Marvel's Daredevil

Daredevil, like the similarly sensational Jessica Jones, feels like a show that is constantly evolving, and consistently searching for challenges.

Daredevil is still strong in its sophomore outing, a muscular and visually mesmerizing series that continues to explore its gritty, intense corner of the MCU even as it tells its own stories and, crucially, builds characters complete and compelling enough to exist both within its boundaries and (if the Man Without Fear, the Punisher, or Elektra end up tapped for Infinity War) without them.

[Daredevil] begins season two on an uneven note, occasionally feeling as if he’s taken a detour from dark and gritty into the realm of Sam Peckinpah movies, complete with slow-motion bullets and blood sprays. Stick with it, though, and the show blossoms.

Ultimately, Petrie and Ramirez created a season that fully understands Daredevil's strengths and plays to them accordingly. But this second installment is underwritten, and has failed to build on the show's fine first season.

The return of an old girlfriend, Elektra (Elodie Yung), gives us what may be an important glimpse into Matt's past, but also adds a second character who's more colorful (if more annoying) than Daredevil. Happily, the seven episodes I've seen also deal with Matt's daytime life and the struggling law firm he's running with his friend Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and their peerless (and fearless) assistant, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll, True Blood), two characters I might watch even if they didn't hang out with a tortured hero.

Punisher and Elektra make it hard for Matt and Daredevil to operate and both Bernthal and Yung spend a lot of the first half of the season upstaging Cox, who has to capture a struggle that's internal, while his scene partners are playing things that are very external. And the two new additions are so vivid that there's a challenge to remain wholly invested in plotlines that don't involve them, which is tough for Foggy and, in particular, Karen.... But Daredevil still has its brooding, punchy pieces in place for a promising second season.

Daredevil” isn’t only mindlessly violent, but mindless, too. The cast is terrific, production values superlative and direction first-rate.... But is there a functioning brain, or at least a higher purpose, maybe a deeper one? Like Matt’s own search for meaning, good luck finding answers.

Every now and then, there will be a great moment, like the aforementioned Punisher monologue, or Henson's Foggy calming down a violent situation, but on the whole it's too unfocused to entirely work, and has to lean even more than before on the inherent charisma of its actors.

Mr. Cox and Elden Hanson, as Foggy, do earnestness well and put across the sometimes dopey dialogue better than you’d have a right to expect. There’s not, however, a lot of wit or shading to their performances--the writing can be blamed, but they could be doing more to amplify it, to make the show more fun. For that, we can turn to Deborah Ann Woll, who jolts the show to life every time she appears as Karen.

I admire the series without being very engaged by it, but I can certainly see why you might get more hooked on it.

Goddard, DeKnight, and D’Onofrio are gone, and so is the spark. Season 2--overseen by exec producers Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez, who both wrote on season 1--is a straight-up disappointment.