Well here we are, the Devil is out dancing in the pale moon light again … or is he? Erik Olseon comes in as showrunner as the series returns to the beginning and has to deal in the aftermath of The Defenders.
“Resurrection” was directed by Marc Jobst and written by Erik Oleso
1. Theme as Structure
As an episode, by Netflix standards, “Resurrection” is an overall success and decent indication of what new showrunner Erik Oleson (writer/producer Arrow and The Man in the High Castle) will be doing. It still has that Netflix Original feel of being maybe 5 minutes too long, but giving the episode a motif (resurrection) to bind everything together brought a sense of coherence. Where these shows tend to run into problems is when their episodes lack some binding agent to demarcate a narrative boundary and are instead fueled by plot (not storytelling) which inevitably exacerbates the series porous episodic boundaries and viewers are left questioning when things occurred or feel dramatically unsatisfied.
In the wake of The Defenders just about everyone is looking to start over and be like the phoenix. Matt Murdoch is left rudderless and in hell in the wake of Midland Circle. Wilson Fisk continually plots his way out of prison. Karen and Foggy, supporting characters with no one to support, are stuck in an untenable charade.(Karen as a character has already pulled off her own resurrection and much better for.) FBI Agent Ray Nadeem searches for promotion. “Resurrection” is a succession of scenes of people trying to change, they haven’t achieved it yet but it is a good starting point.
The investigation of mutable identity as an operational theme is one Oleson should know well after writing on the third season of Arrow. It is also the one at the core Daredevil as a series, as it continually investigates the personalities played by Charlie Cox. That single thread is this show in a nutshell and helps make for one of the more fulfilling episodes in the Marvel-Netflix franchise. It isn’t a ground breaking artistic achievement, but more than adequately sets everything up without dryly pushing everything around the board.
2. Self-Delusion/Self-Knowledge
The distance between those two concepts isn’t that far apart in this episode. Both Matt Murdoch and Wilson Fisk are shown to be delusional on some level, but maybe that delusion is really just their understanding something fundamental about themselves.
Matt’s reading of the story of Job is self-righteous blathering, meant to justify his anger and self-loathing. The second season of Daredevil has plenty of structural issues, but it makes one thing clear: Matt Murdoch is an asshole. Things come full circle this episode as Matt finally seems to realize that about himself. His actions and dramatics read delusional, but maybe that’s better than the creeping sense of nihilism in his voice.
Fisk meanwhile visualizes the finer things in life, that oh so perfect, sexualized, omelette. He is the King in his own mind. In reality his surroundings are less than ideal, the dissonance providing a rare moment of humor for the show as he bossily yells for his fellow inmates to pipe down.
Both instances show audiences how they think of themselves. Matt as this abused, forsaken, servant (of himself.) Wilson Fisk is an icon of class and criminality surrounded by these peasants.
3. Defenders Fallout
The Defenders was not very good, I should know I watched it and wrote about it. Of all the shows dealing in its aftermath, Daredevil was the most obviously effected. Given how dramatically inert that series was, Oleson’s angle on things is pretty good and proof of how serialized storytelling can recalibrate. Using it to give Matt a new disability, deafness in his right ear, and example of Matt’s destructive masochism works. None of that is really in Defenders, but is akin to ground covered in the previous season.
4. Holy Imagery Daredevil! (or What Would Zack and Larry Do?)
Thought Experiment: Imagine what a Zack Snyder-Larry Fong Daredevil movie/tv series would look like. Pushing the prior film aside, it would likely look a lot like this but turned up to 11 in the way that duo does. The opening quasi surrealist answer to just how Matt made it out of Midland Circle is chocked full of heaven and hell, and it isn’t like this show is a parody of Catholic guilt. Would Snyder and Fong even make it to the 4 minute mark without some obvious and strong reference to Christian art? Because it’s four minutes in, we haven’t even gotten the credits yet, and Olsen with director Marc Jobst are giving us a Pietà.
Continued belowWe also get an homage to the cover of ‘Guardian Devil’ #3 by Joe Quesada.
These are interesting moments for the series, since it has by an largely eschewed such visual echoes of itself and others. Marvel-Netflix in general has tried to distance itself from visual homage beyond the accoutrement that make their heroes iconic.
5. Sound Design
Film and television are often described as visual mediums first, this is not an entirely wrong description. However, it favors one aspect over others as video is an audio-visual medium. The fundamental mechanic that distinguishes it as a medium, editing, is about synergistically employing sound and images together to create a narrative. Supposedly silent pictures were still accompanied by musical performance and in some locales featured narrators.
How the sound designers and rest of the production team represent Matt’s wavering deafness and when he regains his hearing was excellent. Daredevil hasn’t gone down the route of representing Matt’s echolocation, save for one shot, so using sound to tell/show the audience him regaining his sight makes perfect sense for the medium and show. It gives them the ability to build a nice training montage that gives the episode a needed jolt of energy and verve.
