The last couple of years, we’ve seen quite a lot from Netflix in terms of new content that they are creating themselves rather than just trying to negotiate rights to show content in different territories, which is still a main reason today to stick on some clever Virtual Network nonsense to view stuff you can’t in your own country due to various reasons (I’m looking at you Walking Dead only on Amazon in the UK….)

Some of the new material released has been complete and utter b*llocks like the recent Adam Sandler vehicle The Horrendous 6 or at least that is what it should be called…..my god, have you seen someone who is more dead inside still trying to be funny? (Ok, aside from when I do YouTube videos….)

However there have been some releases, which some of them did go heavy on product placement to make ends meet, they ended up being pretty damn compelling in their own right and actually won awards, like the US adaptation of House of Cards with Kevin Spacey, and Robin Wright, pretty much the Lord and Lady Macbeth of politics at this point before we get to see more in Series 4 debuting in a few short months. A case for just staying in for a complete binge watch if there was one.

But they also went into a deal with Marvel to bring a diet coke version of the Avengers to the streaming service with various characters we’ve not really seen too much recently. While not going to have the same level of budget, the fact that they may be able to go further than normal television with stories etc was intriguing to say the least. But is this just another money maker for the sake of it, or is there something to these latest entries in the out-of-control ever increasing in size Marvel Universe? To start with, let’s have a look at the first installment, Daredevil Series 1, with a second series due out in March 2016, so perhaps is the decent time to revisit what’s been done already.

Of the Marvel characters coming to Netflix, this was the one who had more of a past than the others on the big screen, in the guise of 2003’s attempt with Ben Affleck as the blind lawyer who also fights crime in red leather because he can. He is also the guy who said famously as a result of the Daredevil film, that he would never play another comic book superhero.

Which is why he is appearing as Batman later this year…..

Jennifer Garner turned up as the femme fighting Electric, who did a follow on flop film on her own and let’s be honest, does anyone actually remember what happened in that? We also saw the sadly long departed Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin chap, and of course Colin Farrell was there as the most irish of all irish people-tw*t-assassin, Bullseye. Nothing happened with Daredevil after all, despite attempts behind the scenes by all accounts.

So after that long forgotten car crash, How were the bods at Marvel Television and ABC Studios (who are also tangled up making Agents Of Shield….has anyone watched that too as it goes?) going to turn this around? Especially as in a really cruel sense of irony, Netflix had to get their act together to get audio description added onto a series about someone who’s blind. Who didn’t see that coming? Oh for f*ck’s sake it’s too easy….

Well, let’s start with the fact that we have a 13 episode arc in the first series to see how things develop, you can afford to actually spend time on things such as developing plot, seeing characters grow and then come into their own depending on circumstances that take place and all that lovely jazz that the film would have far less time to do so.

To set the scene, in the very beginning we see Charlie Cox and Elden Henson playing the dynamic lawyer duo Matt Murdock who is blind and Foggy Nelson…who isn’t… and the series opens up in quite a brutal manner where Mad Murdock at first is confessing to a priest about doing naughty and then is dressed in black fighting various chaps who is keeping women locked up in a series of containers and he freed them. We also are treated to how Murdock become blinded by an unfortunate chemical spill accident, which at first would raise questions about how the hell he is able to fight as he does.

This is all unknown to Foggy who seems to set himself up as the comic relief of the two, and we then see them set up a new lawyer shop in Hell’s Kitchen which apparently just got sorted out after some silly business with aliens that happened in the Avengers. Hooray for tie-ins to other Marvel going’s on without talking about them too much!

After bribing a police officer with cigars for his mum, Mad Murdock and Foggy take on their first case, a Ms Karen Page, played by Deborah Ann Woll who got into naughty as a result of a set-up because she knows stuff about stuff and other stuff that makes bad guys do bad things to her. Especially when lots of money laundering is involved.

During the course of events, we start seeing more characters being introduced in the guise of Mr James Wesley, effortlessly played by Toby Leonard Moore, who seems to really fit the role as someone needing to get things taken care of, and we already know he’s working for someone we will see later on and of course we’ll remark on that decision later on as why we don’t know who that is to begin with. The added touch to have a mini cartel of naughty people meeting on roofs with Russians etc, stating that every time the marvel heroes destroy something, their profits go up, is just a great touch and hard to ignore as a way of ensuring there is bigger stakes at play.

The way we see Wesley even in the beginning, pressurising a guy via a well placed Windows 10 device (hooray for product placement but nowhere near as much as House of Cards!) is only a taster of how well the character develops as the series goes on.

There really is more to what’s going on in Hell’s Kitchen than meets the magic eye to begin with as a result and we wonder who the forces in the background are and as time goes on, we see exactly who and what type of people they are. Hell, there’s even surprises abound in exploring the character’s personal lives as the series progresses which all seem to actually go into more depth over 13 episodes than what Marvel and ABC have done with Agents of Shield from what little admittedly I saw of the series.

Maybe the fact Daredevil is not currently on network television have meant that they can go into more interesting territory and therefore become a much better shout than what they did with the not dead Agent Phil Coulson and his motley crew. Whereas with Agents of Shield, I lost all interest after a couple of episodes, here I really did finish because of what they did with this. How have they done this you ask?

Because we’ve taken quite a lot of time on this already and your poor eyes need a rest from reading about the blind bloke doing kung-fu type things on the old screen, we’re going to continue this in another post, cunningly titled Netflix dared the devil….Part 2 where we will discuss more of what happens and some more of the characters we see as the series progresses.

Join us for the epic conclusion soon!