Marvel's Daredevil Review: Beautiful, Brutal, Brilliant

Marvel's Daredevil review: a street-level hero in a world of gods

Comic books make it easy to forget how brutal life is for the heroes who live on the ground. Up to the arrival of Daredevil, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been crowded with superpowers, Iron Man armor and villains who wanted to conquer or destroy worlds. That created a reasonable doubt about the Netflix series. How menacing could Wilson Fisk be next to Ronan or Loki? What makes Matthew Murdock, a lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen, special?

Five episodes in, those questions answer themselves. Marvel’s Daredevil, which Netflix released on April 10, 2015, with thirteen episodes in its first season, sets itself apart from the other comic-book shows on television by shrinking the scale and raising the pain. Netflix supplied the first five episodes, titled “Into the Ring,” “Cut Man,” “Rabbit in a Snowstorm,” “In the Blood” and “World on Fire,” for this Marvel’s Daredevil review.

The show is set in Hell’s Kitchen, a New York neighborhood still rebuilding after the alien attack shown in The Avengers. Reconstruction money has attracted backroom deals and corporate greed, and the area has become a nest of crime. The series treats the invasion as a fact of life that the powerful exploit, not as a spectacle to be repeated.

Murdock’s two lives also keep the story from settling into a formula. A lawyer who spends his days arguing for clients and his nights breaking the law has a built-in conflict, and the show lets it simmer. Foggy sees the daytime Matt, the bar-exam graduate with a plan for a firm, while the viewers see the rest. The gap between the two is where much of the tension lives.

Drew Goddard developed the series and wrote its first two episodes, and Steven S. DeKnight took over as showrunner after Goddard stepped away to focus on a Sinister Six film. The result is a series with a clear point of view from its opening scenes.

Matt Murdock, the lawyer who does not hold back

Matthew Murdock, played by Charlie Cox, was blinded by a chemical spill as a child and has since sharpened his other senses. He can home in on sound and feel shifts in the air around him. By day he is a lawyer. At night he puts on a black mask and goes after the people the legal system cannot reach, and the justice he delivers is the most ruthless in the Marvel universe to that point.

Fresh off passing the bar exam, Murdock opens a law office in Hell’s Kitchen with Foggy Nelson, played by Elden Henson. Their first client is Karen Page, played by Deborah Ann Woll, who has been framed for the murder of a co-worker. Do not expect a case of the week. Every job the firm takes feeds the main story in some way, so the courtroom and the street are one narrative, not two.

Fans waiting for the hero’s red “vision” during fights may be a little let down. Only one glimpse of it appears in the fifth episode. The show leans on sound design and choreography instead, and it is better for it.

Violence that costs something

The action is beautifully built, and it brings the comics’ brutality to the screen. Whenever a gun appears, it is a reminder of Murdock’s mortality. Vigilantism carries a real risk of physical harm, and the show does not look away from it. Broken bones and savage beatings, given and received, make for flinch-worthy viewing.

Be warned that Daredevil is very violent and at times gory. The series has almost no cursing and no nudity beyond a brief moment, but it depicts stabbings, torture and decapitations. Parents should think twice before watching with younger children.

The cast and the villains

The acting is strong across the board. Cox plays Murdock as both heroic and sadistic, and his scenes with Rosario Dawson, who plays Claire Temple and patches him up after his nights out, are a treat. Henson and Woll supply the levity when the show gets heavy. Vondie Curtis-Hall suits the role of reporter Ben Urich, and John Patrick Hayden gives a performance as Jack Murdock that is likely to leave a few viewers in tears.

The villains steal the show. Toby Leonard Moore’s Wesley, Fisk’s right-hand man, handles business in a cool, collected manner, and Moore shows exactly why a man like Fisk would trust him. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, better known as Kingpin, is extraordinary. By the end of the fourth episode, D’Onofrio has made himself the only man for the role. He is vulnerable with his love interest Vanessa, played by Ayelet Zurer, and ruthless when business calls. That combination makes Fisk one of the most compelling villains the Marvel universe has offered.

What the first five episodes cover

• Episodes screened: “Into the Ring,” “Cut Man,” “Rabbit in a Snowstorm,” “In the Blood” and “World on Fire.”
• Law office: Nelson & Murdock opens in Hell’s Kitchen, and Karen Page becomes the firm’s first client.
• Episode four: Vincent D’Onofrio’s Fisk cements the performance as the only fit for the role.
• Episode five: the one glimpse of Murdock’s red “vision” appears.

Marvel's Daredevil review: the verdict on the first five episodes

Daredevil earns its praise. Visually the series is beautiful, the writing is smart and sharp, and the cliffhangers work. Anyone who comes for the fights will find some of the best-choreographed action the Marvel screen universe had delivered by then, and some of the fiercest.

The deeper achievement is the human element. Marvel’s Daredevil proves that a hero does not need superpowers to be compelling, only stakes that feel real. A man who can be badly hurt, who loses fights, and who relies on friends for stitches is a hero whose victories are worth watching.

The reservations are few. The violence will be too much for some viewers, and the gore is not decoration. The pace at which the story builds Fisk's world can feel patient, and viewers who want a fight every ten minutes may notice it. The patience pays off in the scenes where the villain finally appears on screen.

Compared with the films, the series gives its villain room that a two-hour movie rarely can. Fisk is introduced as a businessman with a private life, a love interest and a temper, and the show spends time on all three. Wesley sits beside him as the calm voice of the operation. By the time the fifth episode arrives, the question is no longer whether Murdock can beat these men in a fight, but whether he can hold on to the life that surrounds the mask.

Verdict: yes, watch it. For fans of the Marvel movies it is the grown-up companion to the big team-ups, and for viewers who have never cared about superheroes, it works as a crime drama that happens to have a masked lawyer in it. The detail worth remembering is how little the hero’s powers are shown. He hears, he feels the air move, and he still gets hit.

Sources

• Daredevil (TV series), Wikipedia — cast, season 1 episode list and release date