Remember these? People seem to forget these existed these days. They just kind of disappeared. Question is: are they right in doing so?
Marvel’s brief relationship with Netflix turned out to be an odd one. Sure, we got a bunch of R-rated adaptations of fitting characters. We even got a team-up show between them. But aside from Daredevil, none of them achieved much success beyond ‘oh, it got a season two’. Even then, one of them never got it!
Poor, poor Defenders… Is what I would say if that were a tragedy.
There are six shows in total. They are:
- Daredevil (3 Seasons)
- Jessica Jones (3 Seasons)
- Luke Cage (2 Seasons)
- Iron Fist (2 Seasons)
- Defenders (1 Season)
- Punisher (2 Seasons)
Today, I’m going to go through them, show by show, and give a very brief summary of my thoughts on them. I do so with a simple question in mind: were these shows worthwhile? Or did we all waste our time?
Let’s start with Daredevil. This one is easily the best, being the most consistently good. Seasons one and two have great stories, featuring some truly intense and intimidating villains and great dialogue. Plus, it has some of the coolest action scenes in a Marvel show. That one hallway fight in season one is better than literally anything we got in any of the other shows.
Unfortunately, by season three, it was clear the writers ran out of steam. They realized they had nowhere to go after the Punisher plotline, so they pulled a desperation play and just brought Fisk back. It’s not as bad as some of the other shows get, but it’s definitely a downgrade from the previous seasons.
Still, it’s better than Jessica Jones. Because let’s be honest: David Tennant carried that show completely. He single-handedly carried it with his performance as Kilgrave. None of the other characters were even close to that interesting or charismatic. Maybe I’m biased, but he was in a league of his own!
Then they murdered him and made two more seasons without him. Two seasons that had some of the worst special effects work I’ve ever seen. Fun fact: just speeding up the footage doesn’t make for a convincing super-speed effect.
And then there’s Luke Cage. Did anyone actually watch this one? It’s so bland that I don’t even have anything to say about it. I didn’t hate watching it, but I also felt this strong sense of boredom all throughout. Also, the actor really needs to figure out what to do with his hands. He never knows what to do with the damn things!
Next was Iron Fist. I don’t even want to talk about this one. The whole show boils down to one line: “I am the legendary Iron Fist.” And that’s it. That’s the main character. That one line. No other character traits. Just that one line. Over. And over. And over again. If it were any more obvious that the writers had no clue what to do, they’d have fucking written it on his shirt! I genuinely don’t know why they bothered, given how pathetic this show is.
Oh, right. Money.
Then came Defenders. This is the one they’d built up to for so long, with all the mentions of The Hand and all that crap. Unfortunately, they kind of dropped the ball. It just turned out a generic, boring super-hero team-up. Nothing that happens is especially interesting or memorable. It felt like it shouldn’t even exist; like it was made because superhero team-ups are just what needs to happen in these franchises.
It certainly didn’t help that we got more Iron Fist. Seriously, who the fuck wrote this dude? The lead producer’s four-year-old son?
And finally, we come to the final show: Punisher. This one is split right down the middle. The first season is great, featuring some great character writing, fantastic visuals, and spectacular action scenes. The second season isn’t bad by any means, but it’s certainly a lot harder to get through. Mainly because you know that it’s not going to get a satisfying ending, given that these shows got shot and were left to drown.
Still, it’s always fun to watch the Punisher gouge a dude’s eyes out with his thumbs. Does that say something frightening about me? Probably. But you guys should be well familiar with my pension for violence at this point.
All in all, these shows were… not exactly worth it. Daredevil and Punisher were good! But all the other ones… no. No thank you. They fail both as superhero shows and R-rated dramas. As sad as it is to see the good ones end, I can’t say I mourne the others. In the end, they were a big waste of time.
They didn’t even show up in Endgame. Why the fuck didn’t motherfucking Punisher show up and just shoot Thanos in the chest?! Come on, guys!
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