13 episodes turned out to be too much - this coming from someone who really liked the show.
I think it's just growing pains as Marvel and Netflix sort of get used to the open structure of Netflix in general. They know their fans mostly binge-watch so they don't need to worry as much about episode count, episode length or even episode pacing. They can let all of that depend more on the story than anything outside.
Most people that work in the industry are so used to making movies between 90 and 120 minutes (or longer) or worse TV seasons of 26, 22-minute episodes with 2 commercial breaks etc.
I suspect that when Netflix and Marvel first set out on the Defenders project, they set some episode counts in stone that they really didn't have to. In hindsight, they could have easily had DD season 1 be about the same but had JJ season 1 only be 10 episodes and it wouldn't have hurt things at all. But I can see that since this is somewhat new ground that they were just cautious about it and decided that all four of the lead-up solo shows needed to be 13 episodes with the Defenders being 8. Now that they're further down the road they might think differently.
And really, just because Kilgrave/Tennant was the highlight, that doesn't really come off as a negative to me. A show is the sum of its parts and just like a hero is typically only as good as their villains, Kilgrave only worked as well as he did because of the other characters/actors on the show. Tennant didn't "carry" the show or take something horrible and make it amazing - he just did an amazing job himself as part of a great show (all opinions of course).
Daredevil has a bit more sizzle for people who aren't familiar with or interested in getting to know the characters, but the depth is there in JJ if one is willing to look for it.
Reading my signature constitutes admission that I am correct. (Too late)
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