero characterization of the main characters. Boring storytelling. This show went from something that was the best thing marvel Studios had to offer to something I'm only going to give one more episode.

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The first few episodes are terrible. It doesn't get good until after the trial.

Edit: Ok so I finished it.

 It was a big letdown compared to last season. I didn't like how Matt and Foggy were basically assholes to each other for no reason. The two tacked on love stories that didn't go anywhere were pointless. The Punisher was good but once again, the best part of the season was Kingpin and he was only in a couple episodes. What point does Karen even have on this show other than damsel in distress and love interest? Every time it seems like she's getting something good to do it turns out it's just so she can be saved once again.

Edited by JackFetch
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Eight episodes in. I'm liking this season more because it's A) less stressful than the first season and B) a lot more like traditional Daredevil comics with Matt's conflicting identities crashing into each other. Matt, Foggy and Karen are all great characters that you want to see succeed no matter how horrible circumstances get or them.

 

It really bugs me that they've turned Elektra into Talia. 

In what way do you think? I will agree that the "Man Without Fear" take on her isn't my preferred version, but with episode 8 she becomes a lot more like the initial Miller run with the introduction of the Chaste and her conflict with Stick. Loved the ending. I'm not picking up any Talia vibes m'self.

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Like the previous season, it took awhile to get going, which I again put on the Netflix model; efficiently getting to the point goes to the wayside when your episodes drop all at once and can be up to a full hour. There were compelling elements like The Punisher and the one-er in episode 3, but a lot was stretched and padded. Once it got to the trial, the quality went up and it felt like Daredevil again. This reached its peak with the episodes where Vincent D'Onofrio returned. While D'Onofrio was the best part of the first season, the Kingpin deviated pretty far from the comics. Here though, this is a perfect translation. The conversation between Matt and Fisk is one of my favorite comic adaptation moments ever; it so perfectly captures those characters and their relationship. The Hand story afterward was good, and I liked Elektra more when they went into her backstory, but I didn't think the story was as strong as the comics. It was pretty cheap to already unearth her body for a cliffhanger, too.

The characterization of The Punisher was interesting since this is him at the beginning. He's more human, talking about his family several times and not just being a silent killing machine. Crucially, despite this and Karen's degree of sympathy for him, the show doesn't forget what The Punisher is. Opening fire in a hospital, the prison massacre, using Karen as bait, crashing the car with the truck that was more about getting revenge on Clancy Brown than saving Karen...he's still The Punisher, just not completely guarded yet. Him just showing up to snipe a couple ninjas was dopey though. Speaking of Karen, I think she's a great character. She's so proactive, keeps pushing even when her life is threatened, and her becoming a reporter is a great bit of growth.   

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Like with the season 1 finale and the Jessica Jones finale, this finale left a teeny bit to be desired. I too wish they didn't blow their wad on the Death/Return of Elektra plot, partly because Bullseye killing her is so iconic I have a hard time getting past that. SO GLAD Matt finally confessed to Karen. That was building all season, it was a relief to see it. I really didn't want Nelson and Murdock to go away, but that's happened in the comics like half a dozen times, and there was a long stretch of time between Born Again and Kevin Smith's run...basically over ten years where they were not working together. I like the classic DD stuff, but they're not going against the comics.

Agree with Chris, THIS was the friggin' Kingpin. The scene of him eating next to the dying guy, his interactions with the Punisher and ESPECIALLY his confrontation with Matt Murdock...that was fucking dead-on. Between those scenes, all of the trial stuff and every inch of the Matt/Foggy relationship, you cannot say that the people behind this show don't know the comics.

Overall I think I enjoyed this season more, but I wouldn't disagree that it wasn't as tight as season 1. Season 1 stressed me out near the end, where this was much more recognizably Daredevil. Fighting ninjas, Elektra and Stick, the billy club/grappling hook. Hell his cowl was damn near perfected, he looked like a Wally Wood DD all throughout the back half of the season.

Elden Henson did an even better job as Foggy, and I always liked him in the role. I loved their fight in the bathroom of the courthouse. Deborah Ann Woll might be my favorite MCU "love interest" character. I love how she's always given a ton to do. I loved Elodie Yung as Elektra. She wasn't written completely on point, she was much more quippy and wisecrack-y than the character is in the comics, but the rich girl aspect is true to form. Miller's original silent assassin character is so awesome though, I'm slightly disappointed we didn't get that take, although her very first scene at the end of episode 5 was perfect. LOVED Matt coming in after a date with Karen and completely caught off guard with Elektra sitting in his room the entire time.

Like Chris said, this is definitely a younger, more emotionally open Punisher than we've ever seen. It caught me off guard at times, but the presentation and the violence of the character was on point. Hopefully he won't talk as much in future appearances, as there are times when Berenthal made him sound a bit too much like a thug. The Punisher's a killing machine force of nature, so hopefully he will develop like Kingpin did.

I liked the flow of this season. I liked how it wasn't another 13 hour movie like season 1 so we saw more shades of the characters. DD got a solid costume upgrade, we saw great use of his powers, the secret ID conflicts gave great Spider-Man-like troubles, and his interaction with the Punisher was very well done. They made for a fun team-up. Honestly this surpasses the Flash for me in terms of best comic show because even when it's not as tight as it's been in the past, I'm rarely not enjoying it.

Edited by Donomark
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