Back in April, Marvel and Netflix let loose a 13-hour event that changed the game for superheroes on television. And in an age with such risk of oversaturation, that’s a good thing. It’s a game that needs to be constantly changing. Redefining itself. Television itself is undergoing an incredible renaissance. There’s become a general agreement that mainstream TV series have become better than mainstream movies. And that’s why so many movies are being reimagined and retooled to fit the television format.
Marvel’s Daredevil was something I had looked forward to since its announcement. I was cautious, though. I’d been hurt, after all. While the director’s cut of 2003’s Daredevil is a much better film, it’s still not 100% deserving of the character. Pound for pound, Daredevil is the most consistently well-written book Marvel has ever published. Speaking objectively, of course. It had echoes of Frank Miller’s work, but it was distilled. The big moments were there, but they didn’t feel genuine. Just the image, none of the heart. I didn’t know why at the time, I wasn’t even sure how Daredevil could be better on film. Netflix’s Daredevil was exactly what I had been waiting for since that time and I didn’t even know it.
As someone who has always loved the character, I can’t even begin to explain what it means to me to have it not only done right, but done as close to perfect as anything could probably ever be. From the writing to the casting to gorgeous cinematography, fight choreography and editing. I could go on and on expressing my love for the show, but I think it’s best to just let the show speak for itself. Yes, Daredevil is essentially one 13-hour movie. But like everyone has their favorite scenes in movies, there are episodes that stand out at what this show perfectly encapsulates, what it is really all about when it is at its very best.
Fair warning: Spoilers abound for those who have not yet watched the first season.
“Condemned”
“Condemned” is a perfect representation of how one episode of a larger narrative, one piece of the puzzle can still be fully-formed. This is as close as Daredevil got to a standalone episode. And it was a bottle episode for the most part. In the first episode we’re introduced to two Russian brothers who, at first glance, seem almost stereotypical. But as this show has frequently proven, nobody is one-dimensional and nobody does what you expect them to do all the time. Matt takes Vladimir to an abandoned warehouse looking for answers on Fisk. Desperate for any source of information, any kind of leverage. With the police closing in, Matt and Vladimir suddenly find themselves in a fight for survival where they will have to rely on each other to make it out alive. This episode gives us our first conversation between the future Daredevil and Kingpin, which makes it all the more surprising that its Nikolai Nikolaeff who walks away with the episode as Vladimir, taking such an unexpected turn by giving his life in order to give Matt the chance to escape.
Vincent D’Onofrio owned the role of Wilson Fisk from the first scene and the episode “In the Blood” was a perfect true introduction to his character. But “Shadows in the Glass” is when we truly get to know Wilson Fisk. Up until this point, we had only been shown flashbacks of Matt Murdock’s childhood and how he had been shaped by his father into the person he would one day become. In many ways, “Shadows in the Glass” is a dark inversion of those first two episodes. Like Matt, the person Fisk is now stems back to his childhood. Like Matt, Wilson Fisk was shaped by his father. Unlike Matt, who tragically lost his father, Fisk killed his own father in order to protect his mother. It’s a perfect representation of how these two characters, different as they are, are nonetheless reflections of each other. At the same time, D’Onofrio’s Fisk is a man-child from his first appearance, a man who is a slave to his own temper, who can turn to unbridled rage at the drop of a hat. It only makes perfect sense for Fisk to see a bloodstained child when he looks in the mirror every morning.
The season finale not only brings perfect closure to the first season, but even more than that it earns the title. This show takes the material so seriously, it doesn’t even let itself or its title character truly be called Daredevil until it has earned that right. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting an actual, physical showdown between Fisk and Daredevil in the show’s first season. I was giddy as a schoolgirl when I realized that was exactly what I was going to get. But as has been true from the pilot, it’s not the fights that make the show work. They’re just a beautiful added bonus. There are so many excellent moments packed into this finale, from the dialogue-less cold open of Ben’s funeral to Fisk’s proposal while he’s being arrested. But the costume is the payoff. I wasn’t disappointed, because it’s brought to life so well. He moves exactly like Daredevil. He hits like a boxer and leaps like an acrobat. They could have gone with the yellow at that point and I’d still be on board.
“Cut Man” was the episode that won most people over. It makes sense. It’s exceptionally well done. But I had already been hooked from the opening. Still, the introduction of Claire, who becomes hugely important to the show, is very well done. And then there’s the fact that the episode ends on the best fight sequence in recent memory. It wears its influences from
The Raid and
Oldboy and the like on its sleeve and that’s fine. In fact, that’s excellent. The fight works not only because its one seamless, perfectly choreographed shot but because it tells a story. It has a beginning, middle and end. This is a tale of fathers and sons told through interpretive punching. Matt sees a doorway, knows the beating he’ll have to give and the beating he’ll have to take to get through that door and to the child held hostage on the other side of it.
“Into the Ring”
Moments into the first episode, I knew I was in for something truly special. The scene that sold me was Matt’s confessional monologue. Still, I thought, “don’t get too excited. It could be a fluke.” But then I got to the end of the episode. As much as everyone praises the end of episode two, the montage that ends “Into the Ring”
defines the character of Matt Murdock for me. It is exactly what I would point to for someone not familiar with the character to say, “This is who he is.” It’s one of the best montages I’ve ever seen. It starts out with Matt alone in the same boxing ring his father trained in. Just looks like he’s working out. But then we get cutaway after cutaway, showing just how great things are going for the people like Wilson Fisk. The people getting rich off of drug money and human trafficking are only getting richer. The drugs are getting out everywhere. People who know crucial information are dying for it. Good people are dying, all over the city. A child is abducted right off the street. Even if Matt doesn’t know the specifics, he’s aware of all of it. This is what’s going on in his city and he knows it. And knowing it, he just keeps hitting harder and harder and harder. There’s no better representation of Daredevil than that.
“Nelson v. Murdock”
It may seem strange to end on such a relatively quiet episode and call it the favorite. But the show, and even the comic as far as I’m concerned, are about the characters and their relationships. The way they interact with one another. Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson have one of the best, most understanding friendships in all of comics. But, somewhat ironically, Daredevil was always a divider between them. It’s not something Foggy’s ever truly understood. He’s constantly pointing out how much better Matt’s life would be if he didn’t have to do this, but he also knows that Matt will never
not need to be Daredevil. This whole episode is devoted to Foggy’s discovery of Matt’s secret. It’s not taken lightly. It’s an insurmountable betrayal between friends. And it’s told concurrently with flashbacks to Matt and Foggy’s shared past—how they became friends, their bond, their decision to open their own practice together—which makes it all the more heartbreaking.