Series Review : Daredevil (Season 1)

To be honest, I've never read the comics. My knowledge of DD is confined to his cameo appearances in the Spider-man comics. All I knew about the character was he was blind, lawyer by profession and a vigilante by night. And Kingpin is his arch rival. That's about it. Then I heard a buzz on the www about a new series coming out and at first, I didn't care. Then the voices started getting stronger and the ratings on IMDB shot through the roof and I had to check it out. To my surprise, the show was awesome!

The premise is pretty much the same with Matt Murdock (played by Charlie Cox whom I've seen in 'The theory of everything' recently) being blind lawyer/vigilante. Charlie Cox fit the role perfectly. Most of the times he wore shades like the character usually does and his eyes were covered. But even then, he somehow managed to bring out the emotions very well and that is a great achievement as an actor. So hats off for that. The rest of the supporting cast were not bad either. Infact they were very good except maybe for the guy who played Foggy, Matt's best friend. He was annoying at first but then he grew on me. And that brings me to Wilson Fisk a.k.a The Kingpin. Now, where should I begin? If you wanted the short answer, Vincent D'onofrio was the perfectest (if that's even a word) Kingpin. He nailed the role perfectly. I actually felt sorry for the character when I always thought he was this big, rich A-hole type character. But this portrayal brought out the human side of him and I really liked that. You don't understand if you have to like that character (since he is the bad guy), but you subconsciously do.There was a reason for him doing what he does and I found myself cheering for The Kingpin a few times. Of all the marvel villains that have been brought to life through the movies, I think VD's Kingpin is my favorite and that compliment for the most part goes to the actor. Hopefully, Kingpin will appear in the Avengers in the future (yes, the series ties into the MCU).

That's the thing - you really get attached to each and every character in this series in an instant. Be it the Kingpin or Melvin Potter. You feel for them, you want the bad guys to become good guys but you also know that the script says that's not possible and you flow along with it to see where it goes. That is why I love this series.

The action scenes felt very realistic during the beginning of the show but then along the lines it became a bit cinematic. I really cannot judge if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It looks cool nonetheless.

Daredevil's costume is not actually Daredevil's costume. It is all black similar to that of when Spider-man started out. That bothered me at first, but eventually I knew this was going to change. So nothing too bothersome.

The ending felt a bit rushed and I felt that it ripped off 'The Dark knight' a bit. I wish I didn't say that since TDK was my least favorite of the TDK trilogy (yeah, sue me), but it is what it is. I could have done with one or two more episodes for a proper, gradual finale. But it could have been a lot worse and thankfully, for the most part it is not. There were many unfinished sub-plots, definitely to be touched upon in the future seasons and I am really waiting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Way to go, Marvel! Your move, DC.

Score - 8.0/10