Daredevil (2015) Review

The release of Netflix’s Daredevil TV series in its entirety on April 10 was something new for Australian audiences; with Netflix being released locally only at the beginning of that month, this was the first time an entire new release TV series could be watched legally in one hit.

Given that we (being Josh Conrad and David Walker minus his usual writing partner Robert Mackenzie) knew we would be reviewing this show for Nerdspan, we refrained from putting any of our thoughts on social media. However, we will also be publishing a “stream of consciousness” companion piece to this review so you can see our thoughts on the fly episode by episode as we got progressively more sleep deprived.

Here, we won’t be spoiling the show; though Daredevil comics may be a different story. Josh has written about how he thought a Daredevil TV series should be made before, so let’s just lay it out – great minds clearly think alike. This show is everything Josh wanted and more. ‘Daredevil’ is the new high standard for superhero TV shows. Everyone else is going to have to lift their game after this. Marvel and Netflix have done an amazing job.

In particular, ‘Daredevil’ stands out from the superhero TV show because of its aesthetic ambition. Superhero shows have been with us a long time – from ‘The Incredible Hulk’ through to ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’, through to ‘Smallville’ and ‘Agents of SHIELD’ – and when they are good, they are usually dynamic and fun and soap operatic, and when they’re bad, they’re superficial and tacky. The choice to draw from the comic book well – to use costumes and secret identities and superpowers and monologue-friendly villains – often seems to drives shows either into the arms of certain self-aware detachment or in the other direction, to disown their aesthetic heritage with a vengeance.

‘Daredevil’ neither mocks nor evades its comic book DNA. Instead, it elevates it. The initial beats of origin story are cleared out before the credits even roll; Matt Murdock is a blind Catholic-ninja-lawyer, officer of the court by day and vigilante by night. Bang. And by boldly presenting this without feeling the need to poke fun at it or tamp it down, we are invited to accept it as our reality for the next 13 hours.

And this sense of reality-but-not-realism is the heart of ‘Daredevil’. The show’s tagline could have been “You’ll believe a man can beat up several other men”. All the fight scenes in ‘Daredevil’ are amazing. The fights are brutal and expertly shot and choreographed. At times, Philip J. Silvera seems to be channelling the movie-quality fights of Marvel contemporary James Young in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Everything else hangs on this. We do not mean it is “merely” an action show – the character work is deep, and the plot hangs together, and there are themes; oh, yes, such solid, well-chosen, unsubtly delivered themes; but all of these are grounded in the sense of investment in the vigilante story. Matt Murdock is heading out into the night and using his combat skills to try bring down organised crime one fight at a time. No fight is so small as to be safe, and every time Matt he goes out there, it costs him. Because you believe in every victory, because you fear his defeat and death in every engagement, his struggle instructs the broader story. The outrage shown by villains when he succeeds mirrors our own surprise, for example, and their responses engage because you feel like they could work. As such, the fight scenes work as good fight scenes should on screen; they are there to reflect the drama of the story and advance it whilst not being gratuitous.

The fights also serve as the doorway to the wider MCU – it is there, in the homage to the exploitation and martial arts genres beloved by film and comic books alike in the Seventies, that we get glimpses of the worlds of Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Stick. This world, filled with ninja clans and mysterious shadowy figures and strange techniques, remains magical without breaking the series tone, and certainly qualify as “superheroic”. Indeed, ‘Daredevil’ may be the introduction of “magic” to the MCU that we all expected Doctor Strange to be.

Similarly, these fights are against several men at a time – Matt doesn’t fight armies, exactly, because armies aren’t in play. And why should they be? Again, that central vigilante experience of taking down one assassin, saving someone from a dozen mobsters, functions because this is only Hell’s Kitchen we’re talking about here. Murdock is unique in superhero stories due to how small his chosen protectorate is. Hell’s Kitchen is 2.18 square kilometres, or 0.841 square miles; about four by six city blocks. This can get somewhat surreal when everyone starts speechifying about “this city” and “my city” but never talking about New York, only The Kitchen.

This narrowing of vision, this intense focus, on such a local battle and over such personal issues, is married with a sort of earnest enthusiasm for the material that eschews undercutting irony. This isn’t entirely new of course; ‘Daredevil’ shares DNA with are the film Batman Begins and the current CW TV series ‘Arrow’. This is merely an interpretation of old ideas in the superhero genre without the usual restrictions of network TV or running time for film, and released from some of the more juvenile conventions of comic book stories. This manages to be mature without going “Grimdark” like some people would have expected.

As such, the pacing for this series during its under 13 hours is odd to say the least; it is not entirely consistent, in the best sense. It gives the story some scope to breath and take its time; but we would be curious to know if the pacing on display would be as successful watching one episode a week as opposed into one hit. In particular, some of the episodes are highly contained, while others feel very much like they are intended to flow directly on from what came before. The finale, in particular, is clearly presented as catharsis, a release of the 12 hours of tension that came before, and taken by itself, we wonder how much it comes off as rise with no fall.

Matt Murdock is played by Charlie Cox, and aside from a slight case of accent slippage, is perfectly cast as the Man Without Fear. Cox has always been able to play a compassionate badass, and he doesn’t drop the ball with that whilst also playing a charismatic leading man. His physicality in the fight scenes is impressive, and he manages to convey Murdock’s internal conflict without it getting into more stereotypical superhero angst; it is a more subtle portrayal of a religious superhero.

Elden Henson plays Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, Murdock’s long suffering partner and oldest friend. Henson does not play Foggy merely as the comic relief character the comics more traditionally portray him as; he is every bit the competent and compassionate lawyer Murdock is and comes across as much more well rounded in this adaptation

However it is Deborah Ann Woll’s portrayal of Karen Page that impressed us most. Between Woll’s performance and the scriptwriting, this show rescued the character of Karen Page from the scrap heap and fridging she endured in the comics, and gave her solid character development over the whole series. She is the one who is most changed when the final credits roll – though she never got quite as much screen time as she deserved, it was her story that truly gets told in the first season, having a full beginning, middle and end.

However, as great as Karen is, the spotlight on her does illustrate that there are very few females in this show who are as well developed as characters. Part of that has to do with the playing up of the classic Seventies vigilante/crime drama story; you consequently have a lot of male police and newsmen running around. This is probably the only major misstep the show makes.

It is no secret that Marvel Cinematic Universe villains tend to be bland. That’s part of why Star-Lord’s “dance off” actually works at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy; of course Ronan the Accuser is going to fall for that, he is a Bugs Bunny antagonist! The notable exceptions – the surprise villain in season one ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and Loki – work because they are uncomplicated fun, because their relationship with the heroes is obvious and well utilised and so personal as to be able to drive a story without weighing it down with exposition. With Vincent D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Wilson Fisk, however, something new is afoot. Not only is there are a believably nuanced and layered performance, but there is a willingness to embrace ambiguity, complexity, shading and even character development in a way that defies the superhero orthodoxy of Manichean duality. This Fisk is certainly everything the comic villain is, at his best; intelligent, ruthless and in charge. A synecdoche for the corruption that money and violence can buy in a look-the-other-way society. But beyond that, there is a sense of deep loneliness and awkwardness to the character as well, particularly in his interactions with his competent subordinate Wesley, played by Toby Leonard Moore, or his love interest Vanessa Marianna, played by Ayelet Zurer. But there is a deep seated rage too, and when D’Onofrio unleashes it, it is somewhat terrifying. That rage, mirrored by Murdock in their later encounters and bookended by shared dialogue, allows the fights between the hero and villain to be suitably impactful and dramatic. These two characters hate one another, and it comes across perfectly in those fight scenes, leading to classic confrontations.

Drew Goddard served as initial showrunner before leaving, and wrote the first two episodes and served as a consultant for the remainder of the series. Steven S. DeKnight, former writer for ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ & ‘Angel’ and creator of the Starz series ‘Spartacus’ took over as showrunner, and his team have done a fantastic job bringing Daredevil to the small screen and further fleshing out the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with a great looking production overall. It left us wanting more, even after a 13 hour marathon, and there is barely a misstep made. We look forward to the next chapters of Netflix’ Marvel adaptations leading up to ‘The Defenders’, and hope we get more ‘Daredevil’ soon.

Related posts: