TV Review: Marvel's "The Defenders"

In 2015, Marvel and Netflix started us down this path with the first season of Daredevil starring Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. From there we've had series focusing on Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Coulter), and most recently Iron Fist (Finn Jones). These shows have now finally brought together 4 unlikely personalities to team up Avengers style to take on a larger threat. The show is a departure from the four solo series by only being 8 episodes instead of their standard 13. This allows for the telling of a slightly tighter story but also puts some constraints on what the show can do in such a limited time frame. The team takes on a woman named Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) who controls the evil organization, The Hand. She along with Elektra (Elodie Yung) aka The Black Sky work to further goals while trying to destroy New York City in the process. There are things that worked incredibly well in the series, such as Luke and Danny's budding friendship, but the series is also plagued by rushed writing and lack of quality action beats for certain characters. A valiant effort from Marvel Television, but improvements can be and should be made going forward. This review has a SPOILER section that is clearly stated for those who have not watched the season in its entirety. Spoilers begin at 14:55.