Netflix's Daredevil

[Destiny_Gundam]

So I spent part of Friday night and all of Saturday watching the show. I have actually never used Netflix before this.

It was really good overall. It was allowed to be dark and gritty which fit the tone of the story perfectly. The fights are brutal and felt pretty real. Matt didn't easily knock out guys and even the simplest mook put up a good fight. Matt would knock one down and you'd see him rolling around a bit until he'd get up and resume the fight.

I think the most genius thing about the show is having Kingpin be less of an antagonist and more of a second protagonist. We really learn what makes him tick and see the struggles he goes through to build his empire while also trying to have a love life. By far the best villain in the MCU.

[SNT1]

I am absolutely enamored by this show (9 episodes in). I like that you know he's not Steve Rogers or even Melinda May in terms of fighting---you can see him actually slow down in a long-drawn-out fight; each punch he throws, each hits he take, slows him down. It's pretty damn gritty/realistic. Plus you know how Widow has her own gymnastic-style fighting. May has her straight-up Chun-Li style, Batroc was literally the Leaper? Daredevil has his own weird parkour-style MMA going on.

The other characters also get their fair share of screen time. Flashbacks are well-done. The politics of Kingpin and his partners are intrigiung.

Not much to complain about this show. If there was a nitpick, well, there's just too little MCU references and tie-in's so far; drastically less than Agents of Shield's, to the point that it feels more of a standalone series. I make more MCU references in real-life, FFS (Although I read Alias Investigations was seen?). Great show, just be warned that there's gonna be some violent scenes that are, well, not for children.

[Ziryab]

Another nail in the coffin of my oldtype, one-episode-per-week rationing way of thinking we've all been raised on. Will need to finish the season for a full opinion.

But I am liking the fights, and hopefully the grittiness won't grate on me.

[MrMarch]

Daredevil has gone beyond all my expectations and destroyed all my criticisms. I've seen an episode or two from all the current block of super hero shows (Agent Carter, Agents of Shield, Arrow, The Flash, Gotham) and IMO they are all forgettable. Daredevil stands head and shoulders above the rest and has at least a chance to stand among some of the best TV shows, period.

I love that the comic book origins of this story are handled so well and at the same time that comic book lineage is downplayed (or at least not emphasized). This would be an awesome TV series even if it had nothing to do with comics books. The acting, writing and production values are just that good. It's a great TV show in it's own right, one that just happens to be about a super hero. The acting is excellent and the cast is populated with plenty of fun character actors. The action is beyond impressive, with the fight sequences having elements of both heightened super-human combat yet an abrassive, in-the-trenches style. The show doesn't hold your hand, forcing the audience to intuit many of the unspoken visual cues. And speaking of the visuals, the show looks great and brilliantly merges elements of the police procedural, court room drama and super hero story.

I'm almost all the way through the series now and so happy with it. What an unexpected surprise this show has been. Netflix has just been killing it with their original content. Daredevil is another big win for Netflix...and for fans.

[Ziryab]

Mmhm! Makes me wonder how the rest of the Defenders titles they're creating will turn out.

For those of you who read the comics, how different is this show from the themes, feel, etc. of the comics? Are there any particular runs or arcs of the comics I should check out (they don't have to match the show's tone)?

[phillosmaster]

This is my favorite of the "TV" offerings from Marvel so far(and I really liked Agent Carter). It's definitely a much better fit for a Netflix show considering how dark and gritty they made the theme. The Fisk stuff is probably my favorite part. I can't believe they did such a good job with him. The Stick stuff was real fun too. I can't wait to see more from this corner of the MCU.

[Dark Duel]

The main thing - and no, I didn't binge-watch the entire season. Yet. Just the first episode so far - is that the pacing of the first episode, to me, is so much faster than the first episode of Agent Carter, which spent a lot of time on setup, and even than the first episode, way back in the day, of Agents of Shield, where for a bit there I had no idea what was going on.
Daredevil's first episode sets up the story, tells you the basics, and really hits the ground running with the story.
The other thing is that you're NOT dealing with near-world-breaking power levels here either; It's much more down-to-earth, more real. Daredevil basically does what Gotham tried to do with a less "super", more grounded sort of approach - the difference is that Daredevil really gets done what it's trying to do, quite successfully. Whereas Gotham sort of fell flat on its face and went nowhere with the idea, and has basically been treading water story-wise since...well, practically since it started. (And I LIKE Gotham).
Plus, the fact that the guy playing the main lead is so ordinary-looking really helps to sell the character and make him relatable.

So yeah, very favorably impressed with Daredevil, and can't wait to see more.

[phillosmaster]

Ziryab,

I don't think you can go wrong reading the Frank Millar run and his "Man Without Fear" mini series. It's the run that form the modern depiction of Daredevil. Before that era Daredevil was much more light hearted and swashbuckling.

Daredevil has had many good writers over the years. The stuff from the 80's was all pretty good. The late 90's stuff lost me. The stuff from 2000 forward has all been critically acclaimed though I never went back to check it out. I might now that they sparked that flame again for me. It's had a lot of big name writers attached to it (Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Mark Waid).

[Destiny_Gundam]

I can't help but see this as Marvel's answer to the Dark Knight trilogy. They cover a lot of the same themes and the similarities between Daredevil and Batman have always been noted. I definitely think this show is the better of the two, mainly because Matt doesn't have a stupid voice and it doesn't appear to be ashamed of its comic book origins.

I do wish there was more actual lawyering in the show. There's only one trial in the whole thing and they spend more time acting like detectives.

Sometimes I can't tell of Karen is brave or just stupid, but I admire her for refusing to be a victim. It's clear she has the hots for Matt, but Foggy might have been winning her over. But then the whole subplot is just dropped. Same goes for Claire who just stops showing up.

[phillosmaster]

Well they have a tremendous amount of ground to cover in these episodes so it doesn't really slow down to reflect on thing. I think the take away is not that the subplots were dropped but that the romance in all those situations failed.

Karen wasn't suited for either of them and I think the narrative is stronger when the three of them are bound by friendship. It's an interesting show in that there is no main love interest for the heroes in the classical sense (well Foggy has Marci but that is far from conventional). Karen's character rejects that classical role of love interest and damsel in distress. In the end when she is in the worst peril she saves herself. Probably one of the highlights of the series. I'm interested to see what they do with Karen if there is a series two because they take that character to all sorts of dark places in the comic and honestly I like her depiction much better here.

Claire would have been a better fit, but she explains on screen why her and Matt would not work out. Also judging by the name I think they have plans for her further down the line (unless it is just a name drop).

The only classical love story happens on Fisk's end, which again I find remarkable. I really liked the show so much I think I might just watch it all again.

[Destiny_Gundam]

Kingpin's romance does have me questioning what sort of person Vanessa is supposed to be. From what I understand in the comics she was unaware of her husband's life of crime but she's aware of it here. Yet she still stands by him and doesn't seem to be particularly bothered by it. But she still doesn't strike me as the sort of person that has an extreme lack of morals. Hopefully they explore her more in the future.

[phillosmaster]

Agreed. If they do another season I hope they give us an episode about her to get in her head. I feel like we spent most of our time seeing how she was helping Fisk come out of his shell, but not why she wanted to be with Fisk. I don't know maybe it was there and I didn't pick up on it. I'll have to watch it again.

I didn't not like it, but I do think Vanessa didn't get enough screen time about her story. Again I guess it's a big cast and they were on a time table.

[hitokirigarou]

From what I understand in the comics she was unaware of her husband's life of crime

She's fully aware of Kingpin's criminal activities although she didn't approve of them. Living with him took its toll on her and this culminated in her trying to manipulate Daredevil and Kingpin into killing each other, as she held them both responsible for the misfortunes that plagued her family.