Netflix Retrospective: Daredevil Season 2 Episodes 1-2 - Bang/Dogs to a gunfight

It's 2018, time to revive Netflix Retrospectives

Through 2018 I’ll be doing frequent retrospectives on Netflix shows, I’m gonna put a 1-year cut-off date on it to make sure you have time to see it before going into this, because it will involve spoilers as I give a rundown of the plot. Let’s start off with the sequel to the Marvel Netflix original series, this is season 2 of Daredevil.

Bang

So, we open with a long-ass recap of season one. You do get the option to skip it but it’s been a while since I’ve seen this series so I gave it a watch. Though this is listed as a separate entity it’s the first thing I got when I pressed the play button.

It’s night time in Hell’s Kitchen and we hear some sh*t. Daredevil is listening from the rooftops when he hears a gunshot. Men in masks have a committed a robbery and the cops are on their tail. One officer manages to catch one but finds his gun empty, giving the robber an opportunity to pull a gun on him. Thankfully Daredevil manages to knock him out off-screen. Time for a chase scene through a restaurant because let’s get that cliché out of the way early. Daredevil knocks another one out, allowing the chefs to beat the snot out of him. One tries to commandeer a car but Daredevil knocks him out. The last thug grabs a hostage and drags her into the church, the lights are smashed as Daredevil enters, the police arrive to find the hostage scared but alive and the thug unconscious like the others.

Daredevil stands on the roof, triumphant and even smiles. Cue theme music. Day has come, so time for Nelson and Murdock to be themselves. Foggy’s talking about some date he went on last night, it turns into an argument about Daredevil, they’re discussing him in a very public place in broad daylight. They arrive at work to some... let’s call them interesting clients and Karen informs them that they’re broke, not a surprise when their clients pay them in bananas and rhubarb pies.

But enough about that, let’s cut to night again. A Mr Nesbitt arrives somewhere with an aggressive dog, it’s apparently a meeting of the Irish Crime Family in New York, deciding what to do upon the arrest of Wilson Fisk, they owned the city’s underworld before Fisk arrived and are ready to take full control, as he’s about to kill the one member of the crime family that dared work for Fisk, bullets start coming through the walls, the source is unknown to any of them, most of them are killed, except one who dives behind a bar, and is still sporting a hefty bullet wound. One of the dead guys' phone goes off and plays the Irish jug music because joke?

Matt, Foggy and Karen are playing snooker, someone is looking in their direction, it’s the survivor I mentioned earlier. He thinks they were hit by an army but if you know anything about this season, you’ve already guessed who he actually face-up against. His wants witness protection from the DA, and given Nelson and Murdock’s reputation after Wilson Fisk, he wants them to be his representatives to ensure he doesn’t get sent up the river or end up with a bullet in him. He promises that he wants to reform but soon keels over from the bullet wound.

The police found the crime scene and are setting up their investigation. Foggy and Matt try to question Officer Brett but get little until Matt reveals he can hear elements of the investigation. One of them was wearing thick body armour in the middle of a very hot summer and the bullet went straight through it. Brett tells them this isn’t the first attack with this MO and the DA’s thinks there’s a paramilitary force trying to break ground in the city. He advises they hand over any witnesses to the police.

Karen has Grotto, the witness, in a hospital room with a ‘plausible’ cover story to protect him. He tries to be patronising but it doesn’t work. Meanwhile, some asshole is selling guns to whatever stragglers are left at the moment, they’re not happy that the guns aren’t semi-automatic and are even less happy when Daredevil arrives. He is not the supplier of the ‘army’s’ weapons but knows the Cartel is shipping in guns that could in theory be the ones being used.

Foggy meanwhile goes to a Dogs of Hell group, telling the guard he’s come to meet a guy named Smitty. He’s taken in and the door is locked behind him. They don’t like that he’s a lawyer and decide to beat him up. Daredevil investigates the warehouse and there definitely are weapons here, also many other means of torture. He soon finds members of the cartel strung up on the meat hooks, dead. He hears a heartbeat, one of them is alive, he manages to get him off the hook.

Speaking of off the hook, Foggy reveals that he helped one of their crew in some legal troubles, and that earns him a stay of execution, Smitty was killed and cut to pieces. The guy Daredevil rescued begins talking, telling him it’s really just one man. Speaking of one man, there’s one in the hospital right now, disarming the guard and waltzing through the hospital with a shotgun, firing it at Grotto, clearly he didn’t fall for any of that 'plausible' cover story. Karen takes him away but the assailant is ready to operate a sniper rifle. Daredevil intervenes, preventing the shot being fired but is knocked down because the plot demands he isn’t one of the Marvel Universe’s best fighters anymore. A bullet knocks him over the roof.

It’s a solid start to the season, setting up the plot threads for the first arc of the season, most of my problems here are minor but I wish Frank beat Daredevil by being clever rather than with fisticuffs.

Rating 8/10

Dogs to a gunfight

The hospital becomes a crime scene, and Karen is on the phone to Foggy, neither of them have seen Matt since last night. Foggy hears about gunshots on the rooftops and starts a search of the rooftops in the area, he finds Matt, surprisingly not near the roof he fell from. He somehow manages to get him home and we’re going to hear the same tired debate, the one we’re going to hear over and over and over again. Sure you can talk about realism but it isn’t interesting or entertaining to hear the same debates repeated, especially since we know Matt isn’t gonna stop being Daredevil, or if he does it’s gonna be temporary.

So, police station, Foggy arrives having persuaded Matt not to come as Karen is filing paperwork. He’d heard about it being one guy but thought it was ridiculous. Someone from the DA is coming over to cover Witness Protection offers for Grotto, Brett tells them the guy is an independent vigilante who some of the police force are cheering for, he thinks someone will be caught in the crossfire. Oh how wrong I wish he was. They also believe he was inspired by Daredevil.

We see that Matt’s senses have gone haywire since the shot in the head. The DA herself has come to handle arrangements and requests Foggy recuse himself from the case so they can bring another legal team that will listen to them. Fortunately, Foggy isn’t an idiot and gets in contact with the Feds, the people who actually handle Witness Protection. He tells the DA to deal with them, and receive credit for any arrests that come from Grotto’s testimony, in exchange for a good reference from the DA when entering the Protective Custody agreement.

They want a guy named Edgar Brass, they want Grotto to meet him wearing a wire, and this can only end badly. Something Grotto agrees with me on. Grotto is initially unwilling. Frank heads to the pawn shop, wanting a police radio with access to tactical frequencies. He gets it and some bullets but the owner makes the mistake of mentioning he has child pornography prompting Frank to beat him to death with a baseball bat.

Meanwhile, Nelson and Murdock still have big bills and Karen is worried, she thinks the Punisher may come after her since she killed Wesley. Of course, she doesn’t say this but, you know, between the lines. Matt, having spent most of the day meditating has managed to get his senses in check, just in time for Karen to come a knocking. She promises to be there for him when he decides to open and we hear the same sh*t about the connection between Daredevil and the Punisher. We’re past the half way point of this episode btw, very little has been accomplished in that time.

Matt, wearing his black hoodie takes his suit to Melvin, who remarks that that shot at such close range could’ve easily killed him, remarking it may have been a warning shot. He can’t repair the helmet but can patch it up best he can whilst he makes up a new one for him. Matt finds himself at a crime scene, possibly the one from earlier but it’s difficult to tell. He heads outside, sniffs a couple of tracks and begins walking down the street, following a blood trail, unfortunately it’s being washed away. He hears some police chatter and ends up somewhere else, he heads inside a housing complex, he bursts through the door and finds a dog, chained up and in attack mode, he clams the mutt with some food, coming across a bunch of weapons.

We cut to one of the dogs of hell who have hijacked a truck and are going to break it down for parts. A guy begins spraying it down, oblivious to the sound of people being shot behind. Matt hears the police radio, mentioning Grotto about to going for his meeting. Unfortunately, yeah… the Punisher knows about the meeting, a meeting Grotto is already apprehensive about. And yeah… DA dipsh*t is using Grotto as bait for the Punisher, much to the chargin' of our lawyers. A truck diverts the cops long enough to get someone’s attention but Daredevil arrives and the two fight as the Mayor orders her men to open fire. Frank takes a few shots but isn’t down. As they fall through some glass, the snipers lose their target long enough for Foggy to check up on his friend.

Both Frank and Daredevil struggle to their feet, Matt’s still clearly struggling despite the meditation, the police don’t find either of them when they begin their search.

This episode is incredibly slow, but it’s not without merit, I enjoyed Foggy’s work as a lawyer, am beginning to tire of Matt getting his ass kicked, and it’s only the second episode.

Rating 7.5/10

Speaking of slow, to help with workload, I’m reducing the number of episodes I’m working on per review. This is your lot for the moment, but be sure to be back next week, as we continue on the Punisher show starring Daredevil