Daredevil returns with “Upstairs/Downstairs,” sadly it doesn’t magically turn into some version of the famous British series. The viewing experience was more down, continually down, as we get truly an episode of all the Netflix problems wrapped into one.
1. This is Not a Good Episode
There are episodes in this season, which is still overall pretty good, that are not as interesting or quality as others. Rarely do I however come to the conclusion that something just isn’t good. That sort of conclusion always comes off as an easy way to dismiss. Yet this is the conclusion I have after watching, rewatching, and thinking on “Upstairs/Downstairs.” As of right now this season, it is the height of Netflix style “stuff happens” plot maneuvering as episode. Previous episodes like “The Perfect Game” or “No Good Deed” didn’t have the strongest thematic binders but where at least positioned as having scene specific ones or road the coat tails of a prior episodes. “Upstairs/Downstairs” despite having a name that is in a few instances literally imagined, lacks these qualities and busies itself with setting up the final quarter of the season. As always there are sequences that are by themselves interesting, but that individual quality dose not make an episode.
Honestly what meaningfully happened this episode? The biggest among them is that Agent Nadeem is “officially” on to Dex. Kingpin and his crew know this, seemingly planned for it. This development is an aftershock of all the stuff Nadeem went through in the prior episode. That stuff aside, what do we have? Dex continues to spiral down the drain, a dramatically ineffective and uninteresting thread. Foggy figures out Wilson’s big plan, he wants to be the Kingpin. Karen has a well done, excellent, head to head with Wilson Fisk for angry reasons. Both of them continue to flail about in the aftermath of the Bulletin attack. Matt gets a close but no cigar situation with Dex and maybe stares into a mirror for a bit. The attempt at mirroring Matt and Dex is quickly pointed out as poppycock, so hopefully it isn’t something that the show runs with for a while.
“Upstairs/Downstairs” didn’t feel like it had much of a point, beyond moving the pieces around for this last quarter. At least when Game of Thrones did this it put it in an episode that had a motif to make things interesting. Here it’s the same old tune of everyone getting out played by the surveillance powered omniscience of Wilson Fisk.
2. Literal Darkness
I’ll admit some of my frustration with this episode had to do with the lighting. Overall I’ve found the lighting choices made in these Marvel Netflix shows and Daredevil in particular to be effective, the use of hard lighting and true black in the grading helps give things a different look compared to the film side of the MCU. Different degrees and ways of lighting is one of the few things that can help differentiate these products given the overall corporate homogeneity that exists all around. That said, sometimes things went too dark and you couldn’t distinguish what is within the frame. Such as Nadeem and Matt’s breaking and entering of Dex’s apartment. Originally I watched this sequence on my iPhone 8+, and thought maybe it was that viewing environment. I’ve looked at the sequence on my iPad, PC, and Roku, all of them the same pure black problem. It was a nice example of what it must be like for Charlie Cox under that scarf thing, but as a viewing experience not so much.
3. The Fridge or Why Should I Care About the Corruption of Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter?
Well, Julie is dead. Considering she was a redhead it could be an homage to “Born Again,” if so hopefully that means Karen Paige makes it out alive. That doesn’t change the fact this was still a fridging. She was killed to give Dex reason to be more unhinged and rage at Wilson Fisk at the final showdown. Her ghosting from his life is meant to further emotionally destabilize him. Men using woman to emotional wound/control other men.
It feels even grosser because of how the show treated the character in relation to Dex, which is to say not as a character as an idol. She wasn’t even a fully formed character the audience cared about, she was just a normal person caught up in the storm of three emotionally stunted dudes.
Continued belowHow they showed it, on one of Wilson’s surveillance monitors with him utterly detached and yet lording over it in the moment was an effective expression of the kind of power Fisk wields. The coldness and quickness of the moment also feels like a bit of a visual parody of the thinking process behind the trope itself.
All of this is lazy, gross, and most of all dramatically ineffective! It doesn’t change one ounce of characterization within Dex or change audience feelings towards the character. If this show is supposed to follow the corruption and redemption of Nadeem, and destruction of Dex, the latter isn’t nearly as dramatically effective. It isn’t that there is not anything traditionally relatable or “good” in the character of Dex, dramatic history is littered with Bad Dudes people love. The show hasn’t bothered to shape Dex in anything more than a sociopathic stereotype with a gimmick. He isn’t allowed to be anything more than a killer, the hint of a moral greyness akin to the Punisher when he murders the Albanian attacker is gone. It’s why the idea of Matt trying to take on Dex as his dark mirror falls so fast. Dex is just a pawn being pushed around.
4. Title as Visual Reference
The title of this episode seems to be in reference to some visuals in the episode. Dex ricochets his bullets up and downstairs. Wilson comes from his perch on high, powered by his all powerful surveillance apparatus to chat with Karen. The row between Foggy and the DA takes place on different levels. Matt finds out something about Sister Maggie while they are separated by a floor. As far as parental reveals go, that was pretty good. Overall it actually is a nice change of pace for how these episodes have been titled. Ugh next week we have “Revelations,” which even if this show wasn’t Daredevil would be a cliche.
5. Karen and Wilson: Tete-e-Tete
This has been a supremely negative post. To be positive for a second, the meeting between Karen and Wilson Fisk was excellent. Director Alex Zakrzewski uses three simple shots to frame and follow the dance of wills between the two in Dara Resnik’s script. Those three shots are: over the shoulder medium shots, a close up, and extreme close up. They take the blue print of the coffee scene from Heat but keep it on a diagonal axis playing off the lack of size one party has in the frame at a given moment to emphasize the power of the other figure. It’s simple and effective, Alex Zakrzewski just let Deborah Ann Woll and Vincent D’Onofrio play off one another and capture one of the most effective scenes in the series. The push and pull is visually realized beautifully and you get the drug like high Karen is going through as she admits to murdering Wesley (in self-defense.) And in an instant that fire is snuffed out. Which is probably for the best since she admitted to killing someone, with lots and lots of video cameras.
This single scene wasn’t worth this episode, but it is one worth watching on YouTube.
