This morning I woke up with a decently high fever. So, instead of going to work and infecting everyone with my germs, I’m staying home. And relaxing. With the Defenders.
The Defenders s01e06 Ashes, Ashes
writers: Drew Goddard & Marco Ramirez
director: Stephen Surjik
Netflix
Quick Review:
In a 5o minute show, about 42 of those minutes were spent treading water and rehashing what we already knew. The other eight minutes were moments of progress, but those were built either on spoilerly deaths or huge jumps in logic. It could be my fever, but this did not strike me as a good episode.
Spoilers Lurk Below
Analysis:
Listen, as much as I like the possibility of a friendship foreign between Danny Rand and Luke Cage, I need more than them chatting about stuff to to claim this episode was worthwhile. Sure, what they gave us was good, but it just isn’t enough.
Nor was “key” enough to hang the entire action of this episode on. Seriously, that felt like something out of the ’66 Batman show, and at least they knew they were doing things tongue in cheek. Defenders does not seem as self aware.
Because later in this same episode, the entire sense of progress stems from Matt’s sudden desire to show he can play the piano. “I know your dad is dead, but do you mind if I play a tune?” I honestly don’t know if the writing staff is trying to be clever or just out of ideas. And what was the big revelation? As far as I could tell it was that there were blueprints for the giant hole we all knew already existed. Which makes me wonder if I’m confused or just bored.
But I guess I should be shocked, because Sigourney Weaver is dead. Except it is the death of a character I never cared about in the first place, because I never had a reason to care about her. So, we’ve got Elektra and three fingers. Sure. Why not?
I also had to stop thinking about what the actual objective of the bad guys is supposed to be. Is it to live forever? To return to K’un L’un? But I also thought they were the ones that went to K’un L’un and slaughtered everyone. Maybe that was someone else?
And stick is also likely dead. I’ll miss you Scott Glenn.
Wrap Up:
There was a time when comic book movies were sheer crap. A big reason for this was the apparent thought process of “It’s a comic book, who cares?” That went away and people saw that superheroes were just another tool for telling various stories. Sadly, the objectives of the Hand in this series seem to mark a return to the “It’s just a comic book” style of storytelling.
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Deadly Troubadour 