Daredevil S2 - Review of Sorts
Aug. 29th, 2016 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWell, I liked it better than the critics did, but then I wasn't enamored of Wilson Fisk like a lot of the white male critics were...which, hmmm, disturbing that but let's not dwell there. Was discussing Daredevil with a female co-worker today, who like myself, is a little bit in love with Charlie Cox's rendition of The Daredevil/Matt Murdoch. We adore him. Actually I adore all the lead characters in the series.
Was a bit annoyed by the ending -- it was a cliff-hanger of sorts. And I'm not sure they are going to wrap up some of those loose ends. I spent the entire season waiting for Karen to find out what Matt was doing, he finally decides to tell her - and we fade to black? Really? And the next season isn't going to happen until 2018? By that time, I will have forgotten all about it and probably won't care. Also The Defender's is supposed to happen in between - how are they going to wrap up that loose end in an ensemble series?
I hate it when television shows, books, and movies do that -- end on emotional cliff-hangers, with no guarantee of wrapping it up. Whedon was notorious for doing it with his television shows and films, to the point in which I was ready to strangle the man. He left the Buffy/Spike relationship on a cliff in S7 Buffy, and S5 Angel and NEVER resolved it. It got resolved off page by Bryan Lynch in the Spike series, which worked better for me than whatever they were writing in the Buffy comics.
Neither was remotely satisfying or worked for me. I don't know what I wanted exactly, but it wasn't what I got. I ended up reading a lot of post S7 fanfic looking for it, and still didn't get it.
Shouldn't have been surprised, he did the same thing in regards to various emotional relationship plot threads hanging over from S6 Buffy. I know, it's an old rant and an old pet peeve and for the most part, I'm over it now. But it is also the reason I find it difficult to rewatch Buffy --- because it ended in an emotionally unsatisfying way, with lots of loose ends...as if there's more story there but the writer couldn't figure out how to communicate it? I don't know how to explain it. If it didn't bug you? Consider yourself lucky. If it did bug you? Right there with you. But it is why I probably won't rewatch the series again and lost interest in it finally.
That said, I give Daredevil a lot of credit -- it was a tough balancing act. And I don't think they pulled a Whedon. The writers are a bit tighter in their plotting than Whedon, in part because it is only 13 episodes and Netflix is giving them free reign. While the season does sort of end on a cliff-hanger, there's enough information provided on the characters that you sort of know how they'll react and where we're going next. They've laid the groundwork for the development of team - The Defenders, starring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, with the Punisher on the fringes (the Defender's version of The Hulk and Wolverine, although in the comics, Wolverine occasionally gets involved with the Defenders.).
Foggy and Murdoch disband, and Foggy joins the law firm that employs Jessica Jones as a PI, and defends vigilantes. Carrie Ann Moss's firm. Where Marcy, Foggy's girlfriend is also an attorney.
Karen has joined the newspaper as a reporter. Matt is more or less on his own. But, he's learned he can't do it alone any longer that he needs help...and Foggy has more than once stated this, as has nurse Clair, who is involved with both Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Frank Castle, The Punisher, even helps him out in the end, just as the Daredevil helped Castle out. The Punisher is sort of an extreme version of the vigilante.
So, they did a good job of laying the groundwork for future episodes. Wilson Fiske has taken over the prison and is running things from inside its walls. He's not down for the count. And the Hand has managed to take off with Electra, who is being resurrected. (I've always adored Electra and rather like her backstory and relationship with Murdoch. She's well cast in this.)
And the plot for this season tracked - and emphasized the thematic arcs of a) what it means to be a hero, and b) you can't do it alone, you do need help. Both Castle and Murdoch attempt to go it alone, and it doesn't work, in the end they need help. And when they get it, they succeed. Same with the other characters. Also, there's a difference between vigilantism and heroism, but it's a thin line and there's a lot of gray.
We have Electra on one side who is gray, and lives in a world of gray, constantly balancing between light and dark as if she's walking a high wire act. And Castle aka the Punisher on the other side who sees the world in blacks and whites, very military, very male, and pushes a bullet through everything. He is either black or white. There's no in between. You either cross the line or you don't. Both debate heroism with Daredevil and through Daredevil, the audience.
Unlike most superhero series, this one haunts long after the final reel. And I have to admit, once I started it, I couldn't stop. It grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go. Each reel felt like a moving painting or page from a well-painted graphic novel. The mise-en-scene was well crafted.
And the use of Castle and Electra as Daredevil's shadows, with Stick somewhere between the two.
Matt Murdoch struggles with what justice is, and how to obtain it. Failed by the legal system that he believes in, he falls in with Electra and even offers to leave with her. Makes a deal to go away, to leave all he knows behind. That she makes him feel most alive. And she, in turn, tells him that he doesn't even know himself, that he lets no one in. He states that he lets her in. She knows him.
But she dies...and he realizes that his few scant moments with her, were the best, the most real, and decides to let Karen in, let her know who he is. That he can't do it alone. He needs Karen, he needs Stick, just as he needed Electra.
Like most noir, it's tragic, but hope sits in the distance, a hazy light...that may or may not be masquerading as a passing train.
Was a bit annoyed by the ending -- it was a cliff-hanger of sorts. And I'm not sure they are going to wrap up some of those loose ends. I spent the entire season waiting for Karen to find out what Matt was doing, he finally decides to tell her - and we fade to black? Really? And the next season isn't going to happen until 2018? By that time, I will have forgotten all about it and probably won't care. Also The Defender's is supposed to happen in between - how are they going to wrap up that loose end in an ensemble series?
I hate it when television shows, books, and movies do that -- end on emotional cliff-hangers, with no guarantee of wrapping it up. Whedon was notorious for doing it with his television shows and films, to the point in which I was ready to strangle the man. He left the Buffy/Spike relationship on a cliff in S7 Buffy, and S5 Angel and NEVER resolved it. It got resolved off page by Bryan Lynch in the Spike series, which worked better for me than whatever they were writing in the Buffy comics.
Neither was remotely satisfying or worked for me. I don't know what I wanted exactly, but it wasn't what I got. I ended up reading a lot of post S7 fanfic looking for it, and still didn't get it.
Shouldn't have been surprised, he did the same thing in regards to various emotional relationship plot threads hanging over from S6 Buffy. I know, it's an old rant and an old pet peeve and for the most part, I'm over it now. But it is also the reason I find it difficult to rewatch Buffy --- because it ended in an emotionally unsatisfying way, with lots of loose ends...as if there's more story there but the writer couldn't figure out how to communicate it? I don't know how to explain it. If it didn't bug you? Consider yourself lucky. If it did bug you? Right there with you. But it is why I probably won't rewatch the series again and lost interest in it finally.
That said, I give Daredevil a lot of credit -- it was a tough balancing act. And I don't think they pulled a Whedon. The writers are a bit tighter in their plotting than Whedon, in part because it is only 13 episodes and Netflix is giving them free reign. While the season does sort of end on a cliff-hanger, there's enough information provided on the characters that you sort of know how they'll react and where we're going next. They've laid the groundwork for the development of team - The Defenders, starring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, with the Punisher on the fringes (the Defender's version of The Hulk and Wolverine, although in the comics, Wolverine occasionally gets involved with the Defenders.).
Foggy and Murdoch disband, and Foggy joins the law firm that employs Jessica Jones as a PI, and defends vigilantes. Carrie Ann Moss's firm. Where Marcy, Foggy's girlfriend is also an attorney.
Karen has joined the newspaper as a reporter. Matt is more or less on his own. But, he's learned he can't do it alone any longer that he needs help...and Foggy has more than once stated this, as has nurse Clair, who is involved with both Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Frank Castle, The Punisher, even helps him out in the end, just as the Daredevil helped Castle out. The Punisher is sort of an extreme version of the vigilante.
So, they did a good job of laying the groundwork for future episodes. Wilson Fiske has taken over the prison and is running things from inside its walls. He's not down for the count. And the Hand has managed to take off with Electra, who is being resurrected. (I've always adored Electra and rather like her backstory and relationship with Murdoch. She's well cast in this.)
And the plot for this season tracked - and emphasized the thematic arcs of a) what it means to be a hero, and b) you can't do it alone, you do need help. Both Castle and Murdoch attempt to go it alone, and it doesn't work, in the end they need help. And when they get it, they succeed. Same with the other characters. Also, there's a difference between vigilantism and heroism, but it's a thin line and there's a lot of gray.
We have Electra on one side who is gray, and lives in a world of gray, constantly balancing between light and dark as if she's walking a high wire act. And Castle aka the Punisher on the other side who sees the world in blacks and whites, very military, very male, and pushes a bullet through everything. He is either black or white. There's no in between. You either cross the line or you don't. Both debate heroism with Daredevil and through Daredevil, the audience.
Unlike most superhero series, this one haunts long after the final reel. And I have to admit, once I started it, I couldn't stop. It grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go. Each reel felt like a moving painting or page from a well-painted graphic novel. The mise-en-scene was well crafted.
And the use of Castle and Electra as Daredevil's shadows, with Stick somewhere between the two.
Matt Murdoch struggles with what justice is, and how to obtain it. Failed by the legal system that he believes in, he falls in with Electra and even offers to leave with her. Makes a deal to go away, to leave all he knows behind. That she makes him feel most alive. And she, in turn, tells him that he doesn't even know himself, that he lets no one in. He states that he lets her in. She knows him.
But she dies...and he realizes that his few scant moments with her, were the best, the most real, and decides to let Karen in, let her know who he is. That he can't do it alone. He needs Karen, he needs Stick, just as he needed Electra.
Like most noir, it's tragic, but hope sits in the distance, a hazy light...that may or may not be masquerading as a passing train.