This past weekend was the premiere of The Defenders on Netflix and, not surprisingly, I binged it (it’s only eight episodes). Overall, it was not quite what I was expecting in some ways, but it was good. Obviously there’s a lot of action, but it’s also well-paced and plotted. (Btw, I haven’t given any big plot spoilers in this post, so if you haven’t watched the series yet, feel free to read on.) 

First off, you can’t watch The Defenders without having seen at least a couple of the individual heroes’ series, especially Daredevil and Iron Fist. K’un-Lun plays a big role in the plot, so knowing the background is important. Another big piece of the puzzle is The Hand, the group first mentioned in Daredevil that carried through to Iron Fist. As you can probably tell, the Luke Cage and Jessica Jones series aren’t vital to understanding this one, though considering how good they are you really shouldn’t skip them anyway (especially Jessica Jones – that one’s my favorite of all of them).

Anyway, as long as you have a bit of background, following along isn’t difficult. They’ve given a new origin to The Hand in the series, but it’s well explained and makes sense for the overall stories they’ve followed in all of the shows. And the way the characters are brought together and interact works too. These are not people who want to form a crime fighting team – which is not only apparent from when they first meet, but follows through to the end. But they get along (not well, at times) for the sake of the greater cause.

The relationships really work in this show. For anyone with a comics background, we know that Luke and Danny become best friends and team-up, so seeing the beginning of that was a long time coming. And it’s fun to witness their banter as they go from not really liking each other to the start of the bromance we’ve been waiting for. The same goes for Luke and Jessica, who are one of the strongest (literally and figuratively) couples in the Marvel universe. The way they interact shows just how well they mesh and why they are meant to be together.

The Defenders wraps up pieces of storylines that have run through the various Marvel shows, but doesn’t answer all the questions. It also raises more questions by the end and leaves an outright cliffhanger of sorts. We see Luke, Danny and Jessica go their separate ways (mostly), which reestablishes the “we’re not a team” work ethic of the entire series. We also see where Matt ends up, which is the cliffhanger lead-in for the next season of Daredevil, based on a classic Frank Miller story arc from the 80s. (Also, if you’re jonesing for The Punisher, stick around until the end of the credits of the final episode for a teaser trailer for that series.)

As I said at the beginning, it’s a good show, probably falling somewhere in the middle of all the Marvel Netflix shows in terms of quality, plot and action. If you’ve seen the other shows, this is a must-watch, especially for the development of the characters themselves and their relationships. In terms of the plot, it’s most likely to affect the next season of Iron Fist more than any others. But there’s no way that events won’t resonate through all of the shows.