The first season of Marvel's venture into a series of Netflix shows was something of a revelation and breath of fresh air. Daredevil was darker, more violent, and more intense than anything we had seen in their cinematic experiences, or in their rather lackluster attempts at network television. Netflix serves as a place where they can change up the tone from the typical light-hearted, easily accessible to a wider audience content. In essence, Netflix has become the MAX imprint. Jessica Jones took it further with more mature themes as well. Both shows have been well received both by fans and critics, showing that Marvel is just at the top of the game come the comic book superhero genre on screen.
The much anticipated second season improves on a number of things in many ways. The action somehow manages to be even more fun, dramatic, excellent, and exhausting. The plot moves more briskly. We actually get some actual chemistry between Matt Murdoch and another character, especially Frank Castle. Similar to the inaugural season, the Daredevil (and Elektra) costume and dialogue aren't great, but they're improved a bit. Fortunately, while Vincent D'onofrio's Kingpin isn't heavily featured, we still get one totally gripping performance in Jon Bernthal's take on the Punisher. Ray Stevenson's Punisher in the under-appreciated Punisher War Zone might be the most accurate capturing of the comic book character we've seen on screen, but Bernthal's Frank Castle is arguably the most interesting Punisher there's ever been. It's a bit telling that so far through two seasons, Daredevil has been one of the least interesting characters in his own show. Part of that is inevitable, given his black and white moral code, and how - like Spider-man before him - that whole guilt complex can get a bit tedious and annoying after a little while. Still, a lot of it has to do with stellar performances from both Bernthal and D'onofrio.
And of course, all of the ninjas! In fact, the action of Daredevil is probably the best action in any television show. The choreography is great and entertaining, but the coordinators have done a great job defining each character with their own traits and styles. Even in the poor lighting, you can tell who is who based on their stances, the way they defend themselves, the kinds of punches or kicks they throw. It's pretty cool to see such choreography used to further define characters.
The show picks up about a year after the events of last season. One thing the show's creators have done well is use previous events as the set-up to the current ones. In season one, the devastation caused by the aliens in The Avengers is the backdrop for Wilson Fisk's rise to prominence and his ability to take over the city during reconstruction. Here in season two, it's the power vacuum created when Daredevil revealed Kingpin's illicit activities and put him behind bars. Several gangs had taken up arms to fill the space, which gave birth to the Punisher. Similarly, the events of last season allowed the Hand to operate in the shadows more fully, as they were trying to keep out of Daredevil's metaphorical sight.
The pacing of the show could be described as break-neck through the first four or five episodes. There's the obvious juxtaposition of moral boundaries between the Punisher and Daredevil, where the former puts the bad guys down for good whereas the latter has faith in the justice system. This is the source of their conflict, and it's the big theme for most of the show. This is how they thematically connect the Punisher story line with the Elektra line too.
For some, the season might feel a bit disjointed. The specifics of the Punisher stuff and the Elektra stuff are completely separate. They aren't related. The conspiracy behind Frank's murdered family and the sting operation gone south doesn't connect in any real way to Elektra, Stick, and their war with the Hand. However, they do connect thematically for a while. The conflict between Matt Murdoch and the other players is the same. Frank Castle doesn't have the same faith in the system that Matt does. He tells him outright that he puts the criminals down for good, so that they can't hurt anyone else ever again, whereas Daredevil puts them behind bars where they may eventually get out and go back to a life of crime. Similarly, Stick and Elektra are preparing for a war with the Hand. They are going to have to get their hands bloody with all the ninjas they'll wind up killing. Both Elektra and Punisher view their crusades as a war, and both of them acknowledge that they're killers. Even Karen Page gets in on the action with her support of Frank, getting into an argument with Matt over the fact that she feels the Punisher's tactics are effective for keeping the city safe.
It is Daredevil that can't handle any of it. It pits him against Punisher. It creates conflict with Elektra. And it causes tension with Karen. Being the good Catholic boy he is, he firmly believes that it is not their decision on who lives and who dies. His Catholicism actually comes into play several times throughout the season, which is kind of nice as that has been something of an unexplored element of his personality.
The big crisis for him comes after the return of Fisk. When Matt finds out that Fisk is still exerting his power and influence from behind bars, he has a bit of a crisis of faith. Despite regularly arguing with Frank that people don't need to die, he caves late in the season and argues that maybe just this one time on this one case, they'll kill someone. Daredevil doesn't kill anyone, obviously, but it shows just how much he's lost of himself by that point.
In many ways, this is the most "Daredevil-y" thing ever to exist outside the comics. We've got the problematically self-righteous Matt pushing everyone he loves away while talking about how much they ground him. He preaches his moral code to a bunch of other vigilantes. There's a conspiracy occurring behind the scenes in which Fisk is involved. And then there's a ton of ninjas that he has to fight off. You don't get much more Daredevil than that!
Not everything works, of course. While they thematically connect Elektra and Punisher, their stories are completely separate. This results in something of a disjointed final act, wherein you've got Karen investigating the Punisher conspiracy and Matt hunting down the Hand. They don't cross paths on screen, and once the war with the Hand begins, thematic connections go out the window, creating a bit of a mismatch of tones. Some new fans from the last season might be a bit turned off by the absurdity of the ancient ninja organization with an affinity for mysticism, but the Punisher conspiracy and the Kingpin control elements are very much in line with the first season. As a long time Daredevil fan myself, I loved finally seeing the Hand come into play in full force. Halfway through the season, I tweeted about how Daredevil without ninjas is sort of like Iron Man without technology, so it was great to see so many ninjas show up! But it could be a bit too weird for fans of the previous season, and it feels a bit like a tonal mismatch with the more grounded Punisher story.
Even more, Elektra's story is a bit lackluster. Fans of the comic book character should tone down expectations going into it, as she resembles little of the source material. Still, other than that she fulfills one of my most hated plot devices (character with an inevitable destiny), she did grow on me eventually. Her being the secret weapon of the Hand felt a bit clunky and awkward, and the idea that she's just naturally a killer maybe allowed for a brief thematic connection to the Punisher stuff, but at some point just became a bit of a contrived means for drama between her and Matt. Additionally, the Punisher story - and his difference with Daredevil - doesn't get the amount of time and focus it deserved to be fully explored, in order to make room for Elektra and the Hand.
The final two episodes feel a bit rushed as well. It's vastly improved from the finale of last season, but there are a number of elements that come out of nowhere or make sudden jumps. Finding out that Clancy Brown's character is behind the Frank Castle conspiracy feels cheap, as he was never really in the show save for one brief courtroom scene. His motive also doesn't exactly make the most sense either. Then there's a strange series of events wherein we see Karen struggling to write her article, cut to Matt talking to a detective who reveals someone was looking into who Daredevil has saved, and then cut to Karen kidnapped by the Hand. It's a weirdly edited sequence that also comes out of nowhere. Doesn't help matters much that after the final battle with the Hand, we cut to Karen returning to her office to work on the article. They apparently had to just randomly interrupt that with a kidnapping.
And this is to say nothing of how awfully convenient it is that Foggy just happens to show up on the scene of the battle between Matt and the Hand. Or that Punisher - who has been off doing his own, totally separate thing for more than half the season at that point - shows up randomly at the end, just to shoot two ninjas and give a little nod to Daredevil before leaving. (We don't even really get to see his sweet armor getup that well, since it happens pretty quickly.) And then Stick shows up at the very end to finally kill Nobu (probably?) even though we last saw him tied up in Matt's apartment. There are just a lot of things that happen really quickly at the end. It feels rushed in a similar way to last season.
Fortunately, the final few episodes are also jam packed with awesome action sequences. In fact, most of the season plays out with enough redeeming qualities as to make up for the weaknesses. If Fisk were gripping enough of a character to cover for the poor dialogue and stilted chemistry among the cast in the first season, the action sequences and thematic connections between Punisher, Elektra, and Daredevil make up for some of the similarly mediocre dialogue, similarly stilted chemistry, and dangling or unclear plot elements (like Daredevil's loss of hearing through a couple of episodes, or what exactly was going on with his hearing in the tunnels, or what's the deal with those creepy kids?). There might not be anything as instantly incredible and lasting as the hallway fight in episode two of the first season, but there's a ton of top notch, close-quarter combat in this season.
It's another strong outing from Marvel, improving on the success of the first season and of Jessica Jones. What has been really nice about the Netflix series is the way they handle world-building, or rather, don't do it. They generally work in references to the larger world more subtly or organically, but the lack of regular nods gives these series a more contained atmosphere. We all know there are other things happening, but those don't matter to the story these writers are telling. It allows these shows to be a lot more focused. It's also been rather refreshing to get away from the typical kind of origin stories we see happening all the time on the big screen or on the CW.
I said that they don't exactly do a lot of world-building. What I mean by that is in most cases, this world is already built. When Elektra shows up, Matt already knows who she is. They already have a history. Same thing happened with Stick in the first season. The Hand is already a thing with a long history. They've already been setting their plan in motion. Wilson Fisk is already a criminal mastermind when we first see him. Frank Castle's family has already been killed, and he's already determined to find who was behind it all. Even at the start of the entire series, Matt Murdoch has already been engaging in vigilantism. The same thing happens in Jessica Jones as well. She's already tried the superhero thing. She already has a history with Kilgrave. Luke Cage is already a character and already has his powers. What we as viewers are seeing is a world that is already built and established. What the creators do, often through effective use of flashbacks, is unveil it for us. It's a neat way to handle it, and quite different from the way the movies do things, where we have to kind of see everyone's origin story or they have to reference or slowly introduce each character. (That's been a bit different in Phase 2, which has seen a bit more of the Netflix style, but we didn't exactly see this approach on the silver screen until after we saw it on the small one. It's definitely a nice change of pace.)
Season two has, in my opinion, been quite an improvement overall. The lack of a strong centralized character maybe makes it feel a bit disjointed at times, particularly late in the season, but there's enough improvement everywhere else to mask it. Plus, the themes are a bit more intriguing and relevant to the Daredevil character. It is a lot more violent, which is to be expected given its heavily featuring of the Punisher and Elektra, so if you found that element of season one to be a bit much, then season two might not be for you. And the stuff with the Hand might get a bit too weird for some viewers as well, so if you loved the grounded nature of the first season incredible, you may be in for a bit of a surprise there too.
In my mind, though, this is the most Daredevil thing on screen to date in a number of ways. Working in the mystical element definitely opens the door more for Iron Fist which should be in production soon, I'd imagine. The promo for Luke Cage looks promising too. I don't want all of this stuff to be dark and gritty and brooding, but it's nice to have something more mature. The Marvel movies are a ton of fun, and I love them, but no one wants the same thing over and over again. Daredevil is proving to be a great counterbalance to the Guardians of the Galaxy's of their content.
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