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4 Great Things in “The Defenders”
Disclaimer: The Defenders is great. It’s an almost-perfect final act for this “Phase One” of the Marvel Netflix Universe. Oh, and SPOILERS GALORE.
Iron Fist sucked a lot less. I hated Iron Fist (the series). I hated everything about it. The story was bad, the writing was worse, the acting was bad, Finn Jones was (intentionally?) god-awful, and the whole thing came across as offensive to an audience that has waited with baited breath for the next installment in the Marvel Netflix Universe.
The greatest achievement of The Defenders was that it completely rehabilitated Danny Rand for the audience. And they did it in the best way possible: by having the other characters make fun of him to his face. Every time he said with with sincere earnest “I am the Immortal Iron Fist” the characters on-screen reacted the same way the rest of us reacted on our couches: “shut up.” Murdock told him to stop acting like a child. Luke Cage sarcastically asked him to tell the story about how he punched a dragon and got a magic hand (which he did, obliviously). Alexandra interrupted his big speech in the boardroom and then asked him to go ahead and finish (which he did, obliviously). And of course, Sowande had the best line of the series: “You’re the dumbest Iron Fist yet.” It was great.
