#peak frank episode it's all downhill from here

[gardenerian]

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Dino Watches Anime (Dec. 21)

I postponed posting this for a while because I wanted to wait until the Fall 2020 season was over. Now, it’s almost Christmas. Some parts of the world are snowing, and as I feel the HUGE 2021 WINTER ANIME SEASON APPROACHING, I will reminisce about the anime that I will miss (or not).

Half of these aren’t even seasonal.

Anyway, I’m going to make some sort of “TOP ? ANIME OF 2020″ even though I haven’t watched half the seasonal anime I set out on watching HAHAHA!

Not Seasonal

As usual, I am periodically watching Gintama (which I’ve watched 106 episodes) and Hunter x Hunter (2011) (which I’ve watched 13 episodes), but I won’t finish those anytime soon. 

Gangsta (ON-HOLD - 3/12)

I feel like I have to be in the right mood to watch this, and I just haven’t been. However, I can’t say it’s a bad show at all. In fact, it’s quite good, especially considering that it was done by a studio that went bankrupt. Seriously, they closed up the season after this anime aired. Surprisingly, they’ve done a lot of good anime in the past. Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy, and some other ones.

Space☆Dandy (COMPLETED)

I was on and off in terms of dropping this. I didn’t enjoy a good chunk of the episodes because... a lot of them rely on fanservice. To be quite frank, this anime’s motives can be boiled down to being h*rny. However, some random episodes/segments are good. And the animation... the animation of the non-fanservice scenes are masterful. I’m actually going to dive into this a little bit to justify why I’m actually watching this.

Studio Bones is amazing when they commit themselves to an anime, and looking at the staff, you can certainly see that this anime will be fun to look at. It’s a spectacle. 

Sayo Yamamoto has done some incredible stuff in her career. Despite her role in Space Dandy season 1 being small (episode director of episode 2), I wanted to still cover her works. Her portfolio is massive, and she’s only 43. She did the storyboard for some really stylistic and unique openings like Arakawa Under the Bridge (both seasons), Kakegurui (which despite being heavily sexualized, is incredibly fluid and eyecatching even for me), and Psycho-Pass. She also did some storyboarding for the Attack on Titan ending and Samurai Champloo. Not to mention the obvious: She’s the director of Yuri!!! on Ice.

Shingo Natsume is a director for this series, and he has a lot of works too. For one, he was the director of One Punch Man season one which was really well-animated. He has also worked on some Masaaki Yuasa works, Gurren Lagann, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Last but certainly not least, Shinichirou Watanabe is also a director here, and even to someone who isn’t that versed in animation staff, he is incredibly well-known and skilled. He’s the director of many incredible works including Kids on the Slope, Zankyou no Terror (also the original creator), Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, and Carole & Tuesday (also the original creator).

There are even more amazing directors and contributors to this series, so rest assured, this anime looks good.  

But once you get past all the wonderful visuals, the characters are meh and the story is... not that good. The voice acting is great. Junichi Suwabe is amazing as Dandy, Hiroyuki Yoshino plays a good wimp as Meow, and Uki Satake actually surprised me because I haven’t heard of her really but she plays the perfect QT. This anime is like having great icing on the cake, but the cake is actually a cowcake.  

Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited - Hyoubu Kyousuke (COMPLETE)

This anime is meh. Everything is meh. This was also done by Manglobe which went bankrupted shortly after Gangsta aired. The animation was alright. I thought this anime was older than it was because I wasn’t that impressed by the visuals. Cowboy Bebop looks better than it despite being almost a decade-and-a-half older. The voice acting was alright. I’m not the greatest fan of Kouji Yusa, but it’s mostly because I don’t like his voice. I’ve heard Junichi Suwabe portray other characters better because there was more substance in those other characters. The rest of the cast was forgettable. I didn’t even bother watching the parent series of this spinoff because it’s not needed, and after watching one episode of it, I wouldn’t be able to sit through the rest of it. There were some redeeming points to the story, but when your biggest plot twist is sticking out going, “LOOK AT ME, I’M A PLOT TWIST!”, you start to go, “I would be more surprised if they didn’t pull that plot twist.” And I guess it goes without saying, but the main guys do not end up together despite some of the hints they dropped. 

Another funny thing is that they put a disclaimer that “this is not based on real events”, but they put in a ton of references to WWII which can be... troublesome? I don’t know how to put it, but after watching Hetalia, I’m very apprehensive about any anime trying to portray real-life events like that.

Seasonal

Munou na Nana

Honestly, I found the manga better. The anime captures just a portion of the suspense and stuff that goes on in the manga, and the manga holds a lot more suspense. It’s kind of like how Junji Ito anime usually have a hard time. Horror is just like that in general though. It relies a lot on the psychological effect, and the anime just didn’t have it for me anyway.

[I also don’t like this show’s comedy and find it lacklustre]

Kamisama ni Natta Hi

You know how in my previous post I sensed this really going downhill? I was right! This anime got really shitty halfway through after Izanami’s dad had his touching episode. Next week is the final episode, but we all know half of Jun Maeda’s anime end off a cliff.

Tonikaku Kawaii

This anime got boring after a while. You know they did it off-screen. Puppy love is okay in small doses for me, but a whole anime about that and only that? It was... alright. I’m not the target audience, honestly. BUT, if you’re tired of stupid love triangles and misunderstandings, this anime is a breath of fresh air. Not to mention, it’s canon from Day 1. 

Ani ni Tsukeru Kusuri wa Nai! 4

This anime took no commitment, and some of the episodes were enjoyable, so I can’t say I wasted my time, but they truly only peaked in season one.

Jujutsu Kaisen

While I’m still not incredibly sold on the series, it’s really starting to take shape. The OP and ED are reasons to watch alone... and Gojo seems to be a popular choice for ladies who are into white-haired anime guys. Either way, it’s still a solid watch, but they need those character arcs to come in fast because the only thing I feel is really holding this show back is character depth (and I know they have it in the manga). The art, the voice acting, the music, everything else is there, and the story is, as I said, starting to take shape.

Maoujou de Oyasumi

I saved this one for last because this anime was so pure and wholesome, and it was definitely the biggest surprise of the season! I know some of the people I know are into those dating sims with the demon kings and whatever, but consider this demon king from this show. He’s an utter wreck, can’t be evil half the time, is a himbo, and you really wonder how they managed to keep their own castle together. The princess isn’t trapped in the castle with the demons, the demons are trapped in the castle with her. She commits burglary, assault, genocide, and mutilation is the name of a good sleep. Her name is also a pun on sleeping.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Hey sorry if this sounds silly but I just worry I guess lol. But a lot of people are saying the walking dead is gonna get cancelled cause the ratings have dropped and also they think this decision to have Carl die was bad or something and I don't know but it's just kind of making me worry I guess. But are you worried about that? I know I'm just being paranoid probably but I just really don't want one of my favorite shows to get cancelled. Lol. 😂😅

No worries Nonny. I know alot of people are worried about this, and I’m glad you asked because I’m seeingit all over the fandom and I wish there were some way that I could refute itwithout answering every single comment in getting tons of hate in return.

I’m not at all worried aboutthe show being canceled or about Gimple being fired. That’s something peopleare saying in response to Carl’s death. Emotions are high, and that’s whereit’s coming from, but I know it feels worrisome. So let me refute some of thisfor you:

Gimple getting fired. Remember that back in S3, the showrunner Frank Mazzura was fired, not for killing off characters per se, but forkilling them off without direction. Obviously AMC is okay with killingcharacters off. Otherwise, the show would be very different. But there must besome direction to their deaths. It has to drive character arcs, or the plot, orjust be the natural conclusion of the character’s own arc.

I’ll talk about this more onMonday, but Gimple has given several interviews in which he’s said that Carl’sdeath will very much be tied to the story moving forward. So he has a goodreason written into the story for Carl’s death.

In S3, characters werekilled off without direction, there was a huge backlash from the fans, and theshow runner was fired. Gimple took over and has since killed several majorcharacters. The first was Beth. There was a huge backlash from her death, andthis is something we always pointed to as evidence that she’s coming back.Because despite the backlash, and a petition that garnered 60,000 signatures,Gimple was not disciplined for this by AMC at all. AMC stood by him. Why? It’s theexact opposite of what happened the previous show runner. So there must’ve beensome kind of plan in place.

Many people like to say itwas just to affect Daryl’s character arc. While I’m not a huge fan of thatargument, because it suggests that Beth was not her own character and was notvery important, we definitely have seen Daryl’s character arc be affected bylosing her. So the plan could’ve been that: to build Daryl’s character arc insome way. Then you have to ask where it’s going. If Daryl’s arc doesn’t startswinging upwards soon he’s going to be a lot of trouble. I have a hard timebelieving that they killed off Beth just to send Daryl spiraling downward andend with his death. I would not be a good plan or good storytelling. But whateverGimple is planning, AMC is behind him.

Then we had Glenn’s death andthe huge backlash from that. Lots of people saying they wouldn’t watch to showanymore. There’s no way to be sure what the numbers are, but I personallybelieve that most people who threatened to stop watching probably are stillwatching. They may have left for a time but I think eventually they trickleback. Of course some will always leave when their favorite characters killedoff and that’s understandable.

Now we have Carl’s death. Mypoint is that if Gimple wasn’t fired for killing off Beth Glenn or any of theother more minor characters she’s killed off, why would AMC do anything abouthim killing off Carl? Especially when he promises that he has a plan in mind?So based on precedent, the show is not ending, and Gimple is not getting fired.The backlash always trickles off eventually.

Ratings drop. It is true that this show has is at anall-time low for ratings. But the first thing you have to understand about thatis that it still has more viewers even at its low point than most other showson TV have. I know GoT is doing better the last two seasons than TWD is, butkeep in mind that the first few the seasons of GoT only had 2 to 3 millionviewers while the first five seasons of TWD was far above that. So overall itstill the most successful show on TV, and while its ratings are down, I think,right around 7 or 8 million, it would have to drop into the to 2 million orless range for AMC to consider canceling it. It still their biggest moneymaker,not only due to episodes but also due to merchandise sales and cons. I’m reallynot worried about being canceled.

Plus there’s an interviewhere that I’ll go into more on Monday where Gimple says he’s confident not onlyof seasons 9 and 10 being a thing, but of having many seasons beyond that. Evenmore than that, though, I think that the drop in ratings is a natural thing.Someone made a really great point in my group that most shows don’t last 8 seasons.As a show continues, people who loved it in the beginning will sometimes loseinterest in drop-off. A show that’s long-running will naturally have fewerviewers at the end than they had at the beginning or at their peak. So, I’m notsure that we can count on TWD’s viewership ever going back up to what it was ins4. However, that doesn’t mean they’re getting canceled. As long it makesmoney, it will remain.

I also want to point outthat many people are leaving the show because it’s just too damn depressinganymore. S4 was a great season because we saw the group loose something bigwhen the prison fell, but they really bounced back in the next 8 episodes. Mostof them found each other (Beth excluded) and they ended with fighting words:“They’re screwing with the wrong people.” People really like to seethat kind of hope and fight in the group.

Since then, especially sinceBeth’s death, it’s been really downhill. There is a lot of darkness, a lot ofdespair, and there’s been a lot of our favorite characters dying. So naturallypeople are going to wander away from the show because there’s just no hope orpositivity in it anymore. But in a lot of ways, that’s TD’s point. Somethinghas to come in now and renew everyone’s faith and hope. And what characterexemplified that more than any other? It will have to be something completelynew something that no one’s looking for and something that’s all Gimple’s.Because there’s nothing in the comic books that would fit all this criteria,especially in the wake of Carl’s death. So if they have a major twist, likesomeone coming back to renew everyone’s hope and help them fight against Negan,is naturally going to bring a lot of viewership back to the show. Again I don’tknow the ratings will ever go as high as they once were, but I do think thatwhen hope returns, people will return to the show naturally.

So I hope so this is helped,Nonny. I know there’s a lot of negativity in the fandom right now, but Iencourage you not to let it worry you. The show isn’t going anywhere, Gimple isn’tgoing anywhere, and I think we have many seasons left of our favorite show toenjoy.  Hopefully. 😉 Xoxo! 😘

[miss-musings]

The Defenders: Review

****SPOILERS FOR ALL THE NETFLIX/MARVEL SHOWS.****

Not like anyone is really asking for my opinion on the Defenders, but I thought I’d throw this out there for the Tumblrverse, to see if anyone agrees or disagrees with me.

A very long-ass review below the jump.

Some background: I love the Marvel movies. I really enjoyed Daredevil S1 when it first aired, and I loved Jessica Jones so much that I watched all of S1 in a single night. I was kind “meh” toward Daredevil S2. I didn’t really care for the Punisher storyline, and while I really liked Frank’s interactions with Matt/Daredevil, I didn’t like any of the scenes Karen had with Frank. In fact, I didn’t really like Karen at all, especially her ~thing~ with Matt. I’ve never liked them together, and while I understand they are a couple in the comics, I’m not a fan of the pairing. I didn’t really like Elektra or the Hand that much either. I was much more interested in Fisk and his Kingpin Empire in S1. All the mystical stuff really changed the tone and direction of the Daredevil story, and made it feel less grounded in reality, something I thought both JJ and Daredevil S1 did really well. I can buy blind guys who can “see” through their other senses, and weird psychopaths who can control people using pheromones or whatever. But, mystical ninjas who are resurrected and don’t have heartbeats… yeah, no, you lost me.

I started watching Luke Cage, but lost interest after Cottonmouth got killed off. Last episode I watched was Luke falling backward into a trash truck, unconscious, after getting attacked by his brother.

I didn’t have any interest in watching Iron Fist to begin with, but after I read the reviews saying it was mediocre and not as good as the other ones, I REALLY didn’t have any interest.

Basically, for me, the Netflix/Marvel shows had a strong opener with DD S1 and then peaked with JJ, and has been steadily going downhill from there.

So, yesterday I finished watching the Defenders. I had seen the first two episodes about two weeks ago, then was on vacation, and finally got the chance to sit down and finish the show during my Labor Day weekend. I watched the final six episodes in one sitting, which may have lessened my opinion of it. I get that the point of these shows is to binge-watch them, but sometimes I feel like that makes their flaws all the more obvious.

So….

I’d like to point out what I didn’t like about the show… things that I thought were weaknesses and then move on to what I *DID* like and thought the show did well. I realize that back-loading the positives like that will make it seem like I didn’t like it at all… and that’s probably fair. It wasn’t horrid, but I definitely didn’t like it as much as DD S1 or JJ. If I had to give it a letter grade, it’d probably be a C- or D+. It wasn’t a complete waste of time, but I’m not going to be watching it again anytime soon, and I’m not sure if I’d watch the second season (if there is one).

Basically every problem I had with the show can be boiled down to two main things:

1.     This show tries to accomplish so much that it ends up accomplishing little to nothing in the end. (The opposite of Ron Swanson’s “Don’t half-ass two things; whole-ass one thing” philosophy.)

2.     People and things matter!!!! … until they don’t.

So, first, my list of things that annoyed me about the show:

First of all, the fucking lighting and filters and shit. I get that it makes it feel like each character is in their own little ‘world’ of their own show. But, damn, does it have to be So. Fucking. Obnoxious? I get it: Matt is Red. Jessica is a bluish-purple. Luke is yellow. Danny is green. Switching back and forth between all the little filters in their individual scenes and the neon lighting during their shared scenes fucking hurt my eyes.

The music – especially in the later episodes – was also really obtrusive. Like, different times, particularly during that fight scene in the last episode, it felt so out of place. I didn’t notice the score, which may or may not be a good thing, but I definitely noticed the soundtrack at various points, and that was not for a good reason. The music was something I really liked about the first episodes of Luke Cage. At Cottonmouth’s little club, there was always some kind of musical act going on, and I felt like that really contributed well to the show’s tone and atmosphere. Here, sometimes the musical choices detracted from the show, IMO.

The action is all over the fucking place. Where DD excelled in the hallway and stairwell scenes, where all the action was across one long take, during this show’s larger action sequences, it cuts back and forth so much and so often between characters, giving them all of about 10 seconds before moving onto the next one, so that I can’t really appreciate their powers, their teamwork with each other, or just the action as a whole. It was more of like, “Okay, Jessica threw that guy against a wall, now let’s cut over to Luke taking some bullets. Okay, now over to Matt flipping around and kicking some dudes. Okay, quick, over to Danny throwing some punches.” I couldn’t really tell who was winning at any given point, until it cut back to a longer, wider shot and suddenly, all the ninjas were on the ground, and the good guys were all still standing. Also, they never really felt like a ~team~. Like, they all worked to accomplish a shared goal, but they never had any combos or instances where they played off one another’s abilities, really. It was all a bunch of one-on-one melees. Toward the end, the show also suffers from the Game of Thrones syndrome, where all the scenes are really fucking dark and it’s hard to tell who’s who and what the fuck is going on.

But, the biggest thing for me is that I feel like the show didn’t do much in the way of character development. Plot-wise, the show was all over the fucking place, but at least some shit got done in the end: the Hand is seemingly crushed, never to rise again. But, I didn’t feel like I got any real growth from any of the characters. Yes, there was some. I think Danny matured a bit. Jessica maybe became more self-aware of her own shortcomings when it comes to keeping in touch and taking care of the people she loves. Matt had to confront a resurrected Elektra. But… for as much time as we spent with them – especially all of them together – I really don’t feel like they changed all that much. Yeah, a lot happened; but that doesn’t mean they grew any.

Now, I understand that you could make the argument that the Avengers didn’t really grow all that much during their Avengers movie. Especially during the first one. Yeah, okay, but “Avengers” is a movie. And I think it’s fair to judge a two-hour movie differently than a 8-ish hour TV series. I think one of the reasons we don’t have more character development is so much time is spent introducing these characters and their respective worlds to each other and the audience. We have to talk about what the fucking Iron Fist is and what he can do and how he got his powers and what his responsibilities are at least once every episode. Matt has to get frustrated with Stick and refuse to talk about his personal life/details at least once every episode. So much time is spent on exposition and action sequences that it doesn’t leave a ton of time for character development.

Again: this show tries to do too much and ends up doing… well, not much at all, really. They try to give each character their own little arc and subplot, only for it to boil down to: fighting mystical ninjas in an underground dragon graveyard thing until they can blow up the building above them. I can’t describe any of the Five Fingers of the Hand (outside of Alexandra) in more than a sentence; the side characters are there just to either give or receive exposition; and the main characters (the four Defenders) don’t really grow all that much (as stated previously).

And, again, my other main point: things/characters matter until they don’t. Each of the Defenders’ sidekicks are okay with being sidelined in a police station for several episodes. Misty and the NYPD don’t do jack-fucking-shit during the penthouse or the Chinese restaurant fights, but only show up at the end of the season, when it’s a detriment to the good guys, and we have to stretch out the action over another two episodes. Trish and Karen are in a police station together for several hours, perhaps days, but don’t really talk to each other until the final episode. Jessica keeps saying that the only reason she’s staying in this fight is so she can get answers for her client, but then never has any kind of resolution with them at the end. The police give Colleen her sword back, and she doesn’t want to be sidelined, but then she’s okay with it, but then she’s not and she gets back into the fight, and then she’s okay with going with Claire to set the bombs and not to save Danny, which was the whole reason she even felt like she had to get out there to begin with. But, whatever.

The good guys are just running around for hours (days?) at a time, not ever eating or sleeping or changing clothes, really, which they sometimes call attention to.

The whole big thing about them possibly getting charged with terrorism and obstruction of justice and all those other crimes… nah, they all just get dropped for no reason. Let this be a lesson to you, kids: if you endanger dozens of people by blowing up a building in a densely populated urban setting, you too can get away with it scott-free!

The only other big thing that I had with it was that Alexandra was built up as the driving force behind this whole thing. We spent a significant amount of screen time on her just doing random stuff – listening to music, eating food, going to the doctor’s office, putting on her clothes. She might be the only character that we got to have nice, quiet little moments where she just did stuff that was all character-driven, rather than plot-driven. Then, Alexandra gets taken down by Elektra. I get why: adds drama, eliminates one bad guy while building up another, and subverts the audience’s expectations. But, this was a problem I had with Luke Cage too. In Daredevil, for instance, we spent a lot of time getting to know Fisk. And he ends up being the overarching Big Bad of S1 and makes an appearance in S2. He’s still around; he still has the ability to make an impact in Daredevil’s plotlines moving forward. Imagine if they had decided to kill off Fisk in the third-to-last episode of S1 just to set up the Hand. Ugh. I liked getting to know Cottonmouth in Luke Cage, and while his exit ~kinda~ made sense, I still didn’t like how we spent so much time with him only to have him NOT be the Big Bad and die half-way through the season. Same thing here. I think Netflix/Marvel likes doing this to pull the rug out from under us, but really it’s more annoying than anything. I would’ve much rather Gao had been fucking with Alexandra and playing like she was trying to keep everyone together, when really she was the one driving them apart, and then she gets everyone else to betray Alexandra with her. Or something. That seemed to be what it was building toward organically; but no, let’s throw everyone off by having Elektra kill her. And, then Elektra’s reasoning was really weird. She wasn’t really Elektra or the Black Sky, but kind of some hybrid that had some of Elektra’s memories and desires (like, wanting to be with Matt) but also had the Black Sky’s ruthlessness, and then also had this selfishness and fiendness to her that kinda came out of nowhere. Whatever.

Other little things that bothered me:

I still don’t like Karen. I’m sorry; I just don’t. She was fine in most of DD S1, but I absolutely hated her throughout S2. I feel like she gets the Mary Jane treatment: worrying and hand-wringing and nagging her superhero love interest so much so that, even though we should empathize with her, she really comes off as being more of a nagging bitch than a woman worrying about the man she loves.

Stick just died and Matt remembered it for like all of five seconds, and then nobody ever brought it up again. You’d think it would’ve been mentioned by Danny or somebody. Or Matt would’ve brought it up in his fight against Elektra. Stick was a major side character in Daredevil, Iron Fist (I’m assuming) and then had significant screentime in this show. Kinda weird how nobody ever talked about it or mourned for him. Also, super weird how they decided to have Stick attack Danny when he ended up getting killed off by Elektra two seconds later. Why have his character do a 180 like that out of nowhere, only for him to die right after? Doesn’t really make sense.

The way the Five Fingers of the Hand had described what was behind the wall, it made it sound like it was some kind of portal to the actual K'un-Lun, to like this paradise-like setting where they could finally be at peace or some shit. But, nah, dragon bones. It felt so anticlimatic by comparison.

Also, how long had they had this substance and they just NOW ran out? How long did that shit last? Have they had to resupply at other points over the years? Maybe it’s because I didn’t watch Iron Fist, but some of this shit didn’t make any fucking sense. And, didn’t they have like a whole army of undead ninja in Daredevil S2? Were all those assholes brought back using the substance? I’m so confused!!!

Danny was an absolute idiot for using his Iron Fist anywhere near that door. Like, dude, she told you exactly what she needed for you to open the door. Don’t give her what she wants, asshat!

Both Elektra and Alexandra did the whole “we’re not so different, you and I” thing, which I only noticed because I watched a great video on how overdone and poorly used this trope is. It’s cheap and it’s lame, and in both cases here, it didn’t really work. There was no emotional impact from it, and I didn’t feel like it was true in either case. It was like villain monologuing for the sake of the writers buying time until the good guys could show up, or something.

I feel like Iron Fist can be summed up as “A Knock-off Bruce Wayne.”

Anytime the ~mystical~ was involved, it lessened my enjoyment of the show. The scene where Luke is comforting the mom after her son dies in jail… that felt real to me. The scene where Jessica is talking the mom and daughter who are trying to find their husband/dad, that felt real to me. The scene where Matt is trailing Jessica and then gets frustrated when he loses her… that felt real to me!!! Any time Iron Fist or the Hand did virtually anything felt like such a different show. I imagine it’ll be the same whenever Iron Man starts hanging out with Doctor Strange in the Infinity Wars movies, but still, Daredevil, JJ and Luke Cage (the shows) all felt like they were grounded in some form of reality. One that had superpowers, yes, but it was also one that was akin to our own: with gray areas, and questions about actions and their consequences, where people died and got hurt. This show felt like a weird cross-over where all the good guys just happen to all be in the same place at the same time, all fighting against the bad guys, so why not team up to fight FUCKING MYSTICAL UNDEAD NINJASSS!!! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!!! OUR BIG BAD FOR THIS ENTIRE FUCKING SHOW WAS A GROUP OF MYSTICAL UNDEAD NINJAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!

Oh, and I should mention that … and I get that this is a superhero show where the weirdest stuff can happen… But the most unbelievable thing was that all four of them showed up to Midland Circle/ Hand HQ at the same fucking time. Why the hell was Luke even on the top floor? The ticket he found from that kid said to go to the parking garage. How the hell did Jessica and Luke even get up there? Danny was with that lady, and Matt took the stairs, but… Don’t businesses like that usually have some kind of pass you have to swipe in the elevator to access the top floors like that? That way randos don’t just walk into the building and go straight to the top floor??

What the fuck happened to those poor Chinese restaurant workers? Did they die? Did they go home? Were they just peachy-keen with their whole place being wrecked??? WTF?!?!?!

I like how Stick pointed out how he found Danny via his phone while they were hiding out at the restaurant… and then everybody kept hauling their phones around the rest of the time. Including Claire, who was answering calls in the middle of a sword fight. WTF?

And during the whole last two or three episodes, all I could think was: WHY THE FUCK DOESN’T SOMEBODY CALL THE AVENGERS?!!?!? THEY’RE RIGHT THERE, AREN’T THEY?!?! CALL IRON MAN, OR SOMEBODY!!! Gosh.

Okay, okay. I’ve ranted enough about the different parts of this show that annoyed the fuck out of me. But, if I disliked it so much, you might ask: why the hell did I finish watching it? Why didn’t I just give up midway through like I did with Luke Cage? What things does this show ACTUALLY have going for it? What did I LIKE about it?

First of all, as a Netflix/Marvel show, The Defenders has an amazing production value. The fact that they could afford Sigourney Weaver for even just six episodes is amazing. The effects and sets are all fairly good; and (again, outside of the mystical stuff) this felt like a real place. There was dirt and grime, and a lot of working parts and side characters who made an appearance (which could be a detriment sometimes). It’s a world that had coincidences, yes, but the fact that only two of the Defenders (Jessica and Luke) had met each other previously showed that, while some of them had heard of the others, this wasn’t such a small place that they’d all serendipitously crossed paths before. Claire introduces Luke and Danny. Foggy introduces Matt and Jessica (sort of). It felt just right. It wasn’t such a small world that everyone already knew each other, but it makes sense that in that in such a small area like Manhattan, there would be some connections (like Foggy working for Hogarth, for instance) that ultimately bring them all together when it’s needed.

Going off that, I really liked the contrast between Alexandra’s world and the Defenders’ world. All our heroes are in the grimy, poorer, dim-light, grungy areas. Even Danny, who’s a billionaire, seemingly lives a run-down dojo. They all seem to be kind of lower-class everyman sort of people. Whereas, Alexandra is very clean; she either wears or is surrounded by a lot of white and lighter colors (like cream and light tan), and she always seems to be in really good lighting – sometimes it even looks a bit harsh on her features. She’s got these refined tastes: eating fancy meals, listening to classical music, private performances, owning a bunch of antique books, etc. Whereas the Defenders eat at what looks like a two- or three-star Chinese restaurant as their first real pow-wow together, and none of their apartments look very clean or organized or fancy. I thought the contrasts between the good and the bad guys was strong, and did well to build up the world and ambiance of the show.

But, what really carries this show for me are the character interactions among the Defenders, once they start meeting each other. Like many people on Tumblr, I seriously enjoyed the dynamic between Jessica and Matt. You can tell that, in the short time they were together, Jessica grew to like and respect Matt – hence the whole scene with her client’s daughter where she alludes to Matt’s backstory. Matt also really respects Jessica’s grit and intelligence. Similarly, I also liked Danny and Luke’s friendship, although not to the same degree. I think when you break down a larger group of four or five people into pairs or groups of three, it really helps to develop the connections between not only the group as a whole but everyone’s individual dynamic with everyone else. For instance, that scene where Matt, Jessica and Luke are going to rescue Danny in the elevator worked for me, because Jessica and Luke already had a strong dynamic from her show (although I feel like they should’ve worked together more, and not just had a shoe-horned resolution at the end), and Matt and Jessica were building a friendship, so they felt like a fairly good unit together. Matt and Luke didn’t have that strong of a dynamic throughout the show, but the three of them in the police station, then on the run, then going down the elevator all worked because two of those three core relationships had some strength and weight to them.

This show also had a good amount of humor and heart to it. While I don’t think it was always well done, I seriously appreciated the effort. As I said before, that scene where the lady breaks down and cries in Luke’s arms because all her children are dead was fucking heartbreaking. The scene where Luke tells Danny that there are people out there caught in the crossfire of his war who don’t know any better, and are just trying to help their families… that was really powerful and well-done. As was the scene where Jessica keeps checking up on her client and daughter, because she’s worried for their safety (especially after what happened on her own show). And Elektra’s scenes in Matt’s apartment. And Matt deciding whether to attack the store owner who’s attacking the kids during the riot. There are some really good moments in there. Anytime there wasn’t mystical undead ninjas, a fuck-ton of exposition or any “we can’t tell you for your own protection” bullshit, this show could be really, really good.

Okay, I’m almost at 4,000 words, and I feel like if I’ve forgotten anything, I can add it in later. As I said, this show was kind of disappointing, considering how much it had been hyped up, and how long (since DD S1) I’d been waiting for it. But, eh. Between DD S2, Luke Cage, and the bad reviews of Iron Fist, I feel like the Netflix/Marvel shows haven’t been as good as I once felt like they were.

Again, this is all my opinion. Feel free to disagree with me. I haven’t really talked to anyone else or looked up any other reviews, so I don’t know if I’m in the minority on this one. Did you guys like it? What problems did you find with it? What were its stronger points? Do you agree or disagree with my review?

Thanks! ~miss-musings