Okay, so I’ve finally had the chance to watch the entire season of the Netflix/Marvel collaboration, and as I expected, there is some things I’ve thought just a little bit more about than others. What where they? Check it out right here, on my Daredevil-review.
First of all, Charlie Cox as the titular character, absoutely amazing. From his performance as blind Matt Murdock to the avenging Daredevil alongside his struggling relationship with Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple and strained friendship with Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson, nothing ever felt wrong. Easily enough the best cast I’ve seen in many years. With that said, it took me a few episodes to actually look past his Tristan (Stardust), but it happened eventually and now, I absolutely love Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock!
Second, if there ever was a better casting choice than Cox’s Murdock, it must be Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk. Holy shit, what a magnificent actor. Vincent D’Onofrio is more than perfect for the part. With that said, during one of the more Kingpin-driven episodes, the ones where we see Fisk wake up after having nightmares of his past, it was a definite struggle not to reflect on his Gomer Pyle (Full Metal Jacket). I guess it’s true what they say; ‘No need to fix something that’s not broken’, ’cause D’Onofrio’s Fisk was amazing through and through!
As for the show itself, well…. this is one of those things that’s basically impossible to Not compare to an earlier iteration. In this case, I couldn’t Not compare it to the 2003 abomination that was ‘Daredevil‘.
For starters, the two actors portraying Matt Murdock, they’re both fine actors in their own rights, but Charlie Cox stands proud where Ben Affleck fell short. There’s not even a concest, Cox IS the Daredevil.
Ben Urich, portrayed by Joe Pantoliano in the film and Vondie Curtis-Hall. Two utterly different actors doing basically the same thing. I choose not to choose a favorite, they were both great. As for the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, well… Nothing harsh against Michael Clarke-Duncan but his Fisk just wasn’t good enough. Also, there’s that thing that they do when they take an established character and change his skintone, just for the sake of being politically correct, which I don’t care for At all. They did it for Fisk in the movie and Urich in the series and neither of the times sat really right with me. Why? I just don’t see a reason for doing something like that.
Moving on…..
Thankfully, we didn’t get to see either Bullseye or Elektra in the show. The two characters where the main reasons the 2003 film failed for me and I was on pins and needles the whole time I watched the show, just waiting for them to pop up. Luckily, they didn’t….. yet. We do know that Miss Natchios exist in the MCU, it’s just a matter of time before she shows up, given the success of this show.
There’s two more things I wanna think about before I leave, and the first one is the story of the show. We get to see Matt as a child, we get to see him through law school with Foggy, we get to see him transition from wanting to do good in world but working through anger issues and onward to full fledged Daredevil, and I loved the way they did it. Rather than just throwing it all in our faces (like they did in the film), they took their time, gave us flashbacks, reasons and explanations as to why, where, who and how it all came to be. Just brilliant work from everyone involved!
The second, and last, thing I need to get off my chest is this. What is this? Throughout the show, we’re given the black homemade suit he wore in the Frank Miller book ‘The Man without Fear’, leading up to when he gets his traditional red suit. Everything about it was magnificent, all the way up to the actual suit. Personally, I think that the suit is where the movie got it right, but here, it just looks like they stopped trying. Whoever designed this needs to be reevaluated pronto!
Yeah, the suit is probably the only negative thing I have to say about this show, so I’m gonna leave you with these words; As long as they can fit this show into the MCU later on, with Daredevil and the other Defenders eventually teaming up with the Avengers, I’m all for its continuation. Definite ‘Stamp of Approval’, not a platinum though, but at least it’s a stamp. Now I’m off to do something else, maybe watch a movie? Yeah, I think I’ll do that. I caught ‘Wer‘ last night so maybe that’ll pop up on here soon, who knows, but until then…..
Tango's Thoughts 
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