Netflix Retrospective: Daredevil Season 1 episodes 1-3

It’s time for the first ever Netflix Retrospective

And yes I know it was due like 6 weeks ago, I’m sorry, I got caught up playing Arkham Knight. But to make up for it I’m doing an episode by episode retrospective as opposed to a full series one as I was planning to.

So, let’s sit back and enjoy the first 3 episode of Marvel’s (god I hate putting that bit in, which is why I usually leave it out) Daredevil. Unlike a lot of retrospectives I’m going to give afterthoughts on the episodes rather than just riffing on them.

Into the Ring

For a show titled Daredevil you’d be surprised to learn that the titular character barely appears in the episode. After a short stint in the 7 minute pre-titles sequence (that’s a long pre-titles sequence) he doesn’t show up again until past the 40 minute mark. This episode is instead used to establish his alter-ego and the general goings on in hell’s kitchen, which have drastically changed since the alien invasion back in the Avengers (it’s referenced subtly several times during the episode)

The main plot of the story is the Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson (who I barely even mentioned during the Daredevil movie review because he made that little an impact) are just starting up their lawyer practice, bribing cops for good cases, setting up an office and of course beginning their very first case

It does lean heavily into cop drama at this point. We have a client whose guilt seems to be a foregone conclusion, and if you’ve watched any cop drama ever (including Jack Reacher) you’ll know that if it’s a foregone conclusion that someone’s guilty that they’re almost certainly innocent. Murdock finds this out quickly thanks to his ability to hear peoples’ heartbeats.

Their client is one Karen Page, she was found holding the murder weapon, and covered in blood of the victim. Sounds like a foregone conclusion. Turns out she’d discovered some pension based money-laundering in her job and was showing it to the victim when someone drugged her, she found herself covered in blood and holding the murder weapon when she came too.

Meanwhile it seems a new player, whose name shall not be mentioned (it’s the Kingpin) has been using his strength and the aid of his assistant, Wesley to overthrow and control the gangs that had formed in the wake of the destruction.  They, naturally, also had a hand in the company that Karen works for.

The pacing of the episode is very methodical, it’s slow when it wants to build up a sense of mystery, but not so slow you get bored (although that bit in the confessional at the beginning kinda dragged) we also see flashes of Murdock’s origins.

It’s a very strong opening, establishing a lot in a pretty short time period, and keeping me excited for what’s to come.

Rating 8.5/10

Cut Man

After an episode with surprisingly little Daredevil, it seems only fitting we get one with surprisingly little Matt Murdock.

Daredevil is found in a dumpster, gravely injured by Nurse Claire Temple. She tries to patch him up but those that attacked him are still looking for him, and it won’t be safe to bring him to a hospital, plus he still has to find the boy that the attackers kidnapped.

What little we do see of Matt is in the flashbacks which suffer from the Christopher Nolan syndrome of being out of order and disjointed. We have a brief stint of what happened just after the accident but the majority of it seems to be events leading up to the death of Matt’s father, Jack.

With Daredevil injured, Claire has a lot of injuries to see to and has to immerse herself quickly into his world. Her character progression is one of the major arcs of this story, and while she will come back for more, this is her crowning moment.

Meanwhile it seems like Karen if suffering from a bit of PTSD regarding what happened in episode 1, notably the death of her ‘friend’ and the man coming to attack her at the end of the episode. She goes out on the town with Foggy with money the clearly pulled out of their rear since they can’t even afford to keep the electricity on in their office (which isn’t exactly equipped yet) past midnight. Their character development will come later.

We get to see Daredevil essentially torture for information. Torture is always a particularly nasty subject around superheroes. Batman usually gets away with it as he never physically hurts his informants aside from a few broken teeth when he knocks them out (or if it’s Arkham knight likely being deafened when the Batmobile is that close to your face) but we saw this debate on Arrow and there’s some moral questions to it here, although Claire seems less against, even suggesting a torture when he brags about the missing children.

All of which leads to what is quite possibly the best 1-take action scene I’ve ever seen. By keeping the focus tight in narrow corridors the trap of having to wait for characters to get into position is avoided that and the fact that the fight is well choreographed and directed.

Rating 8.5/10

Rabbit in a snowstorm

We’ve had Daredevil light, Daredevil heavy, and we’re back to Daredevil light again, as the focus is on a criminal trial with Matt Murdock and Foggy serving as the defence

Murdock and Nelson are contacted by Wesley to help defend a man who beat a man to death with a bowling ball. They want the murder charges dropped under the claims that it’s in self-defence. Of course, Murdock really only wants this case to find out more about Wesley, and it does lead to some tension between the pair as it goes against their ‘only defend innocent clients’ policy

A number of characters get side-stories, Karen is offered a deal where she gets 6 month salary if she stays silent about Union Allied from now on. She’s cautious about signing it, as she doesn’t feel right leaving the injustices unanswered for. Even confronting the wife of the victim from episode 1

We also have Ben Urich, the reporter trying (and failing) to keep the newspaper he works for honest whilst also trying (and somewhat succeeding) to keep his wife, I think, from being transferred out of the private room of a hospital. (Her actual illness isn’t specified it’s implied she needs special care)

There is a distinctive lack of action in this episode, Daredevil only appears in 2 relatively short scenes but there are some interesting points that come about them that make you question just how deep the conspiracies go. We first see that they manage to get someone inside the jury to rig the vote, although Daredevil puts an end to this we also see how scared people are of the employer, just speaking his name is enough to drive assassin John Healy (the client they were defending through most of the episode) to suicide.

Speaking of our mysterious mystery man we finally get to see him, surprisingly early on actually, but that does mean we have time to watch him develop as a villain. His scene is also noted for being the only part of the episode related to its title.

Rating 8/10

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Images used in this review are from Marvel's Daredevil and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use