Marvel's Daredevil (Season 1)

By: Robert Murphy

It's always been more my style to enjoy the super heroes that aren't so over the top powerful as the ones that usually get the limelight. Not that there is anything wrong with Thor or Superman but I find its more impressive to be a super hero without all that power given to them like Green Arrow and the like. That's probably why I was so excited to hear that Daredevil was going to get his very own series. Daredevil is one of those heroes that not only took on big names in his universe but he did so without being a rich guy with tons of gadgets and even more impressive is the fact that the guy is blind. After an accident that took his sight at a young age, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) would be the last person you'd expect to become a costumed hero but losing his sight opened up a whole new world for him. Matt's other senses became heightened to such an extraordinary level that he didn't need his eyes to see and learned to use his other senses to become a force to be reckoned with and would one day become the hero of Hell's Kitchen. 

For most fans of Daredevil, I imagine people roll their eyes and think of the Ben Affleck movie that came around the time when hero movies weren't handle with as much care and weren't seen in as a high reverence as they are right now. But, as I said, Daredevil was always an interesting character to me. His alter ego Matt grew up in Hell's Kitchen which as it's name would suggest is not the nicest place to live and when he returned years later as a fresh faced lawyer this fact hadn't changed. It would seem that the Chitarui attacks on New York that took place in the Avengers movie has made things worse for the slums and people are just getting by which leaves crime at an all time high. A nice little move by Marvel tying in the attacks so Daredevil has his place in the universe set but the brief mentions of the events in New York don't define the story. Charlie Cox's portrayal of Matt Murdock is strong and his abilities both as the justice seeking lawyer and crime stopping bad guy are both done brilliantly. 

Matt has already received some training in the show as you will see, that's why he is so good at jumping around roof tops and taking out groups of bad guys with his bare hands. However, he is still new to the whole crime stopping business and one of the best running jokes for the series is how the people around him make fun of his crummy costume. The red suit with devil horns doesn't come into play until the very end of the show and you will spend most of the time seeing Matt fight in a black outfit that look like nothing more than biker pads. Because of this Matt often takes a pretty severe beating, I believe it's in the second episode that he is almost left for dead when he got caught in an ambush. If it weren't for Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) coming to the rescue he probably would have been dead and making for a short series. But it's the fact that Matt never appears to be invincible that makes the action so enjoyable, fights are often one sided with super heroes and you never see that much blood being shed. In the first few episode of Daredevil though I saw more blood in a Marvel show than I ever have before. This also isn't to say that Matt gets his butt kicked all the time, he often takes out numerous lesser thugs with ease, jumping all over the place and performing kick moves and unleashes excellently choreographed blows on people.

Matt's time out from behind the mask proves to be just as captivating as he and his friends have just opened up their very own law firm. It would seem that the Daredevil can never stop seeking justice and his incredible abilities such as heightened hearing have helped him immensely in becoming a great lawyer. But, Matt often wrestles with the moral grounds that he stands on as his alter ego and punishing criminals outside of the law and whether or not it's okay to cross the line from just beating up criminals to killing them. Matt was also raised on a good Catholic life style and his character is one of the few whose religion even comes into factor in any way. It makes the internal struggle his character goes through all the richer, his character is willing to do just about anything to stop criminals in his city, even putting one man in a coma, but is it really okay for him to take that last step and is it right? It's a very heavy brew and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

As for Matt's friends, his partner in crime is Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) who is Matt's long time college friend and the one who joined him to form their law firm. His character provides much of the comedy for the story as he complains about how the two don't have any clients and are dirt broke. But, despite his sidekick placement, he never feels like a lesser character and that goes for all of the supporting cast of characters, except for maybe Claire who only shows up to mend the wounds of Matt after a hard night of fighting. We then have Karen Page (True Blood's Deborah Ann Woll) who joins in the first episode and ends up turning into Matt and Nelson's secretary. Her character was someone that I initially thought was going to be the helpless heroine character but turned out to be someone who struck out more on her own. It seems her time on screen before this served her well as she strikes out against the stories main villain Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) in her own way separate from Matt's night time beat downs. The story does briefly toy with the idea of Matt and Foggy both having a thing for her or possibly forming some bad love triangle but nothing comes of it thankfully. Foggy and Karen become very close in the story and there may be potential for something in the future but thankfully it was avoided for the moment, as was any love interest in the story, at least for the good guys anyways.

It's rather an odd choice for the bad guy in a show or a movie to have the love interest an the turmoils that come along with it and Wilson Fisk certainly faced his share of problems with it. Fisk or Kingpin, as he isn't ever directly referred to in the show as, was a bit of a split for me in terms of whether or not I liked his character. Fisk was always a force to be reckoned with for the Daredevil series, he was more powerful than any crime boss Batman ever faced and he would even get his own hands dirty if it came down to it in a fight. His fight at the end of the series with Daredevil proves this as well as other numerous times he takes down thugs in the show. But most of the show we see Fisk pinning over and dealing with his relationship with Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) who was an art director that he meets while getting pieces for his penthouse fortress. This brings out a vulnerable side to Fisk, his intimidating nature and ruthless tactics that got him so far in the story up until this point became sour and weak. He wasn't so much of a bad guy as he was just another character, parts of this I do like such as when we see his back story and origins but in terms of making him a good villain, I don't think that ever happened. 

Overall, I felt that plenty of what makes Marvel's Daredevil such a compelling character was brought forth here. Much of the source material and key points of the Matt Murdock character are brought forth accurately and Charlie Cox brings it all to life wonderfully. Supporting characters were also just as top notch, Foggy was funny and lent a good deal of humor to the shows story and Karen was just as strong as Matt's character as she proved to not be a helpless female character. I do have my issues with the road that the Fisk character went on, plenty of his story was interesting, I in fact loved his whole backstory episode but he appeared to be too weak of a villain for my liking. The Kingpin should be feared and I truly didn't get to see anything fear inspiring. I hope to see the same great writing and action continue forward for the series in the future.

Good:

- Top notch action sequences

- Funny and compelling writing to the story

- The dark tone and struggle of Matt Murdock was brilliantly done by Charlie Cox

- Other great supporting actors and actresses like Deborah Ann Woll

Bad:

- Wilson Fisk never hit his stride as a strong villain

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10