Marvel's The Defenders: 10 Spoiler-Free Reactions To First Four Episodes

9. It Does A Decent Job Juggling Its Supporting Cast

Outside of the four heroes, The Defenders has a sprawling supporting cast, pulling in important players from each of the different series, all of whom appear in the first four episodes.

It's not an easy task to make them all feel like a necessary part of the show, nor balancing that while still putting the focus on four different superheroes, but the show does just about manage it.

Colleen Wing appears in the first scene, and is just as entertaining a presence as in Iron Fist; Jeri Hogarth gets to verbally spar with Jessica Jones once again; Trish and Malcolm are both shown as important parts of Jessica's life; Misty features in bringing some of the heroes together; and the state of Matt's relationships with Foggy and Karen does get addressed.

None of them feel like they're taking up too much time, but still advance the solo stories while serving the larger plot. Indeed, if there's one where it perhaps falls short, it's with Claire Temple. She's been the most important of all of them, but besides an introductory scene with Luke and Danny isn't really used much, which is a bit of a shame (and hopefully something the back-half will correct).