I have a reputation as being something of a contrarian. Ja often told me that I’m an impossible critic…but I can’t help it if the world constantly fails to live up to my standards.
That said, I enjoyed Daredevil over-all. I thought it was a solid, if uneven, effort with its high-points generally compensating for the failures. The acting was great, production was spectacular, and the fight scenes are hands down among the best I’ve ever seen.
Three things about the series, however, really grind my gears:
#1 Where Are We? One of the things that got old quickly was how often characters had to explain that they were in Hell’s Kitchen. To the point that it became a drinking game for me and my girlfriend…making it almost impossible to get through an episode without blacking out. I’m not sure if the producers were scared that viewers would forget where this was happening or what, but it quickly became laughably awkward. A typical conversation from the show was:
Character 1: I grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. Which is why I wanted to open a law firm here, in Hell’s Kitchen.
Character 2: I understand. Because I also live in Hell’s Kitchen. Which is here. In Hell’s Kitchen.
Character 1: OK, good. Because I’m just trying to clean up Hell’s Kitchen. Even though it’s not actually a city.
[Uncomfortable silence]
Both Characters together: HELL’S KITCHEN.
#2 You Make How Much Money? It’s fine if you want to show the law firm of Nelson and Murdock as a struggling business. It’s also 100% fine if you don’t want to show the day-to-day life of a law firm–I don’t need two hours of Murdock filing paperwork and subpoenas. However, it’s ridiculous to constantly have characters reminding everyone that they have no clients or income when they’re 1) paying for office space, a full-time assistant, paying off law-school and renting separate apartments, 2) they have no financial hardships at all, to the point that they can go out drinking every night and 3) apparently spend 20 hours a day in the office. I mean, they stay there every day and all night–what the hell are they doing in there??? How many times can you reshuffle research on Wilson Fisk? This is something that could have been solved with a couple montages of clients and a few “business is picking up” comments. But don’t pretend that people can live in New York for months without any source of income.
#3 So…Are You Guys Going To Actually Do Anything? The biggest gripe I had with the show was that the plot seemed to completely fall apart after episode 5 or so. They had set up the world nicely, but things just sort of petered out after the introductions had been made. I became increasingly frustrated with all the characters and the show as the season went on. For example, the Kingpin tells everyone about 500 times that he wants to clean up his town…unfortunately, he never actually gets around to doing anything or working on any plans to do it. Literally nothing. He meets with shady people, but it’s unclear how being a middleman in a drug ring is building towards anything.
Daredevil, also seemed to have no idea what he was doing after episode 5. He had been working his way up the ladder to Fisk, but once he found out who Fisk was, he went on a 6 episode break where he accomplished nothing, spent a lot of time complaining, and basically sat around feeling sorry for himself.
The last episode worked so hard to finally push two stagnant characters into conflict, that I honestly have a difficult time remembering what hollow, technicality initiated the final showdown. Really great TV shows (like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones) bring two forces into conflict through building tension and clearly-defined forces moving inexorably towards unresolvable goals. That never happened in Daredevil. Instead, the hero and the villain sat around blinking for nearly two-thirds of the season until a plot device was needed to wrap things up.
Overall, it was certainly watchable. They definitely showed enough to get me on the hook for season 2 (although I’d much rather see a Kingpin spin-off–a sort of Marvel Universe Breaking Bad meets the Sopranos), but is it really great? Is it among the best things Marvel has created? Not hardly. I’d still recommend anyone check out the show, because the first third of the season nearly makes up for all the other glaring faults. But I also wouldn’t blame you if you decided to bail on episodes 6-13 and binge watch House of Cards instead.