Sunday, April 12, 2015

Daredevil First Impressions

So Marvel's Daredevil came out two days ago and given that I'm almost finished watching Archer, I decided to try it, I mean, why not, right? Is Marvel Entertainment really going to do that, start every show with the prefix Marvel's. I mean, you don't do that for the movies, I don't go to the movies to see Marvel's Iron Man III, I go to see Iron Man III. You're acting like nobody knows who Marvel is, which is fair, because three years ago nobody did know who Marvel was. If DC attached their name to Arrow and made it DC's Arrow everyone would flip the fuck out because everybody knows who DC is.

Marvel's Daredevil is not the best superhero show out there right now. That is a fact, deal with it. It is very good, but it is not the best. Just because it's super violent, grim and gritty (something we barely see from Marvel), doesn't mean that it's going to be great. Let's face it, The Flash is the best superhero show right now and Arrow is number two. Yeah, Marvel's Daredevil is a number three but that's just because it's not that hard to beat Marvel's Agents of SHIELD or Marvel's Agent Carter in terms of quality. Last year, it was just Arrow and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD and last year's season of the bowed archer is better than the first season of The Flash. That is how good it was, yes, this season has dropped in quality, but that seems to be simply because the second season was just that good.

Now, let me explain to you all what Marvel's Daredevil doesn't get right. It's a bit slow and spend so much time on exposition that you are honestly waiting for something to happen and then it does and does not disappoint. Now normally I'm a fan of this approach, but that's when it comes to movies and novels. Look, I'm willing to admit that maybe because Marvel rarely goes with this grim and gritty approach that I may just be shocked. There has to be more to it, though. I mean, you only have thirteen episodes, so they don't waste time on filler but they do waste time on way too much expositional dialogue that the fight scene at the end of the second episode really did not seem like it lived up to the hype.

What does work, and there is a hell of a lot more that does work than does not. The fight scenes, when they do happen, are magnificent. That is a plus, I mean, the fight scenes in Marvel's Daredevil are the ones that we should get on a weekly basis in Arrow, instead, Kreisberg only gives them to us during premieres or finales. Like, I've yet to see a fight scene in Marvel's Daredevil that matches the Arrow vs. Deathstroke, but every fight scene has far surpassed the likes of the Arrow vs. Maseo Yamashiro. Then there is the acting, Charlie Cox perfectly embodies Matt Murdock and while everyone else isn't shabby either (as in, they are good) the show's real shine comes from Vincent D'Onofrio. Maybe it's because he's the most "veteran" actor and probably the best of the bunch, or because he plays the Kingpin very, very, very well.

All in all, I don't know how Netflix seasons are going to work. I mean, after we get to Marvel's The Defenders are we just going to go through the entire cycle again or what? Nonetheless, while Marvel's AKA Jessica Jones doesn't have me very interested (given the fact that it was in development hell since 2010), I am looking forward to the future of Matt Murdock. I don't know if he'll show up in another show until he joins the Defenders, but I am certainly invested.

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