10 Thoughts/Questions: Marvel’s The Defenders

Guess who's got two thumbs and watched the Defenders? This guy! And that means it's time for a new installment of 10 Thoughts/Questions! It took me a bit to get around to this as I was still finishing the excellent Korean show Reply 1998 (look for a 10 Thoughts/Questions installment on that pretty soon) to get the Iron Fist taste out of my mouth. I’m very happy to report that this was better than Iron Fist.
Spoilers ahoy!

1. I loved, loved, loved the color palettes used to differentiate the four main characters in the first two episodes: red for Matt, blue for Jessica, yellow for Luke, and green for Danny. It was a nice little touch. They even brought it back in the last episode, and used it to pretty good effect when they faked us out on the rooftop scene (Danny was in a very Matt pose while the Empire State Building glowed red). I fell for that fakeout so hard, I actually thought Matt had somehow gotten the power of the Iron Fist from Shou-Lao's bones or something, and had to rewind to make sure (the girl pointed out that Matt doesn't have such a stupid face, and it's clearly Danny).

2. Speaking of Danny Rand, this dude is officially the Dumbest Motherfucker Alive. He gets called dumb or stupid by almost every major character on the show (Gao and Bakuto had already gotten their licks in on his own show, but come at him again anyway), and he shows it almost every chance he gets, but especially in that fight scene with Elektra in the hole. Dude, of course she wants you to power up the fist. You are such an unbelievable dumbass. I very much enjoyed Matt kicking his ass in the warehouse, however, because Matt is clearly the much better fighter. And the fact that he was somebody's captive for like half the show made me laugh. All that said, Danny still somehow manages to tag Elektra not once, not twice, but three fucking times with his glowing fist. Like, sidestep that shit, woman! You're also a much better fighter than him!

3. The opening credits are super boss, with the four main characters overlayed on the city grid of Manhattan. And did you notice how almost all the surnames of the actors in the opening credits referred to existing NYC subway lines? Not all of them (there's no H line anymore, for example), but enough of them. New York the city was very important to this show, and had been to most of the individual shows as well, so it was nice for it to be so prominently displayed in the opening credits.

4. I have been waiting for ages for Misty Knight and Colleen Wing to get some screen time together, so I was very happy the three times it happens on the show, even though they didn't happen for very long, and there wasn't even a hint of them starting a Daughters of the Dragon business together. I gotta say, though, Colleen's whining about various shit got old pretty quick. In fact, it seems like all the characters introduced in Iron Fist (Danny, Colleen, Bakuto) got the short end of the stick here, story and dialogue-wise. I mean, I already hated most of them, but it seems like the writers really wanted to remind me of that.

5. I really love Sigourney Weaver, so I was hoping and expecting her character of Alexandra to make it to the end. I was quite sad she was taken off the board short of the finish line. I mean, fucking Bakuto lasted longer than she did. There is no justice in the world. I don’t really understand the point of having such an important mythos figure introduced in this show only to kill her off six episodes in. In fact, most of the five fingers of the Hand, people who’ve been alive for centuries, get murdered in this show pretty fucking easily, and that was a shame.

6. Jessica Jones detecting the hell out of everything was awesome. She didn't believe in none of the Hand nonsense until her being the best comic book detective this side of the Batman told her otherwise. Also, she threw shade like it was an Olympic sport and there was no chance she was losing that gold medal.

7. Madame Gao taking on both Luke and Jessica in that car park fight scene was the absolute best! Yeah, this granny can totally hold her own, and there's no way she died at the bottom of that hole. I mean, if Matt survived, there's no way Gao didn't. The fight scenes in general were pretty fun in this show, especially when they didn't focus on Danny Rand. The fight scene in the Midland Circle boardroom was pretty neat, the aforementioned car park fight scene, with Matt taking on Bakuto and Murakami while Gao fought the tanks, Matt whomping on Danny in the warehouse. Even Colleen and Bakuto's swordfight was fun. None of them rose to the awesomeness of that Daredevil one-take hallway beatdown from season 1, but still, fun stuff.

8. Speaking of Murakami, I loved that he just spoke Japanese the whole time with no subtitles. The entire production crew was like, just deal with it, audience.

9. Stick cutting off his own hand to escape the Hand was badass as hell, and I'm already mourning that cantankerous old man. Seriously, though, his whole right hand. Jesus.

10. I don't think I'm alone in this, but even with the equal time devoted to the other three leads, and even with all the extra characters in play, this still felt like Daredevil Season 2.5. Or more accurately, Daredevil and Elektra Season 1. Their story was central to this show, and everything else hung on their relationship. It’s why Stick shows up again, it’s why Matt works with these other dudes in the first place, it’s why Alexandra is murdered, etc. Without their doomed love, we don’t have this show.