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By now you've probably heard about the Netflix original series, Daredevil, and how amazing and gritty and adult it is. All you need to know is that you need to watch the show. It's that simple. You've probably heard a lot about the show and it has probably gotten on your nerves about how many people who have talked about it. Believe me, I was one of these people. I didn't want to see it at first, I was just as burned by the movie version as anyone else.
If you ask anyone who knows me they can tell you that I have a love-hate relationship with Ben Affleck. I think he is a phenomenal director since Argo literally had me shaking in my chair with goosebumps up my arms. Even The Town was a good movie and I wasn't as disappointed by that performance as I was by others. But he is a terrible actor. And I do mean a terrible actor. The few movies that I have seen weren't terribly bad, but his acting literally had me cringing. So when I got around to seeing Daredevil the movie it wasn't extremely bad, in fact I liked it, but it wasn't great.
However, I was interested to see what a new vision would do for the franchise. I had never heard of Charlie Cox but I had seen him in different interviews on different talk shows and I'll admit that he intrigued me. And no, it had nothing to do with his amazing accent or my completely healthy obsession with British actors. *wink wink* So one day I finally decided to sit down and watch Daredevil. And I was not disappointed.
A lot of the reviews that I read about it all had one thing in common: they all talked about how adult it is. At first I was confused, I thought comic books was mostly for everyone and I thought that studios like Marvel understood this. So in shows like Agents of Shield where they have adventures that's fun for everyone, both young and old, they get negative reviews and it hardly seems fair. Agents of Shield is a very good show, yet no one gives it the time of day because it's on broadcast TV so they have certain rules that they have to adhere to. But because Daredevil is on Netflix, which is basically a view at your own discretion streaming service, and it's binge worthy, they play by a different set of rules. They can curse, they can show more violence, they can talk about more adult themes, the jokes are a lot raunchier, and you control when and where you want to watch it.
While this is all fine and dandy, I have yet to discover why superheroes need to be gritty these days. It's almost like people aren't happy unless their superhero is suffering, moody, brooding, against a drab background, and looking up into the sky like it holds all the answers. It's like Christopher Nolan started a whole trend that every director or every showrunner wants to emulate. The Dark Night saga was a visual masterpiece and a true lesson in filmmaking, but it shouldn't be the standard. But now every superhero movie or TV show has to be weary and gray and dark. And I don't know why that is. Superheroes are supposed to be fun, they're supposed to excite people and garner a fan base. It's why we love them in the first place.
It's why I like shows like Agents of Shield or Agent Carter, it's because they're fun. They don't take themselves that seriously. But I digress.
I didn't have a lot of expectations going into the show but immediately from episode one I was intrigued and hooked. What they did with the show was mix past and present between Matt Murdock as little boy and as a grown man. So while you get the origin story of how he was blinded and about his father, right away you're introduced to him as superhero. You're not bogged down by his training or his moral implications about lying to his friends. Plus he's not running around in a red suit just yet. It's a much more practical sort of superhero and I think that's what sets it apart from its counterpart. We are first introduced to Matt Murdock and his partner who are looking for a law office and their first client.
From there, it's one big exploration of who Matt Murdock is. And Charlie Cox does a wonderful job of making the role his. He's a down-to-earth guy, he's not classically handsome like most superheroes these days, and while it is awkward when people finally notice that he's blind he has a good attitude about it. Immediately at night he's out hitting bad guys and taking names. What I also thought was interesting was how they handle his extrasensory powers. Everything that makes him unique, they use pure auditory cues to let you know that what he's experiencing is something new. Don't get me wrong, I liked what they did with the movie version but this was cool too.
And what I also liked with how they don't give you all the answers right away. That's why TV shows usually work a little bit better than movies because movies have to cram every piece of information in a certain amount of time. But TV shows allows for more character development and plot development so that you're discovering things with the character. So while Matt Murdock is doing all of these amazing fight scenes, you already know that at some point he had to receive training. But that's not explained in the first episode. It's world building at its finest. And I liked his relationship with his father. Of course we all know the story about how his father was a boxer, a crooked boxer, and he wanted his son to be smarter than what he was.
What I also liked was that the flashbacks to the past weren't in every single scene. It was spread out over multiple episodes so that it was more like quick memories than anything else. And Charlie Cox's acting made it seem like it was something he had to do not that he was just running around in a mask doing it for fun. He wasn't burdened by it, he didn't hate to do it, it was more like he liked doing it. Like he says in the show when he was talking about his grandmother about how the Murdock boys have a devil inside of them. So it made sense that his rage came out in every villain that he encountered. So often superheroes feel the need to do what they do out of a sense of justice, past experiences, or because it was given to them by a mentor or an authority figure. They never seem to enjoy what they're doing which they shouldn't but that's what makes Daredevil on Netflix so compelling. It's the simple fact that he enjoys it that adds an extra delicious part to his acting and to the character and makes you see him as more of a antihero than a hero. But he is a hero considering all the people that he helps in just 10 square blocks of New York City.
His friend Foggy, played by Elden Henson, adds a funny element to the show. So it's not all doom and gloom, for the most part. And he's not just the goof, he has some interesting bits about him. He has some interesting stories and interesting facts that pop up throughout the series that makes him a three-dimensional character and someone you want to root for. Someone outside of the title character and that adds to the show. And his relationship with Matt is so special that you can tell that they're friends. They don't seem like they were forced into the situation or that they are just two actors acting. They seemed like genuine friends and again that adds to the show. It's not like regular superhero movies where the new thing now is to hate your opponent until you need them.
It sucks because I want to tell you guys everything that happens in the show, but I can't go any further without giving too much away. So like I always do with spoilers, highlight in between the asterisks if you're not afraid of spoilers.
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What I really liked about this show, was that even though Matt has this big secret his friend Foggy does eventually find out about it. It was by pure accident that Foggy had went over to Matt's apartment looking for him, and Matt stumbles in completely bashed. Matt had just got into a fight with a ninja, yes you read that right, and he was out of it. He didn't even realize that Foggy was there. And I thought that was so interesting because here was Foggy who was his best friend, who didn't know Matt had this big secret. And the creators didn't wait until the next season or the season after that to unveil that.
There was this whole big scene where Foggy had to come to terms with who Matt really is at night. While Matt is at his lowest, having just gone against the kingpin, Foggy lays into him about being the masked vigilante he was just talking about at the office. And this scene was so electric and so interesting that I could not tear my eyes away and I was happy that they didn't wait so long for this reveal. That just makes this show one of the reasons why it's so different from the movie or any other superhero show that we've been introduced to. From that point on their whole relationship was turned upside down.
Matt had to fess up to how blind he really is, which is very, but as we know he has extrasensory powers that allows him to sort of see. How he describes it in the show is a ball of fire. The world seems like it's on fire. And for one brief scene between him and nurse Claire, played by Rosario Dawson, we saw how Matt saw. And because it was only one scene it made it that more powerful.
He dropped so many truth bombs that Foggy had to leave. And for a couple of episodes they wouldn't talk to each other leaving their secretary, Deborah Ann Woll of TrueBlood fame, bumbling around wondering why they are not talking to each other. And it sort of breaks your heart because you've invested all this time in their friendship only for them to skirt around each other. *
This show wasn't just about the evolution of Matt Murdock into the Daredevil we know today. It was about the evolution of every body, including the kingpin. Wilson Fisk is played by Vincent D'Onofrio who has made an astounding comeback in his career. We all know where Wilson Fisk is going to end up yet Daredevil doesn't give you the chance to paint anybody as a hero or villain. Yes Daredevil is supposed to be a hero but he likes to fight just like yes Wilson Fisk is supposed to be a villain yet he has a softer side. We get his back story as well as his involvement with a woman that's actually sort of sweet. I'm not saying root for the guy as you will find out when you actually watch the show but don't paint him as a villain just because that's what he is in the comic books.
All in all, this is a very well thought out gritty show. It's firmly for the adults not because of any violence or sexual behavior; it's smart and dark and tackles a lot of adult themes that will go over a kid's head. This is not your kid's Daredevil and I think that's why it excels so much. That's why so many people talk about it. And that's why you should go watch it right now.
