Welcome back campers for Part 2 of where we look at Netflix and Marvel’s recent efforts to bring comic book stuff to the various sized screens which can receive the streaming service.

In case you didn’t read Part 1, which you can read to get some of the back story to Daredevil, last time we had to spend quite a bit of time setting the scene up of what happened with Daredevil the first time that people with cameras decided to give it a go and what was going to change given that now Daredevil was a online only TV series with 13 episodes to spread the love over instead of just a couple of hours. We’ve have Howling Mad Matt Murdock as seen below in the lovely title picture as Daredevil going to war with the bad guys to reclaim his kitchen. Err… I mean Hell’s Kitchen in New York.

Bear in mind, this second part does go into what you may consider more spoiler territory to a degree, and also this is quite a long read. So sit back and relax……

Now that we are aware of what at the beginning plays out, it’s now fair to start talking about the direction that everyone went in with this first series. Make no mistake, this truly was just the set-up series to explain an awful lot about what’s happening and why with particular focuses on motivations behind the characters we see (yes, add your own blind joke here) and in my honest opinion, this is what makes it so much more than the film ever could have been.

Therefore it’s about time we addressed the Kingpin in the room, namely Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin, played on this occasion by Vincent D’Onofrio as the latest chap to play the bald crime boss nutter hell bent on remaking Hell’s Kitchen as he sees fit by whatever means he deems fit.

Working with James Wesley as his personal assistant, it’s fascinating to see how old Fisk changes from a man focused on doing just one thing, to effectively change his priorities when a woman he takes a real fancy to in an art gallery (Another Mrs Macbeth as time goes on, played by Ayelet Zurer) gets involved with him and as such due to events which occur during the course of the series, we see some real rage developing within the Kingpin which if left unchecked, would cause very serious problems for a lot of people, including his partners in crime. However, it’s rage but with reason.

It cannot be understated how well suited to the character that Vincent D’Onofrio became over the course of the show as you saw him come out more into the light, and was actually a decent choice to not really show the main villain too much to begin with, only giving you select moments before the big reveal and it was a good pay off for sure. 

Speaking of the partners in crime with Fisk, it seems they love meeting in various locations like a lovely car park, but mostly on the tops of roofs with lovely views of New York. Guess they can get bored when waiting for everyone to turn up and need something to do instead of just playing Angry Birds on their phones.

But Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho) and the finance chap with a talent for shall we say, having backup plans; Leland Owlsley, played by Bob Gunton do show that things seems to be just a tenuous alliance which everyone was looking out for themselves and weren’t just going to be pantomime bad guys who just happened to have a better wardrobe (Oh no they don’t, oh yes they do), and Fisk better make sure he didn’t do too much naughty, lest they get all up in his business and ting. That Madame Gao, is also quite an evil rascal too with how she moves product around as you come to see.

There are plenty of other faces which show up during the course of the show, including a surprise showing from Rosario Dawson as the nurse who heals Mad Matt (Better maybe than Mad Murdock? Should we compare him to Mad Max instead of the bloke from the A-Team?) back to health during a bad encounter while wearing his lucky black clothes and perhaps likes our lucky chap too, if he weren’t going around the place beating people up because they did naughty.

In fact it’s actually very hard to say there was a bad performance from anyone throughout the whole series, a massive credit to everyone involved. Ben Urich, played by Vondie Curtis-Hall gave a suitably moody, world weary check on events as the newspaper chap who used to really get the best stories out on the ground and gets galvisoned into helping Karen uncover the truth behind the money laundering and as time goes on deeper lies, treachery and deceit. All the while he has his wife to deal who is deeply unwell.

Everyone gets fleshed out quite well, that although they are working towards various agendas, good or bad, that they have their problems and therefore seem more real as people and that is one of it’s greatest strengths overall. We see a great deal of flashbacks for all characters but it’s the ones for Mad Murdock as a child getting used to being blind, learning to fight with the chap who I only recall from a film called Suckerpunch, but also puts in a really good funny performance as his teacher / assassin of yet another unknown secret organisation. The story of what happened to Mad Murdock’s dad is also troubling for sure, actually come to think of it, the same with Fisk’s dad, but I would be bad for revealing too much here.

Back on track, another surprise was Mad Murdock’s need to talk with the catholic priest at a local church when he was conflicted or needed to confess what he had been doing. While done in the 2003 film with ol’ Benny Affleck, got to be honest, this was way more thoughtful. Another great section where we see how Mad Murdock and Foggy met while at college, it really adds the depth you would have not expected at a time when things were getting really fraught, and none of it just feels like it’s filler content just to stretch out time.

And you know what, I’ve been writing about how much the characters get flushed out that we’ve not even got into the fight sequences which make up a fair chunk of the time too, some of which are just impressive and would easily rival what you see elsewhere. It’s just a lot more brutal than what you would expect and somehow seems to be more real as a result, even if it is all arranged. Don’t think as well that this show would be quite tame in the brutality department either, as some of it can be quite literally bone crunching at times.

The most memorable sequence was when towards the end of the second episode, our lovely Daredevil-to-be was fighting several guys over and over in a tight corridor with it going on for several minutes as one cut and you basically felt just as exhausted as he was! It was all technically impressive stuff and something I will remember for quite some time to come. The epic battle to come with Fisk and The new Daredevil on the block when the red leather finally makes an appearance is also something to savour.

I can’t stop referring too much to what happens during the course of the first series, there are too many good things to bring up that it’s a shame that I couldn’t just keep going, so what about the actual production itself? After all, it’s relying quite a bit on the funding from Netflix and Marvel, who granted have quite deep pockets, don’t actually have advertising to aid in the budget. It’s also not unknown for blatant product placement to come up in Netflix created content, as was quite galling with House of Cards. Playstation Vita anyone?

It’s actually remarkable how high the production values are most of the time throughout and save for the few products showing up, like the handy Windows 10 device used to make a father fear for his daughter’s life (Apparently no one evil uses Apple….), overall there were very few distractions from what was happening. The shaky cam nature of most of the on screen action does fit well with what goes on without getting too much on your nerves that things shake too much.

Perhaps this level of quality lends itself well to sticking with just 13 episodes. It allows for greater exploration of themes, without overstaying any welcome and more in each episode in terms of budget. One of the best things about the show is that it’s also very clear that you don’t need to know who Daredevil was to even begin with, as this series is there to lay a huge amount of foundation down with their own mark from the comic book source material. Therefore anyone can actually enjoy this without getting too lost with needing to know what happened with the rest of the Marvel universe, though of course there are numerous references littered around the place for those playing attention, but still vague enough to not over do it.

So to sum up, the first series of Daredevil is utter sh*te and no-one in their right mind would ever want to watch it.

Seriously? If you didn’t get the amount of fawning over this written so far, you may be even more blind then old Mad Murdock himself.

Daredevil actually was a hell of a decent first outing for everyone involved and it will be a real treat to see what series two brings up and how in future they will tie in all the characters together to form the diet coke version of the Avengers due when all the others have shown up. Only Jessica Jones has appeared since (which will get a write up on Ooh Sometimes at some point) and Luke Cage, a character who appears within the Jessica Jones series, is next on the roster to show what he is made of.

If you can part with the cash for Netflix or even sign up for the free month trial, this is very much worth it, though if you wish to hold out till April when Series 2 comes into focus, you could do worse than lose an entire weekend to watching it from start to finish.

Especially as by all accounts, man crush Mr Jason Statham makes an appearance…..oh yeah….