Since 2015, we have been waiting to see the culmination of Marvel’s Netflix Series that started with Daredevil. The Defenders brings together the Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist series in a crossover event with decent success. Serving mainly as a follow-up to Iron Fist, the first season of the crossover series was short in length, but I thought that was a good thing. It would be harder to drag a series like this out over 13 episodes. To start with the positives, I enjoyed the way the camera filters changed between the characters. We get the reds for Matt Murdock/Daredevil, the yellows for Luke Cage, the blues for Jessica Jones, and the greens for Danny Rand/Iron Fist. This also extends to the secondary characters from their respective shows and the clothing that they all wear. There was one scene that we thought would focus on Jessica Jones, but everything around her was red. Then we see Daredevil show up to help her out. This was a cue to let the audience know that she was not going to be the focus of the scene. The show also does a great job integrating the main and supporting characters from the other shows into this one. The first meeting of Danny and Luke is hilarious, but one must wonder why it took Danny so long to activate his Iron Fist ability. The other introductions are more fluid, and it made sense how they would bump into each other. The character growth was good and noticeable. Each of the important characters have learned from their past experiences, but some things that still haunt them. Becoming a team helps them going forward, similar to how forming the Avengers helped Tony Stark/Iron Man. The acting was great, overall, and I was surprised by how well done the fight choreography was. Especially, from Finn Jones, since this was lacking in Iron Fist. Now, to move on to the negatives, the show has a few issues. Only Daredevil has a legit costume. At this point in all I mentioned that the shorter season was a good choice. However, I do wish the episodes were longer. An additional 20 minutes each would have been great. This would have allowed for them to get through the set up quicker and get into the action. In addition, the fact that they don’t mention the greater Marvel universe is a mistake, a mistake that has plagued all the Marvel Netflix series from the beginning. The Defenders has the least mentions of any of the other shows before it. There is one mention of the “incident” but nothing else. It is unclear how much time has passed since Avengers. People are shocked to hear about superheroes in a world where aliens attacked New York and an army of robots destroyed Sokovia! My point is that they either need to state that this is an elseworlds universe or start making more firm connections with a better sense of timeline in reference to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe. Finding out more about The Hand was great. Seeing all the leaders unveiled and learning their backstory was interesting. However, overall, this was a lackluster group of villains for this show. I was very skeptical when Sigourney Weaver was cast as the main villain for the show because I didn’t think she would bring the right amount of evil to the role of Alexandra. Unfortunately, I was right. We see Elektra in the trailers and her parts in the show are fantastic. Élodie Yung brings back the same conflict and viciousness Elektra had in season two of Daredevil. She should have been the main focus of the show, and The Hand should have been left in the background. I give The Defenders season one a Good 4/5. They left many questions open for future exploration. I hope things are better by the time the studio makes season two.