Thorough director hampered by incompetent hero primarily (2-5)
I believe the answer is:
in-depth
'thorough' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'director hampered by incompetent hero primarily' is the wordplay.
'director' becomes 'd'.
'hampered by' is an insertion indicator.
'incompetent' becomes 'inept' (similar in meaning).
'primarily' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'hero' is 'h'.
'd' placed inside 'inept' is 'indept'.
'indept'+'h'='IN-DEPTH'
(Other definitions for in-depth that I've seen before include "Detailed (investigation)" , "With thorough and extensive investigation" , "Comprehensive and thorough" , "Thoroughly and comprehensively" , "Profoundly (studied)" .)