The first season of “Daredevil” comes to a close as anyone could have predicted. The red suit was officially released the same day the series was dropped so it was no shock the season ends with Matt Murdock’s Daredevil (Charlie Cox) taking to the streets of Hell’s Kitchen to bring about his own unique brand of justice.
The path to this moment is what sets “Daredevil” apart from other Marvel features and other superhero television shows in the best possible way. We’ve all seen the “dark and gritty” superhero, to me it’s actually a trope I’m growing tired of — more Guardians of the Galaxy please, less Man of Steel. However, there is something undeniably enjoyable about the execution of this particular brand of grounded and realistic heroics.
The choreography of the action is absolutely brutal and relentless. The lighting of scenes are almost uniformly dark, heavily shadowed, and incredibly moody. The tone, with the exception of comic relief character Foggy (Elden Henson), is bleak. All of the characters are faced with difficult decisions multiple times throughout these thirteen episodes and usually always have to make the more difficult choice in the name of “doing good”.
This season is so enjoyable because it continually ups the stakes for the heroes and gives a lot of attention to keeping the action and tone of the show consistent for the entirety of the first season. The other impressive element, and what really sets “Daredevil” apart from everything else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). As much as I enjoy the first ten theatrical entries in the MCU, the villains have always been a consistent weak spot. Their motives are usually murky at best and they all tend to have extremely similar personality traits. There is arguably one exception in The Avengers but even that is debatable.
The effectiveness of Fisk as a villain comes down to a simple realization, he is a three dimensional character rather than just a foil for the hero. His introduction is unique in that he is allowed to be menacing while looking at art and going on a date rather than doing anything actually menacing. There is a simple and obvious reason for this, time. Having more than two hours to explore motivation and personality will almost always yield a more well rounded and interesting character.
Fisk didn’t have to be distilled down into his most basic (i.e. evil) qualities to quickly demonstrate why our hero has to stop him, we are able to discover his plan slowly and maybe even feel that, while Fisk might be taking a quick and illegal route to his goal, his goal might actually be virtuous after all. Experiencing a hero and villain as two sides of the same coin is something that is usually lost during the process of adapting a comic to film or television. “Daredevil” is all the better for letting that concept come to fruition.
One thing that did strike me while powering through the series was my experience with it. The binging model has been successful for Netflix and is training viewers to expect to be able to resolve stories at their own pace. However, part of the fun (at least for me) of watching long form storytelling is trying to predict where the story may go, to sit with an episode for a week and counting down the days until I am able to find out more. For a show like “Daredevil” either experience (binging or watching week-to-week) could be considered valid.
Moving to the binging model permanently may prevent shows like “True Detective” from being considered worth making as part of their value rests in their cultural impact.
However, when you think about something like “True Detective” or “The Jinx“, allowing time between episodes only made the joy of watching a new one that much greater. Moving to the binging model permanently may prevent shows like “True Detective” from being considered worth making as part of their value rests in their cultural impact. I spent a considerable amount of time thinking about, talking about, and anticipating a new episode of “True Detective”. As the season wore on, more and more people were able to jump on the bandwagon and the number of people who could discuss it grew.
Having thirteen episodes of something available all at once does make it more difficult to talk about. You and I could both be watching “Daredevil” but I may be on episode eight while you are only on episode five. Because I binge watched the first four and then the next four a day later, I don’t remember exactly what happened in each specific episode. You certainly don’t want to be spoiled on what is to come so we end up not talking about it and moving on. I enjoy being able to watch what I want when I want, but this paradigm shift is starting to turn the act of watching and enjoying a television show into a full time activity, if you want to remain spoiler free that is.
What did you think of the first season of “Daredevil”? Have you finished it yet? Do you like being able to binge on a show whenever you want? Let me know below!
