By Brady Steele / twitter: @mrbradysteele. This new TV iteration of Marvel’s Daredevil is indeed a refreshing take on this storied character. This is a Daredevil that is unpolished, messy, bloody and unrefined. With only two episodes into this series, they are off to a great start.
They do some very not-for-kids things in this series. A prime example is (SPOILERS) young Matt Murdock (Skylar Gaertner) take a swig of hard booze before he stiches up his boxer dad Jack (John Patrick Hayden) after taking a dive in a fight. As fun as the films have been over that last eight years, this feels like something else completely. Even his extra sensory powers are not over the top. They’re used but not shown at the same time. Everything is subdued and plausible…so far. I like it because it is not lowering the grim and grimy of what makes Daredevil a captivating read in comics for a new medium.
There are so great easter eggs for fans, as is almost requisite in comic book adaptations nowadays. Kingpin’s predecessor, Mr. Silk, makes a cameo in a flashback moment, Crusher Creel, and I think (ANOTHER POSSIBLE SPOILER) The Night Nurse (Rosario Dawson) debuts. Everything feels textured and has substance. The scenery, the actors and even the background actors all give this show some heft. The dialogue and attention to details help everything that happens feel like it matters. Nothing is wiped away for the next episode to unfold. That feeling of connectivity really makes it feel like something refreshing.
The best example of that linking throughout this show is a throw away scene from the premiere episode where a boy is ripped out of a car after his father is beaten. Daredevil goes and gets the boy to safety after going through a lot of gangsters. This is the real highlight. The last six minutes. This shows viewers just how different, ferocious and unrelenting thisDaredevil show will be. I now understand ‘binge watching’ as I cannot wait to see how Hell’s Kitchen, this new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will reveal itself to us viewers.
There is little chance people will remember the introduction of Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple after watching that single take hallway fight. It has channeled something not previously available in American drama: actual brutal action. There is something about that scene that continues to linger in the mind long after the credits fade, it’s not the actual choreography of the scene per say, but the pure physical exhaustion that comes with Daredevil’s fight. Charlie Cox stops to take a breather many times throughout this showdown, he braces himself on the wall, and he looks unsure if he can continue. But he does, and we should to.
In an episode jam packed with events tieing to both the character’s past and present, it’s the sheer brutality that sticks.
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Mr. Steele enjoys all things comics and imagination-based. Using his lifetime of comic-fu-dom for good, he imparts his knowledge for the universe to enjoy and for you, dear readers, to pass it on.