A preface: this review is being written coming off of a 13-hour livetweet marathon of Marvel’s Daredevil. A dumb idea? Probably? A good time? Definitely. The full livetweet, all 300+ tweets, can be found at @MultiversityTV. That is to say, this review is being written on probably not enough sleep which, once again, is probably a dumb idea, but you’re getting the authentic “spewing crap after a 13 hour binge” experience here, people!
Now, on to the review. Be warned, there will be discussion of major spoilers below. Continue at your own risk.
Marvel’s Daredevil is a game changer. I’m probably nowhere near the first person to say that but considering the context the show premiered in, I think it’s a pretty true statement. After already changing the game in how superhero films are viewed by tying their films together in a cohesive narrative with Iron Man through to The Avengers and now into Avengers: Age Of Ultron and then breaching into the world of television with that same universe with shows like Agents Of SHIELD and Agent Carter, Marvel stood at the edge of untested waters.
Sure, everyone knew superhero movies made money and that superhero TV shows were a good way to keep people coming back every week, but a thirteen episode, web-only series based around the insular origin story of a popular street level character with a focus on a more mature audience? This is venture is, literally, unheard of. And Marvel putting themselves on the line by having their frontrunner be Daredevil, an incredibly popular character mired in the public consciousness by that mediocre film more than ten years that, honestly, wouldn’t even have been all the bad if the producers hadn’t messed with the director’s cut.
What I’m trying to say is that Marvel’s Daredevil was a risk. And it’s a risk that has paid off in spades. As the frontrunner and first of four shows Marvel has debuting on Netflix, this has set an incredibly high standard already and a lot of that has come down to tone and production quality.
If you’re reading this review, then I hope you’ve seen Daredevil is its 13 episode entirety as, honestly, it’s 100% worth watching and worth experiencing as clean as possible. It is good. It is very good. In fact, if it weren’t for two glaring problems (and I’ll get to them, don’t worry), I would be ready to crown this the king of superhero TV shows right now. As it stands, it’s pretty tied with The Flash for my money.
But if you’ve seen Daredevil then you should know I wasn’t kidding around when I said they went for a focus on a mature audience, especially compared to their films. This was shocking, to say the least. Obviously, everyone had talked about the Frank Miller-inspired tone and the grittiness of the affair, but people The Amazing Spider-Man films gritty too and they don’t hold a candle to this. The violence in Daredevil is shocking. It’s brutal and visceral and ever present. And it’s necessary. In part because it reminds you that ever time Matt Murdock puts on that suit and goes out at night, he will come home broken and bloodied and beaten and half-dead and that’s the price he pays for what he does. But it’s also a reminder that there are bad people out there, in this Marvel Cinematic Universe, and they’re the kind of bad people who slip through the cracks and do very bad things to very bad people. And it’s a reminder that the violence that Daredevil does onto them is a necessary evil as he does what Captain America can’t.
Speaking of Matt Murdock, one of the crown jewels in this show’s collection is Charlie Cox in the lead role as Murdock himself. It could have been very easy for this show to end up with the same problem many of the Batman films have where Matt Murdock ends up being the least interesting character in his own show. Thankfully, that isn’t the case as the writing smartly weaves Matt’s storyline with a lot of emotion as his let’s say extra-curricular activies end up seemingly ruining his life piece by piece until he has nothing left to lost and we’re left rooting for an underdog with more morals than smarts.
Continued belowIt’s an interesting place to put Charlie Cox as for one he has to deal with the challenges of keeping up with all these interesting and extravagant characters around him as a Matt Murdock with only his dry wit to keep him afloat and then as Daredevil he’s given the challenge of acting without the audience ever seeing his eyes. Thankfully he pulls off both as in the role of Matt Murdock you can clearly see all the wit and humour is a mask disguising a very deep hurt that we’re only privy to in certain moments of vulnerability and in the role of Daredevil, he pulls off the most threatening Batman voice I’ve ever heard. Seriously, Charlie Cox will likely be the most sorely overlooked yet crucial part of why Daredevil works, but there’s a lot of heart and soul in his performance beneath the surface.
On the other side of the fence is a performance that is surely not going to be overlooked by anyone. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk is… almost indescribable in a lot of ways. Even after spending almost thirteen hours with the character, I’m at a loss for words in how to articulate how he made me feel. He exists as something of an emotional enigma. Even despite the tragic backstory the show presents him with and the almost tenderness he shows towards characters like Vanessa and Wesley, the quick and brutal flurries of anger and violence the character exhibits never feels excused by the show. The tragic backstory is presented to explain the emotional mindset of Fisk, never to excuse him of his actions. His violence makes him a monster, despite his protests to the contrary, and the writing never once excuses that. It actually brings the character a lot more depth than we’ve ever seen him portrayed with before as in his moments of tranquillity all we see is a man trying to deal with trauma he suffered as child. How he deals with that trauma, though, often has violent consequences on those around him.
In fact, characters dealing with trauma is a main story thread through most of the main casts’ arcs in this season. Karen Page, especially, has an arc that tasks the amazing Deborah Ann Woll with toeing the line between unhinged and driven as we see her go through a lot in just the first episode. Elden Henson’s character redefining portrayal of Foggy Nelson sees him deal with betrayal on all sides and use humour (one of the show’s stronger suits, but that should be no surprise coming from Marvel) to mask it until there’s nothing left to mask but rage. Rosario Dawson’s role as Claire Temple sees her wrapped up in a violent world she has nothing to do with, but has to use her skills to help people as best she can. Even Ben Urich, who is played perfectly by Vondie Curtis-Hall, deals with the trauma of an ill wife knowing there’s nothing he can do but make her comfortable and that weight visibly crushes down on him in almost every scene. Each of the main cast is stellar and puts in award-winning performances that are only bettered by the way they bounce off each other and collaborate.
And that’s not even counting the secondary antagonists working for or with Fisk. Bob Gunton’s Leland Owlsley is a highlight in a role that brings a lot of relief to very tense situations; Toby Leonard Moore’s Wesley is perfectly sleazy and pretentious and a kind of “I immediately hate this guy and I love it” kind of way; and Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna is as captivating as she is enigmatic in her own way, just like Wilson Fisk. Basically, there are no weak links in the acting chain. Everyone brings their a-game and everyone is perfectly cast. I spend another thousand words listing off more and more minor characters, but I need to move on.
With the tone perfectly set and the acting second-to-none, the last thing I must praise is the production quality of Daredevil. Every episode, I found myself astonished at how much care and attention had been put into the production of this show. From the incredibly fancy opening titles to the pitch perfect lighting in every scene to the immaculate framing of every shot that found a perfect balance between gritty realism and comic book panel feeling shots to the fight choreography that was simply stunning, this show has it all. Especially the fight choreography. These are the best fight scenes I’ve seen in a live action superhero property since… well, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it blows that out of the water. Everyone will mention the Oldboy-esque fight in the second episode of the season and for good reason: it is simply a highlight of the show.
Continued belowThere is only one element of the production that wasn’t up to par with the rest of the show: the suit. No, not the ninja suit, but the red suit Matt sports in, sadly, only the final scenes of the final episode of the show. Not only was it a shame to see it appear in only one small part of the show, but for how much buildup the suit had, it didn’t really live up to the hype. The last episode’s transition from gritty crime drama to rather cheesy superhero fare was rocky as it was and putting Charlie Cox in a suit that was clearly pretty embarrassed to be as red as it needed to be to be a Daredevil suit, did not help. Add to that the completely out of place final scene of the show and the actual only appearance of Daredevil is one of the major things letting the show down.
That wasn’t the main thing letting the show down, though. This is major, major spoiler territory here, so turn back now if you haven’t already.
Ok, you gone?
Good.
So, Ben Urich’s death was bullshit and we all know it. Not only did they kill one of the few black characters in the show for dramatic effect because apparently someone had to die before the final episode, but they killed off Ben Urich? Really? Ben freaking “Survived a sai through the heart” Urich? Ben Urich, who has so much versatility as a character I spent the majority of his screentime talking about how he should be in the next Spider-Man film? Come on. Not only was this unnecessary as Murdock and Fisk already know each other both in and out of costume, but they have perfectly good reason to hate one another without adding the arbitrary bodycount of Urich to the mix. This was perhaps the show’s only major misstep (the costume isn’t that bad), but it’s such a major misstep that it serves a major blow to the ending of the season.
That being said, even taking in the unnecessary death of an amazing character, Daredevil excels at everything it set out to be. It’s a incredibly well made, gritty crime drama based around very complex emotional character interactions and uses very real problems like gentrification and physical abuse as the catalyst for a much more fantastical story. It’s a better Batman film than any Batman film previously. It’s also Marvel’s best TV show and up there with the best entries into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel should be proud as they just pulled off the impossible. They made everyone love Daredevil again.
Now… #UrichLives
