This is not a review for the season, not yet at least. Life got in the way and as a result I wasn’t able to binge all of Daredevil this weekend like I had hoped. That said, I have watched the first 7 episodes so far and have some very distinct opinions and thoughts on various things that have come up. Obviously, this isn’t for the whole season and things can obviously change. Oh and all you lucky people who have already seen all the episodes please don’t spoil it for me. On to the things I noticed.
I love Claire Temple
Okay, I will be the first to admit that I don’t know a whole lot about Daredevil. I’ve never read any of his comics. He was always on the periphery of the Marvel comics I did read. As a result, I saw him pop up and knew a little bit about him. Aiding that was an intolerable habit of reading through pages an pages of wiki to find out the information I didn’t want to sift through the comic for. The result was missing out on a lot of Daredevil characters that were not Daredevil, his dad, or Kingpin.
That means I had no idea who Claire Temple was. From the little bit of research I did she is an amalgamation of characters consolidated under one name. I’m cool with that. I’m even cooler with her character. She’s strong, she’s interesting, and she’s on Daredevil’s side. I’m always fond of characters who are in the know. In this case I’m falling hook line and sinker for the relationship between her and Matt. Their chemistry is brilliant. Whenever they have a scene together, even if they are separated by a phone call, I find myself longing for more. I ship that. And I root for Claire. I love seeing an non-white character be the main romantic interest.
Foggy and Karen 4Ever
Seriously, I didn’t think on a show so focused on crime and fighting that I would find myself invested in not one, but two relationships. The two didn’t have chemistry at first. There was this awkward air, but as time went on, much like real relationships, you started to feel the air around them getting thicker. Together they seem like this really caring and healthy relationship (something I can’t say about Claire and Matt). They are partners in crime and I love seeing the two bumble together. They add a lot of humor to the show and that relationship gives me so many feels.
Foggy is amazing
Let’s not pretend that this isn’t largely because Foggy isn’t downright awesome. If there is ever a guy you’d want to be friends with and have your back, he’s it. Time and time again he’s proven to be a good guy. He stands up for what he believes in. He takes things in stride. Nothing seems to stop him. Even when he was holed up in the hospital he wanted to make sure that Matt was okay. The guy had just helped an older woman and barged through a dangerous building to make sure others were okay and he still couldn’t take a moment and think about himself. He saves Karen in an alley with a bat for goodness sake. He is amazing and I wish I had a Foggy in my life.
I pegged Ben Urich
Okay, I will admit, I am really bad with character names. If you read many of my reviews you may already know this. If a character name isn’t mentioned frequently or featured prominently, I tend to miss it. Worst off, I often forget them. Which is why I will sometimes refer to characters by what they’ve done or their status, like the girl, rather than name them. The same thing happened with Ben. I just kept watching and thinking about Ben, like this guy really reminds me of the reporter from Frontlines (part of the Civil War comic event). It kept rubbing me the wrong way, like he seems really similar. He just keeps egging things on. He’s so similar. Then I told my boyfriend I had these suspicions and he agreed. Turns out he was acting so much like that comic character because he was him. I felt awesome and I now had a name for the face. Win-win.
This is a gritty show
I hate the word gritty. Like I seriously hate it. I wrote about it previously. So often the term is used improperly. It’s become a buzzword. That, however, doesn’t mean there aren’t things that legitimately deserve the descriptor. This is one of those shows. There are no cutting corners. The show is violent. It’s filled with harsh truths. It’s a look at the city and is making no efforts to try to idealize the place. Hell’s Kitchen is hell. It really is. The people that inhabit the place are rough and difficult. The fighting we’ve seen on the show is brutal and raw. Matt gets tired. You see him injured. This isn’t fighting perfection, it’s being skilled and surviving even when it’s hard. I love it. I’m still haunted by the death when someone gives up Fisk’s name. It rattles me just thinking about it. Daredevil is not afraid to show you the nasty in favor of making something look clean. It wouldn’t fly on network TV.
It’s draining
That gritty nature makes this show real hard to get through sometimes. I absolutely love it. I’m always left dying to have more, but there is no denying that it is a tough show to watch. I haven’t been able to watch more than two in a row without feeling like I just needed a break. I needed to recharge. The entire time I thought about it and wanted to watch more. I just needed a break. I don’t regret it because I get to spread the show over a longer span of time.
I’m so much more excited about the future Netflix/Marvel Shows
I’m not even done with Daredevil and based on the quality of this show, I’m even more excited about the other joint ventures. This show is like a different level of Marvel showing a completely different side. It doesn’t feel like any of the other properties they’ve shown us. This shows us a dark underbelly and I really love it. Marvel has for the most part showed us lighter fare, occasionally getting darker. This lives in the dark and I want more.
What did/do you think of Daredevil?
So, I pondered... 