Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Daredevil Review

This past Friday Netflix and Marvel re introduced us to the man without fear as the Netflix original series Daredevil was made available for instant streaming.

Daredevil is the story of Matthew Murdock. The son of boxer Jack Murdock, Matthew was blinded in a toxic spill after a car accident. Young Matthew saved a man’s life but lost his sight. Matthew grows up to become a lawyer after attending Columbia University where he meets his best friend Foggy Nelson who he starts his own law firm with.

Lawyer by day Murdock tries to put criminals away, but sometimes the law makes it difficult to put bad men away so at night Murdock takes it upon himself to put those criminals out of business as Daredevil.

The show is 13 episodes and will eventually we will see Daredevil again in the Defenders series coming to Netflix.

The main story arch of Daredevil stems from the Battle of New York from The Avengers. A Major construction company controls the rebuilding contracts for Hell’s Kitchen following the devastation of the Avenger’s battle and that company is owned by the mob and a one Wilson Fisk.

Unlike the movies out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, Daredevil has a very dark side to it and to be honest it was a refreshing change from the films. Daredevil is gritty, gutsy and gory. 
There is a lot of blood, and a lot of violence. This is not your fancy Avengers fights with all their powers and what not, this is a man with heightened senses beating the crap out of the scum in Hell’s Kitchen and getting his fair share of bruises in the process.

Although the fight seems can feel a little dragged out, they feel so real to the viewer you may start dodging punches on your couch.

One particular fight scene is very notable. In episode two Murdock goes into a building to save a kidnapped child. The entire fight is a single shot and it makes for a great peace of cinematography. It is so fluid and when the fighting goes off camera viewers are immediately on the edge of their seats waiting for someone to bust threw the door Murdock just went in.

The show does a great job of introducing its villains and telling their stories. We find out how the Russians who kidnapped the boy from episode two got to New York, and what their role in the show is. We also find out that the Russians, Chinese and Japanese mobsters are all working together with the King Pin, Wilson Fisk.

One thing the show does that makes it stand out is tell the story of Wilson Fisk. Not often do we see the history of our antagonist and find out how they got to the point they’re at and what they mean to accomplish.  We see glimpses into his past just as we see glimpses inti Matt Murdock’s.

Not only are viewers shown Murdock’s struggles as a hero, but we see the man’s day to day struggles as well. We see him struggle with the morality of what he has to do in his costume, and we also see how people interact with him because of his disability. The way that people interact with him because of his vision adds a bit of comedy to the series. A lot of people nod in response to his questions, or go for a hand shake.

There are plenty of great elements to this show but there are a couple things missing. It would have been nice to see some type of tie-in to the upcoming Marvel shows that will be on Netflix. Some type of cameo or mention of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, or Danny Rand would have been fun. Surely Daredevil will feature in the next show that starts up.  The lack of a lead in to the other shows and the long fight scenes are really the only things to complain about.


Marvel and Netflix had a lot to prove with this show as tit is the flag ship for a fleet of shows headed to Netflix in the next couple of years. They have succeeded, and after you see episode thirteen of Daredevil you will want to see the rest of what Marvel and Netflix have coming.