Released only a few short days ago, Marvel's Daredevil has already swept the world off it's feet. Clocking in at an engaging 13 hours, even the biggest DC troll would have to admit that this show is pretty damn enjoyable. But like anything else, there are still flaws, and like anyone else, there are things I would have done different. If you're more into formal writing, you may want to head on over to DrDoom's superb review on the show. I'm more of a cut-to-the-chase kind of guy.
In comparison to Marvel Television's previous shows, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, it's hard for me to pick out which one I like the best, for they are all three truly unique in their own way. While all three occupy the same universe, only Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. truly weaves in and out of every movie that is released (which is, to my knowledge, the first television show in history to accomplish anything of the sort). Equally unique, Agent Carter serves as an epilogue to my beloved Captain America: The First Avenger, set in the different world of 1946. And now we have the beautiful Daredevil, which is kinda like a mashup of Law and Order and Arrow.
In preparation for this awesome series, I read up on a lot of Miller/Bendis Daredevil comics, and I'm so glad I did. All 3 books had something in them that prepared me for the series, and if you love Daredevil as much as I'm sure you do, you'll want to check them out. You can find them here, here and here.
Without further a due, let's dive into the mostly ups and fewer downs of the Netflix Original Series, Daredevil.
The Good
-They nailed the characters. Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Wilson Fisk, even Stick and minor thugs felt like they were ripped straight from the comic. The actors most definitely put their own spin on it, don't get me wrong, but the core of who these people were as characters were the same. Fisk has the presence of a Kingpin. Matt has the talents of a lawyer and the skills of a warrior. Foggy has the same heart of gold he always has.
-I want to specifically point out Turk Barrett. In reading through the comics to prepare for the show, I found Turk to be a recurring joke of a character; he was the comic relief who never realized he was an idiot. I always loved reading him because he never failed to make me laugh. While Turk only appears in three episodes, he served this purpose while also still remaining relevant to all that was going on.
-The tone is everything we've been waiting for. DC is known for their darker dives in live action, but this is the farthest we've ever seen Marvel from family-friendly. Blood is everywhere, the realistic cruelty of life is everywhere. The things these characters go through are unlike any we've seen our characters deal with before. Obviously, blindness is part of that, but we also see physical abuse and hints of alcoholism.
-The action. Holy shit, that action. I'm not to here to defend Arrow, but it must be said that the action in this show is leagues beyond that one (no pun intended), with plenty of "Oh shit!" moments throughout.
-Matthew's Catholocism. I'm not Catholic, but I was raised Christian--so I know a thing or two about the Bible, folks. The Catholic point of view is up to par with what real Catholics believe, and it's nice to add more diversity in the MCU. While Matt mostly visits Father Lantom to decide if he should kill Kingpin or not, the belief in God and the Devil is there. That's great to see.
The Bad
-Lack of MCU Easter eggs. Even though the Chitauri invasion gave the gangsters the upper hand they needed, this is only barely touched upon. The words "alien" or even "Avengers" are never used, and "the Big Four" are each given only one mention. The Easter eggs I like are the ones that reference actual happenings or refer to an event. For example, in the comics, Wilson Fisk has known ties to Hydra. It would have been so easy to drop one sentence referring to this. At one point, Foggy mentions al Qaeda--why not mention the Ten Rings or even "the Mandarin" as well? Those are the kind of Easter eggs I like; the kind that prove the other movies still happened. Now, there were a couple subtle hints to The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I appreciate that--but in my personal opinion, it was just a hair too isolated.
-It was a bit too realistic for my tastes. In the comics, when a member of the Hand dies, they dissolve. Daredevil is able to deflect a bullet with his nun chucks. He actually fights super-powered villains. I'm not saying we won't get there, that the show won't evolve to those things; I'm just saying they could've very easily had that happen in this season, too. We have so many big heroes that are especially skilled, but don't really have superpowers. Star-Lord, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Agent Carter, Falcon, most of Coulson's agents. Since there's already so many heroes without superpowers, why dumb Daredevil down even more?
-Fisk's motivations could've been a lot more clear. "The city needs to die before it can be reborn." is about as much of an explanation as we get. We see that he means it, but we don't know exactly why he believes this. He was a great villain and Vincent killed in the part, but his ideology was lacking.
The In-Between
-Costume choices. We all let out a groan when we saw they were going with the black suit, but most of us eased up to it as the series went on. And I must say, they did a good job with that suit; I absolutely love that season one is basically an adaption of The Man Without Fear. Then, we see the red costume in the last fifteen minutes of the show, and it was a minor let-down. In the books, he named himself Daredevil (basically). But here, the public names him that after taking down Fisk. But Matt himself must have wanted to be a devil, as he had Melvin Potter put horns on them. So why not just name himself and stay true to the comic, instead of the clichéd "that's what they're calling him"? Also, Matt tells Potter that he wants a new costume not just as body armor, but to be a symbol. Wait, what the [frick]? Unless I'm mistaken, this dude has said absolutely nothing about being symbol at all. This came completely from nowhere, and while I like the idea, the way they handle it just makes you scratch your head.
-Killing Ben Urich. I think I speak for everyone when I say I did NOT see that coming, and while his death surely served the story, I don't think it was needed. It's not much of a complaint as I love surprise twists, but we'd already seen Fisk's temper tantrum, we'd already had a surprising death--I don't know. There's a lot of story with Urich over the years, and killing him was a waste of sorts in my opinion. And perhaps I'm wrong about this too, but it didn't seem like Karen felt much remorse for his death, even though it's essentially her actions that got him killed.
-For the most part, Charlie Cox spoke with an English accent perfectly; but there are 2 or 3 lines where he breaks accent. The only one I can remember specifically is the season finale in Fogwell's Gym.
Well, that's all I got, and I hope you found this article useful. Actually, even if you hated it, comment and give me shit.
Thanks!