Daredevil (on Netflix)

[rhoenix]

So, I finished all of Season 1 yesterday. I wanted to wait until now to make a review about it, since there were quite a few things for me to digest.

First - for the unfamiliar, this is a season-length show released directly to Netflix, and each episode is 45-55 minutes. The show's tone, writing, and portrayal is decidedly more adult than other similar offerings I've seen (such as Arrow), and for that reason, it works very well.

The character Daredevil is a character I like and admire, though I fully admit I'm not familiar with the character beside the name. First, he's a lawyer, but he's a lawyer working the poorer parts of Hell's Kitchen because he believes in helping the dispossessed and downtrodden. His alter-ego of Daredevil came about because of how he viewed the gap between law and reality - where someone can get off free for a crime they did indeed commit, or worse yet, never have it reported in the first place.

The show handled the reality of someone doing this kind of thing every night very well - to the point where despite his super-senses and super-zatoichi training, he still gets punched and hurt quite often, still gets knocked down, and gets very winded after a fight - and it's that I like. Instead of going the "lol I'm not even breathing hard after mopping up a warehouse full of minions" route, Murdock gets winded, wounded, thrown into trash cans, tired, falls over, and you can see him digging deeper to force himself to stand back up each time.

The character Foggy I really wanted to like. He has good lines, and his role in the show is a good and important one - but for some reason, the actor always came off as slightly wooden the entire time. It was never enough to truly bother me, but it was enough to make me narrow my eyes at a few parts, since while the lines he's given are good, their delivery could use some work.

I've heard some complaints about Vincent Dinofrio's portrayal of the Kingpin, but I thought he added a lot of good nuance to the role. Instead of simply being a puppy-kicking, cigar-smoking villain, as he easily could have been, we are shown his traumatic childhood, and the events in his life that led up to where he is now - and it makes sense. His behavior in the present all have anchors of who and where he was in the past, and his romantic interest is done sweetly - you can see it causing inner turmoil within him just by being around her, but yet like most people in love, he doesn't want to stop. All of these additional threads are woven into his character quite well, and you can even see and spot the times in which his insecurity led him to villainy, versus other reasons. Having a properly presented antagonist has become far more important to me as time goes on, as the struggle between the two tends to help better define both.

I have some small misgivings about how the season finale ended, since it seemed almost as if a few loose ends were skipped over, instead of treated carefully as they were earlier in the series. I won't spoil much, but some of his transition into the Red Daredevil Suit was... too easy, too simple. Given the issues I had with Arrow, this gives me cause for caution - but season 1 stands quite well on its own. Time will only tell if this continues.

My leftover question after season 1 is: Who the hell is Stick so subservient to, what his deal was earlier, and why? And what was this about "being ready for when the doors are thrown open"?

Final Score from Tyson: 9/10. Very well done. Not utterly perfect, but very, very well done.

I welcome anyone else's review of this show as well, whether short or nuanced - just reply here.

[Josh]

It's on my list for after I finish plowing through Burn Notice. I'm at the Fall of Sam Axe right now.

DAMN YOU CAMERON.

[frigidmagi]

The Fall of Sam Axe was great stuff.

[Steve]

Rhoenix, the stuff with Stick is probably set up for the Defenders. It's believed that Netflix is going to do the same thing with its Marvel original series as Marvel Studios did with the movies; a season for each character and then a teamup series.

Or maybe they think they could get Daredevil Season 2 sometime. We'll have to see.

[Steve]

http://marvel.com/news/tv/24478/netflix ... _daredevil

[rhoenix]

Rhoenix, the stuff with Stick is probably set up for the Defenders. It's believed that Netflix is going to do the same thing with its Marvel original series as Marvel Studios did with the movies; a season for each character and then a teamup series.

Or maybe they think they could get Daredevil Season 2 sometime. We'll have to see.

I am okay with either outcome, in this case.

[Josh]

The Fall of Sam Axe was great stuff.

Extra funny because I'm actually brushing up on my Spanish right now, so listening to him bumble his way through it was pretty funny.

Also throwback buff Bruce Campbell is always awesome.

[rhoenix]

Extra funny because I'm actually brushing up on my Spanish right now, so listening to him bumble his way through it was pretty funny.

Also throwback buff Bruce Campbell is always awesome.

He was having fun with his character on Burn Notice, and it was easy (and great) to see.

[Josh]

Five eps in. So far so good.

Definitely appreciate the fight choreography as noted in the review. I've never been a fan of the Norris/Snipes style fight scenes where the hero mops up the mooks without ever having a sense of peril to it. Give me the guy who takes his shots and keeps coming. Loved the scene where he rescues the kid, he just stays down and gets his shit together until he senses the next guy making a move.

[rhoenix]

Five eps in. So far so good.

Definitely appreciate the fight choreography as noted in the review. I've never been a fan of the Norris/Snipes style fight scenes where the hero mops up the mooks without ever having a sense of peril to it. Give me the guy who takes his shots and keeps coming. Loved the scene where he rescues the kid, he just stays down and gets his shit together until he senses the next guy making a move.

I hear you. After the hallway fight scene (I think it's in the second episode, where he rescues the kid), you feel weary yourself after watching it. He's exhausted, and you can tell - and yet, he forces himself to get up, and keep walking. I think that was one of the scenes that helped clinch the series for me.

[Josh]

Stick owns.

[rhoenix]

Stick owns.

Yes he does. That episode was kind of great, especially because it tore the curtain back a little bit.

[White Haven]

So, I'm torn on Daredevil. It's very, very well-executed, everything's done spot-on...but I find I can never quite get past the...the fact that it's a show set in a universe full of heroes and gods and star-spanning empires that is, nonetheless, focused on the earthshattering revelation that organized crime exists in New York and the NYPD are corrupt. None of that is the fault of the show itself, I hasten to add; it's magnificently well-done; I just can't quite escape the feeling that it's a tremendous waste of potential. I want to like it, because it IS well-done; I just wish it was a well-done show about something I could muster more than one or two fucks about.

Then again, I suppose Agents of SHIELD already exists.

[Josh]

Haven't finished yet, but the storyline with Stick seems to indicate we have demon issues in the offing.

[Josh]

Two eps to go, it's grown on me. At first, I wasn't really buying Murdock. It seemed like a case of generic rage, been there done that kind of stuff.

It's a hard road to hoe when you're going with the origin stories that were the foundational cliches of the industry (parent(s) killed by criminals so they dedicate their life to fighting crime) and as my best friend pointed out with Lord of the Rings, it's cliche because that's where the cliches come from. (Still didn't care for the movies, but then I'm just not a very big fantasy fan.)

But still, I just wasn't feeling it from him until Nelson vs. Murdock. Then the pieces fell into place and now I'm enjoying it a lot more.