Cast:
Main
Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil
Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page
Elden Henson as Franklin "Foggy" Nelson
Toby Leonard Moore as James Wesley
Vondie Curtis-Hall as Ben Urich
Bob Gunton as Leland Owlsley
Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna
Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple
Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk
Recurring
Geoffrey Cantor as Ellison
Judith Delgado as Elena Cardenas
Daryl Edwards as Carl Hoffman
Royce Johnson as Brett Mahoney
Adriane Lenox as Doris Urich
Peter McRobbie as Lantom
Rob Morgan as Turk Barrett
Nikolai Nikolaeff as Vladimir Ranskahov
Amy Rutberg as Marci Stahl
Peter Shinkoda as Nobu
Chris Tardio as Blake
Susan Varon as Josie
Wai Ching Ho as Gao
Tom Walker as Francis
Judith Delgado as Elena Cardenas
Daryl Edwards as Carl Hoffman
Royce Johnson as Brett Mahoney
Adriane Lenox as Doris Urich
Peter McRobbie as Lantom
Rob Morgan as Turk Barrett
Nikolai Nikolaeff as Vladimir Ranskahov
Amy Rutberg as Marci Stahl
Peter Shinkoda as Nobu
Chris Tardio as Blake
Susan Varon as Josie
Wai Ching Ho as Gao
Tom Walker as Francis
Guest
Gideon Emery as Anatoly RanskahovJasson Finney as Stone
Matt Gerald as Melvin Potter
Scott Glenn as Stick
John Patrick Hayden as "Battlin" Jack Murdock
Domenick Lombardozzi as Bill Fisk
Kevin Nagle as Roscoe Sweeney
Jack O'Connell as Silvio
Suzanne H. Smart as Shirley Benson
Phyllis Somerville as Marlene Vistain
Jonathan Walker as Randolph Cherryh
Pat Kiernan makes several cameo appearances as himself. Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance through an on set photograph.
Episode Overview: (Some Spoilers)
Into the RingMurdock's vigilante crime fighting and his new law practice find equally dangerous challenges in a murder case tied to a corporate crime syndicate.
Cut Man
Murdock makes a near fatal error while trying to save a kidnapped boy, and finds an unlikely ally when he needs saving himself.
Rabbit in a Snow Storm
Murdock and Foggy take on a mysterious wealthy client, but Murdock is convinced that there's more to the case than just the facts.
In the Blood
Two vicious Russian brothers working for Fisk strike back against Daredevil. Fisk moves to further consolidate his power in the criminal underworld.
World on Fire
Fisk moves forward with plans that threaten to rip Hell's Kitchen apart. Murdock and Foggy take on a case helping tenants victimized by a slumlord.
Condemned
Daredevil finds himself trapped in the fallout of Fisk's plan to take control of Hell's Kitchen. Ben Urich digs closer to the truth.
Stick
An important figure from Murdock's past reemerges seeking his help to battle a new enemy threatening Hell's Kitchen.
Shadows in the Glass
While Murdock, Foggy and Karen's mission becomes clearer, Fisk's world spins further out of control in his battle for Hell's Kitchen.
Speak of the Devil
When Fisk gains the upper hand, the goal to destroy him becomes even more difficult, while Daredevil faces his own demons.
Nelson v. Murdock
Murdock and Foggy's relationship is put to the ultimate test while a new enemy against Fisk emerges.
The Path of the Righteous
Fisk and Murdock wrestle with the consequences of their chosen paths, while Ben and Karen get closer to Fisk's true past.
The Ones We Leave Behind
Fisk seeks revenge while Karen is haunted by recent events. Daredevil makes a startling discovery about Fisk's financing.
Daredevil
In the season finale, a boxed-in Fisk and a desperate Murdock, Foggy and Karen are forced to play their end games.
The Verdict:
(Whistles) Where to begin on this
show?
First things first, you MUST
have a Netflix account to watch this, unless you can "acquire" it via
other means online but I won't be the one to disclose those methods there. I
personally "borrowed" my older sister's Netflix account just to binge
on this show on my days off from work this weekend. It runs at exactly 13
episodes for this premiere season with each episode running roughly around 50
minutes or more, tops. I personally found the first few episodes rather hard to
binge on at first as there's a lot of small details you have to listen and
watch for, so take your time to enjoy this even though I'm sure everyone is
going to be talking about it until Avengers: Age of Ultron rolls
out in May or Ant-Man in July.
Secondly, this is the most graphic
and mature-content filled entity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date.
Sure, Punisher: Warzone was more graphic that this in terms of
violence, but that's still technically NOT canon to the current state of
Marvel's cinematic universe.
Last but not least, forget
EVERYTHING you know about Daredevil, if you seen that Daredevil (2003)
film with Ben Affleck in it. This is a fresh reboot, much like how The
Amazing Spider-Man (2012) was for Sony's Spider-Man franchise.
Storytelling
This TV series is EXACTLY
what Death Note was to anime's suspense/thriller genre for
superhero genre. It's not limited to just Marvel Comics-based narratives
either. If FOX and Warner Brothers were serious about a noteworthy Batman
TV series instead whatever that mess Gotham is supposed to be,
they would have taken a similar approach to this show. That goes double for Arrow.
The worlds that those TV shows are trying to create within PG-13 environment
needs room to stretch their legs out in a much more mature environment to show
exactly how gritty and dark these corners of the world that these street-level
heroes are dealing with.
Wilson Fisk (The man who will become
the Kingpin) and Matt Murdock (Daredevil or as how he is referred to in this
season, "The Devil of Hell's Kitchen") play a strategic game of cat
and mouse throughout this premiere season of this show that is reminiscent of
Death Note's dynamic between Light Yagami ("Kira") and L. I’m going
to mention the parallels and similarities as I noticed them throughout this
review and you’re welcome to weigh in with your own in the comments.
There's some flip-flopping in terms
of the comparison on the Death Note's dynamics, such as Kingpin exposes himself
like L to flush out Kira while both were able and affected by means outside of
their own control on the chessboard, such as Karen Page killing Wesley. This
event was reminiscent of the 4th Kira killing Light Yagami's girlfriend, Kiyomi
Takada, without his permission nor instruction to do so that threw a monkey
wrench into his plans and allowed Light to get caught.
Cinematography
Much like Agent Carter you can
enjoy this without any other prior knowledge nor exposure to the MCU. It works
wonderfully as its own standalone series.
I was glad that this is grittier
take on this special corner of the MCU, but the violence and darker tone and
themes may seem like a turn-off for some viewers. This is DEFINITELY not a
kids' show nor one for those faint of heart. This is truly Marvel's darkest
narrative to date and raises the bar in terms of what we should expect from the
MCU on TV or rather namely on Netflix.
Hell's Kitchen is a corner of the
MCU that should be handled delicately with care, much like the Cosmic Realm
where the Guardians of the Galaxy exist. Daredevil sets the stage perfectly,
allowing viewers to see the both sides of the coin of good and evil at play.
Daredevil's costume is an evolution
throughout this season. Matt Murdock slowly adds padding, knee pads, sticks
(from Stick himself) before finally upgrading to the traditional red costume
from the comics.
Season One serves as origin stories
for Daredevil/Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, Karen Page, and Foggy Nelson
as the series' main stays. Keep in mind that this series is the gateway point
towards the Defenders being properly introduced into the MCU.
Episode Notes & Analysis:
Episode 1: "Into the Ring"
Formal introduction to the cast,
namely Matt Murdock (Daredevil), Foggy Nelson, and Karen Page.
This premiere episode sets the tone
for the series, but I really wasn’t sold on Karen Page’s actress at first. Her
debut here was weak at best, but she managed to come into her own with the
character as the series played out. Fortunately, Matt and Foggy’s relationship
clicked right off the bat and that alone sold most of this episode for me in
terms of entertainment. In terms of the vigilante, it seems that Matt Murdock
hasn’t put much time nor thought into his crime fighting endeavors as he’s
shown on this debut episode, wearing merely a bandana to mask his identity,
T-shirt, gloves, and pants to take crime into his own hands.
Episode 2: "Cut Man"
Introduces Claire Temple/Night Nurse
as doctor for the careless antics of Matt Murdock, occasional love interest
this season
The end of episode sports one of the
best fight sequences in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. It was filmed in
all one-shot without any cuts nor edits outside of switches between actors and
stuntmen off screen.
The MCU gets kudos for introducing a
relatively VERY unknown character such as the Night Nurse into this continuity.
This episode serves to display Matt Murdock’s physical and mental limitations.
He’s only human but we get a better understanding of the scope of his powers
and his current limitations on how he is tackling crime fighting. Of course, we’re
given that Batman-esque lesson sense of right and wrong here and whether or not
that Matt Murdock is willing to go as far as his enemies to bring justice. Matt
isn’t willing to kill, but he has some extremes to his methods in his work –
hinting at he possibly enjoys tormenting these criminals.
Episode 3: "Rabbit in a
Snowstorm"
Karen Page drags Ben Urich into the
drama to detail the dilemma in the news about United Allied's scandal. This is
the episode where Karen’s actress began to her own at playing this character
and seemed more comfortable at the role. At the same time, she’s not any less
annoying than she already is.
Sue me. I have a hard time relating
to secondary female characters in stories like this when they are established
or introduced as damsels in distress.
Matt/DD (Daredevil) uses client to
reveal that he's working for Fisk, who was behind the scandal.
Episode 4: "In the Blood"
The Russians kidnap and torture
Claire for information on the vigilante.
Meanwhile, Fisk becomes smitten with
Vanessa Marianna. I’m sure people who have grown up watching Spider-Man: The
Animated Series on Fox Kids should remember Vanessa making a minor appearance on
that cartoon during Kingpin’s war with Silvermane. Here, she plays the same
role. Vanessa is clearly established as Fisk’s sole weakness and she represents
a vulnerability in his upcoming power struggle to control the criminal
underworld in Hell’s Kitchen. Vanessa
reminds me of Kiyomi Takada, adding to the parallels to the Death Note anime,
from how she is drawn to Fisk and how she causes him to lose his calm and
collected demeanor and act recklessly, such as when Fisk kills Anatoly after he
is embarrassed in front of her.
Episode 5: "World on Fire"
Fisk covers up Anatoly's death and
blames it on the vigilante to his allies; all part of a ruse to rile up Vladimir
enough to make him careless. Fisk then uses the cops to kill one of the
Russians while Gao's workers destroys his forces in a suicide attack. Vladimir
survives as him and DD are surrounded by the police as this episode comes to a
close.
This episode shows Fisk’s
resourcefulness and keen intellect at play as he moves his pawns across the
chess board throughout this episode flawlessly with precise precision.
Episode 6: "Condemned"
Daredevil uses Claire's help to
stabilize and treat Vladimir as police surround their location.
As the police loom closer, DD and
Fisk speak for the first time via radio - Fisk surprisingly respects what DD is
trying to do for the city. This encounter is very reminiscent of Light (Kira)
and L's first encounter as Fisk outwits his opponent by framing the attack on
other officers on him to the media. Remember L did the same thing to Kira after
openly goading him into an attack in a public setting with an audience.
Vladimir grants DD information on
Fisk's accountant, Leland Owlsley, before granting DD a window to escape -
dying on his own terms instead of by Fisk's.
Episode 7: "Stick"
This episode serves as the official
debut of DD/Matt's mentor and trainer, Stick, portrayed by Scott Glenn (Sucker
Punch, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Legacy).
Stick recruits DD to assist him in
dealing with Black Sky, an alleged weapon developed by Nobu’s men. Stick kills Black
Sky, who is revealed to be a child, while DD is busy with Nobu's men. Later, an
outraged DD defeats Stick in his apartment but leaves DD the iconic stick
weapons.
This was one of my favorite episode
for a lot of reasons. One for the flashbacks and seeing Stick and Matt’s
relationship being established. I’m glad they didn’t go the whole “Karate Kid”
route with Matt’s training with Stick as that would have been clichéd enough. Another
is for the fact that this is an action-heavy episode, whereas the bulk of this
series up to this point has been a lot of dialogue.
As for who was Stick answering to in
the ending moments of this episode, I personally think that Stick was answering
to Master Izo while the Chaste order will be introduced either in Season
Two or in Iron Fist whenever that character confronts the Steel Serpent
that Madame Gao is clearly working for given the emblem she wears. Again - this
is purely speculation there.
Episode 8: "Shadows in the
Glass"
Foggy and Karen plot to take down
Fisk and they introduce Matt to Ben Urich. Matt urges them to beat Fisk by
legal means, knowing the true extent of what Fisk is capable of after
experiencing it first-hand during his ordeal with Vladimir.
Fisk's history is revealed in a
violent flashback where Fisk kills his own father for his abuse to him and his
mother. This is a VERY graphic and violent scene, folks. It’s definitely not
for the faint of heart. From this scene alone, I can see why Marvel Studios
went with showing this series exclusively on Netflix as most cable networks
would have censored the hell out of it.
Fisk’s mother hides the body to
protect her son.
Vanessa urges Fisk to go public and
doing so allows the media sees him as a hero. Once again, we can draw
comparisons to Death Note. This moment is reminiscent of Light's exposure in
Death Note as Kira, as a polar opposite of that event to protect his identity.
The world sees Fisk as hero so he's protected from villain image, whereas in
Death Note, Light exposes his identity to the world as it’s “savior” as Kira
but never shows his face in public.
Episode 9: "Speak the
Devil"
Daredevil finds himself facing
against Nobu in a fight to death, thanks to more of Fisk’s clever manipulation.
DD barely survives the ordeal and Fisk steps in to finish the job. DD barely
escapes and collapses at home in front of Foggy.
This episode serves as a grim
reminder to Matt Murdock, which much like his father, he has mental and
physical limits. It also brings up the question of whether or not will Matt
fall victim of dying in defending his own honor – much like Nobu and his own
father – or will he prevail in this fight defending justice?
Episode 10: "Nelson vs.
Murdock"
Foggy knows Matt's secret as the
vigilante and leaves the firm to think things out on his own terms. About ten
episodes into the series and we’re just now being treated to the origins of
Matt and Foggy’s friendship. While I thought it was a little too early to be
exposing Matt’s secret identity to Foggy, it works for the sake of this series’
narrative, so I won’t complain about that.
Karen tricks Ben Urich into meeting
Fisk's mom to get information on his past. In terms of pacing, this scene seems
so random and out there until we’re treated to the missing piece of the puzzle.
Karen continues to snoop into business that doesn’t involve her. That girl
loves playing with fire, huh? To say that she dragged Ben into this was a bit
much as she could have gathered this information on her own and relayed it back
to him.
Vanessa becomes a victim to damage
Fisk emotionally to throw him off his game. Clearly this is another comparison
to Death Note where Light’s sister was kidnapped or when Kiyomi Takada was
kidnapped by a deranged Mello.
Episode 11: "Path of the
Righteous"
DD orders the engineer who made
Fisk's armor to make a suit of body armor for him. Matt Murdock doesn’t have
the resources to develop a high-tech suit of armor or even afford proper
protection, so it was cool to see the origin story of the “proper” Daredevil
costume told throughout this season.
After Karen and Ben wrap up their
history lesson from Fisk's mother about his past, Wesley confronts Karen to
blackmail her, but in her despair, she kills Wesley and flees the scene. Wesley’s
recklessness abandon to act on his own to serve his “boss” (Fisk) is a direct
parallel to Teru Mikami in Death Note, whose own reckless behavior caused Light
to be caught at the end of Death Note’s 24 episode run. Ironic that Fisk and
Light’s paths mirror each other yet again here.
Episode 12: "The Ones We Leave
Behind"
Fisk kills Ben Urich while Karen
began to drink heavily to cope with killing Wesley.
The death of Ben Urich shocked me
for two reasons: 1) the only token black guy on this show other than Turk
Barrett got killed off 2) Urich could have had some crossover appeal to the
next few Netflix shows set in Hell’s Kitchen and for the MCU as a whole as they
never did dwell on the media aspect (look at the background of Urich’s office
and read the names of the articles plastered on his wall) of these heroes’
reception in this world until now. I’m surprised they went this route for the
character as he could have had some strong lasting appeal. In the end, he did
help motivate the trio towards coming back together as a single unit and adding
more to Fisk’s villainous resume.
Karen’s drinking is shades of her
drug-addiction habits from the comics. I don’t see her revealing Wesley’s death
to Matt and Foggy anytime soon as that guilt will cause her to regret to drugs
to cope in the follow-up seasons.
DD ended Gao's drug smuggling
operation but she left the city. I personally doubt that we’ve seen the end of
Madame Gao. Like I mentioned in “Stick”, I think we’ll see her again in the
Iron Fist TV series next as part of the Steel Serpent clan.
Episode 13: "Daredevil"
Owlsley and Gao reveal that they
were against Fisk all along, much like Thanos' own children (Nebula and Gamora)
in Guardians of the Galaxy. They wanted to use Fisk’s own weakness against him.
One could say this is similar to Near and Mello coming together against
Kira/Light towards the finale of Death Note, but that’s a bit of a stretch. In
the end, Owlsley was killed by an angered Fisk. (Shrugs) Whatever. He was like
a D-tier Marvel villain anyway. I wasn’t really looking forward to him coming back
in any shape or form as no version of that character was never interesting to
me anyway. Owlsley served his purpose here.
Fisk was arrested after Hoffman's
testimony but escapes, foreshadowing his future as the Kingpin with so many allies
on his side to help him in his time of need. DD confronts Fisk in his new
costume and avenges (see what I did there?) Ben's death. Vanessa leaves the
city per Fisk's orders (a la Kiyomi following Light’s specific orders in Death
Note during her kidnapping).
The episode ends with the gang
coming back together but Karen still doesn't tell Matt and Foggy that she killed
Wesley and was indirectly responsible for Ben Urich’s demise.
After Fisk’s arrest, the media officially
names the vigilante “Daredevil” as the episode closes.
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