Daredevil:TV Without Fear
Having finally completed the Daredevil series on Netflix this week (I would have finished sooner but felt the need to cherish the series in small bites to slowly sate my appetite, not devour all at once and be left with an emptiness too hard to fill) and was left with a bag of feelings ranging from the awesome to the disappointed. No matter my opinions it needs to be said that Netflix, Marvel, and Daredevil’s cast/production team set a new standard and bar for television programming of this caliber not seen since the premier of Game of Thrones. Because there are also a million and one of these posts out there I will keep my thoughts to a minimum, re-watch, and wait for the next season along with the next Netflix series; AKA Jessica Jones later this year.
The action in Daredevil was second to none. The stunt team and action direction took all the great things we see weekly on a show like Arrow and amplified it: more flips, more kicks, more amped up aggression, and more blood. I suppose one of the benefits to being a Netflix program is also not being rated. The way the two main characters, Daredevil and the Kingpin, fought was a stylized difference that was well documented in the comics and translated well into the screen. Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, fights with the skill and grace of a trained ninja or assassin with the determination of a boxer with nothing to lose. While his foil, Wilson Fisk the Kingpin, fights with an animalistic and savage brutality that leaves his foes mangled or dismembered and not seen in many programs tackling super hero themes.
The story was straight forward and worked well with the series of flashbacks that surrounded the main characters. Both Daredevil and Fisk have plots and plans they wish to see to fruition and while one character succeeds the what if of the other and what could have been still remains. There is a definite start and finish to the series so that if for some reason it not get renewed (HUGE MISTAKE) for a second season, fans can be happy with the resolution of the plot as a whole.
The story was easily complimented by the visuals the series captured. The introduction of a red wax being poured to create justice, the city, and Daredevil was a beautiful and complimentary theme to the artistic impressions/personal interpretations buried in the series. The city scares are on par with those of Gotham and truly gave Hell’s Kitchen the look it deserved. Although the series does give the impression that HK is still a lowly and impoverished neighborhood in NYC; the fact is HK is now one of the most upscale and thriving areas in Manhattan with rents exceeding most of the city. Regardless of the reality, you felt like this was an area with saving and needed redemption of the human heart, not of fiscal and violent intervention. The only visual that was missing and I wanted more of was “the world on fire”. In the old Affleck DD movie, we saw more use of the radar sense so to speak and it provided some unique elements and some fanboy squeals of delight. Here we had a maybe 10 second sequence aaaaannnnnnndddd done. In fact a whole episode done with that imagery from Matt’s perspective would have been mind-blowing.
Kudos to the DD writers. Matt, Foggy and Karen were written splendidly with there being the expected hi’s and low’s of their relationships. I felt Wilson and Vanessa had a wonderful story and that the harshness that they both felt was needed to change the city is a sentiment felt by more people than would care to admit it. The eventual control and make some sort of positive use of crime in society is a far loftier venture than trying to just take the simplistic and bold stance of stamping it out through the law or vigilante force. I did find how the kingpin acted under public spotlight and scrutiny was a little off character. His childlike behaviors and wanton acts of violence were not without warrant, just a bit off for his character. I suppose I wanted a more forthright, bearing, and almost regal Fisk; while being whole heartedly ok with his actions/timidity around Vanessa. Wesley, however, was the best written and best performed character in the series. Applause to Cox, D’Onofrio, and the like, but Toby Leonard Moore owned the series. Hands down. As the PA and Proxy for Fisk, his handling of the business and demeanor was just soon damn perfect. Words don’t even describe. Also I was glad to see there was not an over saturation of Daredevil Easter Eggs. There was just the proper smattering through the series. Hints of a Greek girlfriend, a boxer named Creel, and even Melvin Potter’s Gladiator designs; all just enough bits of goodness to make you smile and just the right time.
The biggest shock in the series for me was the deaths Ben Urich and Leyland Owlsley. This eliminated not only a character in the comic book MCU who could cross connect series (and did via his newspaper articles covering the NYC Invasion), but a character who would have been instrumental in the other Netflix series as well as staunch ally to Daredevil and Spider-man. It was a huge disappointment for me to see him killed. I kept hoping Mat was going to show up and help him escape somehow...but no. Owlsley would have made a great villain for season 2, but he died getting the shaft-literally. I suppose his son will have the chance to step in and take over his company and maybe branch out as a villain. Only the seasons will tell. The series for me ended in a spectacular way-not the DD suit up and jumping into the city, but the Kingpin sitting in his cell, staring at the wall that symbolized so much in the story.
I hope this is the progression we see with TV and the MCU from now on. Not the trying to tie in heavy with the movies, via Agents of Shield example, but a few key mentions to lay in some temporal standing and tie in a loose overarching feel of this being the same world that the Avengers exist in. So here is to Jessica Jones being just as spectacular as Daredevil and may it break some new ground in the story it tells too.
