“Daredevil” starts off with an appropriately mournful sequence showing Ben Urich’s funeral, because Daredevil (ugh, this is confusing already) needs to follow consequences to their extreme. It’s bold, mature storytelling, and the slow-burn approach that showrunner Steven S. DeKnight (who also directed the finale) took could have backfired; instead it succeeded wonderfully. The funeral sequence is a good way to start the episode, because “Daredevil” doesn’t really let up after that.
I remember after Wesley met his end, I was begging the show to keep Leland Owlsley around. Evidently those pleas fell on deaf ears, because if Daredevil has a major recurring theme, it’s don’t overplay your hand and don’t underestimate anyone. Sometimes the fat kid grows up to be the brutally violent head of a criminal syndicate, and sometimes the blind kid runs around in a mask beating the shit out of bad guys. Leland vastly overplays his hand. When Fisk comes to him with questions about some financial irregularities, Leland figures that the jig is up and admits everything to Fisk, including the poisoning. That, uh, was a miscalculation. (I would have blamed it on Gao, personally.) Leland figures he’s safe because of his ace in the hole: Hoffman, who will get delivered to the feds if Leland doesn’t check in. Tough luck, buddy, cause Wilson Fisk is kind of unreasonable when you admit to poisoning his girlfriend.
Can I point out for the millionth time how terrifying Vincent D’Onofrio is when he’s angry? I’m starting to see why Fisk is so soft-spoken; if he weren’t he’d just be roaring all the time. Even Leland’s Taser can’t bring him down, and the accountant finds himself thrown down an elevator shaft. It seems apparent that the entirety of Daredevil‘s freshman season has been about dismantling Fisk’s criminal empire; his only living associate is Gao, and who knows where she is. It’s, again, a bold choice to treat the entire first season of your show as a prologue, but DeKnight clearly knows what he’s doing (and is clearly banking on the all but inevitable second season order).
Daredevil is able to get to Hoffman just in time to keep Fisk’s dirty cops from taking him out. Hoffman confesses to the DA’s office (who apparently Fisk didn’t buy off), and as a result there’s a wave of arrests, nicely set to “Nessun Dorma,” from Puccini’s Turandot. (Sample lyric of the famous aria: “But my secret is hidden within me/My name no one shall know.”) The feds come for Fisk as well, and Daredevil is cruel enough to let us get our hopes up. After a chilling monologue in a SWAT van, wherein Fisk basically stops lying to himself and seems ready to be full-on evil, Fisk escapes. Daredevil tracks him down, and the season’s last brawl begins.
And it’s a hell of a fight. DeKnight keeps his camera out of the way, letting his two leads just hammer the hell out of each other. It’s not as brutal as DD’s fight with Nobu, or the tour de force single shot that ended “Cut Man,” but the emotional undercurrent more than makes up for it. Both men are furious, but Daredevil has the fury of righteousness on his side. Fisk gets his licks in – terrifying – but Daredevil, in his new red suit, emerges the victor. Away Fisk goes with Sgt. Mahoney, the last honest cop in Hell’s Kitchen (actually, after all those arrests, probably the only cop left in Hell’s Kitchen).
It’s interesting to wonder where Daredevil can go from here. With Fisk behind bars – for now, at least – the Man Without Fear has an entire Rogues Gallery to go up against (with the exception of the Owl [RIP Leland]). Personally, I’d love to see a Bullseye appearance. But what’s most satisfying about Daredevil‘s first season is that it took the time to really build and expand its world; to make sure we really cared about characters we only knew for a few hours. It was hugely ambitious storytelling, and remarkably well-executed. I won’t even bother comparing the show to the disastrous 2003 film, because there’s no point. Daredevil on Netflix is a harsh, grim, philosophical, brutal, and altogether amazing creation.
A Few Thoughts
- A few Easter eggs for comic readers: in Melvin’s workshop there’s a schematic of a circular blade, nodding to his weapon of choice as his comic book alter ego the Gladiator. And the “Betsy” he’s so worried about is Betsy Beatty, his love in the comics
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Weirdly happy not to see Ellison indicted with all of Fisk’s conspirators
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Matt and Father Lantom have a great dynamic. (Note: in previous reviews, I referred to the priest as Father Layton. This has been unchanged so posterity can know what an idiot I was)
“Daredevil” grade: 4 stars
Daredevil season one grade: 4.8 stars (I typically don’t give scores that end in something other than .0 or .5, but Daredevil was so close to being perfect)
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