I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I’ve been on board since the first trailer dropped for Iron Man way back in 2007. I’ve seen all ten MCU movies at least twice theatrically as they’ve been released. I slogged through the early episodes of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” and was there when it got good. That’s where I’m coming from as we head into Netflix’s first team up with the House of Ideas, “Daredevil“.
I’m going to confine my coverage to dealing with the show directly. Following the MCU has taught me not to be too precious about the comic book source material. That philosophy does carry the benefit of allowing non-die hard fans easy entry into characters they wouldn’t know of or care about otherwise, always a good thing. Who knows, it might even encourage someone to pick up a comic for the first time, always a great thing.
“Daredevil” is an interesting case. Many will recall the botched Ben Affleck version from 2003 and disregard the character. Hopefully the goodwill generated by Kevin Feige and the MCU team will get people to come back to one of the best “street-level” heroes Marvel has to offer.
The series begins with our hero’s origin. The television format, especially the Netflix model where all of the episodes are planned out and completed in advance, allows the origin of Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) to only take up the first minute of the first episode. Young Matt pushes an old man out of the way of an oncoming car but causes a chain reaction car accident that ends with him getting radioactive waste in his eyes.
The entire season will most likely be an origin of the Daredevil persona, but we don’t need to dwell on how Matt lost his vision to jump right into the action. And it isn’t long into the episode until we are treated to our first action scene. Matt, in an intimidating, eyeless black mask, busts up an attempt by the bad guys to kidnap several women for human trafficking purposes. The sound design of the first fight is slightly exaggerated, a bit louder and more pronounced than it would normally be in a different action show. We quickly get an answer to the question of “how does a blind guy fight?” By sound.
The first episode is efficient in setting up the main character, the action, and the world. Matt and his law partner, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), are in the market for an office to start their practice. On a tour of a space in Hell’s Kitchen, there are references to the Battle of New York from The Avengers, an event still rippling through the MCU. Once Matt agrees to rent the office, all of the pieces are in place. Now if they just had a client.
Again, that doesn’t take long. Karen Page (Deborah Ann Wohl) wakes up with a dead body on her living room floor and a knife in her hand. Soon, Matt and Foggy are in an interrogation room with Karen convincing her to let them be her lawyers (despite being in practice for about 7 hours).
Karen, Matt, and Foggy don’t end up on the same page until an attempt is made on Karen’s life while she’s sleeping in a jail cell. A sinister force is responsible for framing Karen in the first place and for sending someone to kill her. It is the same force that permeates the entire premiere. His name is never spoken but even those without knowledge of the comics know this sinister force will be our big-bad for the season, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio).
Therein lies the major weakness of the episode. So far, everything has been set up so clearly and concisely. Tip-toeing around the identity of the villain is an annoying little habit of TV shows trying to stretch out a mystery and entice viewers to return to the show to find out more. Everything about the first episode seems to indicate that Drew Goddard, the series creator, and Steven S. DeKnight, the show runner, have embraced the Netflix philosophy and hopefully going forward, suspense will be created from twists in the plot rather than withholding major information from the viewer.
Overall, I’m excited to explore this corner of the MCU and based on the stable of former Joss Whedon collaborators at the creative helm, I have confidence that “Daredevil” will have a strong place in the Marvel pantheon.
That’s it for now. I’ll return with a full season recap and a more in-depth review in a week or two. For those that have seen the first episode, what do you think? Are you excited to see less “super” heroics and a grittier take on the MCU? Should Marvel stick to the more well known characters? Let me know!
