I’m also going to review this miniseries, as there’s a gap in the Daredevil seasons without it. The Defenders superhero group includes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. This MCU show premiered on Netflix in July 2017, produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios, with Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez acting as showrunners. It stars Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Mike Colter as Luke Cage and Finn Jones as Danny Rand/Iron Fist, all reprising their roles from their individual series, plus Sigourney Weaver as the Hand’s Alexandra Reid. This review includes spoilers.

Luke Cage has been released from prison, and during an investigation encounters Iron Fist Danny Rand and his friend Coleen Wing, who have arrived in NYC from Cambodia. PI Jessica Jones takes a case where an architect has gone missing, finds his apartment filled with explosives, and is present when he commits suicide in his office. Jones is taken in by the police and Foggy Nelson sends Matt Murdock to get her out of trouble. Meanwhile, the Hand’s excavations at Midland Circle are causing earth tremors. Cage, Jones and Murdock continue investigating, and Rand tries using his corporate ties to find out what’s going on at Midland Circle. His meeting with the board goes poorly, and the Defenders end up together fighting their way out. They hold a meeting at a Chinese restaurant where Matt’s old martial arts instructor Stick arrives, and Matt and Jones refuse to get involved. The Hand is onto them now, though, and arrive at the restaurant. Cage captures Sowande, one of the Hand’s fingers, and they find that the Hand wants Danny/Iron Fist to open a portal for them at the bottom of their excavation. The Defenders gather their friends and send them to the police precinct station for protection. Stick kills Sowande and means to kill Danny, but Elektra arrives, kills Stick and steals Danny away. The Defenders wake from unconsciousness at the police station, but break out and head uptown to rescue Danny. Meanwhile Cage’s friend Claire Temple and Colleen Wing have stolen the explosives and the architect’s plans out of the police evidence room and set the explosives at Midland Circle to bring down the building. Elektra kills Alexandra Reid and takes over the Hand’s organization. Madam Gao takes control of the reanimation substance the Hand is mining. The Defenders rescue Danny and head out, but Matt goes back for Elektra. The explosive goes off. Is there any way Matt and Elektra can survive?

This story continues the second season of Daredevil. It’s something of a mash-up of stories, but it also includes bits of ironic humor and generally moves along pretty well. There are a couple of big plot holes. For example, if the police find unconscious people at a crime scene, they’ll take them to the hospital, not to the police station, even if they’re identifiable as superheroes. The resulting scenario is fun, but not real likely. Also, even female superheroes have to deal with physics. Even if Jessica Jones is super-strong, she will still need to deal with mass, and even if Alexandra Reid has mystical powers, she will still need correct body mechanics to throw her opponents. This is an obvious problem given the gifts of Élodie Yung as Elektra and the 75-year-old Wai Ching Ho as Madame Gao, who does an awesome job of channeling her mystical powers.

Very entertaining and watchable. Four stars.