Friday, May 13, 2016

(TV SERIES) Daredevil - Dark Portrayal of A Marvel's Superhero

I have actually seen the first season of this TV series last year, and just watched the second season during the past super long weekend. So it does not feel right if I go direct to the second season without providing some insights of the first season.

Well this is a series about Daredevil, 1 of the quite famous superhero from the Marvel comic books. It was already made into a movie many years back with Ben Afleck playing as the blind lawyer by day and crime fighting superhero by night.

The first season consisted of 13 episodes with duration ranging from 45 minutes to 1 hour plus (not sure why the length is not standard like other series). But the good thing about it was each episode just felt sufficient, not too short to fit into 45 minutes.

Brief Story Line of Season 1

The series introduce us firstly to Matt Murdock (played by Charlie Cox - The Theory of Everything) as the blind lawyer who formed a law firm together with his best friend "Foggy" Nelson (played by Elden Henson - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay). Their very first case was about a secretary named Karen Page (played by Deborah Ann Woll - True Blood series) who was framed for the murder of her colleague, since she found out about a scheme in her company to corrupt the pension fund. In one moment at her home, she was going to be killed by the bad guys before being saved by Matt dressing as vigilante. Later, Karen would be working as the secretary to Nelson & Murdock law firm. She would also seek the help from Ben Urich (Vondie Curtis-Hall), a reporter who was experienced in exposing crimes of high publicity.

While working on saving people from various thugs, bandits at night, Matt was frequently injured and she would be helped by a nurse working at night shift named Claire Temple (played by Rosario Dawson - Unstoppable etc). We would also be shown how Matt was able to have heightened senses when he lost his sight as a young boy. He was being taught martial arts by a blind person, simply called as Stick (played by Scott Glenn).

The main villain of season 1 was Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin (played by Vincent D'Onofrio - The Judge, The Jurassic World etc). He had a strong personality and very fierce who led by force and joined forces with the Russian, the Irish, the Triads, the Yakuza. There was also the love of her life named Vanessa (played by Ayelet Zuyer) whom Wilson would do anything to protect.

Season 1 basically introduced us to the various characters that would be involved in Daredevil's life with so many action sequence involving Matt and the various villains in each episode. In addition to the action scenes, there were also various dramatic events involving the clients of Nelson & Murdock and Kate and some flashbacks of the younger Matt & Foggy's days. We would also be shown slowly the rise of Daredevil (or called as the "Devil of Hell's Kitchen) which culminated at the 13th & final episode of season 1, where he would start to wear the red suit and would be putting up the fight of the season with Kingpin.

Brief Story Line of Season 2 (Spoiler warning on season 1)

Season 2 started with the Hell's Kitchen already aware of the devil's presence and were appreciative of his helps to capture the thugs of the street. Foggy who also have found out about this in season 1 can only asked Matt to be very careful.
However, the so called peace in their city would soon be gone with the "war" declared by someone who started to shoot and murder the Irish mob, the motorcycle gang Dogs of Hell. It was obvious that the person was only killing bad guys. Matt who always believed in justice system did not approve of this method as he trusted that there is always good in people even the bad ones. So they have to be sent to prison instead of being killed.

We would later find out that the killings were actually done by Frank Castle (played by Jon Bernthal - The Wolf of Wall Street, The Walking Dead series etc). He was later nicknamed Punisher. Needless to say, the way Punisher killed was always so brutal and later there would be some major fight with Daredevil as well.

In addition to having the Punisher in season 2, we would also be introduced to Matt's long time girlfriend Elektra Natchios (played by Élodie Yung). She had a very mysterious background and actually had a very big influence in the younger Matt during college years. She was also very good at martial art skills and later on we would be shown some background stories describing how she would be the Elektra now. The appearance of Elektra in Matt's life now would also make things complicated for Matt, as she would bring out the best and worst of Matt at the same time, not to mention relationship with Foggy &  Kate.

Some of the characters in season 1 also appeared again in season 2, such as Stick, Melvin Potter (the person who made Daredevil suit) and Wilson Fisk. There would also be notable new character, i.e. Blake Tower assistant District Attorney who would later be assisting Daredevil in future.

The second season would focus more on the relationship of Daredevil and Elektra, plus the trial of Punisher. We would also see the development of Kate into more like an investigative reporter. And the change of Foggy's view towards his partnership with Matt in their law firm. Also there would still be the various fighting scenes, particularly with the ninjas under the "organisation" called "The hand".

The ending of season 2 would provide us two shocking moments which would truly make season 3 becomes very interesting.

End of Brief Story Line

Well, I got to say, watching Daredevil series, you cannot help but feeling sorry for Matt especially in season 1 when he got kicked/punched and all sorts every time he fight with the villains. At the same time we could understand his difficulty in juggling the balance of his day life as lawyer and night life fighting crimes.

This is one of the series involving super heroes where I think is rather dark. This is not the average Marvel movies. People are really getting killed and the violence are quite strong. The topics are also quite heavy and the relationships are complicated. Even if there is humor, it's rather dark and not a lot of them.

Action sequence is top notch. The fights are generally great. I especially love whenever Daredevil is fighting many many people at the same time to fight his way out (or way in). The first season was very interesting and more of introduction. The main star I believe would be Wilson Fisk character. Meanwhile in second season, The Punisher was believable but unfortunately I don't feel Elektra is great enough. Sorry but this one I have to disagree with the critics saying her performance was very good. Although her fight scenes were coreographed quite well.

Anyway, if you want to enjoy watching a dramatic, violent Marvel version of Daredevil, you surely have to watch this TV series. It is much better than the movie version. The season 2 just aired in year 2016. So we have to wait until 2017 before we can see season 3.

Oooh 1 final thing, there was a scene in season 2 where the name Jessica Jones was mentioned. This is also another Marvel character that has been developed into a TV series also consisting 13 episodes. I will review that series later, so wait for that one in the very near future.

Enjoy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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