I’m pretty impressed with the way Marvel’s Daredevil is handling the Punisher. This is no secret, because I’ve spent two reviews now fawning over both the character and Jon Bernthal’s performance. But more than that, the show is nailing the arc. We’ve already had two fights between him and Daredevil, and “New York’s Finest” brings us to the rooftop confrontation (it’s always a rooftop), which, yes, flirts with cliche, but Bernthal and Charlie Cox are so goddamn good that every time they’re on screen it’s nothing less than riveting.
Daredevil and the Punisher get into one of those long philosophical talks that threaten to bring the narrative to a screeching halt if not done correctly. Fortunately for Daredevil, this episode nails it. It also does a good job of dismissing what might be seen as plot contrivances designed to keep Matt alive. The Punisher doesn’t kill him because it’s not his mission, and doesn’t remove his mask because he “doesn’t give a shit” about Daredevil’s identity. What he wants is for Daredevil to see (har har) exactly why a man like the Punisher is necessary.
“I think you’re a half measure,” he says. “I think you’re a man who can’t finish the job.” “New York’s Finest” wisely doesn’t delve too much into the Punisher’s backstory. We learn that he’s a former soldier, but beyond that he’s still the phantom he has been up until now. I’m not sure how much the show will deviate from canon, and quite frankly I don’t care. Later we see an X-ray of his skull, showing a bullet hole in his head – is he living on borrowed time? Because that would explain a lot.
Things reach a boiling point when the Punisher hauls Grotto out onto the balcony, beaten and bloodied. He’s taped a revolver with one bullet in the chamber to Matt’s hand, and says the only way Grotto lives is if Matt kills the Punisher. It’s powerful and intense, especially when Grotto’s confession that he’s not just an innocent driver seriously shakes Daredevil. This is a man who prides himself on being able to tell the guilty from the innocent, and he’s spent his days helping and protecting a man who now admits to murdering on orders. Maybe the Punisher is right when he says, “You’re one bad day away from being me.”
It would be hard to live up to the scenes on the rooftop, but “New York’s Finest” makes a good effort, though another one of Daredevil‘s exhaustive fight scenes. The gold standard for this is still last season’s “Cut Man,” but watching Daredevil fight his way through a hallway, then down several flights of stairs, is jaw-dropping. It plays like something out of The Raid, or the hammer scene in Oldboy, and director Marc Jobst, a veteran of Hannibal and Hemlock Grove making his Daredevil debut, handles the stairwell beautifully. It’s a tight, confined space that should be impossible to shoot in, and it is, which is why it’s so effective. Jobst lets his camera hover just outside the banister, showing us the confines in which Daredevil has to fend for himself. He doesn’t make it seem like a bigger space, and that’s why when Daredevil reaches the ground floor, the viewer is as winded as he is.
The rest of “New York’s Finest” was only intermittently successful. Foggy goes to the hospital to see if Matt is there, but in reality Foggy goes to the hospital so Daredevil can bring back Claire Temple. I like Claire, and Rosario Dawson’s portrayal of her, but the entire scene should have been this long:
FOGGY: Did Matt check himself in here?
CLAIRE: No.
FOGGY: What about any other hospitals?
CLAIRE (after checking): No.
FOGGY: Good day, madam.
Instead Foggy hangs around, getting in the way, before eventually defusing a fight between two gangbangers (seeing the ER so incredibly busy is a nice way for Daredevil to demonstrate just how effectively the Punisher is playing the gangs against each other). It’s a good monologue, well-delivered by Elden Henson; I just wish it had occurred more naturally. So far Foggy’s role in season two is to mildly impress women who are far more interested in Matt.
Likewise, Karen was stuck with a subplot that kept her mostly behind a desk. She finds some dirt on DA Samantha Reyes, namely that she throws any and everyone under the bus to save her own hide. With this she’s able to enlist the help of Reyes’s #2, Blake Tower, which is how she gets the Punisher files. Neither Karen nor Foggy’s subplot is especially bad, but when you cut away from Daredevil and the Punisher on a rooftop, or Daredevil fighting his way through several floors of bikers while using a chain as a weapon, any subplot is destined to suffer by comparison.
A Few Thoughts
- The Punisher’s escape will just convince everyone that he and Daredevil are working together, a development I’m excited about
- Smart move on Matt’s part to use the Punisher’s name – Frank – when speaking to him. It was a subtle, smart way to remind him of his basic humanity
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