I enjoy the characters of Pete and Nick. They honestly do have great screen charisma and presence on The Defenders and it's a lot fun watching them work.

Unfortunately, “Nevada v. Wayne” felt bland and lacked the emotional punch that it wanted to deliver.

All the characters seemed to be digging deep into their emotional pockets to try and serve the audience something to care about. Pete’s look of disbelief as the women on the jury believed the man’s testimony was the exact same one I had for this episode. Really?

Why was Lisa so upset about the rape case, beyond the fact that the mere act of rape is heinous itself? When she was going over the scene in her head, I thought at first that maybe we were going to learn about a back story where she had encountered a similar event.

Nope.

Rather, it was Lisa simply serving a plot point by questioning Nick’s motives to discredit the rape victim. How dare he!

I was glad that Nick at least defended his actions by stating that he didn’t want to do it, but needed to defend his client. It would help their case. It was also the first time that Nick and Lisa actually seemed to be at odds. I expected her to make a drastic decision and quit.

Even the revelation of Mike’s guilt didn’t feel dramatic. While reminiscent of Edward Norton’s great reveal in Primal Fear, I didn’t have the same amount of time to learn anything about Mike to really care. Yeah, it was creepy because he was a bad guy, but he received his guilty verdict because, let’s be honest, this is The Defenders. It would have been far more interesting for him to get away with it.

Which leads me to a point I think needs to be brought to the show: the characters need more background information.

I can only watch two bantering lawyers defending the case of the week for so long. In fact, I’d even enjoy watching an episode without a case that simply focuses on Nick and Pete.

I want to know more about them than some base facts. Yes, Pete’s a brash womanizer and Nick is divorced and trying to lose weight. But what else is there to these guys?

I do like that the show is trying different types of cases and situations. Pete being stuck in jury duty was funny to watch and buying suits with the company card had its moments. In the end, though, I have to agree with Nick and Pete’s parting words. Here’s to our worst days and the better ones ahead.

As a closing programming note: Look for new episodes of The Defenders on Fridays, starting February 4.

Sean McKenna was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. He retired in May of 2017. Follow him on Twitter.