Five Seasons, Four Heroes, Three Good Ones, Two Years, One Goal
Daredevil is actually a terrible person. But when Marvel put season one on Netflix, audiences were greeted with a likable, kind-hearted hero who was nothing like the gruff potty-mouth from the comics. And this was only the beginning of the reinvention of the Defenders.
Currently, I am watching through the eight-episode team up. I already have a lot of thoughts, but I will save them for another post after I finish the season. For now, I want to present a quick recap of the four main characters and the respective shows: Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand. Here are my brief thoughts on the development leading to The Defenders.
(Minor spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.)
Matt Murdock/ Daredevil

Matt might replace Father Brown as everyone favorite crime fighting Catholic. His character updates — sensitive soul, affectionate attitude, opposite of a jerkwad — were fantastic choices. He is both powerful and lovable.
Season one was a whirlwind. Though the actors playing his two best friends, Karen and Foggy, left me uninspired, the rest of the cast is dazzling. Claire, Wesley, and of course, Fisk/Kingpin are incredible, original, and wildly entertaining. Unfortunately, Fisk set the bar extremely high for villains in the Marvel/Netflix world… Few others have lived up to that standard. Especially in Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
Season one was the perfect start to this grand endeavor. And while I’ve heard many complaints about season two, I loved it. Electra was an annoying but ultimately endearing addition. Punisher was one of the best things to come out of the Marvel/Netflix collab. And Matt Murdock remained devout, kind-hearted, and regularly got beat up. It’s not that I want him to be hurt. But, in recent years, superhero franchises have have the tendency to eventually make their heroes sort of indestructible — or at least indestructible to low level thugs. But Daredevil remains entirely human. He fights all kinds of evil and pays the price.
Season two was an awesome, wild ride. I cried at the end.
Moving on.
Jessica Jones

Seductive music and ambiguous narration can only get you so far in TV. In general, this kind of start is cliché and not engaging. I nearly stopped watching after episode one. It was only because of my great respect for Daredevil that I continued.
This story is no joke. I thought Daredevil was dark, but Jessica Jones took it to a whole new level. The themes of trauma and life after abuse were haunting. The show was hard to watch. Mostly because of the villain.
Holy heck David Tenant.
I used to love him. He was the only Doctor I’ve been interested in enough to watch. Broadchurch season one was a masterpiece. And I liked his quirky snark in the various movies I’d seen him in.
The monster who appears on Jessica Jones was something else entirely. Killgrave is unnerving, repulsive, and amazing. I hate him more than I’ve probably ever hated a fictional villain. He raised the stakes of the show and bonded me to Jessica.
I want to pause on this thought for a moment. One sign of a good villain is causing the viewer to understand/connect with who they are and what they want. I’ve read this a million times in books on writing. But I would add, a truly great villain bonds you to the protagonist. After seeing Killgrave use his powers and finding out what he did to Jessica, I was 1000% in her corner.
That, my friends, is good writing.
With each new episode, I resonated and rooted for Jessica more and more.
The side characters in Jessica Jones were fabulously weird and complicated. Strange dynamics like Trish and the cop and the incest-y twins added to the dark vibe. Luke Cage was… well, I’ll get to him next.
Overall, I liked it. I’m not sure I ever want to watch it again. But it presented me with a fantastic character I’ve been waiting to see in action again ever since.
Luke Cage

Okay. So Luke Cage was introduced in Jessica Jones as kind of sleazy, generally apathetic man who ended up being a mostly good guy.
Then he gets his show.
In Luke Cage he is thoughtful, attentive, and rather good-natured. He treats women with far less aloofness and spouts of classic lines from famous literature — namely, lit written by black writers during the Harlem Renaissance and the Bible.
I like both Luke Cages for different reasons, but it was jarring to start his self-entitled show and feel like it was the same actor playing a vastly different role. The character jump didn’t make sense to me. However, he was much more likable as the second iteration.
But anyway, let’s break down the show.
Things I liked:
- Misty Knight — yet another shining star of authentic female depth, agency, and humor. She is fierce and loyal and wonderful.
- Luke’s protectiveness over his home.
- Cottonmouth and Shades. Oh my gosh, yes. Cottonmouth was a really fun bad guy. And weirdly I found myself rooting for Shades almost the whole season. I just liked his style.
- Explanation of Luke backstory which we got a piece of in Jessica Jones.
- Claire getting to participate in a capacity other than nurse. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great nurse. But I liked that she got to do more. And also she finally embraced the fact that she is destined to help superheroes.
Things I didn’t like:
- The ending. Specifically, the dialogue. The whole show takes a downward turn about two episodes from the end. The characters start speaking in the clichés. The plot points wrap up way too fast. It’s really poorly done, which makes me sad and upset because I was thoroughly enjoying the show up until then.
- Mariah. Aspects of her were interesting. But overall, Cottonmouth was a much more compelling villain.
- Claire and Luke romantically. All I have to say is: Booooooo.
- The weird ending villain. Not engaging. Not entertaining to watch. Felt two-dimensional.
In conclusion, Luke Cage was mostly good. I mostly enjoyed it. It made me mostly excited about the introduction of Iron Fist.
Danny Rand/ Iron Fist

Oh, boy. Do I have feelings.
Honestly, my feelings are hard to quantify, so I will express them through my thought process as I watched the season:
What is happening?
What the…
Please, stop.
No.
Is this real life?
Whyyyy
Barf.
Oh, come on.
Wow…
Well, this was a disaster.
And that about covers it. Danny Rand came into the show claiming to be a wise master of chi who has spent years centering his soul… then he dramatically brake down doors, creepily stalks his old romantic interest, throws lots of stuff, and whines for 13 episodes.
He is the most annoying superhero I have ever met.
His character is all over the place, littered with inconsistencies. His goals make no sense. His actions are rarely justifiable. He regularly tells his loyal friends he has to “do this on my own.” He hardly listens to Claire; everyone should listen to Claire, Claire is way smarter than you fools. And he wears way to many faux-Chinese outfits when he clearly looks better in a suit.
And those are just a few of the Danny problems.
Apart from him:
- There are 48,374 bad guys. Who is the main villain? We may never know.
- They made Mrs. Goa not scary! HOW DARE THEY. She was awesomely frightening until they gave us too much information and took away a huge chunk of her mystery. Disgraceful.
- Danny’s fight scenes were sloppy.
- Why did he brutally beat up a bunch of brainwashed kids?
Oops…I slipping back into issues with Danny. I guess that’s because he self- destructed the show.
You may be thinking, “Geez, woman, is there anything you did like?”
I’m glad you asked. Yes, actually.
Ward propells the pathetic excuse for a plot forward better than anyone else. He is also rather entertaining to watch. I cared about what happened to him. I pitied his sucky life and hoped he would find a triumphant ending.
Also, Zhou Cheng. Aka, the drunk fighter guy. Wow, he was immaculate. I wanted him to beat Danny so bad.
Eric Fransisco wrote this article:
I’m inclined to agree with him.
The final bright spark in the Iron fist was, drumm roooll pleeease:
FREAKING COLLEEN WING IS THE MOST AMAZING PERSON IN THE SHOW POSSIBLE IN THE UNIVERSE WHY ISN’T SHE A BIGGER PART DANNY DOESN’T DESERVE HER SHE IS GLORIOUS HER FIGHT SCENE WERE BREATHTAKING SHE IS MY HERO CAN WE START A PETITION TO REPLACE DANNY WITH COLLEEN AS THE FOURTH DEFENDER.

Ahem. Sorry, I yelled. It just… makes me so sad that Danny got a terrible show about him when Colleen’s story was far more interesting and she is smarter than him and would be just as powerful is she had the Iron Fist.
So I guess my main wish for this show was that they would have casted literally anyone else as Iron Fist.
Final thoughts
Man, it felt really good to get all that off my chest.
If you lasted this long, thanks. I’d love to hear your thoughts/contradictions. If anyone has a defense of Danny they would like to present, I am probably a lost cause but I will read it and try to keep an open mind.
Here are my final rating for the shows, in the order they came out. I will have another post up on the Defenders once I finish watching it.
Daredevil, Season One: 4/5 stars
Jessica Jones: 3/5 stars (I just needed one or two more hopeful scenes)
Daredevil, Season Two: 4/5 stars
Luke Cage: 3/5 stars
Iron Fist: 1/5 (The one is Colleen)