Marvel's Daredevil

This is a smart, simmering human-scale crime drama that transcends the superhero genre.

This is easily the best of Marvel's three shows so far, and quickly moves towards the front of the overall superhero TV pack.

At best, Daredevil feels like a pulpier Batman Begins, complete with daddy-issue flashbacks. At worst, it's a much better Gotham. [10 Apr 2015, p.58]

Daredevil stands alone as an artful, gritty ensemble drama that could elevate the superhero origin story like HBO’s “True Detective” did for the crime procedural.

It's rich with character development, don't get me wrong--honestly, there's a point where you almost feel that you understand the supervillain better than the superhero--and offers up a lot of entertainment along the way. It's just not "The Wire."

Some of the show’s episode-by-episode plot threads do come across as perfunctory filler. And Daredevil has a tendency to stretch out its conversational scenes to the point of enervation, especially with regard to Fisk’s attempts to romance an art gallery owner (played by Man of Steel’s Ayelet Zurer). However, the show makes up for those missteps with its clear and compelling voice.

It's a comic-book origins tale, but a satisfyingly adult one.

Netflix’s Daredevil makes the case that not all superhero shows are created equal and this one improves markedly on both the previous “Daredevil” movie and the other, current Marvel universe TV series.

It’s dark and gripping, smart and sure-footed, and takes itself and its audience seriously while avoiding either pretentious brooding or fanboy pandering. It’s also adventurous and different, in a way a show this good was always going to need to be.... Daredevil isn’t a perfect show, nor is it quite a great one, at least not yet.... But it’s startlingly good.

The series is a breath of fresh air: It's not flippant, but neither is it geekily earnest; it's moody and dark, yet never self-indulgent; it has strong characterization without resorting to caricature.

It's dark and, yes, gritty, but the tone fits the character, and it's obvious the series' creators have a real familiarity and affection for their source material.

Daredevil is an intelligent, well-crafted drama series that may be a little thin on actual action for those expecting the CGI orgies associated with the modern Marvel logo but contains the nuance and character that has been missing from most of those blockbusters.

The pulpy style and brutality (torture is one of Daredevil’s tools) clearly seek a higher sense of realism, which must be balanced against the notion of a blind superhero who can shimmy up walls and whose spectacularly hearing lets him to function, among other things, as a human lie detector. Helpfully, Cox brings the necessary mix of grit and Marvel-esque self-doubts to the dual role.

Daredevil's story does get a bit repetitive at times, but is broken up by an increasingly broad swath of subplots.... Though [show creator] Goddard never lets the cynicism of this world override the joy and wonder of Daredevil, it's clear that he's spoiling for a good fight.

So much about Marvel’s Daredevil works exactly the way it’s intended, including the pace of the action and the extent and style of the gore. What still doesn’t work--what almost never works where the name Marvel and live-action film/TV meet--is the hammy dialogue, especially when characters express their feelings to one another.

Like too many genre shows with a prestige patina, Daredevil lacks dynamism. It initially seems like a bold choice to allow scenes to play out much longer and quieter than they would on regular TV, but that stylistic tic eventually becomes enervating.

The series gets off to a slow start, parceling out bits of the title character’s origin story over flashbacks in the first two episodes, and taking its time to introduce the supporting cast. But once Vincent D’Onofrio appears onscreen as Wilson Fisk, the dapper crime-boss villain known in the Marvel comic books as Kingpin, things pick up considerably, and Fisk turns out to be an even more fascinating and complex character than the protagonist.

As crime shows go, it’s pretty good. As comic book shows go, it’s a demonstration of how tricky it can be to turn a comic book into a show.... It’s just that too much of the story feels indistinct, like disconnected chunks of a much-better-than-average cop show.

It's competently assembled but ultimately sort of hollow.

While we get an origin story, it’s not drawn out, and right from the start, Murdock is fighting crime. The fighting is particularly well-staged.... The dialogue, however, could use some of that snap. The exchanges between Matt, Foggy, and Karen aim for the sort of brisk funniness that was a hallmark of shows these producers have worked on, including Buffy and Angel, but it’s mostly strained stuff. Actually, the purely plot-driven lines are more amusing.