- what usually gets me through these shows is not the action, but solid characters, with interesting stories and development. In Daredevil that was the amazing Kingpin by D'Onofrio, Bernthal's Punisher (season 2 practically ended for me when his arc was done) and - to a lesser degree - the dynamic between Matt, Foggy and Karen. In JJ it was Jessica and Killgrave. In Cage it was Cottonmouth (again, the show practically ended when he died - the rest was just going through the boring motions with really bad villains and bad action scenes). In Iron Fist it was Ward and his father. And my problem with Defenders is that it fails to deliver on that front. I think there are two main reasons for that: one is that the focus is just slightly more on action, and the other...

- the other is the villains They're just bad. I swear, there wasn't a single point in the entire season when I felt threatened by them. Weaver is trying as hard as she can, but I never felt her character was anything but a glorified CEO. The obviously treacherous Gao already seriously overstayed her welcome. The black guy and the japanesse bear-butcher are just boring cliches with funny accents / languages and almost no exposition. Bakuto would probably be fine - I liked him in IF - but he has no actual role in the story, aside from two or three badly written scenes with Coleen. But the worst one, and by a really long shot too, is Elektra. She's constantly strolling around with a weapon in hand (even when she doesn't need it) and making weird faces she probably thinks are scary... but to say it doesn't work would be a serious understatement The rest of them would probably be fine in a single hero show, but they just don't work for an ensemble one - if you want to gather all your heroes in one place you need a convincing reason, and it's just not present in The Defenders. But Elektra... she's a vision right from the Xena/Hercules times and it ain't a good one

- another of my gripes is directly connected to Elektra (among other things) and that's the fact that NOTHING IS EXPLAINED. They made her such a huge deal in Daredevil season 2, and I expected at least... I don't know, something. Anything. Any reason why that "Black Sky" is (supposedly) so powerful. And why is she different than any other risen guy/ gal ? But there are no answers. There's only a cute lassy strolling around with swords. Usually she she doesn't even seem more powerful than any of the heroes, not to mention all of them together. There's one particular, mood-breaking, funny scene with Jessica that makes "Black Sky" look like a complete fool... and tbh, it could've been the end of the season if they only reacted to what happened then. What's the deal with Alexandra and her "prophecy" about Black Sky? Your guess is as good as mine. What's the deal with the tremors? That one is technically explained, but boy, is it a weak and silly explanation. Why does the Hand want to destroy New York so desperately? Dunno, probably so the stakes at least seem high enough, but there's no logical reason in the story.

- budget constraints are visible despite the lower number of episodes. Some scenes just scream for some CGI or another look at the choreography, but they never got them. Other scenes just don't get shown at all - for example, we never see a duel between Cage and the other black guy, but we do see them stare at that tied up guy for at least two full episodes. Cage and Jessica seem pretty underused in general, during action scenes - which is probably because showing them fight would require more special effects. But at least Danny (or his double) does a slightly better job than in IF.