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Daredevil TV series on Netflix

 
 
 
Are you joking? Of course Affleck's not in it. That movie was before this Marvel Cinematic Universe thing franchise hit it big.The Fantastic Four movie also isn't going to have Michael Chiklis or Jessica Alba, FYI.
 
I'm pretty excited about this. The trailers show Stick of all people.

While I don't know why Marvel has an obsession with white martial arts masters, Stick is a hilarious deconstruction of the typical presentation of martial arts masters in TV and movies. The guy is a screaming asshole, which should make things interesting.
 
Watched the first episode. Not bad, but didn't really grab me. Very good fight scenes though, and do feel hopeful about the next episodes. And some light bulbs wouldn't hurt.
 
Unbeatable said:
Are you joking? Of course Affleck's not in it. That movie was before this Marvel Cinematic Universe thing franchise hit it big.The Fantastic Four movie also isn't going to have Michael Chiklis or Jessica Alba, FYI.
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Of course I'm joking. Ben Affeck makes a terrible superhero.
 
Bullmoose Too said:
Unbeatable said:
Are you joking? Of course Affleck's not in it. That movie was before this Marvel Cinematic Universe thing franchise hit it big.The Fantastic Four movie also isn't going to have Michael Chiklis or Jessica Alba, FYI.
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Of course I'm joking. Ben Affeck makes a terrible superhero.
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Well, then, you probably are not going to be happy that he is playing Batman in next year's Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.
 
I'm up to the 4th episode. This show keeps exceeding my expectations. Most of these shows based on comic books, and even most of the movies, they come off as if somewhere in the process somebody, be it the writers, directors, cinematographers, choreographers, costume designers, composers, the actors, or all of them, thinks, "Oh, it's based on a comic book? Great, then it's okay if I just half-ass it."

Daredevil OTOH is like a real TV show, a real crime drama that I can actually take seriously, which just happens to star a superpowered vigilante.
 
Just finished binge-watching all 13 episodes. It's amazing.

When the bad Ben Affleck movie came out, Joe Pantoliano's reinterpretation of Ben Urich was one of the few good things about that movie. This TV show makes an even more radical reinterpretation of the character, and it's simply amazing.

One of the other few good things about the movie was the portrayal of Kingpin, which was incredibly faithful to the comics. This version of Kingpin is a radical reinterpretation. He's conflicted, vulnerable, and is genuinely trying to do the right thing in his own twisted way. He is far more vicious and cruel than what I remember from the comics.

Karen Page is amazing, especially for comic book fans, because we can contrast what she does with...

...the knowledge that she ends up strung out on drugs and completely ruined. Seeing her pre-drugs is heart breaking, because she's so vibrant, so alive, and willing to risk everything to help others. Every moment she was on the screen all I could think was "It's gonna be so sad to watch her fall apart."



Foggy was spot on, and the main character openly questions the inherent incongruity of being a lawyer and also a vigilante. Seeing him agonize over his own hypocrisy makes it that much more delicious.

Stick was in only one episode, but oh he was delicious. The perfect subversion of the ideal martial arts teacher, and every bit the asshole he is in the comic books. They even got his humor right.

Elektra was only mentioned in passing, and not even by name. Perhaps that's for the best.

Overall, it plays out like a fairly "regular" TV drama, which helps the whole thing feel more grounded. The fight scenes are dark and heavily cut, which I'm OK with. I'm sure they did it to cover up someone's lack of fighting skill, and that's fine. You expect a blind man to arrange to fight in relative darkness most of the time, and I don't expect Hong Kong-quality martial arts choreography in a TV show. The fight scenes are intense and brutal, which helps underscore the inherent moral hypocrisy of the main character.
 
I think casting Ben Affleck as Batman is a great choice; the real mistake is not casting Matt Damon as Superman.

;)
 
I watched the first episode over the weekend, and it has certainly lived up to the hype so far. I understand it will only get better. I just wish I had the time to binge watch the whole series, but I will have to live with watching one or two episodes a week for the foreseeable future.
 
I watched Episode 1 last night and was pleased. I only know the barest origins of DD, so I came to the show with very little preconceptions. But I have enjoyed other Marvel TV shows like Agent Carter, and I put this show in the same caliber, albeit darker.

Like I said, I'm not familiar with the comic book, but it would seem to me that anyone with such heightened senses would be constantly bombarded in a noisy city. Wouldn't he seek out quiet, odorless venues as a way to recharge his batteries? I never saw the Ben Affleck movie, but presumably they explored this concept but failed in the execution. "Well, this over-loud city has exhausted me, so I'm going to go home and listen to high-quality classical music, but played at 90 decibels to cleanse my senses." Uh, no. That's not how it works, sir.

I would want some kind of explanation why he chooses to risk life and limb as DD. What's he looking for when he puts on the mask and hangs out on rooftops?
 
I've watched the first few and so far I'm quite impressed. The only real problem I have is that the Kingpin is coming across as somewhat underwhelming to me. They built him up in the first few episodes with the whole Voldemort-style "Nobody even dares say his name" thing, but my reaction to him since he appeared has been somewhat "meh". I liked the Russian brothers and his lawyer assistant far better. I don't know if calling him "too generic villiany" quite fits the problem I have with him, but there's something ... missing ... about the character.
 
Good point. There would need to be a compelling reason why so many baddies work for him but don't try to take over.
 
James Brown said:
Like I said, I'm not familiar with the comic book, but it would seem to me that anyone with such heightened senses would be constantly bombarded in a noisy city. Wouldn't he seek out quiet, odorless venues as a way to recharge his batteries? I never saw the Ben Affleck movie, but presumably they explored this concept but failed in the execution.
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In the Affleck movie, he sleeps in a sensory deprivation tank.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
I've watched the first few and so far I'm quite impressed. The only real problem I have is that the Kingpin is coming across as somewhat underwhelming to me. They built him up in the first few episodes with the whole Voldemort-style "Nobody even dares say his name" thing, but my reaction to him since he appeared has been somewhat "meh". I liked the Russian brothers and his lawyer assistant far better. I don't know if calling him "too generic villiany" quite fits the problem I have with him, but there's something ... missing ... about the character.
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The thing that makes this Kingpin interesting is that he comes across as vulnerable/weak. The fact that he is conflicted enough to think he's doing the right thing makes the casual acts of brutality that much more horrifying.

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James Brown said:
Good point. There would need to be a compelling reason why so many baddies work for him but don't try to take over.
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Some of them do. The others are afraid.

 
Underseer said:
The thing that makes this Kingpin interesting is that he comes across as vulnerable/weak. The fact that he is conflicted enough to think he's doing the right thing makes the casual acts of brutality that much more horrifying.
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Ya, I get that this is what he's going for. I just don't think it's being pulled off all that great. He's trying to show that he's maintaining a mask of civility over a violent nature and it just comes across as wooden to me. The conflicted nature and need for justification for his actions seem kind of tacked on like they decided halfway through that his character needed to be fleshed out more and wanted to make him the other side of the coin to Daredevil and more three-dimensional, so they quickly redid a few scenes.

He's not a bad villian, but I just don't feel that they hit what they were aiming for with him.
 
i felt the big problem was that they may have been going for "conflicted/vulnerable/deep villain" but they ended up with "pasty tantrum-throwing fat-boy thinking he's entitled to everything and having a fit when anything remotely doesn't work for him."
i'm not some huge DD comics not, but even i know kingpin is supposed to be a ruthless criminal powerhouse, not the stay puft marshmellow man in a suit having a case of the sads because somebody took away his oreos.

stray observations:
- some pretty brutal fight scenes early on in the series, and pleasantly depicting the toll taken by those fights.
- as the series went on i became increasingly annoyed that they moved away from the above and fell back into movie trope of the 3/4th dead hero magically pepping up like hulk hogan and taking out a warehouse full of bad guys.
- i found it vaguely annoying that they would show a series of messy up-close fight sequences, but then just have a "camera stays outside the door and combat sounds play while the guy who this entire show so far has been a somewhat sloppy and very human fighter suddenly takes out an entire room full of guys with machine guns pointed at him in 7 seconds."
- kingpin was just awful, in basically every way.
- wow, vincent got bloated.
 
prideandfall said:
kingpin was just awful, in basically every way.
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I disagree. When he was playing Generic-Evil-Crime-Boss Man, he was quite good. If they'd kept him that way instead of throwing in a few scenes where he's conflicted and tries to justify his actions as him being some kind of good guy who's forced to do bad things or whatever they were doing with the character, he'd have been excellent. It's the fleshing out of his motivations which seemed to be tacked on after the fact to me and the writers kind of half-assed it or he couldn't act the scenes well enough or whatever else, it just weakened and diminished his character as opposed to making him more three-dimensional.
 
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