As far as comic book superheroes go, Daredevil is pretty damn cool, no matter what the ill-fitting Ben Affleck movie may have had to say on the matter.
Whereas Captain America, Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers are about to take on Ultron with the fate of the world at stake in the upcoming Avengers 2 movie, Daredevil’s world is smaller and more personal; including the latest iteration now on Netflix, he’s a guy trying to save his neighborhood. Rather than chasing a magical MacGuffin around the globe, Daredevil is simply trying to stop the terrible violence taking place on the streets every day and save his friends and neighbors. In that sense, he’s as relatable and grounded as a blind man who dresses in a costume and fights crime using his super-powered senses can be.
The first of five Marvel shows to be produced on Netflix, Daredevil is clearly inspired by Frank Miller’s “Man Without Fear” series, giving us a darker, more violent story than anything Marvel’s television and movie production team has given us before. The fight scenes are some of the most brutal – and captivating – on TV (or wherever you choose to stream Netflix). Bones snap, blood flies, knuckles are bloodied and the weak are tortured – and Daredevil doesn’t always escape intact. On several occasions he requires days to recover from his crime-fighting exploits, and in one episode even has to tell a friend that he was hit by a car to explain away his injuries. In Daredevil’s Hell’s Kitchen, the hero pays a price, and he doesn’t have a high-tech suit of armor or a magic hammer to protect him.
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arlie Cox is certainly charming as Matt Murdock and is probably even better as Daredevil, but the show’s greatest strength is the rest of the cast. As Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll are even more likeable than our hero, and their moments of courage stand out all the more with the realization that they’re just everyday people who aren’t blessed with super powers. In many ways, Foggy has been the heart and soul of Daredevil in all its incarnations, whether it be in the comics pages or on television and movies, and Elden Henson portrays Foggy’s easy-going, affable humor perfectly, while still bringing pathos to the scenes that need it.
And speaking of pathos, no one brings more emotion to the screen than Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk. He’s cold and calculating and cruel, with an explosive temper that presents a constant threat of violence in every scene he appears, but at the same time, the writers take pains to humanize him even more than they do Matt Murdock. Like the very best villains, Fisk honestly believes he’s saving Hell’s Kitchen, and the greatest love story in the series doesn’t involve Daredevil or his friends, but features Fisk’s hesitant, at times awkward relationship with an art gallery owner who quickly becomes his foundation.
Even as Fisk’s violent temper makes him a constant danger to those around him, we regularly see his underlying humanity. Not everyone around him is a mere henchman to be thrown to the wolves (though there are plenty of those). When his friends and loved ones are in danger, Fisk responds with a blend of grief and rage that we might expect from the story’s hero. For a character who isn’t introduced until the season’s third episode, Fisk is the most interesting and clearly-drawn character in the show, and D’Onofrio’s performance alone makes the show well worth watching.
Fisk may not show up immediately, but that doesn’t mean Daredevil starts slowly. Rather than spending the first episode showing us how Daredevil came to be blinded, gain his powers and ultimately choose to fight crime, we are introduced to a Daredevil who is already crawling atop rooftops at night (even if he hasn’t donned his trademark costume just yet). It’s only through flashbacks interspersed in the early episodes that we see Matt’s childhood and learn not only about his relationship with his father, but also see how he learned to cope with his powers. It’s a far more effective way of telling the story and allows the writers to immediately jump into the crime-fighting action.
The writers also take advantage of Netflix’s formula of dropping all the episodes at the same time so fans can binge watch the entire season. Episodes range from 48-58 minutes, and there’s no need to remind viewers of facts/details from the previous week – rather than using a “villain of the week” formula, a longer story can be told over the course of the entire season, and we can seamlessly watch Daredevil and Fisk maneuver around each other until the final showdown. Each episode changes the pace or illuminates a new aspect of the characters and their world – allowing the writers to focus episodes on the Nelson & Murdoch law practice, or on Fisk, or on Daredevil’s recovery after a particularly brutal fight. It makes it easy to binge watch the show because it doesn’t feel like 13 consecutive episodes of the same thing.
In fact, the whole show feels different from any other Daredevil we’ve known, an impressive feat considering the character has been around since the mid-60s. The familiar pieces and characters are all there, but the added depth to Fisk’s character and the gritty depiction of Hell’s Kitchen and its characters have re-introduced Daredevil to a whole new audience – and made it a heck of a lot more fun.
It’s a grittier take, but more importantly, it’s a more human Daredevil than we’ve ever seen.
