Netflix must improve its superhero franchise

The Defenders

Now streaming on Netflix First, the good news: The Defenders doesn’t suck.

Now, the not-so-good news: Netflix and Marvel need to roll up their sleeves and get to work, or else their TV universe could slide into a state of mediocrity from which it might never escape. Available on Netflix, The Defenders sees all four of Marvel’s so-called street-level heroes — Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) — band together in a reluctant alliance to save New York City from the villainous Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver.)

Here are four ways we’d like to see Netflix improve their future mighty Marvel offerings.

1 Shorten the seasons

The Defenders clocks in at eight episodes, and that seems like just the right length. If Game of Thrones can cover dozens of characters across Westeros in seven episodes, there’s no reason why The Defenders should have to be any longer.

Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and both seasons of Daredevil were 13 episodes long, and the pacing of each suffered badly. Tighter story arcs, less rambling exposition, more focused secondary plotlines … could be achieved through a less-is-more approach.

2 Expand the budgets

If Netflix can sink $200 million into a dog like Marco Polo, why can’t they roll some big dough into a Marvel TV series that looks truly cinematic? The Marvel shows on Netflix all have a similar slightly low-rent vibe, with unimaginative cinematography, bland fight scenes (with a few exceptions, particularly in The Defenders), and a weird overuse of coloured background lighting — once you notice it, you can’t unsee it.

Instead of Marvel cranking out multiple seasons of Jessica Jones or Luke Cage or (especially) Iron Fist, we’d love to see them concentrate on two or three shorter seasons of shows featuring marquee heroes, with more money invested in special effects, cool locations, stellar writers and maybe a few namebrand actors.

3 Align with the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Technically, the Marvel shows on Netflix exist in the boarder Marvel Cinematic Universe, but you’d almost never know it. Marvel movie head honcho Kevin Feige has his hands full with his cinematic slate, and he’s done a great job handling it. But he doesn’t really seem too interested in setting up meaningful crossovers with Marvel TV shows, outside of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (and even there it sometimes feels forced).

We don’t need Captain America or Thor having a cameo in one of the Netflix shows, but having something of real importance affect both worlds would go a long way toward unifying them in interesting ways.

4 Give animation a try

DC and Warner Bros. have been killing it with their animated movies over the past decade or two, many of which can be found on Netflix — try the gritty Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox to get a taste of what they’re doing. Now imagine a big-budget, adult-focused, animated Marvel series made exclusively for Netflix — it could be the best of all possible worlds, no?