Finally got around to watching the Netflix series of Daredevil. The 13 episode first season was outstanding. The series takes its time telling the origin of Matthew Murdock, offering glimpses of his father the boxer, his blinding in a truck accident, the development of his extremely heightened senses, his combat training, and so forth. Though set in the same universe as The Avengers, Daredevil (Charlie Cox) is a much more humble hero, maybe not quite reaching the level of superhero. Yet. As such, the show does offer offhand comments about Thor, the attack on New York, and so forth but only barely. Lawyer by day and vigilante by night, Daredevil (who is not identified by that name until the season finale) delivers a lot of well-deserved beatings but suffers quite a few as well. In fact, his friends think he is a surprisingly clumsy blind man considering how often he arrives at work bruised and battered.
To be a great hero, there must be a great villain. Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) is magnificent as the villain. He is not some shallow evil for evil sake monster. He is a complex character with some laudable goals which he is willing to achieve by less than laudable means. He is an unseen menace for the first couple of episodes and makes his first appearance in the third. He has assembled a criminal cabal composed of Russian gangsters, Japanese Yakuza, Chinese drug dealers, and a crooked Wall Street banker. Fisk has large chunks of local government in his pocket. Fisk is usually controlled and deliberate but, from time to time, he goes berserk. Those targeted by his berserk rage rarely survive. Like Murdock, we also get a glimpse of young Willy Fisk. A terrific villain who, happily, lived to see a second season.
The supporting characters are surprisingly good and I was saddened to see some of them killed off. Perhaps Game of Thrones has had some impact on the writing. Elden Henson made for a memorable Foggy Nelson and brought a bit of levity to a surprisingly dark Marvel franchise. Bob Gunton was one of the most amiable Gordon Gekko types I've ever seen. A really cool customer, prone to crass comments but not with malice. Good writing. Toby Leonard Moore played the best right hand man ever. Villain or hero, this is the man to trust with seeing that things get done. Such loyalty cannot be purchased and must always be valued, even by villains like Fisk.
The weakest spot of the show was the law firm of Nelson and Murdock. Every client they have either survives being murdered thanks to the intervention of Daredevil or dies. Gee, I wonder why no one hires them. As such, how are they paying rent? New York, even Hell's Kitchen as portrayed, is not cheap. In the 13 episode run, they only get paid once. And that was from Fisk himself!
Great series. Thumbs way up. I look forward to binge-watching season 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment