Daredevil

Netflix, once again, hits it right on the nose with this fun, adventurous and engrossing story about a blind man beating the crap out of bad guys. It's rich character arcs, awesome practical and special effects, made me binge watch it over the course of a couple days. Daredevil is an awesome show that now has the unique problem of matching it's success with an even better second season. 

Completely forgoing the disaster that was the 2003 Daredevil movie and it's superhero shtick, this series was able to naturally capture the life and story of Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) without any comic book gimmicks or cheesy voice overs about having supernatural powers. It definitely helped that they had 13 hour-long episodes to explore their story, which gave them plenty of time to delve into everyone's side of the story. Within 13 episodes, not only do we get to know our hero and what makes him tick, but we also get to know our antagonist, Wilson Fisk, (Vincent D'Onofrio) really well. The humanity and humility behind the eyes of a madman, and the dark secrets of our hero are all pulled back for us to see. 

Overall, the series takes a pretty natural perspective with their world: there is the good guy who fights for what he believes is right, and then there are the bad guys who stand in his way. What would happen if our hero is a blind man that has to fight everything from a boxer to a ninja? It can easily get lost in translation, get super sloppy, or it could be so well balanced that it never crosses the line of absurdity. They really do come up with some spectacular fight sequences, as well as dramatic sequences, all while maintaining that balance. I know it sounds really weird but it's production value was so high, it felt like I was watching a movie for every episode. Every aspect of this show (costumes, camera, acting, directing, locations) was on point. Most TV shows have those really fake sets that are lit unnaturally and the walls all look paper thin, but with Daredevil everything seems to be grounded in reality. They don't overthink anything but approach every scene with how it would look/sound/feel in the real world and shoot it like that. What a crazy idea! The only disappointment I have is with the costume at the very end. I really loved the Dread Pirate Roberts black mask, and found the final Daredevil costume a bit weak. 

One of my favorite things about this series was that it displayed the differences between people's expectations of limitations, and then the reality of their advantages. Everything in his life gets torn up and tossed around multiple times and after a while most of us would throw in the towel. Most of us would give in, put our head down and just go with the flow. But what this showed reminded me of is that every person has some sort of advantage and disadvantage. While we may know some of our own limitations, it's never a good idea to assume what other people aren't capable of. Even a blind guy can kick some serious ass. 

Overall, this is a fantastic series that I completely devoured as fast as I could. I'm already looking forward to see how they incorporate the Punisher in the second season, and how they continue to flesh out Fisk's character. But before this ends, can I just take a moment and point out that not only is Netflix team a master of storytelling, but they also have incredibly awesome opening title sequences? I first noticed it on the first season of House of Cards with really great time lapse photography, next I noticed it with Bloodline with another unique take of time lapse photography, and then the hilarious Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt theme song that you just can't get out of your head. Daredevil follows in the same suite, with incredible images of locations and characters being slowly covered in what looks like blood. I actually don't fast forward through their opening credits but enjoy watching and listening to the tone they're setting. It totally works and I only hope Netflix continues with it! Even though the quality isn't all the great, this gives you an idea of what the opening titles look like: