(WARNING: Potentially
Minor Spoilers Ahead! Don’t worry, I won’t give away ‘too much’)
In 2003, Marvel made its first major attempt to bring the
character of Daredevil to the big screen. But ultimately, the 2003 film
‘Daredevil’ starring Ben Affleck in the title role of Matt Murdock AKA Daredevil,
‘The Man without Fear’, ended up becoming one of the most hated superhero films
of the pre-MCU superhero film era… at least amongst the people of the internet.
A few weeks ago, I went on record stating that I didn’t ‘hate’ the film. I’m
not saying that it was a ‘great’ superhero film, far from it in fact, but
ultimately 2003’s ‘Daredevil’ was just a case of a film that got neutered by
the studio to appeal to a larger audience despite the fact that Daredevil is
considered to be one of Marvel’s darker lead characters. If anything, it wasn’t
100% the fault of either Affleck or director Mark Steven Johnson. Because of
the mixed-to-negative reaction, plans for a sequel fell by the wayside and
Fox’s attempts to reboot the franchise ultimately didn’t pan out either. So, in
2012, the rights to the character of Daredevil returned to Marvel Studios and
as a result, now we have the ‘Daredevil’ TV series, the first in a new group of
shows that Marvel will produce with Netflix over the next few years centered
around the characters collectively known as ‘The Defenders’. This new
‘Daredevil’ immediately makes one hell of a great impression, much more so than
its 2003 film predecessor, thanks to its perfect execution of tone and
atmosphere as well as a terrific cast highlighted by one of the best screen
villains of recent memory.
As a kid, Hell’s Kitchen native Matt Murdock was blinded by
radioactive material after he helped save a man from getting hit by a car. But
while he does end up losing his vision, Matt’s other senses become more
heightened and after his father, wrestler ‘Battlin’ Jack Murdock, is killed
after not throwing a fight, he begins to hone his newfound abilities with an
old martial artist named Stick (Scott Glenn). Years later, Matt (Charlie Cox)
and his best friend Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) open up a new law firm. At
night, Matt becomes ‘The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen’, a vigilante who deals with
the rampant crime of the area. Matt and Foggy soon take on their first client,
a young woman named Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) who finds herself caught in
the middle of a pension embezzlement scheme that is going on at the company she
works for. While Matt and Foggy help protect her from being prosecuted, this
soon leads Matt, through his vigilante persona, to investigate further into the
matter. As he deals with the various criminal gangs of Hell’s Kitchen, from the
Russian mob to the Yakuza, he soon ends up crossing paths with the one who’s
really behind it all, businessman Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) who has plans
for Hell’s Kitchen that Matt, Karen, Foggy, and many others soon find
themselves roped into.
Right off the bat, I can tell you that this is nothing like
the 2003 ‘Daredevil’ in that it’s not a toned-down PG-13 affair; this show is
rated TV-MA for a reason. It’s much darker in tone and far more violent than
anything we’ve seen from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But at the same time,
it’s not 100% dark to the point where it starts to become way too unpleasant to
watch. Amidst all of the violence and darkness of the plot, the series still
manages to lighten things up at just the right times, namely through the solid
camaraderie between Matt and Foggy. I’ve talked before about my apprehension
towards DC’s alleged ‘no joke’ mandate for their upcoming slate of films and if
that ends up being the case, then DC should really take notes because this
show, along with Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, are prime examples
of how you can do a more serious superhero film/TV series without being ‘too grim’,
which I feel that DC went a little too far with when they made ‘Man of Steel’.
Along with that, the show does a nice job in terms of pacing as it doesn’t rush
into things too fast. It takes its time in order to develop the plot and
characters. I guess you can say that’s the advantage that TV shows have over
films in that they’re not constricted by having to get everything across in just
around two hours.
The action sequences are quite excellent, with probably the
best of the bunch being the one near the end of Episode 2, when Daredevil
fights off a Russian gang in order to save a young boy that they’ve kidnapped.
The whole fight sequence is done in a single long take which, if I’m right,
we’ve never really seen before from superhero films. And keeping in line with
the show’s darker tone and TV-MA rating, they’re much more brutal than what
we’ve seen from the MCU films. When characters are injured, you hear the bones
crack when they’re hit, giving you a clear idea of what just happened to them.
You see the bloodshed whenever someone gets stabbed or slashed. And boy let me
tell you, some of the deaths in this show are brutal, particularly in Episodes
3 and 4, without giving away any of the details about how they happen. It’s
unlikely that we’ll ever see action sequences as brutal as these in the MCU
films but that’s okay because I prefer the films stay that way anyway. But
suffice it to say if you are looking for a darker/more violent superhero
property then you’ll definitely gravitate towards this series. I’m not one of
those people who feel that a lot of these superhero films are all just the same
but at the same time I will admit that this series does provide a nice bit of
variety when compared to most superhero films due to it being much more adult.
With no offense to Ben Affleck, Charlie Cox immediately
establishes himself as the superior Daredevil. In the role of the first major
anti-hero of the MCU, Cox does a great job at capturing Matt Murdock’s moral
turmoil as he constantly tries to justify to both those around him and even
himself that what he’s doing is right. Backing Cox up are Woll and Henson as
Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, two roles that, in this series, are expanded upon
much more than what one might expect from this kind of show. If this show had
gone another way, these two characters probably would’ve been nothing more than
just the helpless damsel in distress and the goofy sidekick, respectively. But
thankfully that’s not the case here as Karen and Foggy are just as fleshed out
in terms of character development as much as Matt. Karen, as soon as she gets
caught up in the main conflict of the series, gets involved with it just as
much as Matt, without the whole ‘vigilante’ thing of course. And while Foggy
definitely is the primary source of comic relief for the series, that’s not all
there is to his character. One of the most crucial episodes of the series is
Episode 10, aptly titled ‘Nelson v. Murdock’, in which a big reveal (don’t
worry, no spoilers) at the end of the previous episode results in Foggy and
Matt coming to odds over recent events. Overall, the series has a rock solid
cast from top to bottom.
Ultimately, however, the biggest stand-out of the cast is
easily Vincent D’Onofrio, who’s perfectly cast in the role of Wilson Fisk AKA
Kingpin in the comics. In fact, I’m just going to say it; he’s the best villain
that Marvel Studios has had to date, even better than everyone’s favorite
villain Loki. Fisk, as D’Onofrio portrays him, is a truly fascinating main villain
and is set up pretty well in that regard. Heck, he doesn’t even appear on
screen until the end of the third episode, though he does make a brief vocal
appearance in the first episode. A lot of times, he’s very soft-spoken but when
he gets angry, that’s where you really don’t want to mess with him. That
soft-spoken nature, along with the numerous times he tells people that
sometimes he feels ‘alone’, definitely must’ve come from the character’s
troubled past. And that troubled past is the focal point of what is, in my
opinion, the best episode of this season, Episode 8, in which we see how Fisk
truly became the person he is today. In some ways, there are times where we
even pity Fisk, like when he tries to navigate through a relationship with his
girlfriend Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) and we see how much that relationship affects
him. The end result is an extremely well-layered main villain and I hope that
Fisk might get the chance to appear in a future MCU film.
At this point in time, I’d argue that Marvel is now
officially on DC’s level when it comes to Grade-A superhero TV series. After a
rocky start, one that I still stand behind as being better than what most give
it credit for, ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ has now really stood out as far as
these shows go thanks in no small part to the big HYDRA reveal of ‘Winter
Soldier’. Earlier this year, we then got a kick-ass period comic book show with
a terrific female lead in the form of ‘Agent Carter’. And now, we can
officially add ‘Daredevil’ to this mix of great Marvel shows. Unlike the last
major adaptation of ‘Daredevil’, this version stays much more true to its comic
book roots and, unlike its MCU film brethren, isn’t afraid to be more brutal in
terms of violence and darker in tone. Thankfully, unlike something like ‘Man of
Steel’, this show doesn’t go 100% dark and effectively lightens up the darker
ordeals of the story at just the right moments. It’s all topped off by a
terrific ensemble cast highlighted by Charlie Cox’s definitive portrayal of
Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s outstanding turn as the Kingpin, a villain so
great he even gives Loki a run for his money as the MCU’s greatest antagonist
to date. Marvel Studios is off to a great start with these Netflix-produced TV
shows and hopefully we’ll get to see another season of this fantastic TV show
(not counting the definite future appearances of Daredevil in the other
series).
Season Rating: 5/5!
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