LogFAQs > #899396949

I'm once again caught up on the Netflix MCU shows. There's every bit a chance that I may get some flak for this opinion, but:

JJ season 1 = DD season 1 > DD season 2 > Defenders > IF = JJ season 2 > LC > Punisher

Those first two were solid, singular shows that grabbed you and paced themselves correctly for what they were going for.

DD's second season was good at many or most points, with Frank Castle stealing his scenes, but it felt like two shows sewn together like a quilt made by elementary school kids. At least we saw more Daredeviling in this show than Batmaning in "Dark Knight Rises," but that's not saying much. I liked Elektra in this, as well as Frank.

The Defenders did a good job setting up its conflict and bringing the main cast together. However, it curb-stomped that conflict in so short of an amount of time.

What was the complaint about the first few episodes of Iron Fist? I thought they were fine! The first episode wasted no time showing Danny's call to action. It gave us the man behind the curtain (though more on this later). It gave us the main bulk of our cast, even though what's considered by most to be the main conflict didn't show itself until the second that Madam Gao's cane hit the floor. If anything the last episode of the season felt tacked on like that game where you pin the tail on the donkey. On the other hand, that last episode rounded off the actual plot that was present since the beginning of Iron Fist.

Luke Cake, however, did not establish a call to action right away. It spent two and a half episodes world building when it was perfectly clear that "Cottonmouth" was going to be the first of two major antagonists. It showed us so much conflict, but gave Luke no reason to do anything about it until shit went down at the barber shop, as much as it re-established a reason to sorta like Luke. From there the show got better with MULTIPLE showdowns with Diamondback, which again made the last episode feel a little tacked on to pad out the running time to thirteen episodes (remember, Defenders went for eight episodes). I had a good chuckle, of course, at that seen where Carl said his reflection looked like a damn fool, and it was basically his comic costume.

Jessica's second season was alright overall, being the tragedy that it was. It also felt dragged on a little bit. The plot threads worked together, save for Wizzer's small part in the first couple episodes; I mean "Hey, let's throw in a nod to this comic character, complete with costume color, and then just kill him for reasons." Yes that served its limited purpose, but it didn't help with the many times where the show was like "Hey, we can wrap up here. You know what? Let's make a few things all go wrong BECAUSE RUNTIME!" Then, once the season finally did end--and "finally did end" feels like a sin to say in anything from MCU--it basically did so somewhere between bittersweet and tragedies of old.

Then this brings me to The Punisher. It was so damn predictable, and that's not just my abilities as a writer speaking out here. I think about 88% of twists could be seen coming a mile away, and the rest could be seen from a stone's throw. I had an unnerving chuckle, too, at something unintentionally funny during an obvious dream sequence, involving one of the faces that Frank makes, because it was so out of place. One plot thread felt so unnecessary until that kid bought pieces to a bomb, and I couldn't bring myself to care about him before then. Hell, a lot of the show felt too much like people sitting on their asses doing fuck-all, and not enough like Frank Punishing bad people.
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