Posted in General

So, we’re eight epsiodes into the Marvel/Netflix joint venture Daredevil. In case you got to our geek site by accident, Marvel and Netflix are doing a handful of series, including AKA Jessica Jones (from the Alias series), Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and, of course, Daredevil. Eventually, they’re going to team up Avengers style for the Defenders.

First Thoughts

YEAH! Awesome! Kapow! I like the part when he kicks the dude in the face! WHOOOSH. Ahem. This show appears to be quite good.

What’s it Like?

If you have zero familiarity with the comics, Daredevil is the story of a blind lawyer (Matthew Murdock) in Hell’s Kitchen who moonlights as a sonar-powered superhero. For those who haven’t gotten to start it yet, the show is a combination of metropolitan legal drama and fledgling superhero tale, as if someone put David E Kelley and Batman Begins in a blender. And I mean that in a good way. Tom found it a little too talky at first, but once I started beating him with the stick of shame, he agreed that it balanced these elements well. A third component, given a surprising amount of screentime, is Murdock’s childhood and origin story. (Turns out that mixing these components into the show over the course of several episodes is an excellent way to avoid origin story fatigue.)

Marvel’s Underbelly

This is dark. Really dark. The villains on this show are a very real kind of human scum. The very first criminals we see him thwart ten minutes into the show are human traffickers, and it kind of goes downhill from there. At several points thus far, we’ve looked at each other and said “wow, I can’t believe Disney is allowing this.” (Like the time the guy’s legbone comes out of his, er, leg. -tomv) The cinematography shows much of New York as cramped and dirty. With plenty of flip-kicking and parkour-fu eye candy to entertain, the fighting isn’t realistic per se. But we get to see bones break and blood splatter in a way we’ve never seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, for all the violence, the show never steps outside the bounds of taste. There isn’t excessive swearing, sexy shots are kept to a minimum, and nobody ever goes into a Law and Order: SVU level of detail about anything gross. if I had to rate it, I would say a hard PG-13 or soft R. (Soft R was my reaction. -tomv) It’s not a show for little kids, folks.

In case anyone is worried, Daredevil connects to the rest of the Marvel Universe, especially Avengers, in a clever way, but the big heroes are a distant backdrop for the big players in this series. A lot of the frustration of the show comes from knowing that Thor or Iron Man could sweep in and solve these problems by the end of the day. But they won’t, for the same reason the National Guard doesn’t bust purse-snatchers. The people who could (and would willingly) solve the problems of Hell’s Kitchen are busy fighting international threats like Ultron and Hydra. In other words, Daredevil takes place on exactly the right scale. He’s no Avenger; he’s a street hero.

The Cast

This is my website, and I can fanboy all I want: everyone’s good. (Please keep the squeeing to a minimum. -tomv) No, really, I don’t have any complaints. Obviously, Charlie Cox will be the show’s breakout star as Murdock, but even his sidekicks are awesome. Vincent D’Onofrio had me worried with his idiosyncratic rendition of the ordinarily boisterous Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin), but stick with it. The story is almost as much about his beginnings as it is Daredevil’s, and a lot of pleasure comes from watching him grow into a brilliant re-imagining of the character.

Hopes for the Future

