Daredevil (Netflix)

I did not like this season. The Punisher stuff was OK, but I couldn’t buy the plotline. I just can’t deal with ninjas in modern day. It makes no sense.

Well, it’s Daredevil. That means a shitload of ninjas.

Thats the thing about comic book adaptations. People bitch because OMG they are ruining the characters and raping my childhood by not following canon! Then when they do follow canon, its OMG this is frikkin ridiculous! Thats so unrealistic. Talk about a no win situation.

I have no problems with ninjas in the modern era. If you want to think of The Hand as a lunatic cult, which is what makes modern Matt comfortable with them, why not? There are certainly a lot of weird things going on at the fringes of society.

Deadpool sent to assassinate Matt Murdock:

Loved Season 2. Loved where it went, loved most of the fight sequences, the weirdo mysticism, the craziness of The Hand, the trial, quite a bit of what they did with The Punisher, and not to mention at least two cameos (one of which I nearly shouted with joy) that I didn’t even expect.

— Alan

Holy moses you guys are free with spoilers! I guess thats the downside of this releasing all at once thing.

Man, finally wrapped it up. Definitely loved it, even if it ends on (what I consider to be) several down notes with relationships I really enjoyed watching shaken up badly and great characters displaced from their “homes” rather severely.

All that said, I just don’t care for sad or even “mixed” endings because I’m an emotional child :)

Nonetheless, the season was absolutely phenomenal. The Punisher stuff was so well handled I almost wanted to scream a little, there were so many absolutely wicked fights and so many ultra cool moments in them (holy chain-attacks, Batman!), and a lot of fantastic delivery from basically every actor who showed up to shoot.

A certain returning ninja really made my day, and his loss really bites. Again. Dammit!

I haven’t read this thread since the first day season 2 was released since people seemed to feel the need to immediately view all 13 hours and post things that I considered spoiler-ish, but I got the sense that people felt the season was just o.k.

Well, I just finished episode 9 and I think this season has been amazing - easily the best series derived from comic source material. Everything to do with the Punisher and Elektra has been fantastic, and the manner in which the overall storyiine was crafted, using integrated smaller arcs, has worked wonderfully. It’s been much, much better than the first season, and more consistent than Jessica Jones was. I felt both of those prior seasons somewhat petered to a close though, so I’m wary that my praise for this season is premature, but I am so giddy about how well this season worked out that I couldn’t hold off posting until I’d gotten to the end of the season.

I know it’s tempting to binge watch these, but I think for me, at least, I’ve gotten a lot more enjoyment out of watching one, or at most 2, episodes a night. I just think lengthier viewing spans would make the fighting choreography more redundant, and the legal office machinations more bloated and tiresome.

I do think that Foggy and Karen are the worst parts of the show, particularly Foggy, who is just such a schlub and (more importantly) such a weak actor. The acting in general on the show isn’t a strength - it’s pretty jarring going from a show with higher production values like Fargo, the Leftovers, Better Call Saul, Game of Thrones, etc. and seeing a much weaker cast, and scripting that often seems like a rough first draft. But the plotting was been very solid this season, and the other key roles are well cast.

Much as a dislike Foggy, I once again went through the same viewing arc as I did last season with the character - initially despising him and finding the acting distracting - but gradually warming up to both the actor and the character. Maybe he’s necessary. It’s really hard to take such a dumpy fool seriously as a competent lawyer, however, but the legal aspects of the show are pretty cringe-worthy in general (the one week trial notice!) I did find Matt’s arc as he’s gradually drawn away from his legal career towards his life as Daredevil and engaging with Elektra to be very interesting - he knows he’s being negligent, he knows he’s letting his friends, potential girlfriend, and clients down - but he still feels compelled to do so. It’s almost analogous to a drug or alcohol addiction (which is what Karen naturally suspects) in that initially it’s just fun, then it’s fun with problems, and ultimately it’s all problems.

I strongly disagree with most of the early reviews I skimmed prior to the start of the season – this is as good an adaptation of the source material, supplemented by some creative, cohesive, plotting and fresh perspective on characters that at times can otherwise feel too worn. The characterization of the Punisher as a more emotional, damaged individual instead of just being the Ennis-style, cold and calculated badass - could annoy fans of that character interpretation but it brought something original to the show, and weaved his motivations and perspective in well with Karen’s (given her role in the aftermath of season 1 as a killer of a bad person) and Matt’s (given his motivation to be what he considers a more moral vigilante). The thematic depth at times elevates the show in unexpected ways.

Anyway, looking forward to reading more of this thread after I finish with the season. But as of the end of 9 episodes, it’s a 9/10 for me.

My wife and I are only about halfway through for the same reason. I watch, at most, 4 hours of television a week. Unless I have something I specifically want to watch, such as Daredevil, the number is 0-1. So it takes a few weeks to burn through even a short season.

I do think that Foggy and Karen are the worst parts of the show, particularly Foggy, who is just such a schlub and (more importantly) such a weak actor. The acting in general on the show isn’t a strength - it’s pretty jarring going from a show with higher production values like Fargo, the Leftovers, Better Call Saul, Game of Thrones, etc. and seeing a much weaker cast, and scripting that often seems like a rough first draft. But the plotting was been very solid this season, and the other key roles are well cast.

I personally don’t see this, especially with Foggy. But then again I generally tend to not notice the quality of performance unless it really is exceptionally good or bad. Case in point: I don’t understand why everyone thinks FemShep is better than MaleShep as far as voice actors go. I just don’t hear it.

but the legal aspects of the show are pretty cringe-worthy in general (the one week trial notice!)

Well you work in a legal related field. You probably react the same way my father does to any show with firefighters, my mother with nurses, and I do whenever they talk computer programming. Namely you want to claw your face off at the stupid. To people not in those fields it is largely invisible. shrug

I did find Matt’s arc as he’s gradually drawn away from his legal career towards his life as Daredevil and engaging with Elektra to be very interesting - he knows he’s being negligent, he knows he’s letting his friends, potential girlfriend, and clients down - but he still feels compelled to do so. It’s almost analogous to a drug or alcohol addiction (which is what Karen naturally suspects) in that initially it’s just fun, then it’s fun with problems, and ultimately it’s all problems.

Still have yet to hit the payoff, but I love this setup. The hero who can’t have it all, and whose lifestyle choices have real ramifications, even with those not in the know.

Another Foggy hater! Ugh! I can’t even debate it, because I just have such a hard time seeing that criticism at all!

I ended up liking this season quite a bit (if only for the fight choreography - I mean wow) but the lawyer related events really, really grated, and I am certainly not a lawyer - I just watch too much TV.

I was just dumbfounded when Matt asked to treat the witness as hostile, then didn’t even ask a question but proceeded with a bonus closing arguments spiel. I couldn’t even listen to what he was saying, I was too busy waiting for the prosecution to go all Phoenix Wright on him.

Matt spends time in court doing lawyer things?

Kidding aside, I haven’t gotten there yet. 6 episodes in and nothing has bothered me too much. Perhaps it gets worse later.

I just finished Season 2. I’m also a Foggy hater, but there’s not much else to say there. The season was fine, and only really came to life with the Punisher plot. I hope he gets his own series sooner rather than later.

I liked a lot of the elements of the season, especially the fight choreography. However, I think it was lacking a villain on the level of Wilson Fisk from season 1.

In fact

I thought the single most compelling scene was when Murdock confronts Fisk in prison, tries and fails to threaten him into releasing information. I really like the mixture of cool deliberation and completely unhinged emotional wrecking machine that D’Onofrio brings to the portrayal. His Kingpin can be genuinely frightening when so many villains are just yawn-inducing.

This was pretty good. It started slow, was great in the middle, but then got silly at the end. Elektra’s flip-flop-flip over the course of 60 seconds was senseless.

I enjoyed the Punisher, easily the best part of the season. Except the trial, that was terrible.

The ninjas annoyed me. Nobu was able to mask his heartbeat by entering a meditative trance, but now they can all do it and fight at the same time? What? Remember they had that dead ninja in the hospital and when they started the autopsy on him they found he had already had an autopsy? My wife figured that meant the ninjas were all zombies. Dumb, but it would explain the lack of a heartbeat. But instead they breathe? Ugh.

I thought it was silly seeing Karen go from secretary to star para-legal to star investigative reporter. I didn’t enjoy her arc.

I like the character of Foggy but I don’t like the actor.

I like Deborah Ann Woll (Karen) a lot, but yeah, I thought Karen’s staircase this season (calling it an arc is…generous) was the weakest bit of a generally excellent show.

I liked a lot of the creepier elements around the Hand but the actual ninjas were silly and that particular arc lacked real payoff.

I generally agree with ninja fail, they’re really a thing that’s best left in the 90s. Also agree with Fisk still being the best villain for DD yet, he’s just so terrifyingly inexorable.

But other than that, this was a cracking show. I’ve never really liked the Punisher character, always thought of him as a bit cheap and tacky; but they really brought him to life here. Elektra was stunning. DD himself awesome. Stick sublime. Don’t get the Foggy hate, love him. Got a bit bored with Karen always being in some sort of breathless crisis state, but hey, she handles crises well. Fight scenes a fine art.

Basically, although you can complain about some of the parts, and it didn’t have quite the epic quality of the first season, it hung together very well and I think, all told, the show was slicker and smoother. I’ve complained about the way DD and JJ were a bit stretched out and had too much filler, seemingly in order to make up the full quota of episodes, but I never felt that with this season of DD - in terms of writing, and everything gelling to make a coherent whole, I felt it flowed very well and was gripping throughout.

Your vote for best fight scene in season 2?

Prison, Punisher, Shanks. Nuff said?