DAREDEVIL Resurrected

Article first published as TV Review: DAREDEVIL Season 3 on Seat42F.

DAREDEVIL has returned to Netflix for a third season. The Marvel show jumped the gun by announcing round three before the character of Daredevil seemingly met his untimely end in The Defenders miniseries, thus nipping in the bud any wondering if he may have survived. So of course, Matt Murdock, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, did make it through his near-death experience and begins to heal, even as his friends mourn his ‘passing.’

Season three takes its time getting the main cast back together, which is keeping in line with pacing from previous seasons. Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen’s (Deborah Ann Woll) main story thus far is basically just grieving. Karen doesn’t believe Matt is gone, while Foggy is sympathetic, but doesn’t buy into her belief. Instead, he is just a good friend, supporting a pal who is working through her emotions before she can accept the truth.

Little do they know, Matt (Charlie Cox) has been brought to church, his sanctuary. Viewers are introduced to Sister Maggie Grace (Joanne Whalley, The Borgias), a nun who cared for Matt after his father’s death, and now helps him get back on his feet again. Matt is a bit slow to return to fighting form, wallowing in pity for awhile. Maggie is a force to reckon with, helpful without coddling, and it’s easy to see how she helped shape the type of person Matt has become, and can guide him now.

I do wonder how Maggie will play into Matt’s further development. She is listed as a lead for season three, so it’s likely she’s not going away, even though Matt is about ready to leave his resting place behind by the end of the first hour. I can’t imagine she’s a villain; she probably isn’t even as complex as Stick or Elekta, others from Matt’s past who have shown up to complicate things. It’s nice to have another good guy around.

Other new characters for season three include Ray Nadeem (Jay Ali, The Fosters) and Benjamin Poindexter (Wilson Bethel, Hart of Dixie). Ray is introduced in a way that clearly brings him into the Kingpin’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) orbit. The Kingpin is still in jail as the latest DAREDEVIL story gets underway, but that seems poised to change soon, bringing the major villain from season one back to the forefront. Poindexter, known better to comic fans as Bullseye, is also someone (at least on paper) frequently seen with the Kingpin, though he is MIA in “Resurrection,” the season premiere. Again, it is not unusual for DAREDEVIL to take its time getting the plot going, so this is no surprise.

While the first seasons of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage were more enticing, in my opinion, than the freshman outing of DAREDEVIL, season three already feels comfortable and familiar in a very pleasing way. Having only viewed the initial hour thus far, I’m not completely sure where this season is going. But while Sister Maggie hints at the past, there are other signs that this year will move things forward more than the last two, a satisfying development for the players.

As other Marvel series have dropped out of the Netflix lineup recently, DAREDEVIL seems poised to survive, much the way its titular hero has. It was first, and it could very well be the last one left standing. I don’t think the Netflix Marvel shows have run out of steam yet, and this first episode back seems to confirm this one has life still in it. Hopefully it puts it to good use, as early signs seem to indicate will be the case.

DAREDEVIL season three is available now exclusively to Netflix subscribers.

Not Your Grandma's EMERALD CITY

Article first published as EMERALD CITY Review on Seat42F.

I’m a big fan of The Wizard of Oz. Not just the MGM movie, though that is great, but the world of Oz in general. As a child, I devoured all fourteen of L. Frank Baum’s books over and over again. And while no faithful adaptation has yet been made (at least not that I’m aware of), a fact that is very disappointing to me, I have enjoyed some of the more interesting modern versions, such as SyFy’s Tin Man and the Broadway musical Wicked, as well as Gregory Maguire’s series of Wicked books. So it was with great anticipation that I sat down to sample NBC’s new drama, EMERALD CITY.

What EMERALD CITY does right is use more of the Oz mythology than most works. The Judy Garland film is actually quite a bit departed from the written work, but even then, only makes use of the first in the series. There are a rich tapestry of characters and corners of the land that are not explored in that initial offering, and while Disney’s horrible movie Return to Oz combined books two and three (since the second is the only one Dorothy isn’t in), most projects that tackle Oz ignore the other thirteen volumes. I feel this is a mistake that EMERALD CITY at least partially corrects.

Dorothy (Adria Arjona, True Detective) is the star, which is likely the right move, given that she is the character most people are familiar with. But the other central player in the books, which the second one centered around, is Tip (Jordan Loughran, Evermoor). Those who have read them will assume where EMERALD CITY is going with the boy, long held prisoner by a lesser witch, and who is extremely important to the land as a whole. I feel like this television series will likely pay that off based on what I’ve seen so far, though I’m not convinced Tip’s importance will be as high as it is on the page.

Other main players include familiar characters like The Wizard (Vincent D’Onofrio, Daredevil, Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Glinda (Joely Richardson, Nip/Tuck, the Patriot), West (Ana Ularu, Inferno), as in The Wicked Witch of the, Tip’s pal, Jack (Gerran Howell, Young Dracula), and Lucas (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, NBC’s Dracula).

Now, while Lucas is lacking straw, he’s clearly some version of The Scarecrow, and Jack has got to be Jack Pumpkinhead, though he appears to be perfectly human. This is something EMERALDN CITY does wrong, in my opinion. Although magic is part of this Oz, there are no magical creatures, which is essential element of any Oz tale. It doesn’t quite feel right if everyone is human, as is the case here, and that certainly takes away from the overall mythology.

Besides the witches, there are supernatural elements, including prophecy and giants, but these start to build a world that isn’t Oz. These are something else. Which makes me wonder if perhaps the show shouldn’t have ditched the Oz tie-ins completely and just done something completely different. It feels like sometimes too much effort is made to use a familiar property when originality would be the better way to go. Renaming the realm, the witches, and the protagonist could depart it enough to give EMERALD CITY more freedom without needing to give up the things they kept in common.

It also seems that EMERALD CITY may ditch the inaccessibility of Oz, including the nearby land of Ev, another element from the books, in the show as well, but presumably making it easier to come and go from Oz, with no sign of the deadly desert completely surrounding it. Like using the name Ojo (Olafur Darri Olafsson, The Missing) but failing to make this Ojo anything like the one Baum wrote, some of the choices seem like they were made purely to name drop something without actually using the source material. This seems odd.

None of this matters as much as the overall feel of the show, though, which is that of a lower quality program (except for the special effects). The action isn’t gripping, and none of the performances engage the viewer as much as one would wish. Despite having a couple of decently-known performers, EMERALD CITY feels more like it belongs on SyFy than network television, not quite at the level of a mainstream program. Parts of it are boring or confusing, and I am not sold on the core plot thread. The witches don’t feel powerful, I don’t buy Oz himself being in charge for this much time, and tying Dorothy’s past into the land is unnecessary and weird.

Also, where are the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion? I mean, come on! And Toto is a German Shepherd? Seriously? OK, now I’m just being breed-ist, but that one does hurt a bit, more than any other casting decision.

I don’t hate EMERALD CITY as much as many critics do; I actually continued right to the third hour after the double-length pilot. But there is nothing in those initial installments that makes me think I’ll rank it up there with the films and novels listed in the opening paragraph. I wonder how much of my continued viewing will be based in my high regard for the central property, rather than the merits of the series itself, which seem a bit lacking, though there are some intriguing bits throughout.

EMERALD CITY premieres this Friday at 9/8c on NBC.

DAREDEVIL Repeats Impressive Feat

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.

DAREDEVIL Darker, Gritter Direction for Marvel

Article first written for Seat42F.

Each of Marvel’s films has been quite different from the others since the comic book formed its own movie studio. Look at Iron Man, Iron Man 3, Thor, and the two Captain Americas and you will find very different pictures in terms of tone, story structure, and purpose. What I’m getting at is that, as Marvel expands to the small screen, don’t expect their newest efforts to match those of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Agent Carter, which aren’t all that much alike, either.

The first entry in Marvel’s latest television project is DAREDEVIL, which posted its entire first season on Netflix yesterday. DAREDEVIL is far darker than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., opening with a boy (Skylar Gaertner, I Smile Back) being blinded by acid, then transitioning to a Catholic, guilt-ridden man (Charlie Cox, Boardwalk Empire) who wants to save his neighborhood, but unhappy about the methods he must use to do so. Both characters are Matt Murdoch, a.k.a. Daredevil.

Matt is a blind lawyer with extremely heightened sense who dresses all in black at night to beat up bad guys using his martial arts skills. As DAREDEVIL begins, Matt is just beginning this quest, though we don’t know why he has chosen now to do so, in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York destroyed during the battle in The Avengers film, simply referred to as “the incident” in this series. A crime lord named Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) has staked a claim over the area, and Matt is going to make sure he doesn’t keep it.

The methods Matt goes by are vicious, and the violence in DAREDEVIL is pretty brutal. An exec’s earlier assertion that show would be PG-13-equivalent is not at all accurate, with some R-level stuff present in the first hour alone. There is blood, sure, but also just some gritty, gruesome stuff that would not be allowed on the alphabet network, so it’s good Netflix is carrying this arm of the company. The show does stop short of nudity, thus far anyway, and there isn’t a lot of bad language, but the program is definitely not for kids.

Kids may be bored by it, anyway. Between fight scenes, the story plays out fairly slowly. Daredevil’s origins are not revealed in the pilot to any real extent, nor is Kingpin visible, working through his minions, including Leland Owlsley (Bob Gunton, Royal Pains, 24, The Shawshank Redemption) instead. The writers are not in a hurry to tell viewers everything, preferring to let the tale play out over thirteen episodes, not one.

This running time, about double what two trilogies of films would give the character, allow for a more complex approach. Many of the movie Marvel heroes get two or four hours to be introduced before being thrust together in The Avengers, and have to go through much of their growth arcs off-screen, between movies. Daredevil and his peers (three more superheroes are getting their own seasons on Netflix) are allowed at least thirteen before The Defenders series brings them together, which is quite welcome given the complexity of the protagonist, and allows for more depth in the character.

Matt is a complicated individual. More so than others in his field (I’m talking both lawyers and vigilantes), he has qualms about what he does. He’s a man of faith who thinks he is betraying his principals, but doesn’t see any other way to save people, which he feels an irresistible calling to do. He’s a tortured soul, and this adaptation does a top-notch job of illustrating that.

Which is not to say there are not lighter moments in DAREDEVIL. A Hallmark of the Iron Man and Avengers pictures, among others, is the humor, sometimes expressed in odd moments. For that purpose, this series gives us Matt’s partner at the firm, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson, The Mighty Ducks, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay), a larger-than-life individual who frets and schmoozes in equal measure. There’s also a possible love interest for one or the other lawyer, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll, True Blood), who (SPOILER ALERT) is involved in their first awful case, but who sticks around to help them out, and will probably be a brighter light after the pilot.

In short, DAREDEVIL really does have it all. It gets to take its time telling a complex, engaging story of a hero unlike those we’re used to in the Marvel franchise. I’m really looking forward to binge watching the entire season.

DAREDEVIL season one is available on Netflix streaming now.