Netflix Month: The Defenders - The H Word/Mean Right Hook

Phew, it’s a been big year for Marvel’s Netflix series. In 2018 they’ve brought all their individual shows up to s2 with new series of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and a shorter season of Iron Fist. And they’re yet to slow down with third series of Daredevil and Jessica Jones and another Punisher series (I’m not interested enough in the Punisher to review him, not the fault of the actor, but just the character himself)

We’ll look at Jessica Jones and Luke Cage’s second seasons next year and Iron Fist in early 2020, assuming I’m not burnt out. But before we get to that, here’s the moment this was all building to: The Defenders

After the initially positive but later mixed reception of Luke Cage and the initially negative and later mixed reception of Iron Fist, this series received mixed reception. Has Netflix lost its spark? Let’s find out as we begin Netflix Month

  

With the first 2 episodes of the Defenders.

The H Word

We open in the sewers and pretty quickly into the action, there’s a fight going on between 2 combatants we don’t get a good look at, only that one is male and the other is female. The male is defeated but Iron Fist steps in to rescue him. You know Iron Fist, you should probably use your Iron Fist to break the damn sword before she… to late, she wins the fight and fatally wounds the man.

Colleen arrives as the woman retreats so Iron Fist can chase after her, they fight again with Iron Fist finally using his fist to knock her back but after this she’s gone. Iron Fist returns to the man, he and Colleen have been hunting members of the Hand, presuming trying to figure out what happened to K’un L’un, not that they ever say that. He tells them the war they’re fighting is going down in New York before dying

The credits are pretty damn forgettable this time around and they go on for a good while too. It’s closing time at a bar, so guess who’s here, it’s Jessica Jones. Trish is about to have her car towed but Jessica manages to break the tow cable. They talk, apparently publicists have been asking Jessica for her story but she’s turned them down and I don’t blame her, but for some reason she’s not even doing her regular work, despite getting the window fixed…

It’s a prison but thanks to the files recovered at Pops, and a handy helping Lawyer named Foggy Nelson, he’s being released. But where there’s a Nelson, there’s a Murdock, and we cut to him next. He’s practising for his next case and hears some violent acts outside his house, the NYPD break it up, so he doesn’t intervene. It’s time for his case to go to court. He’s helping a guy named Aaron James and his mother, Aaron has been rendered disabled thanks to exposure to a toxic chemical called endexoprene. Matt argued that he’d wilfully ignored safety warnings, and the case ends with an $11m settlement, and by the sound of it, the possibility of many more lawsuits to come.

Matt gives some inspiring, if harsh, words based on his own experience. Poor kid. But he’s not the focus of today, where there’s a Murdock, there’s a Page, who asks him out to dinner and he accepts. We cut to a Rand Plane heading back to New York. Rand sees the injury he got in the fight, he can hear the sound of people screaming, swords clashing and sees himself walking through a room filled with dead bodies, it’s a nightmare that’s manifested from his guilt from leaving K’un L’un.

Before that scene can fully outstay it’s welcome, we cut to Alexandra, the current leader of the Hand and the ‘main antagonist’ for the seasons. She’s in a surgery, and is told her red blood cell count has dropped significantly and almost all her major organs are on the cusp of failing. She’s taken for an MRI scan

Jessica arrives home to find a mother and daughter waiting for her. Her husband, John Raymond has been missing for a week and his been acting strangely. Jessica tells them he’s probably just a cheat, but when she enters the house, she gets a call in a mysterious voice telling her not to look for him. Also, her house is still in dire straights from her fight with Luke Cage.

Speaking of Luke, he arrives in Harlem and meets up with, who else, Claire Temple, they proceed to have ‘coffee.’ Luke begins to ask about what’s happened in Harlem since he went to jail. Mariah is still being a pain and everything. There’s a knock on the door, and it’s Misty Knight, she wants to talk to him.

Back to Matt and Karen, Karen’s been working at the New York Bulletin and she feels she’s found her talking, Matt admits he’s also happy with his work. Discussion comes to Daredevil and Karen reports that crime has gone down lately thanks to his actions but Matt doesn’t regret his retirement. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Jessica begins her research on Raymond and of course Malcolm invites himself in to do nothing. Malcolm convinces her to trace the call, and Jessica does so, reluctantly and finds he was using a payphone in the city, near where a particularly shady bit of the city is. Back to Luke we find that Misty was put on a taskforce which expands her scope outside of Harlem.

Misty shows Luke a crime scene, and she tells her she feels many of Harlem’s youth have been recruited as late night couriers. No real connections other than each of them having enough to move their family out of Harlem with a decent down-payment for a more luxurious house. Making things worse is the fact that the guy from this crime scene is Candace’s sister. 2 down and only 1 left, Misty wants Luke to help steer the last of the children, Cole, away from this path.

Matt goes to church to confess that he lied when he said that he doesn’t regret his retirement. Seriously? Elektra is brought up in this scene but I’m not here to give an emotional breakdown so I’m moving on back to Alexandra who meets up with Madame Gao in Central Park, with their contact in the Mayor’s office assigned, they’re ready to make their move in 3 months, but Alexandra, knowing how little time she has left, says they need to speed things up. Gao remarks that it will attract attention if they do it this way but Alexandra doesn’t care.

Luke heads out to an apartment block, a pretty shady one at that, looking for Cole. He begins talking to Cole, offering his help and support, Cole tries to play it cool but Luke pries further, noticing his line of expensive shoes. He warns him to back out, think about what his mom has already been through. In another crappy looking complex, Jessica Jones starts her investigation. He finds his apartment but when he’s not in, she breaks the door and enters herself. Inside, she finds a stash of explosives.

Gao and Alexandra meet again, Gao is uncertain about her course of action but she’s made the arrangements. Danny and Colleen are flying over the city and Matt arrives home. He hears dogs barking in the distance as a sizable earthquake rocks Hell’s Kitchen, effecting the apartment Jessica Jones is standing in, cracking the building Colleen and Danny are on, and it’s still felt in Harlem, as Cole’s mother pays her respects to her other son. A street light almost falls on her but Luke manages to save her.

Alexandra watches over the chaos and we see Elektra by her side. The Earthquake causes a lot of problems and Matt can hear them all, screaming, sirens, evacuations, people crying and screaming and shouting.

It’s an interesting starting point. There’s a lot of cutting as we see the current status of all the main players. This means no scene outstays its welcome but also means there’s little to no plot progression and it can feel a bit scatter-brained.

Rating 7/10

Mean Right Hook

The Chaos from the aftermath of the earthquake continues as Matt listens to it all from the roof. He hears a bunch of boys loot a store in the chaos but the owner isn’t happy and is really to kill them all with his gun. Matt’s urges are too strong and he manages to break up the situation so there’s no loss of life. Matt walks away as we roll credits

Trish is worried about Jessica, since her house was near the epicentre I guess so calls her again. When she gets into work on Trish Talk she tries to reassure her listeners about the earthquake, being a simple 4.6 earthquake. But another caller tells her that it can’t be an earthquake, it’s too shallow only 300ft deep compared to the usual depth of up to 50 miles, how this geologist knows this, I can’t tell you because she’s cut off soon after.

Misty heads to a call about the explosives, Jessica’s still there to get interviewed. She’s allowed to leave but Misty notices her taking something and goes after her, but she’s already gone before she can catch up. The Wing Dojo appears undamaged in the Earthquake but having some thought, Colleen has a new sense of hope. The man they came across knew a lot and was fighting the Hand, she sees it as a sign that they have allies. Danny of course is a dumbass and refuses help… Danny is still going to be the most annoying one, isn’t he?

Collen kinda talks him around, and has a lead for him. The guy uses a special and particularly rare katana, she thinks there’s a workshop around here that makes it. Matt heads back into his house and begins washing the blood off his hands. He’s frustrated that he took the action he did and unlocks the chest containing his costume, before hearing Foggy calling and shutting it up.

Luke and Claire are on damage control, Claire providing medical aid to folks without insurance and Luke lifting a piece of building that fell on a car. Claire continues to question Luke doing hero work. I honestly don’t know where Claire stands on anything anymore. Claire eventually concedes and gives him a low-life joint to scope out.

Meanwhile Alexandra is listening to a full orchestra because she apparently has nothing better to do. She’d made a contribution to pay for the earthquake damages for the philharmonic orchestra. Madame Gao arrives and informs her that there’s a wall blocking their path, filled with inscriptions about K’un L’un and can’t be destroyed by conventional means. Alexandra works out quickly that it’s likely the Iron Fist can destroy that wall.

Jessica found an invoice and is investigating its origin, the Twin Oaks shipping company. It’s a weave of mergers and buyouts leading back as far as 1820. Jessica thinks she needs to go back further, and needs an appointment with a different branch. But before things get exciting Hogarth steps in for her contractually obligated cameo. Don’t expect her to be in this one too much.

Foggy and Matt meet at Josie’s. Foggy has provided him a few clients that he’s too busy to deal with. The idea is to keep Matt busy so he can’t step out as Daredevil. Back to Jessica, Hogarth tries to get her to step away, there’s a lot of Law enforcement now hunting him down, and he’s on a federal watch list. Her intentions to aide may get her shot on sight. Jessica is her usual brand of defiant.

So, back to the shady bar and finds Turk and pushes him against the wall. According to him, Mariah and Shades have been quiet and he knows nothing about the guys recruiting the kids in Harlem. Luke applies some pressure and gets the name ‘White Hat’ and a location. Oh look, Danny and Colleen are arriving at the same location, or thereabouts.

They find blood out the back and when they explore further a bunch of dead bodies. Danny sees that the bodies weren’t long dead. Danny finds a poster on the wall, one depicting K’un L’un. We cut back to Luke as a van approaches and a guy in a white Hat is seen, a bunch of Harlem kids are loaded into the truck. Luke calls Misty but then sees that Cole is among them and holds off giving her a location.

Hogarth talks to Foggy, asks him to keep an eye out and keep anything involving Jessica from affecting the firm. Jessica arrives home and calls Trish but before we can get there, Jessica finds her door open, her chain sliced through. Malcolm is there but it’s not just him. John is in there with a gun to his head.

Back to Danny, they hear a van stop by, a bunch of guys in haz-mat suits begin bleaching the bodies. Raymond thinks briefly that Jessica works with the Hand, but of course he can’t call them the Hand so Jessica has to keep prying, making him more nervous. He was trying to stop the Hand with those explosives. Elektra cuts through the door and enters, grabbing Raymond by the neck, he shoots himself before she can kill him. Jessica chases after her but she’s already gone, and Misty finally catches up with her.

Back in the workshop, Danny and Colleen confront the Harlem youths. One of them makes a run for it but Danny catches up with him and tries to interrogate him. But it a little defiant to believe when he says he doesn’t really know who the Hand is. And we get the first confrontation with Luke Cage. Luke initially has the upper hand thanks to his unbreakable skin but eventually Danny summons the Iron Fist. Cole is eventually caught by the police as Danny and Colleen make a run for it.

Alexandra meets with her captive, Stick. He’s the last of ‘his kind.’ Misty interrogates Jessica down at the precinct and Matt is introduced as her new attorney.

This seems like an odd place to end. But this does feel like it’s making steps in the right direction. Jessica’s case brings her closer than most others but Luke Cage and Iron Fist encounter each other for the first time. It’s funny that took nearly 2 hours to happen, it won’t be until the end of the next episode before all 4 are in the same room together.

Rating 7.5/10

Next time I have some stuff to get off my chest so you can enjoy that then.