Everybody knows about the Avengers -- a billionaire, a super-spy, a patriotic super-soldier, a thunder-god, and so on. They are the exalted heroes who keep saving the world.
But what about superheroes who fight on the streets, fighting smaller battles that threaten not the world, but their neighborhoods, homes and families? That brings us to "Daredevil: The Complete First Season," the groundbreaking collaboration between Marvel Studios and Netflix -- a gritty, gloomy, blood-spattered series about a blind lawyer who uses his heightened senses to battle corruption and crime in Hell's Kitchen.
As a child, Matt Murdock was blinded while rescuing an old man from a runaway truck -- but developed superhuman senses that allow him to be aware of things that the sighted are not. Now Murdock (Charlie Cox) is a successful lawyer who is opening his own firm with his buddy Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), and who seeks to right wrongs in the courtroom. Except that every night he disguises himself as a sort of Zorro-ninja, and battles the criminal organizations that are dominating the streets of Hell's Kitchen.
This includes trying to discover the man who has been pulling all the puppet strings, from kidnapping a child to protecting a young woman from a murderous plot. That man is Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), a powerful and wealthy man whose corrupt touch reaches into the police department and the media -- and by battling against him, Murdock is fighting a man who is more brutal and intelligent than any of his prior foes. It may not be a battle that any mere man can win.
It doesn't seem like a stretch to say that "Daredevil: The Complete First Season" revolutionized comic-book TV shows, that it did for these shows what "The Dark Knight" did for comic book MOVIES. Yes, it told a story about a man dressing up in an armored devil jumpsuit to fight crime... but it was also a more nuanced, complicated story that wasn't afraid to tackle issues of morality, justice versus the law, and the sins good men need to commit when evil is allowed to run rampant and destroy others.
Free of the restrictions of network TV, this show could be as violent, dark and grimy as it needed to be -- while it takes place in the same world as the glossy Marvel blockbusters, this is a story very far removed from what happens there. This is a comic-book superhero used to show the kind of urban corruption that is painfully realistic in tone, from the dark crime-riddled streets, the tragic backstory (Murdock's dad was a boxer who died trying to be someone his son could admire) and the hardscrabble lives of many of the characters.
And that applies to the antihero protagonist as well. Matt Murdock doesn't really have any superpowers aside from his senses, or any money or amazing technology to compensate. He's just a guy with epic martial arts skills. So he gets hurt, a lot -- he's savagely beaten more than once, and Charlie Cox lets us see every pained stiff motion as he fights his way through hallways of thugs. Yet Cox also gives him a real sense of intelligence and silent charisma when he's in lawyer mode, and Henson's endearing character serves to remind us of the darker side of the character ("Maybe it isn't only about justice, Matt. Maybe it's about you having an excuse to hit someone").
On the flip side, we have Vincent D'Onofrio as the kingpin, Wilson Fisk -- and his introduction shows what a complex and compelling character he'll be, where he romances a woman with genuine charm and charisma... right before brutally beheading a guy with a car door. Yes, a car door. But that sets the tone for the way this character is depicted; while he's undeniably a villain, he's not an evil-for-evil's-sake bad guy with no backstory or nuance. He is truly the opposite of Daredevil.
It's also beautifully filmed and scripted. Every episode adds gradually to the overall arc, positioning characters like chess pieces until they inevitably will clash, and the writing is a masterpiece of painful eloquence (" No buildings named after us, fancy inheritances to leave behind, just…the stories those who were close to us tell to keep us alive. Even if it's just in memory"). The gritty industrial backdrop of Hell's Kitchen allows the cinematography to be full of light and shadow, in a world dominated by grey.
"Daredevil: The Complete First Season" is a grippingly realistic addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- and without the constraints of network TV, it's allowed to bloom like a blood-spattered, grimy rose from a broken sidewalk.
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Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
ToPo
TV making 'without fear'...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2016Verified Purchase
mark chester
this is daredevil done right
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 December 2016Verified Purchase
Alexander Stewart Hutchison
Great Show.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2016Verified Purchase
R. G. Hancox
superb
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2018Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Best Superhero show on TV
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 October 2016Verified Purchase
