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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
16
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
Aug 15, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Not able to achieve the (expensive) scope of, say, an all-out, multi-pronged Avengers melee, the group fights aren’t nearly as grand but enjoyable in their own right. But again, just as when the Avengers first assembled, much of the joy here is seeing disparate personalities get to know each other and reluctantly embrace the T-word--team.
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Aug 10, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The images are sharper and more inspired, the dialogue is wittier, and the pace is breezier than the usual Marvel-Netflix escapade. Kudos to showrunners Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez--the team behind the disappointing second season of Daredevil--for upping their own game, honoring the best parts of every series, and elevating the franchise.
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Jul 24, 2017
Season 1 Review:
While the show starts as something of a slow burn, once the heroes come together, it more than lives up to the promise fans have been clamoring to see realized. It may not be the strongest Marvel Netflix series thus far (that would be a toss-up between Daredevil and Jessica Jones), but The Defenders splits the differences between its leads, creating something that even casual fans of these shows shouldn’t miss.
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IndieWireAug 18, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The ultimate weakness of The Defenders is found in its plotting, especially the way it indulges in one massive superhero storytelling cliche towards the end. But when the show focuses on character, it’s at its best, especially when the secondary characters,--the women!--get a chance at the spotlight.
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Aug 18, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Together, they’re a riot. Both their heroic vulnerabilities and the franchise’s weaknesses are superseded by the collective and the joy of watching a super-sensed, ultra-strong, bulletproof, luminous fist-wielding foursome smash soulless corporate henchmen into smithereens.
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Aug 17, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Some eye-rolly writing drags down even the best parts of The Defenders, which is partly the fault of the writers of course but also partly due to the wholly weak comic DNA, where obvious shows of emotion and declarative sentences dipped in gooey cheese are part of the deal. And yet, despite all of that, The Defenders morphs into a likeable and enjoyable collaboration by the third episode.
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Aug 16, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Defenders manages to overcome Rand’s initially central role in this plot by leaping between the narratives of his more compelling teammates without spending an excessive amount of exposition on their backstories. Ritter, Colter and Cox are still wonderful in their roles, though some may miss the wit that pervaded “Jessica Jones” and the first season of “Daredevil.”
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Aug 16, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Not a tone-deaf disaster on the scale of “Iron Fist,” nor a triumph of complex characterization and cultural commentary like “Jessica Jones,” “The Defenders” is ultimately adequate, treating each of the shows that preceded it like squeezed-out dollops on a painter’s palette to be applied selectively to an otherwise blank canvas.
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UPROXXJul 28, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Defenders is yet another Netflix ultra-slow burn. None of the heroes interact at all in the first hour. ... The parts of Defenders that actually, you know, feature all the Defenders are promising enough--if only for the chance to watch Jessica continually insult the others--for me to gladly watch the second half.
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Aug 17, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Defenders rises and falls on what its cast can bring to the mix. The less Finn Jones is onscreen, the better. He might be the most miscast actor in any series ever. Colter brings Luke’s look and nothing else. Now Ritter and Cox, on the other hand, I could binge on a Jones/Murdock spinoff all weekend long.
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The Daily BeastAug 18, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Defenders should be the best Marvel series Netflix has produced. Except... it isn't. Keep in mind it's very fun to watch and with a shorter episode order of eight, it won't be a slog to get through. But when it comes to the villains, the show gets bogged down in the worst aspects of the Netflix series.
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Aug 17, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Defenders is a pretty grim slog for the most part, enlivened mainly by Jessica’s hard-bitten one-liners, “surprise” appearances by major characters from Marvel’s other Netflix shows, and a couple of lively fight scenes (though not the opening bout, which is so darkly lit and chaotically edited as to be barely comprehensible).
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TV Guide MagazineAug 17, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Suffering from a slow-burning self-importance, Defenders is punctuated by rousing action sequences and enlivened by an urban aesthetic grounded in realism. [21 Aug - 3 Sep 2017, p.13]
Aug 15, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Iron Fist is the weakest link here, but because he is just a link, there are other characters who can do more of the heavy lifting. The first four of the series’ eight episodes are enjoyable, and Jones, Colter and Cox are especially fun to watch. Whether you’re a Universe denizen or a newbie, there’s no heavy lifting in The Defenders for audience members, either.
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RogerEbert.comAug 15, 2017
Season 1 Review:
While it’s undeniably fun to see at least three of these charismatic characters come together, The Defenders suffers from the same bloat that has been plaguing Netflix series of late--everything feels like it’s moving much slower than it needs to in order to stretch out a thin plot to a season length.
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Jul 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Like all of the solo series, it’s poorly paced, and takes far too long for the heroes to team up. They don’t appear together until the end of Episode 3. And even after all that lead time, they don't fit together. Jessica and Luke gel--he was introduced on her series. Daredevil and Iron Fist share mystic roots. But they lack chemistry as a group.
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Aug 15, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The story's larger stakes aren't always clear, and momentum falters, especially in the episodes that jarringly shift focus between the four characters. The Defenders' adversary complicates narrative coherence in the early going, with vague motivations and unclear means.
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