The Defenders

It's not bad.

The action's entertaining, the characters interact well, it's always good to see more of Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, and overall the series is far more focused than most that have come before (which is surprising given there are now 4 'heroes' to deal with).

Unfortunately, there's little to it beyond that. The story, though focused, isn't particularly interesting, Sigourney Weaver's good as the new villain, but doesn't get a lot to do, and the hole 'The Hand' thing has never really worked anyway. And the coming together of these four iconic characters doesn't raise so much as a mild tingle as two are boring, frustrating dim-wits, Daredevil's a badass, but is otherwise flat beyond a few wry lines, and only Jessica Jones is genuinely compelling, and interesting to watch outside of the fight scenes.

I am, however, given hope for the future of the franchise because they do seem to be aware of the problems of the past. It was too late to fix Iron Fist's character for this series, but at least he's called out by the others (especially the always entertaining Stick) for being a childish, entitled dip-shit. At only 8 episodes long, there's little filler beyond the first episode (which does drag, so be prepared for that initial hurdle), and it's the first of these I've been able to watch in (almost) a single sitting. They even addressed the botch job they made of Elektra - and the child-of-destiny crap that is the hallmark of the lazy writer - with a twist late into the series that I did see coming, but not in the way they did it, or the direction they then took it in.

Overall, I'd rank it 4th in the MNU:

1. Daredevil & Jessica Jones 
[JJ is by far the best written, with the most interesting and intelligent story, and compelling protagonist, but DD was more entertaining and bore the burden of both getting this whole thing started, and making up for what had come before better than I could have hoped. Plus both had awesome villains that out-do anything in even the MCU, including Loki (come at me, brah!)]

3. Daredevil season 2
[If it was just the Punisher-focused stuff, this would be alongside Jessica Jones instead of season 1, but the whole thing was brought down by the Elektra/Hand crap]

4. The Defenders
[See above]

5. Luke Cage
[Great ensemble of villains, and supporting cast, but lazy writing, good ideas that went nowhere, boring action, and a frustrating protagonist]

6. Iron Fist
[If only I could rank it lower...]

Lukewarm Cage

Hmm...

I find myself overall underwhelmed by Luke Cage: great characters in a dull story, with boring action and an at-times jarringly lazy script.

At one point a character is called through a police line to be told 'You should stay back'... :/

The supporting cast are great: diverse, unique, relatable and/or understandable. The bad-guys (and there are a few) are mostly nuanced, and with arcs, while the female good-guys are assertive, interesting and never in the damsel-in-distress role (one does need saving at one point, but it doesn't really count).

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Luke himself. Unlike the supporting cast - and more notably, unlike Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones before him - there's no agency about him. Everything he does he has to be pushed and prodded into doing (with the exception of a quick heist he does for the lols). He crumbles under the mildest pressure, shows little wit or imagination, and too often suffers from momentary idiocy syndrome when the plot requires him to.

At one point, he's about to pack up and leave town because of a mild threat, is told off for being a bitch by one of the series' intelligent characters, and decides, 'Oh, okay, guess I'll stay then'.

The action, when it happens, consists almost exclusively of him walking into a hail of bullets and throwing people around like a Kevlar Mr. T, and the one time we do get a fist-fight, it consists of the two characters trading blows like they're taking turns on a heavy-bag, while the crowd chants as if they're watching a crap Rocky knock-off.

It does have its moments (though they mostly come when Luke's off screen), and there is a polemic through-line reflecting the state of American politics and race-relations, but everything seems short-changed.

The first few episode hint at a character's racism, but that's forgotten before we're halfway through, it briefly tries its hand at being a police procedural, but the mystery is limp and quickly given up on, and the good ideas it does stick with tend to crop up in visual metaphor throughout the series, but are never explored in any depth.

There are good ideas beneath the surface, and the cast for the most part (particularly the bad-guys) are engaging, but this is easily the weakest of the MTVU so far.