Netflix Month - The Defenders - Fish in the Jailhouse/The Defenders

Let’s finish this series, and Netflix Month shall we?

Fish in the Jailhouse

We open some time ago with Elektra talking to Stick, you remember way back when Elektra tried to convince Matt to kill the guy who killed his father, she’s discussing her failure here to Stick. Next, we see Stick’s bloodied corpse, with Luke, Jessica and Matt all unconscious around it. The police arrive, despite knowing literally nothing, what cause did they have to come here?

Jessica wakes up in a prison cell and Misty Knight demanding answers, and I’m getting rather sick of the ‘the less you know’ trope they keep pulling. Misty Knight is tracking the Hand, she’s already in danger, knowing what she’s up against can only help her prepare! Jessica is at least smart enough to tell her that the guy who killed Stick is the same one who came after John Raymond.

Matt wakes up… not in a cell. Foggy approaches him, tells him that it’s a relief that he wasn’t wearing the suit or his identity would be exposed. That said, I think with the Hand and the police (at least with Misty) your identity is pretty much shot. Anyway, the cops have questions but Matt wants to get after Danny. Of course we’re gonna get the ‘resurrected? This is such bullsh*t’ thing again, Luke did this in the last episode!

Misty comes by but Matt’s refusal to say anything lands him in trouble. Claire is tending to Luke and Colleen is desperate for answers about what happened to Danny.Luke wakes up but he’s not sure what happened.

Meanwhile, Elektra is busy being talked at by the Hand, and Misty is busy talking to the Defenders. I feel like I’m in Star Wars prequel…. GET ON WITH IT! Finally gives them a bit of background, but then declares it has to be ‘us’ (by which the police must assume he means him and Jessica) Matt gets them a room together in private, with Misty advising them to trust them. Karen gets a word in… they really want me to hate Daredevil’s supporting cast, don’t they? As much as Trish becomes f*cking intolerable in Jessica Jones s2, she’s not constantly pulling her back like this.

Colleen gets a good look at Misty’s photo board and it looks pretty bad. Time for Misty to talk to Luke, and we get the same bullsh*t. This scene is pointless moving on… Elektra takes Danny down the Midland Circle tunnel. Madame Gao tells the others to trust her until they have the substance. After which, there’s no real threat.

Danny begins coming around but let’s get back to Foggy, who warns that if Matt gets investigated, they’ll reopen every one of his cases, and he’s in the disbarring line too. With that in mind, he’s got Matt a change of clothes (hooray for Foggy doing something useful). Moments later Misty’s treated to the alarm going off as Luke has punched through the wall.

More talking, talking, nothing but talking, make it stop! Make it stop! So, beneath Midland Circle is a barrier an Iron Fist sealed something ago, and it takes another Iron Fist to open it. In the commotion over the escape of our heroes, Colleen sneaks into the evidence room and recovers the blueprints to Midland Circle. Seeing it, she begins stockpiling the explosives. Needing to keep off the streets, Luke, Jessica and Matt (and they think Luke kidnapped Matt, hahaha) use Jessica’s metro card to take the train.

After another scene reminding me why I’m currently hating both Foggy and Karen, we get a scene of why I like Claire and Misty. Misty knows Luke means well and is trying to find the middle ground that keeps them both happy. Claire knows Luke and may not know what he’s up to, but trusts that he’s doing what he has to do, consequences be damned and she’s ok with it. Misty soon realises Colleen is missing.

Jessica, Luke and Daredevil prepare their entrance, but before them are Bakuto, Madame Gao and Murukami. Elektra lets Danny out of his restraints as Elektra tries to draw connections between them and she’s actually kinda right, but Danny’s having none of it and finally, after 35 minutes of talking, we get an action scene.

Murukami hasn’t had a great showing so far, despite being the guy behind Nobu, and it’s not helped here when both him and Bakuto are fighting Daredevil together, and he’s still holding his own. Gao is having a bit more luck and Elektra is able to match blows with Danny. Murukami decides to switch to Luke which is just really stupid as Gao and Jessica prove an interesting match.

Colleen joins the fight, focusing primarily on Bakuto. Realising they’re outmatched, Murukami orders a retreat. Elektra has Danny down, hoping for him to summon the Iron Fist, but Danny refuses. But she gets him angry enough and he punches her back. Misty and Claire arrive on the scene. Misty’s backup will arrive soon, and she asks how long she wants them stalled. Danny’s still chi’d up and Elektra forces the key into the wall.

With the cops arriving, and it’s time for a moral debate and sh*t, we’re back to more talking aren’t we. Less than 6 minutes of action folks, get used to that. Colleen reveals about the explosives she brought. Though getting Danny out is great, this still need to end the Hand, and they best way to do that is enact the plan made by John Raymond, the guy who Jessica was trying to find.

Daredevil can sense that the building is empty, you know aside from the hundreds of cops who are on top of you. But you know, aside from them, it’s just our group and the Hand. Claire is less happy and Jessica is bloody terrified of being implicated in all this. But Daredevil says that’s what they’ll do so next time they’ll be doing it. Danny wakes up under a skeleton.

I know the interactions between the Defenders is essential and can be entertaining in its own right, and the supporting cast too, but 39 minutes of talking and only 6 minutes of action in the penultimate episode, the one that is supposed to up the ante for the main climax of the series is totally unacceptable.

Rating 5.5/10

The Defenders

Oh god, the moral debate continues. Luke is adamantly against this but Claire has come around and all the others agree. At this point, Luke has no viable alternative that keeps the Hand stopped and not going after innocent kids in Harlem or personal connections to them, so he takes it, but asks that no-one else is harmed in the process. Roll credits

Elektra stands in the skeleton of a dragon as Madame Gao comes to inform her of the arrival of the others, also that extracting the substance will weaken the grounds beneath a swath of New York and bring it to ruin, killing many. Danny is hiding, overhearing everything that’s said. So the blueprints have support columns and the plan was to plant the explosives there (duh) Colleen and Claire are staying behind to plant the explosives whilst the others go to rescue Danny. Can we get on with it, now?

Misty soon discovers the missing C4, and it’s soon realised what the group plan to do with it. Misty is really close to the edge here. Back to Karen, oh joy, and we finally see her interacting with Trish as they both examine the evidence bored. The character I loathe from this season meets the character I will loathe in the next series. It’s interesting how these two get along, they’re both sleuths with a good instinct, and want to get to the bottom of the Hand. Karen has done a complete 180 in this scene. F*ck you

Daredevil discovers a fake door, with an elevator behind it and now we’ve had all the pre-requisite talking scenes, we’re finally gonna get some more action… But before then, here’s some more talking as we cut to Collen and Claire, they’ve found a weak spot and begin planting the C4. They hear someone coming and it’s Bakuto so, are we finally gonna get some action.

Nope, cut to Misty as she’s making a phone call. Bakuto notices the bag and begins trying to scare them out. Collen elects to face him, turns out Misty was phoning Claire and Bakuto hears the phone ring and finally 15 minutes and 28 seconds into the episode, admittedly a marked improvement over the last one but still far too late, the action begins again, but we don’t focus on that, we focus on, what else, two people talking as Misty and Claire talk and Misty decides to shoot her way into the building.

In the caverns, Danny begins taking out members of the Hand until Madame Gao confronts him and begins talking at him. Murakami gets him in a headlock but Elektra tells them to stop for some reason. Needing a plan to get the drop on all of them, Jessica comes down alone, claiming to want to talk. She opens her mouth long enough for the others to drop in. The Hand guards are pretty useless and guess who gets knocked out first, if your guess is Murakami then you’re absolutely right.

Claire gets a pipe and soon finds she needs one as two members of the Hand show themselves completely inept, another gets the drop on her until he’s shot by Misty Knight. The group are together but all the guys they just knocked out are back up again and ready to fight. This calls for a rap song, this is really out of left field for this show? Murakami vs Luke, he loses again, great. Elektra is still standing as Madame Gao retreats into the shadows and Danny runs out of chi.

Misty does next to nothing to stop Bakuto and is knocked back, so it’s up to Collen again. Claire tries a sneak attack but she’s not skilled enough and it doesn’t go that well and she soon has two swords to the neck. Misty tries to save her but loses an arm in the process. Collen steps in and manages to decapitate him. Is he dead this time? In the fight the charges are armed, with less than 10 minutes before they detonate. Which in respect is a really long time, did John expect them not to be found and disarmed in that time.

Elektra is holding her own against all 4 of them, mostly because they keep coming at her one at a time. How she’s able to hurt Luke I still don’t get. But Daredevil can hear the explosives. When they start working together, they manage to knock her back but then Daredevil tells the others to leave before the bombs go off, as he still wants to try and get through to Elektra. They head back to the elevator and have to fight off the same goons AGAIN as they’re climbing up after them.

The fight between Matt and Elektra is one of the better ones, with Matt holding back and being weakened by her attacks. But most of the fight is them exchanging banter. Elektra throws her sword at an elevator cable, Jessica manages to catch them, but not before we get yet another fight where Murakami gets his ass handed to him, this time he dies, I think. The police manage to storm the building and we soon hear on dispatch that officers are being evacuated.

Elektra and Matt’s dance continues, Elektra wants him at her side and you can tell she’s enjoying it. Gao is back for some reason… I don’t know if they intent was just to make it clear she dies as well or I don’t know but the bombs go off and entire building collapses into the hole. Matt and Elektra kiss as the end comes for them. This… is a fitting ending for all that’s happened with Matt. He’s the one who started it all they knew that Charlie Cox is the best fighter of the group. Everyone’s brought back to the police station and Foggy and Karen soon realise that Matt isn’t coming.

Somehow, Jessica, Luke and Colleen are let off the hook. I don’t know if Misty vouched for them or whether they found out something but apparently the cover is there was some illegal construction work in Midland Circle and that what caused the tremor. Jessica pays Trish is visit, and she’s not taking any credit, and is still thinking of Matt, something I don’t think carries over very much to her visit.

So, how were they all let off the hook, well it’s part of the cover story than none of their story actually happened, so the police didn’t file a report and they can’t press charges. Foggy clearly feels a bit guilty about his role in all this, Claire consoles him on that. Misty wakes up in Hospital, Danny’s taken care of her medical expenses and since he owns the hospital, he can help Misty with her limb problem too… I see a robotic arm in her future.

Jessica drowns her sorrows the only way she knows how, at the bar as Luke joins her. Luke doesn’t show up Jessica Jones s2, which is a pity really as whilst this series is not the greatest, the leads all have potential and dynamics to explore. Danny is meditating back at the dojo as Colleen returns from the hospital. Before he died, Matt told him to protect the city, words Danny is taking to heart.

Jessica returns home, bottle in hand and finds that Malcolm’s been busy repairing her flat, she uncovers her sign again and is getting back to work. Karen cries in the church. Because Matt isn’t officially dead and can’t be without him being revealed as Daredevil, they can’t have a funeral. She’s dropped the story, as it could paint clues for someone to follow. Karen seems in denial, thinking he might’ve made it out, Foggy comes in and consoles her as we see Danny on a rooftop at night.

As for Matt, well with DD s3 having been announced before this came out, you know he wasn’t staying dead, he wakes up with a nun at his bedside.

It’s a reasonable enough end, there’s definitely plenty of action in this one, even if it seems a little too easy.

Rating 7/10

My feelings on the Defenders are… complicated to say the least. On one hand, it’s a crying shame there are no plans to follow this up. On the other, this series didn’t stack up. It’s biggest issue is pacing, it takes too long for them to come together and after they do, it’s too much talk and not enough action. The Hand fail to impress, most of them, whilst skilled, are cannon fodder when the likes of Luke Cage or Jessica Jones are about. 

Elektra stands above that, but rides mostly on what’s already established about her and her history, and also plot convenience. It also rides too much on Iron Fist, ironically taking him out of the fight too much and the fact we get to see a lot more of Finn Jones’ whining.

My opinion is this miniseries should’ve been 5 episodes, the first 4 episodes condensed into 2, cutting down the Hand bickering that took most of 5 and 6 and use the extra time to add more action, maybe finally seeing why Murukami is so revered. The Hand kidnapping Danny should happen near the end of 4, with the final episode condensing 7 and 8 around his rescue and stopping the Hand. 

Perhaps, instead of having the group arrested after the cops conveniently found them, refocus that on them trying to gain the explosives stealthily but everything going wrong, leading to the manhunt, maybe have them discover the bodies after, intensifying the battle.