Building up to this epic crossover of epicness are five series' that have been released periodically one after the other, starting with Marvel's Daredevil in April 2015. Following that was Marvel's Jessica Jones in late 2015, Daredevil season 2 in March 2016, Marvel's Luke Cage in September 2016, and Marvel's Iron Fist in March 2017. With Marvel's The Defenders a mere two weeks away from today, we're gonna take a look back at the series' that have come out, with my own two sense on them.
Marvel's Daredevil (season 1)
Season 1 of Daredevil was the first in The Defenders saga to be released on Netflix. It follows the story of Matt Murdock, a lawyer in Hell's Kitchen, New York that was blinded in his youth by a tragic accident involving hazardous chemicals. He grew up being trained by an old, blind ninja named Stick to fight and to utilize his condition to his advantage.
By day, he works in his own law firm with his lifelong friend and fellow lawyer, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. The first episode of the series involves them rescuing and clearing the name of Karen Page, wrongly accused for killing an employee of Union Allied. In exchange for clearing her name, Karen volunteers to work as a secretary for "Nelson & Murdock: Attorneys at Law".By night, Matt dresses up in all black, and wears a mask over most of his face and beats criminals to a pulp. Initially, he goes without a name, and characters in the show simply refer to him as "The man in black" or "the masked man". Doesn't roll off the tongue as well. It isn't until the very end of the season that Matt is given his trademark red suit and helmet, with the devil horns, and is officially christened as "Daredevil". In terms of comparing Charlie Cox's Daredevil to Ben Affleck's Daredevil, it's kind of hard for me. I'm going to say Cox's is superior, because of the fighting choreography and the character development, but there are times Cox seems a little too dry for me. Affleck's was dry too, but it was that trademark "Affleck dryness" that seems to present in most of his movies. Just that monotone rasp he's got going on in most of his movies.
Throughout the series, Matt works by day with Foggy and by night on his own as they dismantle a Russian human trafficking ring, a heroin production operation and the organized crime syndicate run by the mysterious "Wilson Fisk". Fisk is not in the first two episodes of the show and is only referred to ominously by his right-hand man, Wesley. Together with Leland Owlsely, Nobu, Madam Gao, and the Russian brothers Anatoly and Vladimir, he runs a group partnership to smuggle humans out of the country, selling heroin on the streets and laundering the money and the group receives to build large financial statuses for all of them. As the season progresses, Matt picks off each of the members of the syndicate one-by-one until working his way to the big showdown with Fisk at the end of the season as Daredevil.
The Daredevil costume is fantastic. The helmet looks a little hammy compared to the one we get in season 2, but when they spend the whole season building up to it, it's so worth it to see it. The mixture of red and black as well as having his batons with him give him that comic book feel you wait for when you watch it. Until this happens, as I said, Matt dresses in a simple all-black attire, including a ninja mask tied over the top of his head. It's base off of Frank Miller's interpretation of a pre-red suit "Daredevil" from The Man Without Fear.
The show is noticeably violent for being something produced out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Charlie Cox, who portrays Matt Murdock / Daredevil, stated that it was "the darkest entry in the MCU at that time". The greatest, shining example of how fucking brutal this show is is the fight between the Masked Man and Nobu. Episode nine sees Matt dress up as the masked ninja and infiltrate one of Fisk's front warehouses in the docks. There, he encounters Nobu, who himself reveals to be a skilled warrior. The duel between them is epic, fast-paced and painful to watch. He dons a shoge hook and nearly eviscerates Matt in their fight. By the time Matt sets Nobu ablaze to win, he's so bloodied and weak that his fight against Wilson Fisk immediately afterwards isn't much of anything. He just gets his shit wrecked. Totally one-sided. But the fight choreography? Stellar. Absolutely stellar. Hypnotizing to watch. The end of episode two, the single-shot, single-take shot of Matt whaling on several Russians is great to watch.
Fisk is one of the greatest villains done in the MCU so far. Vincent D'Onofrio was a phenomenal choice for the role and he takes it and runs with it. You knew when they announced him as the Kingpin that he'd be badass whenever he's on screen. The only thing is the way he talks. I don't know if it's something in the comics or what but Fisk speaks with an almost autistic twitch in his words. I don't know if he was going for that or if that's just how D'Onofrio viewed the part, but sometimes it's intimidating and other times it sounds goofy. The way his face just contorts and he squeezes out syllables choked up by something is almost comical at times. Then you watch him literally kick the shit out of Anatoly and smash his head in a door frame and remember that he's a badass.
Ben Urich, famed reporter for what was originally the Daily Bugle, but had to get renamed the New York Bulletin due to Marvel not yet having the Spider-Man rights at this point. is noticeably present here in this season. He works with Karen Page about investigating the Union Allied scandal and eventually joins her, Matt and Foggy in bringing down Wilson Fisk. His is one of those "surprise deaths" that come in this season, given that he's one of the most important and popular characters in the Daredevil universe. Him and Wesley. That's right, Wesley gets the axe too, and I actually really enjoyed this interpretation of Wesley. A couple people I watched the series with didin't care for him, but I thought he was cool. Too fucking bad Karen shot him full of bullets randomly. I thought it was a dream or a hallucination, but nope! She annihilated him and he ain't coming back. Same with Urich. Fisk just randomly shows up in his house and strangles him to death. Dream? Hallucination? Fuck off!
Claire Temple becomes the only character in the Netflix MCU to appear in every show so far. Rosario Dawson does the usual job of making the character interesting, and I do enjoy her presence here in the first season of Daredevil. She seems to be a more centralized character here, often reporting to Matt when needed to patch him up when he gets messed up real bad.
Daredevil a great kick-off to the Defenders-verse and an excellent show to stand on its own. It's got the noir aspect down to a T. It's got action in boatloads with the fast-paced fight scenes and on-foot chases. With a compelling story that has several twists and turns, bumps and obstacles that change the course of events, the season is powerful in a minimal 13-episode run. Monumental storywriting, character development and, to put it bluntly, there are some scenes that are just downright bad to the bone. The bowling alley brawl, the various alley fights with Matt and the crooks, the episode with Vladimir and Matt buried in a warehouse, stuck trying to escape. Compelling dialogue between interesting characters across all thirteen episodes. It's easily come to be my favorite show on Netflix and it has cemented the character Daredevil my favorite comic-book superhero. The show is that good.
Catch me in a little while for the review of Marvel's Jessica Jones!
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