Note: Season one and two spoilers for Daredevil follow.
The first
season of Daredevil dropped when I
was on one of my frequent blogging hiatuses, so to get my thoughts on that out
of the way – Big fan! Marvel movies are typically light fare, so, it was
interesting to see their take on dark and gritty. Daredevil felt like a really focused, small world exploration of
the superhero world. If films like The
Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy are
about the planet and the galaxy, respectively, then it’s awesome to have a show
like Daredevil that’s just about a
region of a city, albeit the biggest city in the U.S.
The second
season, while not quite the wonderful surprise of the first, manages to hit
similar heights in different ways. It would be folly to try to emulate the
performance of Robert Goren Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fiske – the
Kingpin. So, they don’t. Instead, Frank Castle – the Punisher – is present from
the first episode. While Matt Murdock is aggressive in his pursuit of justice,
season two is full of characters who are willing to cross the moral line for
their own reasons – The Punisher, Stick, Elektra. There is a two-episode cameo
from Fiske, essentially, that’s awesome, and the season’s end enemy comes via a
natural progression.
Since this
is The Internet, let me make my one obligated complaint – Daredevil definitely needs to crack open a window and raise the
shades for season three. Dark and gritty can be good, but we now have roughly
20 hours of that tone established, and it’s probably an 18-episode streak of
dark now, from the middle of season one to the end of season two. It would be
nice to peek in on Foggy and his ex-lady Marci tackling a lighter case, or Ace
Albino Reporter Karen Page succeeding at work, or Matt apprehending a villain
without a shit-ton of collateral damage.
Still
though, it’s a relatively minor complaint, since I eagerly binge-watched the
whole second season in a two-day span. Unlike Jessica Jones, the pacing is kept fairly consistent throughout, and
the show starts with a literal bang with the introduction of the Punisher. Jon
Bernthal (Big Pun) is definitely the highlight of the season, with Elodie Yung
(Elektra) as the other standout newcomer. Scott Glenn (Stick) and Rosario
Dawson (Claire Temple) return as well for a couple episodes, and they’re both splendid.
Oddly, Charlie Cox – Daredevil himself – is probably my least favorite
character, but he’s basic enough that he allows the other characters around him
to excel, because of their contrasting actions and behavior. (Also, I’ve heard
that he is a heartthrob with the ladies.)
So! Power
rankings: Daredevil season one > Daredevil season two (just by a bit)
> Jessica Jones (just by a bit)
> big gap > Gotham (future
writing subject, but it’s incredibly uneven and at best good for camp value).
The image is a promo poster from Netflix for season two of Daredevil.
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