REVIEW #106 Daredevil (2015-2018)

Daredevil is a Marvel series produced by Netflix and follows the blind lawyer Matt Murdock as he masks up to fight crime on the streets of New York, specifically Hells Kitchen. Over the course of the 3 seasons we see him take on some of the characters most famous adversaries from Kingpin to the Punisher. 

CAST & THE ACTING 

Whenever I think of the Daredevil Netflix show I always think about how perfect the casting is. Charlie Cox soon became a fan favourite, playing the masked vigilante Daredevil and it is well deserved because he portrays the character brilliantly. He has mentioned in interviews how difficult it was playing a blind character, not being able to look people in the eye whilst performing and despite his difficulty, he pulls it off very well. Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson play Karen Page and Foggy Nelson respectively and they form a really good trio, full of energy and charisma. Especially Henson who injects the comedy into the series. However what I think Netflix done extremely well with was the casting of its antagonists, Vincent D’Onofrio was born to play Wilson Fisk and now I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing the character. Jon Berthnal was a fantastic casting as The Punisher and it’s no surprise he got his own show afterwards with such dedication to the character. I must also mention Elodie Yung as Elektra and Wilson Bethel as Bullseye too, they really understood the assignment with those characters! So Daredevil certainly has great castings and great acting for sure.

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

The storylines in each of the three seasons are brilliant at creating engaging plots and introducing fantastic villains but at the same time providing enough character exploration for the audience to fully understand the people they are watching. I also appreciated how they linked in Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and the Iron Fist to create The Defenders limited series too. I loved that interconnected universe! Another element I enjoyed was the graphic nature of the series, I believe it was rated at 15+ so it was actually quite a dark series, with plenty of violence and gore. I think that darkness was crucial in making this a great series because that grittiness is what I associate with the Daredevil character. It also provides a nice juxtaposition in terms of having a character that is so violent but has a strict code of no killing. My favourite relationship in the series was between Daredevil and The Punisher, they are so similar yet their moral code makes them so different at the same time. The journey those two have is really good and seeing them pretty much become ‘friends’ towards the end of season two closed off that journey nicely. With the character rumoured to return in Spider-Man No Way Home I just hope Marvel (MCU) can do justice to a character so many of us loved when he was with Netflix.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

Throughout the three seasons there are at least a few scenes that would be in my all time favourite TV scenes, everyone who has watched Daredevil knows of the iconic hallway scene that was just brilliant, captured perfectly by the cameras with the right lighting and tone to create a truly iconic scene. Then we have The Punisher prison scene with a similar sort of vibe and another one that springs to mind is when Matt Murdoch has to escape the prison in season three during a riot. There are just so many scenes that I feel the cinematography was perfect for. The prosthetics and effects for the violence and gore were realistic and helped create that dark and gritty vibe to the series. It is perfectly clear that is the intended approach by the directors and cinematographers, it actually makes me a bit sad the fact we won’t see that as Charlie Cox returns to the character in the MCU. We will have to see a watered down, child friendly, lighter Daredevil. 

OVERALL (9.5/10)

I actually can’t think of much that’s wrong with Daredevil, it’s definitely the best out of the Netflix Marvel series’s and probably trumps some of the MCU series too and on a much lower budget! The casting is great throughout all three seasons and the acting is just as good too. Engaging storylines with some fantastic character exploration and development makes it so addictive that you can’t stop watching. As you can tell by now with some of my other similar reviews, shows that combine the superhero genre with a high age rating and real dark and gritty themes, I absolutely love. Sure, you can tell at times that the series didn’t have too high of a budget but I think that only highlights the great work they done despite that. That’s why fans have been campaigning to get this cast incorporated into the MCU for over 3 years since the last season ended in 2018. If you’re a marvel fan and haven’t seen this show, please make sure this is the next thing you watch! Even if you’re not a fan of the genre I think you will still like it.

Thanks for reading. 

Callan