Defenders was the worst offender by far. My god, that one scene with the woman and man wearing bright white clothing (not naming), it seriously looks like there is micromaggots running on speed, going in circles across their clothing it's so bad.
I'd say film grain has a place. It helps gel scenes together, make other post processing corrections/enhancements seem more natural, make special effects fit in with the scenes or not look cheap, definitely helps make CG fit in better with naturally shot scenes, it can help keep up a certain aesthetic or look so shots/edits don't look out of place from shot-to-shot and scene-to-scene, it also helps make-up look a lot more realistic in a digital clean age where otherwise it might look goofy etc etc.. but some of these people are extremely heavy handed over at Netflix. And yeah it was pretty noticeable in Jessica Jones but I absolutely laughed my ass off, rewound it and then laughed my ass of again while watching Defenders... then rewound again, paused it and called the wife in to laugh at it together. XD
On the other hand I'd say Stranger Things use of film grain was pretty spot on, it looked natural, wasn't overbearing and helped with all those other things I mentioned above AND gave an authentic vintage texture look to it.
I think overall though, some these guys that are mastering the film either need their eyes checked and need to dial it back a lot or invest in higher quality production assets so they don't need to blend as much.
