Defenders H Word Television 

Five Thoughts On The Defenders “The H Word”

By | August 21st, 2017
Posted in Television | % Comments

It’s finally here, the culmination of Marvel TV’s attempt at replicating the success of Marvel Films with their own team up of superheroes. Here are some thoughts on the first episode of The Defenders , “The H Word,” written by Douglas Petrie & Marco Ramirez (Daredevil S2) and directed by S. J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones).

1. Learn from Game of Thrones: Thematic Unity

With the rise of streaming as a viable alternative to commercial television, we’ve gotten a lot of great shows that would never have been made even on HBO. And while the distribution methods of Netflix and Amazon may be new and different from their televisual cousins, their core DNA is the same. Netflix originals for some odd reason have an episode problem, this fundamental unit of storytelling is lax and never feels fulfilling. Which is odd TV without commercial breaks isn’t new, HBO has been doing it for decades. So, to have these hour-long Netflix series that have so much slack in the overall structure of a season, as plot engines fall apart little over midway through a season and during episodes is continually befuddling.

This lack still rears its ugly head in The Defenders overall, but “The H Word” does take a lesson from middle season Game of Thrones (2-5) and deliver one of the better episodes in the series overall. Game of Thrones with its sprawling cast filming across 4 continents, cannot be written/structured like a traditional TV series. There are just too many plates to spin at once. However, in order to give these desperate plates some sense of unity episodes often featured some thematic binding agent for a majority of plot threads. Nothing grandiose but a nice motif that united these threads.

For “The H Word” that motif comes in the form of a question.

2. Are These Even Heroes?

This crews aversion to heroics – Daredevil is squarely in the vigilante spectrum – is a nice differentiator from their on-screen cousins. On the big screen, heroism is largely defined as penance for personal failure with State blessing. Or if you’re Captain America how right action can disrupt the relationship with the State. It’s only recently with Spider-man: Homecoming that a proper street level hero was introduced to the big screen universe.

The titular “H Word” is one that all of our would-be Defenders are fighting against. Matt’s trying to go clean. Jessica is in her typical stopper. Danny isn’t a character but so much a function and in that function high minded ideas don’t have a room. He must destroy the Hand! The only one who wants to be one is Luke Cage, the Hero of Harlem, but Claire would prefer him to be a built selfish and look after himself for a while.

This question forms the operational theme for the series overall. It’s a good emotional statement to unite the season together even if the overall plot structure falls off the rails.

It also makes the use of “Come As You Are” by Nirvana a more potent and appealing theme. Even if the Seattle Grunge is about as far away from the musical topography as NYC as one can get.

3. Heroic Color Play

While never truly achieving greatness, Marvel Netflix has at least expanded the aesthetic potential for what one could consider with super heroics. None of these series are similar in the slightest which makes the choice of using “The H Word” to highlight their atomized qualities a strong one. While perhaps not the most effective introduction to these heroes, “H Word” use of color coding to highlight the particular qualities of a series is one of the smartest move this show makes.

Daredevil is of course dominated by reds.

Jessica Jones is theoretically purple, but both her show and this one end up with surrounding her with darker and soft blues.

Luke Cage is yellow all the time and everywhere.

Iron Fist is surrounded by greens, not a vibrant exciting green a very dull olive green.

4. How not to do a fight scene

Ever wonder how not to do a fight scene? A good example is right here in the first episode as Danny and Collen fight Elektra in the sewers of Cambodia.

Continued below

Just to cut responses off at the pass, it isn’t because the screen is too dark, it’s an issue but not for the reason you’d think. The limited light source is actually a relative strength in this sequence, allowing the combatants to cast shadows and for a starker delineation between fore mid and background at points. The starting long shot is steady and lets Elektra and Chaste guy work their way into the frame and allows the shadows to both plays up the choreography as well as create depth. It’s a great shot and it’s pretty much all downhill from there.

The problem with the fight scene is the visual geography is neither developed or treated as something consistent. Which is something that should be hard to screw up considering the sewers are essentially one long hallway and an alcove. The lack of space is the opposite of how current action film maestros Chad Stahelski (John Wick 2) and David Leitch(Atomic Blonde) handle things, or James “Bam-Bam” Bamford does on Arrow. Without a sense of geography, the choreography doesn’t really work and you get this. As bodies move back and forth we have no reference point for the power and beauty of these maneuvers.

Instead, we get this fever dream style of editing that people would lay unfairly at the feet of Michael Bay. I can’t frame by frame how many cuts we get in this opening 3 minutes but I’d guess it is around 30-50. Cuts that emphasize bodies parts or water dripping just seem like random spasms not part of a coherent narrative. The viewer has no idea what just happened for two reasons.

One, the constant cutting. It isn’t that it’s too fast to process what we are seeing, it is that without an overall understanding of the bodies in space these various cuts feel alien to the viewer. The editing in this sequence doesn’t emphasize action it is just to create the semblance of action. This is the kind of editing you’d find in bad contemporary music videos.

Two, the use of non-diegetic sound. This isn’t so bad because all the cool sword sounds are always added in post, but when you can’t really tell the 5 W’s of action the audio experience is just as schizophrenic as the visual it makes for what is a total mess of an opening sequence.

While the overall point of this sequence is to show viewers a hidden enemy that Danny, Collen, and the rest of the Defenders cannot comprehend, that sense would’ve been better developed as Danny chases after her in the maze of sewers not during what should be a rousing fight sequence. Instead, we’re left as confused as our Hand fighting protagonists.

5. Elden Henson cut his hair, this is unacceptable.

This new Foggy working for Hogarth definitely seems much happier, but at the cost of sweet shoulder length locks of continually over styled bed head. Is he really happier with that hairdo?


//TAGS | defenders

Michael Mazzacane

Your Friendly Neighborhood Media & Cultural Studies-Man Twitter

EMAIL | ARTICLES