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Superheroes show had been around for quite a while. From the Lone Ranger in the early 40s to Power Rangers in the 90s, CW Arrowverse in the 2010s and the MCU shows that just came out. Superhero is always a prominent genre in TV. However, most of them are seen for kids, and incredibly wacky. Superhero movies on the silver screen are seen as much more mature, with the Dark Knight Trilogy’s incredible success. TV shows are nowhere near that, or they were nowhere near that, before Daredevil came out. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise, and is the first in a series of shows that lead to The Defenders crossover miniseries. The series is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios, with DeKnight Productions for the first season and Goddard Textiles for the first and second seasons. Steven S. DeKnight served as showrunner on the first season, with Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez taking over for the second season, and Erik Oleson joining the series as its showrunner for its third season; Goddard served as a consultant for the series.
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Charlie Cox stars as Matt Murdock / Daredevil, a blind lawyer-by-day who fights crime as a masked vigilante by night. Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Rosario Dawson, and Vincent D'Onofrio also star, with Toby Leonard Moore, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Bob Gunton, and Ayelet Zurer joining them for season one, Jon Bernthal, Élodie Yung, and Stephen Rider joining the cast for season two, and Joanne Whalley, Jay Ali and Wilson Bethel joining in season three. Daredevil entered development in late 2013, a year after the film rights to the character reverted to Marvel, with Goddard initially hired in December 2013.
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The first season sees lawyer-by-day Matt Murdock use his heightened senses from being blinded as a young boy to fight crime at night on the streets of New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood as Daredevil, while uncovering a conspiracy of the criminal underworld being led by Wilson Fisk. In the second season, Murdock continues to balance life as a lawyer and Daredevil, while crossing paths with Frank Castle / Punisher, a vigilante with far deadlier methods, as well as the return of an ex-girlfriend—Elektra Natchios. In the third season, after Fisk is released from prison, Murdock, who has been missing for months following the events of The Defenders, reemerges as a broken man and must decide between hiding from the world as a criminal lawyer, or embracing his life as a hero vigilante.
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Daredevil is one of the most fascinating comic book characters. He exercises a lot of self judgement and self doubt. Not like other heroes, like Captain America or Iron Man, who have much confidence in what they are doing is right. Matt is constantly doubting his actions, every move he made, he would doublethink. Morality is a very common theme in Daredevil. Season one showrunner Steven DeKnight on the character's "grey" morals, he noted, "He's a lawyer by day, and he's taken this oath. But every night he breaks that oath, and goes out and does very violent things.” This theme, quite frankly, is the most prominent in Season 2, the season publicly considered to be the worst. Season 2 Episode 3, “New York’s Finest” is the most perfect portrayal of Matt’s psyche. This episode is almost completely a discussion between Matt and Frank Castle- The Punisher. The Punisher uses very lethal methods against crimes, he always kills those people who he thinks deserves it. However, Daredevil is the direct opposite. He believes in redemption and second chances. This debate is something which a lot of superhero comic fans have over the years. “Is Batman not killing the Joker a good thing?” “Should Daredevil just kill his rogue gallery and call it a day?” I think this morality is essential in a good way. Batman and Daredevil not killing anyone is a method of maintaining their sanity. “ Me and you are not so different.” is an incredibly cliched line, but if Matt Murdock and Bruce Wayne began to kill, what's the difference between them and the villains they aim to stop? It is no surprise that Matt has the will to kill at Season 3, his lowest moment. Season 3 is primarily adopted from “Born Again”, Frank Miller’s most iconic run of the blinded hero in 1986. He was tempted to kill Kingpin throughout the season, with a hallucination of Kingpin haunting him at all times. In the end, Daredevil chooses not to kill. The reason being not wanting Kingpin to destroy who he really is. But what is the real Daredevil?
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Daredevil is a show of contrast. The first major contrast is Matt’s Christian belief. Matt’s christianity is a major part of the show. He is a very devoted christian as he was raised inside of a chapel after his parents’ death. His father figure is literally a pastor. He based a lot of his morals on the bible, yet he goes out every night dressed as a red devil, dishing out his brand of justice. It is a perfect contrast. This contrast is, yet again, strongest in season 3. His lover Elektra’s death has led Matt to reframe his perceptions of God, preferring to see Him now as a distributor of wrath and judgment instead of grace and mercy. Daredevil is feeling a bit like Jonah at the end of his story, frustrated God isn’t dropping the divine shoe on Nineveh. Therefore he is much more brutal in Season 3. His loss of faith is what makes he even contemplate killing Fisk. However, this idea finally came to an end, when his father figure, Father Lantom quotes Proverbs 25:26: “Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.”, and explains, “One interpretation is that when the righteous succumb to sin, it is as harmful as if the public well were poisoned, because the darkness of such an act, of taking a life, will spread to friends, neighbors, the entire community.” The impact of violence on the community is undoubtedly negative. Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, was an established, “honest” business man in both Season 1, and is seen to be an important factor to the destruction of all organized crime in the city, which is the reason for his change from being in jail to a house arrest at a luxurious penthouse. If Matt killed Fisk in both these occasions, a huge shockwave would have sent out to the city. Matt will not only be in jail, Fisk’s exploit will also be ignored because of his death. Religion is really something keeping Matt from being unhinged. Modern fiction often portrays religion in a less than favourable light. It is hard to blame them really. Both the Catholic church and Christian Church have involved in major sexual assault and pedophillia scandals in a not so distant past, and evangelists’ schtick had been annoying for the last thirty years. Pro-religion movies are either extremely corny, silly or just condescending to everyone else, especially atheists. On the other hand, the satirical takes on religion from shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy or South Park was funny at first, but it would get boring after the millionth time it had been repeated. I think no show or movie has balanced the portrayal of religion as well as Daredevil. It certainly is a positive light, but is not as distracting and done in a poor taste as some evangelical movies do. Religion is a key part of Matt’s identity and motivation. It’s importance not only does not hurt the show, it enhances Matt’s character and makes the audiences know more about him as well.
Another major contrast is his daily job and his vigilantism. Matt is a lawyer, a criminal lawyer. Not that kind of CRIMINAL lawyer (if you want to see more of that CRIMINAL lawyer, here’s my review of Better Call Saul), he only represents defendants who he thinks is innocent. Unlike Saul Goodman, Justice really matters most to him. However, is the criminal justice system really perfect? Are all prisoners guilty as sinned? Are all people who were ruled not guilty really innocent? Not really. The system is always flawed, from simple factors like the lack of technology, dishonest witnesses to serious problems like corruption, the intimidation of the jury, many people, especially the rich and powerful can get away scott free for their crimes while many people suffer long jail time even if innocent. This gives some people the idea of vigilantism, to act as an extension of the law, to be the sheriff, judge and executioner of those who they deem sinned. The idea of vigilantism is found as early as the old testament of the Bible. In Genesis 34 of the abduction and rape (or, by some interpretations, seduction) of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, in the Canaanite city of Shechem by the eponymous son of the ruler, and the violent reaction of her brothers Simeon and Levi, who slew all of the males of the city in revenge, rescued their sister and plundered Shechem. When Jacob protested that their actions might bring trouble upon him and his family, the brothers replied "Should he [i.e., Shechem] treat our sister as a harlot?" Similarly, in 2 Samuel 13, Absalom kills his brother Amnon after King David, their father, fails to punish Amnon for raping Tamar, their sister. But is vigilantism a truly just way towards crime? Not really. For example, In Ghana, political parties – whether in government or the opposition – are known to form and use vigilante groups who then act on their behalf. This has been highlighted in various reports, such as one put together by the Institute for Security Studies as well as academic research papers. These vigilante groups are often violent, target opposition groups and public officials, and seize property or assets. Political Vigilantism caused serious problems not only for social stability but also the very concept of democracy. Matt’s work is not as destructive. But he is technically violating his lawyers code. His duality is best illustrated in Season 1 Episode 3. In this episode, Fisk’s henchman Wesley hired Matt and partner Foggy to defend John Healy, an assassin for Fisk. he was obviously guilty. Matt wishes to use the case to discover who Wesley's employer is, and so accepts Wesley's offer, and successfully defends Healy from charges of Murder. Feeling guilty, he dresses up as Daredevil and beats the crap out of Healy, asking for the man behind him and Wesley. Healy decided to kill himself instead of giving Fisk. The conflict between his daily life and his vigilantism is so fascinating because it is rarely discussed in Superhero stories besides Spiderman. Most heroes either are born rich or using heroism as their daily job. Matt’s financial state is pretty dire throughout the 3 seasons. His lawyer firm closes in Season 2 because of a lack of funding, he stole his armor from Fisk, and when he lost his armor in the start of Season 3, he is only wearing a sports suit and a knit hat to protect his identity. Therefore, he needs to be very resourceful to avoid dying combat.
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Which brings us to the action and overall technical state of the show. Daredevil’s best parts are its fight scene. As the show has a decent budget of 56 million, therefore it has the cash to do the action scenes right, and my god they did. All of the one shot hallway fights are all incredible. From Season 1’s OG hallway fight, to Season 2’s stairway fight and Punisher prison fight (Not Safe For Work by the way) and Season 3 one shot 11-minute prison escape sequence (which for god knows why, I can’t find the complete version). These fight scenes are all stylistic and thrilling. One of the most understated things about the brilliance of the fights is the stamina or lack thereof of Matt. He is usually really tired at the end of the fights. He can barely stand and all of his punches rely on an almost ragdoll-like momentum. It is actually really realistic, as most people even well trained fighters can only last for a small amount of time in intense physical combat, which is really hard to do on its own. This tidbit of realism is really appreciated. And then there is the elephant in the room. The one shot aspect. There are obviously cuts throughout the fights, but they hidden so expectly that a naked eye couldn’t spot, creating a continuous flow of action which a breath of fresh air in an era dominated by extreme close ups and shaky cameras, where it takes 14 cuts in 6 seconds to show a character climb over a fence (Don’t laugh, it is actually true in Taken 3). The overall tone and artistic direction of the series is one of my favourites as well. The first two seasons took a more neo noir aesthetic, with a lot of neon light and exaggerated contrast between light and shadow, while Season 3 looked more of an action thriller but it still got beautiful shots galore. Daredevil no matter in its action scenes or just in any shot, is stylish, expressive and beautiful.
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Finally, the acting. Each of the casting choices has been nailed. Charlie Cox’s performance is incredible and his role as a blind person has attracted plenty of praise especially from those who are visually impaired. Vincent D’Onofrio’s portrayal as Wilson Fisk is one of the most intimidating yet intimate villains across the MCU. His soft spoken side with his wife is an incredible contrast to his more violent side, and by more violent, I mean crushing a dude’s head off with a car door. All of the cast performed spectacularly and it is a great show if your emphasis on whether to watch a show is to know whether it has good performance.
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Daredevil came to a crashing halt after season 3 thanks to the end of the collaboration between Netflix and Disney. Do I look forward to the Disney takeover? Honestly, not really. Marvel under Disney is an economic and cultural phenomenon, but it still has a major flaw. It’s inability to establish a mature and serious tone and handle mature subject matter. So much of the film is turned into a big joke at the end. Emotional tension and moments that can truly benefit character growth is often pissed away to make way for a few quips and laugh. Daredevil’s greatest strength in storytelling is its serious and noir-like tone, and I just don’t trust Marvel and Disney to give its subject material justice.
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Netflix’s idea to build a shared universe like the MCU or CW’s Arrowverse ended up a failure. But none of the fault is on Daredevil. Daredevil provided one of the best experiences I’ve had from an action TV show in a long time, and we can appreciate that. As per Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron, “A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts,” I am glad that Daredevil is over right at its peak, instead of being dragged about like other shows well past its expiration date. But do I miss Daredevil? Of course. This is why we love arts right?
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The rights to all promotional material and stills of Marvel’s Daredevil belongs to Netflix and Marvel.
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