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The Defenders--Marvel/Netflix

It's called building suspense. If a story gives you everything immediately, it's all downhill from there. Making you wait for the payoff makes it more satisfying when it comes.

I wouldn't call it suspense though. I would call it a slow start, at least talking about this series.
 
I kept thinking this Hand business must not be that big a deal to the goings-on of the world for Tony Stark not to show an interest. No "I see you brought a Black Sky to a Hulk fight." Friendly, neighborhood webslinger too busy taking pictures of himself snaring purse snatchers? Dr. Strange? I figure the Hand would be right up his alley. Maybe he and Stark are racing each other in exotic sports cars. Both of them cheating.

The Hand? Yeah, yeah, the world is already ran by cabals of wealthy elitists, one group of immortals doesn't change things. We got interdimensional aliens to fight.
 
I wouldn't call it suspense though. I would call it a slow start, at least talking about this series.

Same difference. You don't put the payoff in the first act. There's a reason there are appetizers before the main course, warmup bands before the big show, etc.

They couldn't just slam all the characters together right away. The whole nature of the story is that these are characters who exist in different worlds from each other and are not joiners by nature. Bringing them together is something that has to be earned. And the payoff is worth the wait.
 
Not only that, but the first couple episodes focused on the natural continuation of those characters' respective storylines that organically progresses into them meeting for their own legitimate reasons. I much preferred the show taking its time doing that instead of forcibly and unauthentically pushing them together for sake of bringing them together.
 
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Not only that, but the first couple episodes focused on the natural continuation of those characters' respective storylines that organically progresses into them meeting for the own legitimate reasons. I much preferred the show taking its time doing that instead of forcibly and unauthentically pushing them together for sake of bringing them together.

Exactly. In a way, this is the "next season" of all four shows, making significant changes that will affect all four shows going forward (though maybe Jessica Jones less than the others). Let's see...
Daredevil: Matt is believed dead and is convalescing in a convent. He's returned to the vigilante life. Elektra is probably still alive too, and he knows she's back.
Jessica Jones: Maybe Jess and Luke being on friendly terms again will have a payoff.
Luke Cage: Ditto. Also Luke is out of prison, and Misty has her bionic arm now.
Iron Fist: The Hand is defeated and Danny has a new mission to save this -- err, protect the city. Danny has hopefully gained some maturity as well. Misty will be involved, probably in association with Colleen.

So it had to serve each show's story arc individually as well as in combination. That made it important to spend time on the separate threads.
 
Then why make it only 8 episodes. I understand what you're saying but I'm already 5 episodes to the end and they just got together. There isn't that much time left. Maybe my criticism of this show should have been they should have done a 10 episode season instead of 8.
 
Then why make it only 8 episodes. I understand what you're saying but I'm already 5 episodes to the end and they just got together. There isn't that much time left. Maybe my criticism of this show should have been they should have done a 10 episode season instead of 8.

Come on, have a little patience. Wait until you've seen the whole thing before you judge the pacing. It's meant to be experienced as a whole.
 
I'm up through the 7th episode and I'm still struggling with this show but I did like episode 7 a lot. We finally started to move forward with the Hand's objective, something I found vague and not interesting up to now. Alexandria was a terrible villain though. I was kinda hoping Stick would have been the guy behind the curtain.

I still think Jessica doesn't belong in this storyline and I hope season 2 continues the noir aspect that I liked in season 1. Also, Danny is so underutilized on this show. For someone with a powerful fist, he sure doesn't use it very much.
 
I finished the series this weekend and it didn't disappoint. I liked that we actually got enough time to wrap things up after the finale. I agree with some of the problems with Iron Fist. Danny's best moments were in the opening chapters, but by the final fight he seemed depowered compared to how his own series ended. I did like how each character's stories were moved forward and how the next round of series has been set up. I do wish that more had been done toward the end to solidify Danny and Luke's friendship. It would be cool to have an Iron Fist/Luke Cage season rather than separate stories.
 
I finished the finale this morning and I actually thought it ended stronger than it started. Still, with 4 shows and 5 seasons I was expecting something epic (Much in the similar vain to how Avengers answered the movies that came before it) and didn't get it here. I am glad this Hand storyline came to an end. For this ruthless organization of ninjas and the like, they were boring for the most part.

Now that we are done with this first phase, I might start cutting back on these shows. I still think Jessica Jones was the best, mainly because it had an interesting plotline and didn't get too bogged down in mysticism, and Daredevil Season 3 will be interesting. I can take or leave Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
 
It looks Misty Knight is going to be on both Luke Cage and Iron Fist. I saw a bunch of stories talking about her being on IF next season, but then the first picture of her
with her new arm
from is Luke Cage. I wonder if we'll see any more of this kind of crossover now that everyone has met.
With Danny now taking over for Matt I could definitely see at least one appearance by Iron Fist on Daredevil once the title character is back in action.
 
Did they say they were millennia old? I'm not sure the historical references they dropped stretch that far back. Alexandra mentioned Constantinople, but that was the name of the city until 1453, more or less.

FWIW that's even more unhelpful than you think. It wasn't really until the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI that "Istanbul" became the widely-used name in the English world because that was the preference of Turkey. Before that, Constantinople was still the most common name you'd hear in the English world. Part of the Ottomans' tradition was that they were the inheritors of Rome after conquering Constantinople. So for a centuries+ old person like Alexandria, still referring to it as Constantinople makes sense since the change was just "last week."
 
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Binge watched it around the time it came out, pretty easy with only 8 episodes. Makes me think Netflix didn't have a lot of confidence in it.

Somehow I thought having all four characters together would be really charged, but it never really felt like that for long.

Now that the Hand is revealed, they just don't seem all the scary, I suppose that was always a potential downfall of the thread running through the Marvel series.

I'm already forgetting some of the events just a short time later here, so it can't be all that memorable. My wife felt the same thing.

Grade: C
 
Binge watched it around the time it came out, pretty easy with only 8 episodes. Makes me think Netflix didn't have a lot of confidence in it.

Why would you think that? Short seasons are all the rage these days with prestige shows. Game of Thrones has 10-episode seasons as a rule, and its latest season was only 7 episodes. Westworld, The Man in the High Castle, and The Handmaid's Tale have 10-episode seasons (as does Killjoys on Syfy). American Gods' first season was only 8 episodes. Shorter seasons are popular because they're basically miniseries, extended movies that let producers craft a tighter narrative with less filler, as well as being able to invest more money in each individual episode and thus improve quality. http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/10-episodes-is-the-new-13-was-the-new-22.html

In any case, the package of shows that Marvel Studios developed back in 2013 was always conceived as 60 episodes, comprising four 13-episode series and an 8-episode crossover miniseries. That was the plan before Netflix even bought it. http://deadline.com/2013/10/marvel-...-series-a-mini-for-vod-cable-networks-611826/
 
Short to me is 10-13..but 8?? That's a mini-series.

I prefer these short series, but I like a 13-16 episode range. I know It's what allows shows to have a huge amount of resources put into them and more focused storyline. If 8 was the plan all along, then my "feeling" must just be from the material.

RAMA


Why would you think that? Short seasons are all the rage these days with prestige shows. Game of Thrones has 10-episode seasons as a rule, and its latest season was only 7 episodes. Westworld, The Man in the High Castle, and The Handmaid's Tale have 10-episode seasons (as does Killjoys on Syfy). American Gods' first season was only 8 episodes. Shorter seasons are popular because they're basically miniseries, extended movies that let producers craft a tighter narrative with less filler, as well as being able to invest more money in each individual episode and thus improve quality. http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/10-episodes-is-the-new-13-was-the-new-22.html

In any case, the package of shows that Marvel Studios developed back in 2013 was always conceived as 60 episodes, comprising four 13-episode series and an 8-episode crossover miniseries. That was the plan before Netflix even bought it. http://deadline.com/2013/10/marvel-...-series-a-mini-for-vod-cable-networks-611826/
 
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Short to me is 10-13..but 8?? That's a mini-series.

Yes, it is. As I just said, the package Marvel sold to Netflix was planned from the start as four 13-episodes series and a miniseries. That was announced back in 2013. The Defenders has always been planned, labeled, and discussed as a miniseries. It's called a miniseries on its Wikipedia page. This was never a secret.
 
Yes, it is. As I just said, the package Marvel sold to Netflix was planned from the start as four 13-episodes series and a miniseries. That was announced back in 2013. The Defenders has always been planned, labeled, and discussed as a miniseries. It's called a miniseries on its Wikipedia page. This was never a secret.
To add to that, they debated whether to do six episodes or eight. The fact that they went with eight could suggest greater confirmation.
 
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