Marvel's The Defenders: 6 Reasons To Be Excited (And 4 To Be Worried)

Reasons To Be Worried...

4. Diminishing Returns

Yeah, sure, the Netflix Marvel Universe has to date offered up some great shows, which is a reason to be excited. At the same time, however, you can see cracks that have started to appear.

While it's hard to really find fault with Jessica Jones or the first season of Daredevil, save for some slight issues with length and pacing, its 2016 offerings had problems that were far easier to spot. That's not to say they weren't still very good, at times utterly brilliant series, because both of them were, but they were also more troubled.

For Daredevil's second season, issues crept in with the Elektra arc and the emergence of the Hand; for Luke Cage, when Diamondback took centre stage as the villain. It wasn't enough to totally derail them, especially when they had so much still working in their favour even at those points (thanks to a combination of strong action and even stronger characters/actors), but they were the first chinks in the armour.

That's continued in 2017, with Iron Fist being the first real failure of this universe. That means that, as it stands, this world peaked in 2015 and has been getting further away from that since; does it mean we've seen the best it has to offer? Is it a downward trend that could continue with The Defenders? These weren't questions being considered too long ago, but they feel more pertinent now.