The Marvel Netflix series has officially been taking off of Netflix. After seven years on that platform and about three years since it aired it’s actual final season, Marvel and Netflix seem to no longer be on the best of terms and have moved on from one another. However, just recently, it has been announced that all of these series will be added through Disney Plus as a means of allowing more mature content that will be added on March 16th. Because of all of that, I thought it was best to go back and finish watching the seasons I had yet to see just before it was taking down from Netflix. In hindsight, it was pointless to try to rush through it since it was eventually gonna be on Disney Plus anyway but I digress.
The Marvel Netflix series run made for a quite an interesting, bumpy, uneven, somewhat satisfying, but also plain exhausting ride. While it got off to a very promising start, it soon started to feel like it became too much of a good thing and couldn’t keep that level of consistent quality that the earlier seasons had. That’s not mean to say that these Netflix series was an absolute failure as a whole and there was even a couple of seasons that were great after a while but it definitely couldn’t reach the level of anticipation and rewatchability as say the Marvel Universe movies and even the Disney Plus series to some extent. Whether this has to do with Marvel or Netflix itself with the consistent flaws (sluggish placing, bloated runtimes, minimum momentum) these series has had is besides the point, but nevertheless, it was a thing that existed at one point and it came to an end three years later.
So, here is my ranking of all 13 seasons from worst to best. Keep in mind, I’ve only watched the majority of these seasons one time and I’m only going by what I remember from my overall experience with each season. With that underway, let’s get started.
(Btw, potential spoilers for each and every one of these seasons. If you haven’t watch one of the seasons and don’t want to be spoiled, then you might want to click away and come back once you’ve finished all of them.)
13.) Iron Fist- Season 1
This is arguably the first absolute trainwreck that the Marvel Cinematic Universe had released up to the point of this season’s release. Taking away all the pre-release controversy of Iron Fist being whitewashed and even actor Finn Jones trying to make the early negative reviews of the show into a political talking point, this season just fails on about every single level. Danny Rand is an annoying and unengaging lead while Finn Jones brings little to no charm, charisma, or believability as a material arts master. The fight scenes are poorly shot and are quite hard to watch, it’s about five episodes too long, it’s tone is uneven as hell, most of the cast look embarrassed to be there, the villains are a joke, and The Hand is the single least interesting thing introduced in this entire Marvel Netflix canon. Colleen Wing is quite likable though and poor Jessica Henewick’s back must hurt for having to carry these two sub-par seasons of this show on her back.
12.) The Defenders
The Marvel Netflix’s equivalent of The Avengers was about as forgettable and underwhelming as you can possibly imagine. The cast themselves (save for Finn Jones) have good chemistry and once the series actually bothers to have them together, they play off each other very well. Unfortunately, The Defenders lacks an interesting (or at least functional) plot for them to work with. The forced tied-ins to the already painfully dull The Hand, doesn’t do any favors, the build up to The Defenders themselves is beyond forced, and it really doesn’t provide enough of a justifiable reason as to why this needed to be a full-team up series to begin with. Thrown in a wasted Sigourney Weaver as the villain, a pointless revival of Elektra, and a finale where everything falls apart to absolute shit and it’s feel more on par with the Justice League monstrosity that got released just a few months after this came out than the 2012’s Avengers. While not quite the worst season overall, this was arguably the most disappointing one.
11.) Iron Fist- Season 2
A minor improvement over the dreadful first season but still not enough to make the Iron Fist character worthwhile. The action scenes are much improved, Danny isn’t the annoying insufferable dweeb as he was in the prior season, and at least had the decency to actually be 10 episodes this time as oppose to the completely forced 13. That being said, it fails to make it’s lore and backstory of it’s title character interesting and compelling . It also fails to give a reason as to why The Hand is worth being a major focus on throughout Marvel Netflix as a whole. What makes it more insulting to injury is how the final five minutes are legit better than anything that either two seasons had to offer that it makes you wonder why they didn’t just make this series like that to begin with. Oh well, at least Colleen Wing and Misty Knight are still cool.
10.) Luke Cage- Season 1
The one series where I started to notice the big cracks in the Marvel Netflix show. Whether it’s Marvel or Netflix fault as to the overall “formula” as to how these shows get made, these series greatest weaknesses comes from it’s pacing and just being too damn long. Luke Cage Season 1 unfortunately fall into those exact trappings. It’s starts off well enough with plenty of unique aesthetics and style to admire, a cool soundtrack to listen too, and solid introductions to most of the characters of the shows. Unfortunately, it’s right around the midway point where the series kills off a charismatic and welcome antagonist with Mahershala Ali’s Cottenmouth in favor of a more over-the-top and non-threatening antagonist in Erik LaRay Harvey’s Diamondback, that the big main flaws start to drag the whole season down. The middle chunk is filled with needlessly filler with too much time of Luke Cage being injured and Claire having to nurse him, the brother conflict between Luke and Diamondback doesn’t work in the slightest and feels like it should have been saved for Season 2, and it’s tonal whiplash of being cartoonish feel like a betrayal to the more serious and laid-back tone that the beginning of the show promised. Can’t go wrong with Simone Missick as Misty Knight though and Mike Colter is pretty good as Luke Cage himself!
9.) The Punisher- Season 2
After having achieve vengeance for his family’s death in the first season, Season 2 sees the Punisher attempting to pursue a new purpose and he finds that purpose when he find himself needing to protect a teenage girl named Amy Bendix from a brand new villain assassin in the form of John Pilgrim. That is a unique premise in of itself that makes for a great metaphor of the makers of the show trying to figure out what to do with the next season of a character who wasn’t originally suppose to get their own series.
Unfortunately, not of enough time is spend on that and too much of it is focused on forcefully bringing back Billy Russo (now known as Jigsaw) as the other main bad guy. Similar to Diamondback, that villain just seems too cartoonish to take seriously and doesn’t really fit in the overall tone that the series is going for. Kinda like with the title character (and most of the seasons 2 tbh), Season 2 of The Punisher feels like it’s at war with itself. It’s fine when it’s focuses on it’s own story along with it’s own individual arcs but falters when it feels the need to connect to Season 1 in ways that feels very implausible.
8.) Jessica Jones- Season 2
Season 1 of Jessica Jones was always going to be a tough act to follow after the way the season ended of killing its incredibly compelling bad guy that was neck-neck with Kingpin as being the best villain in these Netflix series. Similar to The Punisher, Season 1 set big holes that Season 2 can’t quite fill in. Luke Cage is replaced with a next door neighbor as a love interest who is rather quite boring, having Jessica’s mother being alive all along is too bizarre itself to completely buy into, and the season seems to be so aware they could never top Killgrave that they don’t even bother having an overall villain itself throughout the course of this season. There’s also the development of Trish turning into Hellcat which is cool up until she makes an awful decision that it makes her unredeemable. Thankfully, Krysten Ritter is just as brilliant her as she was in the first season and really holds this season together. Jessica Jones herself is still a great and compelling protagonist to follow and Ritter hasn’t lost a single bit of charm or wit to this character but you really get the sense that her series hit a brick wall after the first season and the creatives behind it didn’t quite know how to respond to it (at least until Season 3).
7.) Luke Cage- Season 2
Similar to Iron Fist, much better than the first season but not quite enough to make it standout as it’s own thing. 13 episodes is still way too long for these shows but for some reason, it feels the need for each episode to be at or around an hour long. Why? It makes the overall experience feel tiresome, no matter which way you decide to watch this show. However, unlike Season 1, there wasn’t really an area where it completely lost me. Luke Cage’s relationship with a family member, mostly his father, actually works this time because it’s actually a main focus point throughout the entirety of the season and doesn’t abrupt the overall tone. Simmone Missick as Misty Knight is still as fun to watch as she always has been and share great chemistry with Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing, so much so it kinda makes you wish Marvel Netflix could have gone on a bit longer for we could have Daughters of the Dragon. The best part of it all has to be the central main villain that is Mariah Dillard played by the wonderful Alfre Woodard. She thankfully gets more screen time here than the first season and completely steals every scene she’s in, Woodard makes her villain you love to hate but at the same time, don’t want to because Alfre Woodard is so likable. The series also makes a bold choice towards the end to where it isn’t afraid to make Luke Cage the bad guy.
6.) Jessica Jones- Season 3
It’s quiet unfair with how this overall season will be viewed and judged in hindsight. Not just as a the final season with it’s titled character but as the final season with Marvel Netflix as a whole. While I’m pretty certain this was not the ending that Marvel imagine with these series of shows, this season works better for Jessica Jones than it does with the Marvel Netflix run as a whole. Here we see Jessica being challenged more than ever as both a detective and as hero. (Heck, there’s Jessica Jones probably does more detective worth here than any live-action Batman movies, pre The Batman.) Not just with the main villain of Gregory Salinger but with her best frenemie of Trish Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat. Like with most of these shows, there is definitely a sense of slow-burn feel through out but at least here most of it pays off here because Jessica herself is engaging and seeing the choices she makes that may or may not define her as a “true” hero shows how unafraid these shows are at showing their characters being more than just heroes. Salinger himself is a pretty meh villain though.
5.) Daredevil- Season 2
If we are counting just the first four episodes of the season alone, than this would be near the top, if not possibly at #1. The first four episodes is as good as Marvel Netflix can get with it’s sheer amount of intensity, suspense, intrigue, and non-stop action. That stairwell scene puts the hallway scene in Season 1 to shame and the rooftop conversation between Daredevil and Punisher is absolute “Batman and the Joker interrogation chat” level of brilliance. Where it starts to falter is with the arrival of Elektra and being introduced to The Hand. While Elektra herself is entertaining to watch and Elodie Yung and Charlie Cox work well together, every time it has to take us back to anything involving The Hand makes it stick out like a sore thumb. Similar to Season 2 of The Mandalorian, it’s impossible to not to try to distinct the moments of fan service with fan favorite characters like The Punisher showing up and feeling like it’s just pure set-ups for other series that had still yet to come. It also doesn’t help that Kingpin only shows up for two episodes and the finale itself is kind of a mess. (Not to mention, that Elektra reveal near the tail end is beyond laughable.) At least, there’s more stuff happening with side characters like Karen, Foggy, and Claire this time around and something always happening throughout that it’s hard to be zone out by. I might have found this a bit more entertaining than the first season, but from an objective standpoint, this is probably inferior and the weakest of the three seasons.
4.) Daredevil- Season 1
The one that started it all and is a favorite for many people. And it’s easy to see why! This set the perfect tone for these Netflix shows, a tone that has a perfect blend of realism but also enough light. The universe building it displays is incredibly well realized and has it’s own unique feel to it that’s different compared to the Marvel movies. The action and fight scenes are absolute top notch that feels real but also incredibly brutal and dirty. And of course, the rivalry between Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Vincent D’onofrio’s Kingpin is extraordinary stuff and makes the whole season (and even the entire series) worth it because of their great dynamic. The rest of the series on the other hand, is a bit of a mixed bag. The length of the series and each episode is felt the longer it goes on, the supporting characters like Karen and Foggy don’t get much to do other than solving the same crimes that Daredevil himself already solved, and no matter which Daredevil outfit you prefer, they look quite downright silly regardless. It’s a season that basically works more as a whole than the sum of it’s parts. While it’s not quite my favorite season overall, it’s undeniably the most important one.
3.) The Punisher- Season 1
The Punisher himself was the one character that wasn’t originally planned to have his own series. It officially came greenlighted shortly after Daredevil Season 2 as many people loved Jon Bernthal’s portal as the character and wanted to see more of him. That in of itself could make the actually season itself feel incredibly rushed and half-baked but that is thankfully not the case with The Punisher Season 1. While the first half is not particularly great suffering from many of the same length and pacing problems as most of these series do, it easily finds it’s momentum, purpose, and pay offs very well in the second half that it makes the patience feel earned. This help showcased how a supposed monster like Frank Castle himself can still be seen as having humanity within himself. The actions he takes to avenge his fallen family showcases the beam of light that Frank Castle himself has. Jon Berthnal is extraordinary as the Punisher, making for what is possibly the best live-action Punisher up to this point. The action is the most brutal, violent, gory, and bloody than it has been in any Netflix show, featuring one of the most satisfyingly gruesome scenes at the very end of the second to last episode (this deserves to go into the top 3 for that one scene ALONE!) Although it’s somewhat undermines the entire point of the Punisher to present him as being the hero of the story as oppose to a bad guy or at least anti-hero, he does enough brutal things in the show and Berthnal is so good in the role that it mostly doesn’t matter. I can flip a coin between this or the first season of Daredevil but I found the ends to really justify the means more so here .
2.) Daredevil- Season 3
My favorite season of the series by a long shot! Not only in the sense that it takes the character back to his original roots but the one that feels like the character of Daredevil himself is being tested more than ever before. This season has the biggest stakes out of the entire Marvel Netflix universe with the characters in constant peril and Daredevil possibly meeting his match with not just with Kingpin but with his supposed doppelganger known as Bullseye. The sides characters get plenty to do here that have their own arcs and challenges to overcome, the action has never been better and more brutal (the hallway prison fight somehow manages to be even better than both the one in Season 1 and the stairway scene in Season 2 combined), the antagonists shine well here, and is so fascinating to see Daredevil practically get pushed beyond his limits to do what is right for his friends and the city he has sworn himself to protect. And just like with The Dark Knight, it knew that it’s central story had just as much to do with the main hero as it did with his villains. While it’s disappointing that the show had to end here and we’ll never get a fourth season (especially with that cliffhanger tease at the end), they were at least able to save the very best for last and go out on a high note.
1.) Jessica Jones- Season 1
This one was still my favorite overall! Easily the darkest and most suspenseful of all the series but at the same time, the most engaging and entertaining one as well. Perfectly blending the dark themes of abuse, sexual assault, and PTSD, the first season of Jessica Jones works greatly as a haunting character study, a psychological thriller, and an intriguing detective mystery tale. His noir-inspired tone and aesthetic work greatly with the style of the film, the side characters (save for a slightly annoying Hope Shlottmann) are great, with the highlights being Carrie-Ann Moss’s Jeri Hograth, Rachael Taylor’s Trish Walker, and Mike Colter’s Luke Cage, and the overall personal conflict between Jessica and Kilgrave themselves is intriguing but at the same time, disturbing. Krysten Ritter is perfect as the lead heroine but it’s David Tennant as Kilgrave that gives arguably the best performance of the entire Marvel Netflix series, even more so than Vincent D’onofrio as Kingpin. It’s the one season series where I was interested from beginning to end not feeling a sense of drag or boredom. It felt perfectly structure and actually felt justified of it’s 13 episode length. The only real downside is perhaps the death of Kilgrave which despite fitting perfectly within the arc of this season, did make the following seasons an near impossible act to follow to killing off an incredible villain after just it’s first season. But, taking at it’s own thing, Jessica Jones Season 1 was easily the best thing to come out of Marvel Netflix and even had there been no other season to follow this, it would have perfectly well as it’s own great standalone feature.
But yeah, those are my rankings! What a weird, wild ride these Marvel Netflix shows have been!
I don’t know exactly the future now for these characters and the actors involved. With Matt Murdock’s cameo in No Way Home and Kingpin’s appearance in Hawkeye, there seems to be a chance that most of the other cast members could have a chance to play their characters once again. Heck, maybe with the shows moving to Disney Plus, that’ll gain so much viewership that Disney and Marvel will feel compelled to bring them back. Who knows? Either way, those are my rankings of all 13 seasons? Let me know yours in the comments below or you can tweet me on Twitter to give me your rankings there.
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Also, I forgot to mention but Claire Temple is a great character and Rosario Dawson plays her well. I just hope those allegations against her beating up a trans person is false. I hear that’s probably not the case but I would need 100% proof on that before liking her once again.
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