Article first published as DAREDEVIL Review Season 2 on Seat42F.
MARVEL’S DAREDEVIL began its second season on Netflix
yesterday, with all thirteen episodes of the sophomore run made
available at once. Picking up a bit after the initial offering left off,
season two finds Hell’s Kitchen in shambles as every gang in the area
seeks to fill the power vacuum left by Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio).
Did our hero just make more work for himself, and is there hope the city
could ever be truly cleaned up?
Knowing of Marvel’s plan to introduce
four separate superhero shows before teaming them up, it’s clear that
there are a lot of villains out there that need to be taken down. Fisk
may have been the most powerful for a brief time, but he hadn’t always
been that way, and he’s far from the only one with the resources and
ambition to rule the drug trade, among other illicit activities, in New
York. So there is little worry DAREDEVIL will run out of plot any time
soon.
Still, I don’t think I expected quite so
much mess at the onset of this year’s story. We don’t get a full lay of
the land, with the plot sensibly focused on what Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil
(Charlie Cox), knows, but we see an Irish mob, a biker gang, a gun
seller, and hear of others. These are all much smaller players than
Fisk, but they still pose a threat to the city.
However, SPOILER ALERT, the biggest
threat seems to come from Frank Castle, The Punisher (Jon Bernthal, The
Walking Dead, The Wolf of Wall Street). Frank is only glimpsed in the
premiere, but the consequences of his actions are bloody and scary. He
mows down the Irish easily and without pity, tracking down the lone
survivor, too.
Could Frank be a good guy? Well, yes,
sort of. Fans of the comic book know his mission is to punish those who
deserve it, and his victims have largely been criminals. But when Daredevil gets in his way, saving the Irish guy, Frank not only beats the crap out of Daredevil,
he shoots him point blank when the struggle goes against him. This
shows that Frank thinks he is above the law and not too concerned about
collateral damage, at least for those who make themselves an obstacle.
I will say there’s evidence Frank holds
back, which makes him a little more sympathetic than he might otherwise
be. He simply disarms a hospital security guard instead of murdering
him, and he tries to walk away from a beat-down Daredevil, only pulling
the gun when Daredevil follows him and reengages, gaining the upper
hand.
So, in short, MARVEL’S DAREDEVIL is not
lacking for action and violence in the first hour of its return, and
this year promises to be just as bloody as the last.
But MARVEL’S DAREDEVIL isn’t all gritty
fight scenes; it’s also love and humor, and that remains, too. From Matt
and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) flirting while playing pool, to Nelson
& Murdock prioritizing those that need them most over a paycheck
(which also may be desperately needed), to Foggy’s (Elden Henson)
ill-advised sojourn into the biker bar, the slightly lighter elements
are present, and that keeps the spirit of the show intact, even as the
fighting element gets even darker.
The premiere sets up a full season, and
reassures viewers that nothing more has changed than the style of Matt’s
vigilante outfit, which needed some updates anyway. I look forward to
seeing what they have in store.
I’d also like to thank Netflix
for the extended season recap playing at the start of a new run.
There’s a skip option for those who just finished binging the previous
season, but for those that have not, it is most helpful to spend a few
minutes being reminded of the highlights of what happened before. It
would be hard to do such a thing on a traditional network, but I hope
more streaming services and cable companies not reined in by advertising
times follow suit and give us the kind of overarching, broad recaps
that Netflix is doing.
MARVEL’S DAREDEVIL complete second season is available now exclusively on Netflix.
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