Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Starring Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock / Daredevil), Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk), Eldon Henson (Foggy Nelson), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Toby Leonard Moore (James Wesley), Vondie Curtis-Hall (Ben Urich), Ayelet Zurer (Vanessa Marianna), and Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple)
DAREDEVIL SEASON ONE
Produced by Marvel Television
Originally aired on Netflix
Number of Episodes: 13
Initial Streaming: April 10, 2015
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Fun Daredevil: Season One Facts
Daredevil was created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Bill Everrett (with some input from Jack Kirby), debuting in Daredevil # 1 in 1964. The character was quite the unique superhero as he was written to have been blinded by a radioactive substance when he was a child, heroically suffering exposure to the substance when he ironically saved a blind man from being run over by the truck that was transporting the substance. Adding to the uniqueness of Daredevil as a character is his job as a practicing lawyer in Hell’s Kitchen and the unique lives of his parents; a mother who is a nun and a father who was a boxer that was murdered after deciding against purposefully throwing a fight. The Matt Murdock character is furthermore a devoted yet conflicted catholic, adding even more layers to the complexity of the character. Though Daredevil is usually depicted in a red superhero costume with a horned mask, the character originally wore a predominantly yellow outfit in the early comics. During the 1980’s, writer / artist Frank Miller began his iconic run on Daredevil, taking the character in a much darker direction, writing a series of violent and mature stories that garnered the character and the Daredevil series critical acclaim. It was Miller who introduced the Elektra character and who reimagined The Kingpin (traditionally a villain in Spider-Man stories) as Daredevil’s arch-nemesis. Miller furthermore wrote two acclaimed limited series that revolved around Daredevil: Daredevil: Born Again and Daredevil: The Man Without Fear. Beyond Miller’s work, Daredevil’s most acclaimed stories have been those that are darker in tone. Writers such as Kevin Smith, Brian Michael Bendis, and Ed Brubaker did revolutionary things with the character and his supporting cast and the team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale wrote what is probably my favorite Daredevil story: Daredevil: Yellow.
In 2003, Marvel Studios produced a Daredevil film that was distributed by 20th Century Fox starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner with Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, and Jon Favreau. The film grossed $17 million and was generally not well received (the film boasts a 43% Approval Rating on Rotten Tomatoes). A loosely connected sequel starring Jennifer Garner in a reprisal of her role as Elektra that was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox, was released in 2005. Elektra was a critical failure and a box office bomb, generating a mere $57 million at the worldwide box office. Elektra boasts a mere 11% Approval Rating on Rotten Tomatoes. You can find my reviews for both 2003’s Daredevil and 2005’s Elektra on the site’s dropdown menu under the “Other Marvel Studios Movies” tab.
Marvel Television was founded on June 28, 2010, roughly six-months after the Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment and just over two years after the introduction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Marvel Studios with the theatrical release of Iron Man in 2008. Jeph Loeb was named Executive Vice President of Marvel TV upon the launch, working in a position that was similar to the one that Marvel Studios President Kevin Fiege held on the movie side of things. While projects surrounding The Hulk and Jessica Jones were in various phases of development by Marvel TV early into launch, it wasn’t until 2012 that a television series under the new regime truly got off the ground and that series was Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. A Pilot for the show was ordered by ABC over the Summer of 2012, with intentions for the series to be set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, coming off the monumental success of Marvel Studios’ The Avengers as well as the other five films that comprised Phase One of the MCU: the aforementioned Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk (distributed by Universal Pictures), Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger.
Shortly after the debut of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel Television began shopping four individual series that would culminate in a team-up series; the same formula that Kevin Feige and his Marvel Studios team used in their First Phase of MCU films from 2008-2012 which culminated in The Avengers. These shows would be based on Marvel characters Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, and would culminate in a team-up series: The Defenders. The Netflix streaming service quickly reached a deal with Marvel Entertainment and Daredevil debuted on April 10, 2015, followed by Jessica Jones on November 20, 2015, a Second Season of Daredevil on March 18, 2016, Luke Cage on September 30, 2016, Iron Fist on March 17, 2017, and The Defenders on August 18, 2017. These shows were much darker in tone than traditional Marvel Studios movies were, and they were for the most part met with widespread critical acclaim. The most praise was heaped upon actor Charlie Cox and his portrayal of Matt Murdock / Daredevil, actor Vincent D’Onofrio for his portrayal of Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin, actress Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, actor David Tennant as Kilgrave / The Purple Man, actor Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle / The Punisher (who debuted during the Second Season of Daredevil), and actor Mahershala Ali for his portrayal of Cottonmouth. Daredevil eventually produced three critically acclaimed Seasons while Jessica Jones produced three as well, and The Punisher had two highly praised Seasons of his own. The First Season of Luke Cage was generally well received, but both Iron Fist and The Defenders team-up series were divisive. Though these Netflix shows were scripted to be set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, callbacks to the MCU movies were limited, but certainly there for fans that were paying attention.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
MCU Easter eggs in the First Season of Daredevil begin with the show’s overall villainous plot as several crime lords have come together and risen to power amidst the rebuilding of portions of New York following the Chitauri invasion led by the Asgardian God of Mischief Loki as seen in The Avengers. The criminal underworld is fueled by drugs, financial conspiracies, human trafficking, and of course murder, and Matt Murdock quickly finds himself in a war to bring the regime down both in court alongside his best friend and fellow lawyer Foggy Nelson and on the streets as the black-mask-wearing Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. The event that MCU fans know as “The Battle of New York” is referred to as “The Incident” throughout the Daredevil series. Other MCU Easter eggs in Season of Daredevil include framed newspapers in the office of reporter Ben Urich of the stories he wrote on The Battle of New York as well as The Hulk’s fight with the monstrous Abomination (as seen in The Incredible Hulk). Also, the iconic Stan Lee, known for his numerous cameo appearances across Marvel Cinematic Universe films and beyond can be seen in a framed picture hanging on the wall at the police precinct. Furthermore, in context to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, Daredevil illustrates the consequences of big superhero fights such as the Battle of New York and how common people are affected. The Battle of New York left portions of New York in ruins, and Wilson Fisk and his cohorts have taken advantage of that, working from the shadows to profit from the carnage and building quite the empire for themselves at the expense of the innocent and the impressionable. Tackling these issues subtly sets up the premise of Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Civil War, a film that would address the outcry by many citizens for superheroes to be kept in-check via government regulation with Harlem (The Incredible Hulk), New Mexico (Thor), New York (The Avengers), London (Thor: The Dark World), Washington DC (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and Nigeria, South Africa and Sokovia (Avengers: Age of Ultron) all playing host to extravagant battles involving The Avengers that was costly in terms of both physical destruction and human lives.
Behind the scenes as Marvel Television continued to take on new projects, Kevin Feige and his Marvel Studios team were reportedly none too thrilled with the intended expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into television and streaming and a sort of real-life Civil War erupted within Marvel Entertainment. This was a fight over characters and themes. As far as Marvel Entertainment as a whole was concerned, their shows and films existed in ONE Shared Universe, and everything was “All Connected.” On Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios’ side however, these shows were seen at the time as irrelevant, and the movies were all that mattered. Joss Whedon, who directed two Avengers movies for Marvel Studios in 2012 and 2015, respectively, while also assisting in the development of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., in fact publicly called the divide between Marvel TV and Marvel Studios out in 2015, around the time that Daredevil was released on Netflix and that Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron was released in theaters, stating “I think actually the movie people were a little bit cross about [Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]. They were sort of like ‘Well you can have this but not this. And this but not that.’ It’s complicated enough as it is without me adding another layer of complication. We also created a TV show called S.H.I.E.L.D. right before they made a movie where they destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. So, everybody’s having a GREAT time!”
Future written works would reveal that Kevin Feige resented Marvel Television over Jeph Loeb and his team being given control over Daredevil and other Defenders characters after Marvel regained the rights to them because he had intentions of using them in the films, and this made for a somewhat hostile environment where Jeph Loeb and his team worked hard to stay true to the narrative that was being told in the Marvel Studios films while Kevin Feige and his team made no effort to acknowledge anything that was happening on the television side of things. Kevin Feige was furthermore frustrated over having to answer to Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter and his Marvel Creative Committee, which oversaw all MCU projects at the time.
On August 31, 2015, everything came to a head with the announcement from The Walt Disney Company that moving forward, Marvel Studios would move out from under Marvel Entertainment and would fall directly under the jurisdiction of Walt Disney Pictures with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige answering directly to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn instead of Marvel Entertainment Chairman Ike Perlmutter. Reports emerged that revealed Kevin Feige had nearly resigned as Marvel Studios President due to the rift between himself and Perlmutter that had worsened over the course of the development of Captain America: Civil War. Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger talked Feige down with the promise that changes would come imminently, and those changes finally manifested themselves at the end of the Summer. These changes dramatically altered Marvel Studios as not only did Feige no longer have to deal with Perlmutter, but he no longer had to deal with the Marvel Creative Committee either, and the divide between the movie and film divisions that already existed widened to the point that each of the television shows significantly reduced their references to the events of the films, and to where most fans eventually grew to believe that only the productions that were produced by Marvel Studios were considered official MCU canon by Marvel Studios. In fact, despite many of the actors who signed Marvel Television contracts doing so under the impression that their shows took place within the MCU and an understanding that the potential was there for movie crossovers, it wasn’t until 2019’s Avengers: Endgame that the first instance of a character that was introduced by Marvel Television formally reprised their role within the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a movie and that was done on a technicality when James D’Arcy reprised his role as a Variant of his Agent Carter character Edwin Jarvis during the 1970’s portion of The Avengers’ Time Heist. Aside from that, Kevin Feige showed no interest in bringing characters introduced by Marvel Television to the big screen for MCU crossovers, and during the climactic Battle of Earth in Avengers: Endgame, characters from The Defenders were nowhere to be seen.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
In the meantime, Marvel Television went on to produce several other series’ including two Seasons of Agent Carter for ABC (debuting in 2015 and featuring some creative input from the Marvel Studios team), the widely hated Inhumans show shortly in theaters and on ABC (debuting September 29, 2017), Runaways on Hulu (debuting November 21, 2017), Cloak and Dagger (debuting June 7, 2018) on Freeform, and Helstrom on Hulu (debuting October 16, 2020). ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. meanwhile lasted for seven Seasons, ending on August 12, 2020.
On December 10, 2019, following the promotion of Kevin Feige to Marvel Chief Creative Officer by The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Television was folded into Marvel Studios with Jeph Loeb leaving Marvel Entertainment and the Studio focusing its television content on the production of shows for the upstart Disney+ streaming service that would be firmly and undisputedly set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, complete with multiple character crossovers from movies to television and from television to movies.
Then, Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched what Kevin Feige has since labeled The Multiverse Saga. As Phase Four evolved, Kevin Feige began to explore some of the toys that his suddenly deeper and wider sandbox boasted, beginning with a deal with Sony Pictures (with whom Marvel Studios began working in 2015 when Spider-Man was brought into the MCU) that would canonize all of Sony’s past Spider-Man films and the entirety of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe with it. All of this came together in the production of the Marvel Studios / Sony Pictures 2021 film Spider-Man: No Way Home which brought several characters from past Sony Spider-Man films into the MCU 616-Universe including Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man from Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3, and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man from The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. What may have been the worst kept secret in Hollywood history was still monumentally exciting for MCU fans and longtime Marvel movie fans alike, but the dual Spider-Man appearances weren’t the only intended surprise. For also appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home was Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil! Though his appearance was little more than a cameo, it was immensely thrilling to see Cox share the screen with Tom Holland (Peter Parker), Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan), and Marisa Tomei (Aunt May) and after more than three-years following the end of the Daredevil Netflix series, MCU fans could finally get excited for the character’s future! Around this time, Vincent D’Onofrio appeared in Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series Hawkeye in a reprisal of his role as Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin as well. Meanwhile, and due to the rocky past relationship between Marvel Studios and Marvel Television, fans openly wondered – and debated – whether or not the respective versions of Daredevil and Kingpin in No Way Home and Hawkeye were one in the same as the versions of the characters that appeared in the Netflix shows.
Following the Marvel Studios debuts of Cox and D’Onofrio, each of Marvel Television’s Netflix series’ moved over to Disney+ from Netflix on March 16, 2022. Then, at the 2022 San Diego Comic Con, Kevin Feige announced that Cox and D’Onofrio would reprise their respective roles in a Marvel Studios Disney+ series titled Daredevil: Born Again. From there, Charlie Cox appeared as Daredevil once again in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series on Disney+ (complete with the familiar Daredevil Netflix theme when She-Hulk questions who he was) and Cox and D’Onofrio each filmed scenes for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Disney+ series Echo. On top of all of that, Jon Bernthal (who debuted as Frank Castle / The Punisher in the Second Season of Daredevil) was confirmed to be appearing in Daredevil: Born Again in a reprisal of the role that he portrayed for Netflix as well. In November of 2023, Marvel Studios announced a new branding of select projects under the “Marvel Spotlight” banner. These were explained as projects that would be set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe that would focus on self-contained, character-driven stories that fans could enjoy without needing to catch up on other Marvel content. Echo was announced as the first MCU project under the “Marvel Spotlight” banner.
As the canon debate continued to rage, no one from Marvel Studios would either confirm or deny that the continuity of the now former Netflix shows would be honored in the projects that were hard at work developing. Then, the 2023 book Marvel Studios – The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline seemed to confirm that the histories of the characters were NOT going to be honored, as there was no mention of either Daredevil or Kingpin in the book prior to their respective appearances in No Way Home or Hawkeye. However, during an interview with Screen Rant that aired on January 3, 2024 (less than three-months after the Official Timeline book was published), Marvel Studios Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation: Brad Winderbaum confirmed that the Netflix shows WERE canon and that the events seen in those shows took place within the MCU 616-Universe and upon the Sacred Timeline that was established in the Disney+ series Loki. So, yes, these ARE in fact the same versions of Daredevil and Kingpin whose journeys viewers of those now former Netflix shows followed! This was further confirmed the following day when a new trailer promoting Echo featured footage from the now former Netflix shows. Then from there, on January 10, 2024 (the day after all five episodes of Echo dropped on Disney+), each of the shows that comprised The Defenders Saga were moved to fit into the MCU chronology on Marvel’s Disney+ “MCU Timeline” menu page.
It really was “All Connected” all along!
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Marvel Studios’ Echo series premiered on Disney+ on January 9, 2024, with a Mature rating and very much boasting the spirit of the now former Netflix shows with plenty of blood, violence, and hard-hitting action scenes mixed in. Charlie Cox briefly appeared in the first episode of Echo, suited up in his familiar red suit (Cox wore a predominantly yellow suit in She-Hulk) battling the deaf soon-to-be-hero. Meanwhile, Echo’s past with Wilson Fisk (first established in Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series Hawkeye) was further explored with Vincent D’Onofrio stealing the show as Kingpin. As had been speculated in recent days, the past of Fisk as established in Daredevil was honored, specifically the murder of his father by his own hand when he was a child.
Echo garnered a respectable 73% Approval Rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was confirmed to have been significantly edited by Marvel Studios in post-production. While Echo was always intended to set the stage for Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again, that series has undergone numerous changes as well, with Marvel Studios deciding to completely overhaul the series mid-way through production. The decision came at a time of self-reflection for Kevin Feige and his team following the return to Disney of Bob Iger and during a challenging time for the Studio that in addition to a Writer’s and Actor’s strike included some of the worst-reviewed and worst-performing Marvel Studios productions since Feige went into independent filmmaking from the divisive Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, to the critically loathed Secret Invasion series, to the box office bomb The Marvels, and on to outside controversies that included the leave of longtime Marvel Studios executive Victoria Alonso and the removal of Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror (The Multiverse Saga’s intended Big Bad) due to a domestic violence incident and consequent arrest and conviction.
Iger and Feige came together to approach the future from a “Quality over Quantity” standpoint with many suggesting that the decision to make The Defenders Saga canon only came recently and was made in desperation due to the general feeling that what the people that were overseeing the production of Daredevil: Born Again were doing with the characters and the overall narrative just wasn’t working. Chris Ord and Matt Corman were therefore relieved of their duties and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead, who previously worked for Marvel Studios on Moon Knight and Loki: Season Two, were brought in along with Dario Scardapane (who worked as a writer on The Punisher series) as the new showrunner. Daredevil: Born Again was originally slated for a 2024 release on Disney+ but is now expected to be released sometime in 2025. Daredevil regulars Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page) and Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson) have also recently been confirmed to be reprising their respectful Daredevil roles, another creative change that was made at the beginning of 2024.
Upon the MCU (Sacred) Timeline, Daredevil: Season One takes place after Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two and before Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
My Daredevil: Season One Review
Into the Ring – Directed by Phil Abraham and Written by Drew Goddard
I am a huge fan of Daredevil as a character, and I was a huge fan of the Daredevil series. At the time of its release, it was like anything I’d ever seen in a Marvel live-action project. Daredevil predated Marvel films like Deadpool and Logan that embraced their R-rating and turned up the volume on various adult themes. Daredevil was intended to be hard-hitting, gritty, violent, and bloody with complex characters and dramatic circumstances that would focus on smaller stakes while existing on its own street-level corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Over the years that have passed since 2015, I grew to find the “is it or isn’t it” canon debate to be annoying and I found Kevin Feige’s reluctance to embrace this specific series and the ones that followed it to reek of pride and pettiness, and I say that begrudgingly because I adore Kevin Feige and everything that he has meant for Marvel as a company and for the MCU as a Shared Universe. I rarely ever criticize him and to be fair, I’m sure I don’t know everything that went on behind the scenes with all of the parties involved, but I have to believe that some kind of mutual understanding could have been reached and that everyone could have found a way to work together for the sake of their company and its fans. And, let me say that Feige’s decision this year, regardless of the why’s and whatnots is a reflection of his humility and willingness to do what’s best for his company and its fans. Daredevil was always intended to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the MCU is better for having Daredevil be a part of it! For this is an absolutely incredible show!
The first couple of episodes of Daredevil alone reflect the need for these shows to be canon and that’s because I don’t think anyone could show and tell Matt Murdock’s origin story better than what we got in this series. From the chemical waste crash and the chilling and heartbreaking reaction of young Matt screaming to his dad that he can’t see, to how he more or less parented his boxer father and all the way to Jack Murdock’s murder after he refused to throw a big fight and young Matt finding his father’s lifeless body in an alley close to his home was all perfect. The acting, the chemistry, the controversy … it was all executed brilliantly in a way that clearly told the story it was trying to tell while setting Matt Murdock up not only as a hero from the start, but as someone that is going to grow up with many demons.
Daredevil’s origin story is primarily told through a series of clever flashbacks that sort of let us see into Matt’s mind in times of desperation. This keeps the story informative while moving forward. Meanwhile, so many characters are established early along with a unique tone that seeks to both set itself apart from traditional Marvel productions while tying into the greater MCU narrative at the same time. This is done only subtly, but I think it was the right decision! You don’t need to be watching Matt’s limp body lying in a dumpster and wondering when Iron Man is going to fly in to assist him. You can build to something like that certainly, and I was as excited as anybody when Matt showed up in Spider-Man: No Way Home and shared a scene with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, but it just wasn’t needed in this initial Season. This story is smaller and darker, and while it is kind of cool to think of Matt hearing about the exploits of The Avengers and imagining how he feels about all of that as a crime-fighting hero himself, it’s equally easy to understand that Iron Man and Captain America are dealing with alien invasions and killer sentient robots and therefore aren’t really aware of who Daredevil is and don’t really concern themselves with street-level crime. In fact, Tony Stark says as much to Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming. There are things that need not involve superheroes that local law enforcement and the court system are expected to deal with. Of course, Matt knows that such a notion does not quite ring true due to the manipulative power of organized crime, and he takes it upon himself to be the superhero that Hell’s Kitchen needs in the night while defending the innocent in court during the day.
I loved that our introduction to an adult Matt was in the confessional. The character’s Catholicism and complex issues with the Christan God have added to his intrigue in the comics and I loved that it was honored. I loved the “I’m not asking for forgiveness for something I’ve done, I’m asking for forgiveness for what I’m about to do” line too. Just really great writing and the sincerity with which Charlie Cox delivers the line was spot on. From there, we explore Matt’s lawyering. We meet Foggy Nelson and the chemistry between Cox and Elden Henson is noticeable right from the start. You can tell that they’re best friends and they have a fun dynamic with Foggy coming across as almost annoyed by Matt’s optimism and good will while being a little freaked out by Matt’s abilities to involve himself with attractive women and to tell when someone is lying.
The very first episode of Daredevil showed us Matt as a heroic and tragically damaged child, Matt as a practicing Catholic that is struggling to balance morality with necessity, Matt as a lawyer, and Matt as a crime-fighting vigilante. I found that to be a remarkable accomplishment while also being very satisfying.
From there, we are introduced to Karen Page, and she is introduced as pretty much the character that she will be throughout the First Season and that is an innocent someone who stumbled upon information with which she felt compelled to do the right thing, and consequently got mixed up in a world that she never sought to be a part of. The performance of Deborah Ann Woll was amazing from the first time we see her as she is horrified and covered in blood while hovering over the bloody and very much dead body of her co-worker. Just the visual of her holding the knife that butchered him screaming “I didn’t do this!” while police burst into her apartment and take her into custody was dramatic and intense and then I just loved how Foggy got tipped-off to her case and Matt and Foggy’s subsequent interactions with the detectives; it was all so very well done!
More than anything else, this episode was about Karen Page vs Union Allied and their effort to silence her, first by framing her and then by making an attempt on her life while she was incarcerated before finally trying to kill her at her apartment. These made for some horrifying yet thrilling sequences, and the scene in the jail with the guard trying to kill her and feeling like he had no choice but to do so in order to ensure the safety of his daughter … it was all intense and real and compelling and just a great opening arc to start the series with while leaving you wondering just how far James Wesley’s mysterious employer has his fingers entrenched in the vulnerable city that Matt Murdock calls home.
I think the primary thing that I took away from this episode was that this series was going to ground itself in feeling raw and feeling real. People bleed, people get tired, people die, and people are morally conflicted. The fight sequences at the docks and in Karen’s apartment were phenomenally choreographed and executed while the drama was so good, it somehow seemed to raise the stakes in a show that was supposed to have smaller stakes, and after watching the First Episode, I couldn’t resist immediately going on to Episode Two.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Cut Man – Directed by Phil Abraham and Written by Drew Goddard
The Second Episode of Daredevil opened with the reveal that Matt Murdock has gotten himself into a very dangerous situation in his pursuit of an abducted young boy by the Russian sect of the criminal underworld; a situation that while its stakes were legitimate, was carried out to set Matt up so that the Russians could gain audience with the Man in the Black mask that had been complicating their lives. An injured Matt is ultimately fished out of a dumpster by a woman named Claire who just so happens to be a nurse, and she treats his many wounds as best she can while Matt slips in-and-out of consciousness. Rosario Dawson is instantly likeable in her role here, doctoring Matt and doing her best to not judge him despite the precarious situation that she has found herself in. Claire’s work on Matt is shown in all its gory glory and Charlie Cox’s acting is exceptional throughout the scene.
The ensuing sequence is even better as trouble comes calling when a thug disguised as a police officer knocks on Claire’s door. Matt deduces before he even arrives that he is not who he says he is, and Claire covers for Matt as best she can, but Matt knows that the would-be cop could tell that she was lying to him. This prompts Matt to stumble out the door and drop a fire extinguisher from a high floor on to the man below, knocking him out. The man is then taken to the roof where Matt tortures him with some nervous assistance from Claire, successfully retrieving the location of the kidnapped boy before dropping the thug from the roof and into the same dumpster that Claire retrieved Matt from. This entire scene was really intense and was highlighted by Matt’s perfectly delivered line “Listen, I need you to know why I’m hurting you. It’s not just the boy. I’m doing this because I enjoy it.” Just perfect, and while Claire insists that she doesn’t believe him, as a viewer, you’re not so sure, and that little bit of writing goes a long way toward adding even more depth and complexity to the Daredevil character.
Throughout a lot of this, we get more flashbacks to Matt’s childhood where we get to see all of the events that surrounded his father’s murder, and these were all very well done. Again, no reason to ever try and tell this origin story in live action again. This was all perfect.
This episode ends with one of the greatest action sequences in MCU History, as we are treated to a hallway fight pitting Matt against several thugs that is filmed in a single shot. This was an incredible effort by all involved, and as a viewer, you feel every punch, and all of this was SO well done, complete with Matt kindly comforting the little boy that he went to rescue before walking out with the boy in his arms.
There were some additional scenes between Foggy and Karen that sees them go out for a night of drinking and start to form a strong friendship, and all of that was fun for what it was, but the highlight of this episode was that hallway scene and getting to see just how gutsy and determined that Matt is.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Rabbit in a Snowstorm – Directed by Adam Kane. Written by Marco Ramirez
The third episode of Daredevil served as our formal introduction to Wilson Fisk as well as two more important characters: Ben Urich and Vanessa Marianna. The episode first focuses on John Healy (portrayed by Alex Morph). Healy has been ordered to take out a local crime boss so that his territory can be assumed by the Russian faction of the criminal underworld, and we get a really brutal fight here right out the gate that ends with Healy bashing his target’s head in with a bowling ball.
From there, James Wesley ventures to the office of Nelson and Murdock where he makes them a rather generous financial offer to work under his mysterious employer. Matt and Foggy accept on a trial basis and are directed to an immediate case: defend John Healy. Matt is instinctively suspicious of Wesley and this case quickly becomes a major learning lesson for Matt in terms of how corrupt the system he is working within truly is. First off, Healy is as unconcerned as any person could possibly be with the charges against him and when the case goes to trial, Matt realizes that jury tampering is going on, and despite his best efforts (as Daredevil) he is unable to successfully solve that problem. Matt soon realizes that this case was always going to end with a hung jury and that Healy was going to get off no matter what he and Foggy did due to the powerful forces at play, and he is completely tuned-in to the fact that that James Wesley and his mysterious employer are the reason.
After his release, Matt confronts Healy as Daredevil and the two have a tremendous fight. There is no witty banter to be found here. It’s simply Matt trying to get the name of Wesley’s employer. Healy soon succumbs to the torture and gives Matt the name he is demanding: Wilson Fisk. Healy then stuns Matt by taking his life right then and there after noting that if Fisk found out about what he’d done, he’d kill Healy in the worst way imaginable and follow that up by killing everyone that Healy has ever cared about. Charlie Cox’s expression of shock and subtle fear really sell this sequence.
Meanwhile, Karen Page gets offered a lucrative non-disclosure agreement from Union Allied. This prompts her to turn to reporter Ben Urich, who wrote the expose on Union Allied with the proverbial smoking gun that Karen and Matt anonymously provided to the press. Urich is a grizzled veteran that has seen it all. He misses the fire that once drove him, and his time is divided between his work and trying to provide consistent care for his sick wife. Urich shows interest in what Karen has to say, and she is about to reignite that quiet integrity and the waning fire within his soul.
As the episode closes, we see Wilson Fisk attend an art gallery where he meets Vanessa. Fisk is instantly smitten with her and purchases a rather bland painting that she refers to as a “rabbit in a snowstorm.” Fisk is immensely captivating here with his slow, deliberate way of speaking, his awkward demeanor, and the subtle twitches in his hand. We have at long last met The Kingpin, with his softer side serving as a prelude to the maniacal brute we would see in the following episode.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
In the Blood – Directed by Ken Girotti. Written by Joe Pokaski
In this episode, we get to know the brotherly heads of the Russian faction within Hell’s Kitchen: Vladimir and Anatoly Ranskahov a little more, seeing the time they spent imprisoned in Russia together and exploring their close brotherly bond. Vladimir is the more hot-headed of the two, as we are clearly shown when James Wesley pays the brothers a visit with an offer that he believes they shouldn’t refuse, given their recent troubles with the Man in Black. Vladimir is infuriated with Wesley’s outspoken confidence, which he interprets as insulting arrogance, but after the meeting with Wesley, the brothers venture out to meet with their colleague Semyon, who has been rendered in a coma since he was tossed off a roof and into a dumpster by Daredevil.
One of Matt Murdock’s great fears is realized as the brothers are able to bring Semyon to a state of consciousness quick enough to get the details pertaining to his confrontation with the man that Semyon refers to as “the Devil”, and Semyon tells them about Claire. After they send men to return to Claire’s apartment where they retrieve her whereabouts from her neighbor Santino, Claire is abducted, but not before she frantically calls Matt, and he hears her panicked screams.
Claire is tortured by members of the Russian faction, but Daredevil soon arrives and unleashes hell upon all of her captors. Claire’s somewhat psychotic laugh of relief is a scene-stealer as Matt takes out thug after thug, culminating in Claire wielding a baseball bat and falling into Matt’s arms with a mix of gratitude and hysteria. With Daredevil having gotten the best of their men again, Anatoly talks Vladimir into taking Fisk up on his prior offer and volunteers to go meet with Fisk and tell him the news. This is a grave mistake.
For Wilson Fisk has become completely infatuated with Vanessa Marianna. He returns to the art gallery to formally ask her out, and again, the childlike awkwardness of Fisk and the deliberate, yet timid way with which he flirts with Vanessa just makes all of this work SO well. The playful way that she flirts back with him really brings their chemistry together and Vanesa agrees to go on a date with Wilson. It’s wonderful watching them talk with each other and the class with which Fisk treats Vanessa as he vulnerably tells her select details of his rather complicated, yet extraordinary life. He only scratches the surface of course, but you can tell she is smitten with him and anxious to learn more about exactly what it is that makes him tick. The Kingpin is nothing but generous to Vanessa and the date is going as well as he could have hoped … until Anatoly shows up!
Anatoly gleefully informs Fisk that he and his brother are taking him up on his offer, but his bursting into the classy restaurant causes a scene and prompts Fisk to quickly leave, rattling Vanessa. He takes her home and does his best to apologize to her for the way the evening ended, but she admits to being unsure how she feels about him. To say that this upsets Fisk is a gross understatement. As Anatoly is seated with Wesley in a vehicle, Fisk suddenly rips him out of the car and unleashes a violent Fury upon Anatoly. In his rage, Fisk ends up decapitating Anatoly while bashing his skull in with the door of the vehicle in what is easily one of the most brutally violent scenes in MCU History. Why? Simply because Anatoly embarrassed him in front of Vanessa. Following the incident, Fisk calmy urges Wesley to order him a new suit. Wesley warns Fisk that what he has done will “start a war” and Fisk gleefully returns that he is counting on it.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
World on Fire – Directed by Farren Blackburn. Written by Luke Kalteux.
The fifth episode of Daredevil flirted with Matt and Claire becoming an item, complete with a sensual kiss. Though the connection is there however, Claire simply can’t see herself being comfortably involved with someone who lives such a dangerous and obsessive life. She knows that Matt is technically doing the right thing in his strife to protect the innocent, but she also sees him walking a very thin line and fears that if he continues to do so, he will ultimately cross it.
Matt leaves Claire’s company and visits the local police precinct where he overhears an interrogation with a Russian prisoner that is being carried out by officers Hoffman and Blake. They go through the usual interrogation routine of fishing for information in exchange for mercy and the man quickly folds, dropping the name of Wilson Fisk. As Matt zones in on the interrogation, he overhears Hoffman agree to be struck by Blake and Blake say, “You shouldn’t have said his name”, and the prisoner is shot by Blake. Again, the shock and fear on Matt’s face echoes back to the suicide of Healy as Matt continues to come to terms with just how powerful Wilson Fisk really is.
Matt suits up and confronts Blake and steals his cell phone with which he locates the whereabouts of Vladimir. In the meantime, Vladimir receives the corpse of his headless brother and learns from the thug known as Turk that Fisk was at fault. A black cloth has also been planted on Anatoly and Vladimir comes to believe that Fisk has been in cahoots with the Man in the Mask all along. Vladimir readies his forces for war with Fisk while Matt closes in, but it is all one big setup, and a suicide bomber detonates a device and causes a massive explosion. Matt and Vladimir are both injured in the explosion, which is just one that Fisk has planned to carry out across the city. Police soon close in on Matt and Vladimir, surrounding them.
Meanwhile, Foggy and Karen become involved with an elderly woman named Elena Cardenas who is looking for eviction protection. Foggy and Karen both make it a mission to assist the woman in whatever way they can and while at her apartment, they find themselves in the crossfire of the explosions rocking the city.
As for Wilson Fisk, he has reconnected with Vanessa and comes clean with her concerning who he is and what he does, even proudly watching the explosions rock the city from afar with Vanessa by his side, assuring her that by his side is the safest place she could possibly be.
This episode did such a great job of highlighting Fisk’s immensely tight grip on the city. He has cops, lawyers, judges, jurors, mercenaries, and hitmen alike all working for him. Hell’s Kitchen is being completely manipulated by Fisk, as everything of import that happens goes through him and that makes justice virtually non-existent.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Condemned – Directed by Guy Ferland. Written by Joe Pokaski and Marco Ramirez.
This episode picks up right where the previous episode left off with Matt and Vladimir surrounded by police. Knowing that they are corrupt, Matt resists arrest and carries Vladimir to a nearby empty building. Matt realizes that Vladimir thinks that he and Fisk are in cahoots and assures Vladimir that they are not and that he had no part in his brother’s death. The building that Matt and Vladimir are hiding in is quickly surrounded by police and there seems to be no way out for either of them. Vladimir is slow to trust Matt but comes to realize that the man that has made life so difficult for him and his cohorts is if nothing else, honest. He grows to understand this following an incredible sequence in which Fisk calls Matt on Blake’s phone. Fisk compliments Matt’s resolve and insists that they’re more alike than Matt cares to admit, which Matt scoffs at. He then offers Matt an opportunity: kill Vladimir and walk away free. Matt’s refusal causes Vladimir to see him in a different light while realizing the extent to which he and his brother were played by Fisk.
Fisk does not take Matt’s refusal well, ordering a sniper to fire upon the crowd of police and reporters that have surrounded the building. Blake is intentionally targeted. The media attributes the rain of fire to the masked vigilante as Vladimir helps Matt try to escape. He knows that he is far too wounded to make it out alive though, and after giving Matt the name of Leyland Owsley (Fisk’s accountant), he covers for Matt as Matt gets away. Vladimir is killed by the raiding policemen.
Meanwhile, Foggy and Karen cross paths with Claire as Foggy is admitted to the hospital due to the wounds he received during the explosions.
The phone conversation between Matt and Fisk gave me chills and I was glued to the edge of my seat throughout this entire episode. I could not wait to see Matt and Fisk share the screen and as bad as I wanted Daredevil to take Fisk out, somehow, I sort of adored Fisk at the same time! His friendship with Wesley and his budding relationship with Vanessa were both wonderful as they showed a softer side of Fisk that is fueled by loyalty, love, and passion. Wesley and Vanessa and his sincere care for them made Fisk much more complex than many comic book villains can be. He wasn’t necessarily evil in that he was incapable of love. He had a great deal of love in his heart and a lot of passion to go along with it and he and Matt really were an awful lot alike and even had similar goals … they just had different world views and different definitions of morality.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Stick – Directed by Brad Turner. Written by Douglas Petrie.
The seventh episode of Daredevil started with a bang as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen followed up on the tip he was given from Vladimir and cornered Leland Owsley in a parking garage. Murdock was in the process of trying to obtain more information on Wilson Fisk, but he became distracted by the presence of someone from his past long enough for Owsley to escape. The person he was distracted by turns out to be his blind and militant mentor: Stick, and through flashbacks, we are shown the early days of their relationship with Stick training a very young Matt soon after the death of his father in how to control his heightened senses in a way that would allow him to better understand the world around him. Stick’s training isn’t just about teaching Matt to “see” despite his blindness, but teaching Matt how to fight as well, both offensively and defensively. Stick is hardened and uncompassionate, and he prides himself on being a valiant soldier in a mysterious war.
I’ve raved on and on about the casting in this series, but I have to be redundant and point out what a perfect casting Scott Glenn was as Stick! His tough love sort of way of teaching young Matt made for a really interesting dynamic between Glenn and young Skylar Gaertner, who really needs to be commended for his efforts in each of the scenes he was featured in throughout this First Season. He was strong, yet fragile … scared, yet brave … and you believed that he was blind. Just, some really great acting here!
Long story short, Stick has arrived in Hell’s Kitchen in search of assistance from Matt after years apart to enlist his help with an entity that Stick refers to as the “Black Sky.” Nobu’s Japanese faction is bringing the entity in, and Matt agrees to suit up and assist Stick under the condition that Stick doesn’t kill anyone. Stick mocks Matt’s sentiment but vows to honor Matt’s request, nonetheless. Of course, Stick breaks that vow. The entity ends up being a child in chains and when Stick tries to make his move on the child that he only refers to as an “it”, Matt intervenes and Nobu and his men flee. Matt returns home from the firefight to discover that Stick tracked the Black Sky down and put an arrow in the child’s heart.
This revelation provokes an altercation and after a fierce struggle that destroys much of Matt’s apartment, the pupil finally bests the teacher and Matt orders Stick to leave. The chemistry between Charlie Cox and Scott Glenn was just as good as the chemistry between Glenn and young Sylar, and this was all just really great stuff!
Elsewhere, Karen Page, as she and Ben Urich continue to connect the dots that lead to The Kingpin, is physically assaulted outside by thugs that work for Fisk outside of Elena’s apartment. Foggy comes to her rescue.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Shadows in the Glass – Directed by Stephon Surjik. Written by Steven S. DeKnight.
What an incredible episode the eighth installment of Daredevil was! After getting a closer look into the past of Matt Murdock the previous episode and exploring his mentor Stick and the troubled relationship that Matt shared with him, this episode gave us a closer look into the past of Wilson Fisk and was it ever riveting!
Fisk was raised by a physically and verbally abusive alcoholic father who took out his regular frustrations on his wife and son in disgustingly violent fashion. Fisk’s father made life hell for young Wilson and his mom, and we learn that on an otherwise random fit of insults and violence, young Wilson beat his dad to death with a hammer, after which his mom carved up the pieces and disposed of the corpse. These scenes were really raw and disturbing and illustrated Fisk’s modern-day struggles with having so much of his dad within him, but trying to be a better man nonetheless, which brilliantly parallels the similar struggles within Matt Murdock.
We learn all of this as Fisk confides it in Vanessa, whom Wesley brought to Fisk following a frustrating meeting with the mysterious Madame Gao over the recent complications that had befallen their crime ring. Wesley brought Vanessa to Fisk to provide him with comfort and support, and that’s exactly what she did, embracing Wilson for all that he was after he told her his story. Again, their relationship continued to be a strong point of this series, and in the storms that were beginning to rage, Vanessa grounded Fisk and gave him a reliable foundation to stand upon. But more on that in a bit.
For elsewhere, Officer Blake awakened from his coma and Fisk ordered Officer Hoffman to kill his best friend before he could leak any information whatsoever to anyone that would be seeking it. Hoffman does as Fisk asks, poisoning Blake in his hospital bed, but Daredevil arrives during the execution and is able to get information from Blake in the moments before his death.
In the meantime, Matt has begrudgingly agreed to work with Karen and Ben on their ongoing investigation, after they had just recently decided to include Foggy. Matt insists however that they keep things close to the vest and put their personal safeties first above all else.
As even more dots are connected, and Ben begins penning his expose on the mysterious Kingpin of Crime that has been manipulating the city from the shadows, he is appalled by the breaking news that sees Wilson Fisk come out of the shadows and into the light, stepping forward as an acclaimed savoir of the city and champion of the people. Fisk did this at the behest of his beloved Vanessa and it was a move that allowed him to jump ahead of Ben and Karen and Foggy and Matt in the complex game of human chess that was being played. The episode ends with Matt in a violent outburst as he hears the voice of the man that spoke to him on the night of Vladimir’s death speak openly about his goals for Hell’s Kitchen. It was Daredevil’s move.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Speak of the Devil – Directed by Nelson McCormick. Written by Christos Gage and Ruth Fletcher Gage.
Growing desperate, Matt Murdock decides to pay Vanessa Marianna a visit at her art gallery as he quietly contemplates how to bring Wilson Fisk and his extensive criminal empire down. It’s a wonderfully suspenseful and interesting scene as the two discuss what a blind man could appreciate in art, complete with Vanessa taking Matt in front of a painting that reflects his “World on Fire” blindness while perfectly describing the inner conflict within Matt and how the painting reflects that. The tension within the scene only grows when Wilson Fisk arrives to the gallery and at long last, nine episodes in, we get to see Charlie Cox share the screen with Vincent D’Onofrio! And it’s perfect!
Fisk admits to knowing of Matt through his work with Nelson & Murdock while Matt acknowledges that they shouldn’t even be speaking due to their being on opposite sides of Elena’s case before politely leaving without Vanessa concluding her sale.
From there, Fisk asks Nobu to hire a specialist to take out the Man in the Mask while ordering a hit on the defiant Elena, which solves two problems for him: a property dispute with Nobu, and a way to bait the Man in the Mask. Foggy and Karen are devastated by Elena’s death while Matt is consumed with anger and rage that mix with feelings of helplessness. After tracking down Elena’s murderer, Matt decides that the only solution to the problem of Fisk is to completely take Fisk off the board. And that means breaking Matt’s one rule.
Early in this episode, we were given insight into the conflict within Matt through an outstanding conversation with his priest over whether or not the Devil / Lucifer / Satan really exists. The scene was remarkably well-written and delivered and shows us that Matt is torn apart inside as he juggles his personal conviction with what has become to him, a very obvious solution to the problem of Fisk. Matt is extremely conflicted, and Father Lantom gives Matt sound advice as well as encouragement from both a spiritual and practical standpoint, but Elena’s murder flips a switch of vengeance within Matt’s soul, and he set out to kill Hell’s Kitchen’s supposed savior before he hurts anyone else.
The specialist that Fisk requested ended up being Nobu himself, and we are treated to a brutal fight pitting the Man Without Fear against a ninja! This is a spectacular fight and is one in which we see Daredevil get dominated in brutal and bloody fashion. A battered Matt eventually outmaneuvers Nobu, and the skilled ninja is engulfed by an ensuing fire.
As Nobu’s body continues to burn, Wilson Fisk and James Wesley arrive, and Matt realizes that Elena’s death was setup to get him to that place at that time. We then see Fisk violently assault Matt in a one-sided battle in which Fisk’s overwhelming power and aggression is highlighted. With Matt beaten to the point of death, Fisk orders his men to shoot Daredevil, but Matt escapes out a nearby window, landing in the water below.
Back home, a concerned Foggy ventures to Matt’s apartment where Matt – in his Daredevil gear – collapses at Foggy’s feet. A hesitant Foggy removes his mask and discovers that Matt Murdock is the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen!
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Nelson v. Murdock – Directed by Farren Blackburn. Written by Luke Kalteux.
One of Matt’s worst inner fears has come true. He has been found out by his best friend. Off-screen, Foggy, at Matt’s insistence, decided against calling the police and instead called Matt’s “nurse friend” Claire to tend to his many wounds. When Matt regains consciousness, it’s interrogation time.
We are treated to some really sweet scenes from Matt and Foggy’s college days that highlight the bond that they share in-between some impassioned harassment from Foggy. Matt’s best friend feels lied to and betrayed by Murdock’s double life and he orders Matt to tell him “everything”, which Matt begrudgingly does.
While intriguing in some ways, the conflict between Matt and Foggy is really the first criticism I have of this show ten episodes in and that’s simply because Foggy comes across as a whiny, judgmental prick in these scenes inside Matt’s apartment. He’s mean to Matt in an insulting and bullying way and refuses to even try to see things from Matt’s point of view. Matt is reduced to tears by Foggy’s words and reaction and Foggy could not care less. It was all about him here, and I just had a difficult time relating to where Nelson was coming from. He was mad, I get that, but it was just a bit much.
Meanwhile, Ben Urich gets horrible news pertaining to his sick wife and decides to tend to her at their home, more or less retiring as a reporter and giving Karen his sincere blessing to continue their work, but without his assistance. His wife simply must come first. With that established and understood, Karen is then made into an unlikeable manipulator when she tricks Ben into traveling to an assisted living home upstate to supposedly search for an answer to his wife’s predicament. This was a ruse though, as what Karen really took Ben there for was to interrogate Wilson Fisk’s sick and elderly mother, who obliviously tells them details pertaining to Fisk’s father, including his murder at Wilson’s hand. Karen sees this as a proverbial smoking gun, but the way she took advantage of Ben’s situation was pretty shitty.
As for Fisk, he hosts a fundraiser for the victims of the recent bombings that he orchestrated. After being not so subtly warned by Gao over letting his personal life interfere with his professional life, we see Fisk (or at least his beloved Vanessa), targeted by his remaining colleagues as the drinks being served at the gala are revealed to be poisonous. Yes, Vanessa is poisoned, and Fisk reacts with sincere concern and panicked despair, taking her into his arms as chaos erupts around him. The war is on!
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
The Path of the Righteous – Directed by Nick Gomez. Written by Steven S. DeKnight and Douglas Petrie.
This episode featured one of the most shocking moments of the entire First Season of Daredevil as Karen Page shot and killed James Wesley! The build to the sequences was very well done. Wilson Fisk refuses to leave his beloved Vanessa’s side even as information pertaining to his elderly mother being visited and questioned begins to come in. Wesley takes it upon himself to call Fisk’s mother and get to the bottom of things, deducing that Karen Page was involved. From there, Wesley abducts Karen and takes her to a quiet location for a face-to-face conversation. For Karen, this is the culmination of a very frustrating week in which Matt and Foggy were obviously fighting and refusing to speak with her about why and of course in which she successfully tracked down Fisk’s mother and got details on his past, which no one seems to think is as big of a deal as Karen does. Now, she’s drugged, scared, and being meticulously threatened by a person that she knows to be Wilson Fisk’s right-hand man.
Both Deborah Ann Woll and Toby Leonard Moore are phenomenal in this tension-filled sequence. Wesley compliments Karen on her resolve while criticizing her refusal to move on with her life despite Fisk providing a lucrative opportunity for her to do so. He then arrogantly offers Karen a job, ordering her to take him up on his mercy and convince each and every one of her colleagues that she has been wrong about Fisk and to simply move on and let things be. Wesley goes on to assure Karen that if she refuses his generous offer, everyone that she knows and loves will be mercilessly killed. Then, Wesley receives a call from Fisk and the distraction provides Karen an opportunity to seize the gun that Wesley had left on the table. Then, BOOM. Karen unloads the gun on Wesley, killing him.
I have to admit that I was really sad to see Wesley go. Toby Leonard Moore was just so good in the role. His sincere love and respect for Wilson Fisk shined through in every scene that he was in. You could see the pride on his face as Fisk rose within the community and you could see the anger on his face when anyone disrespected Wilson. His quiet smirks and calm demeanor in every situation made him such an interesting character, and the fact that Fisk very obviously felt just as strongly for Wesley as James felt for him made Wesley’s character all the more important. There was a mutual admiration and appreciation between the two of them, and as Karen killed Wesley, you could just feel as a viewer what this was going to do to Fisk and that was kind of sad and absolutely scary.
Elsewhere, Matt decides to get an armored suit made after being encouraged to do so by Claire. For his suit, he goes to Fisk’s mentally unbalanced tailor Melvin Potter, whom Matt learns that like so many others, only works for Fisk out of fear of what may happen to someone that he cares about if he doesn’t. Melvin agrees to make Matt a suit in exchange for Matt taking Fisk down. As for Fisk, he is overjoyed when Vanessa regains consciousness, but quietly outraged over the hit on her life, guilt ridden that after telling her that by his side was the safest place to be, it actually endangered her. Once again, the love they share for each other is obvious and Vanessa urging Fisk to avenge her as only he can made for quite the unsettling moment.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
The Ones We Leave Behind – Directed by Euros Lyn. Written by Douglas Petrie.
The bloody corpse of James Wesley is found, and Wilson Fisk violently mourns the loss of his closest friend and confidant. Fisk reaches out to his mother and while relocating her, desperately tries to get information from her after learning that she was the last person that James spoke to on his phone. She is too ill to give him anything conclusive though, and his frustration continues to build until he receives a call from his contact within the New York Bulletin and learns that Ben Urich had visited his mother. Of course, this is bad news for Urich, who after accusing his boss of working for Fisk when he refused to let Urich run with the Fisk story, was fired. He nonetheless decides to publish the Fisk story via the internet, but as he returns home to begin working on it, finds Wilson Fisk quietly waiting for him in the shadows.
In a scene that actually topped the incredible Karen Page / James Wesley scene in terms of suspense, Fisk, much like Wesley did with Karen, compliments Urich on his resolve and passion, kind of insultingly admitting that Ben was not the washed-up, irrelevant reporter that Fisk thought him to be after all. Fisk admitted to Urich that he did in fact have an informant within the Bulletin and asked if Ben had anything to do with Wesley’s death, which Ben denied, and Fisk believed. Ben furthermore insisted that he had visited Fisk’s mom alone after being pressed on the subject and then insisted that Fisk was only one in a long line of people who’d threatened him over the years. Fisk stressed that Ben bringing his mother into all of it was unforgiveable and then exclaimed that he was not there to threaten Ben. He was there to kill him. And he did, violently choking the life out of Ben Urich and bringing an end to yet another supporting character that I adored.
Meanwhile, Matt goes head-to-head with Madame Gao, disrupting her heroin operation and finding her to be much more formidable than the helpless elderly woman that she appeared to be. Gao meets with Leyland Owsley following the altercation and informs him that she is leaving the city. As viewers, we learn that Gao and Owsley both were in on the poisoning of Vanessa, as Gao thought that removing Vanessa would be the wakeup call that Fisk needed.
Gao’s leave further decimated the once prosperous criminal underground within Hell’s Kitchen as she and her heroin empire were off the table, the Russians had been obliterated, and Nobu was set aflame and left for dead. The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen played a part in each of these situations, and now, only Owsley and Fisk remained.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Daredevil – Directed by Steven S. DeKnight. Written by Steven S. DeKnight.
The Season Finale of Daredevil was immensely satisfying! It reflected a clear vision on the part of everyone that worked on the show to tell a complete story from beginning-to-end over the course of thirteen episodes. The show appropriately opened with Ben Urich’s funeral, which Matt and Karen both attended to pay their respects. There, Karen came face-to-face with Ben’s wife, and she did her best to ease Karen’s guilt, even though she didn’t know the extent to which Karen felt like she was the reason that Ben was killed.
In the meantime, Wilson Fisk meets with Leyland Owsley and Owsley shockingly comes clean with Fisk, admitting that he and Gao had conspired against him in poisoning Vanessa and then revealing that Officer Hoffman was in Owsley’s custody as an insurance policy against Fisk. I haven’t said much about Owsley as a character but let me commend Bob Gunton here. Throughout the Season, he was perfect in playing his role, making Owsley a whiny, mouthy, and shaky character that played off his surrounding cast in the criminal underworld wonderfully. Most of the times that I laughed during Daredevil: Season One was due to some shady or outrageous thing that Owsley said! So, him blackmailing Fisk was true to his character, but he underestimated just how much Vanessa really meant to Fisk and despite his insurance policy, Fisk violently attacked Owsley, tossing him down an open elevator shaft to his death. Now, it was only Fisk, who ordered his underlings on the police force to find Hoffman at all costs.
Meanwhile, Matt and Foggy finally make up and they join Karen in legally building their case against Fisk in a sort of “the band is back together” scene. I could see an argument that this was a little rushed, but since I really hated Matt and Foggy’s whole feud and the way that they both isolated Karen in her time of need, I forgave it.
Soon, Hoffman is indeed located by Fisk’s men on the police force, and having been ordered to shoot at first sight, they invade the location with a rain of gunfire. Matt suits up and invades the scene as well, convincing a panicked Hoffman to turn himself in to Officer Mahoney, the one cop that Matt conclusively knows to be beyond Fisk’s reach. Hoffman, covered in blood, ventures to the precinct and complies. With Nelson and Murdock representing Hoffman, the cop-gone-bad turns evidence on Fisk, offering names, dates, and places that expose Fisk’s criminal empire.
Consequently, dirty cops, gangsters, lawyers, and the mole within the Bulletin are all arrested and even Wilson Fisk himself is taken into custody as the media covers the fall of Hell’s Kitchen’s supposed savior. (In a nice touch, Fisk proposes to Vanessa as he is being handcuffed and taken away, instructing her to reconvene with him that evening at a launch pad, but to leave if he does not arrive by a certain time).
Though Fisk is being taken away, he of course has far too many people spread about that are working for him, including one of the guards seated next to him. Fisk’s law enforcement people open fire on the FBI, killing several agents and freeing Fisk. As Fisk calmly ventures to meet with Vanessa however, Matt strikes and Fisk comes face-to-face with Daredevil, who has donned the outfit that Melvin Potter made for him.
Fisk exclaims that he is going to kill Daredevil, blaming everything that had recently befallen him on the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, which was actually very true in more ways than Fisk even realized. Daredevil vs Kingpin is then a hard-hitting showdown with Matt largely dominating Fisk, beating him to a bloody pulp and stopping short of killing him as Officer Mahoney arrived. Mahoney allows Daredevil to flee, and Kingpin fails to meet Vanessa as he intended. She leaves in a helicopter and flees the Country.
Victorious, the episode and the Season ends with Karen, Foggy, and Matt celebrating what they’d won while mourning what they’d lost. It was a fitting end to an incredible Season.
In closing, I’m just going to reiterate how so very good this First Season of Daredevil was! I honestly don’t know where to begin in terms of criticizing it; I guess I’ll just say that if language and violence and mature themes offend you, it’s best to stay away from this show, and those things are one of the reasons that people debated whether or not the Netflix stuff was canon over the years … the movies more or less appealed to everyone; especially during The Infinity Saga. These shows were made with a different formula. However, now that the now former Netflix stuff has been made canon, it’s fair to compare The Defenders Saga to other MCU productions, and from a critical standpoint, not one single Marvel Studios production has been more highly praised than Daredevil: Season One. Marvel Studios’ best Rotten Tomatoes score is Ms. Marvel with a 98% Approval Rating. Daredevil: Season One has a 99% Approval Rating! That makes Daredevil: Season One THE standard and I think anyone that watches this show will understand both why there was hesitancy to make it canon and why Marvel Studios ultimately decided to do it. I believe the Marvel Spotlight banner is going to be a very good thing for Marvel Studios and Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for these amazing characters!
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of Daredevil: Season One:
Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk
Charlie Cox is Matt Murdock / Daredevil
Toby Leonard Moore as James Wesley
Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna
Chemistry between Vincent D’Onofrio and Ayelet Zurer
Chemistry between Vincent D’Onofrio and Toby Leonard Moore
Vonde Curtis-Hall as Ben Urich
Skylar Gaertner as young Matt Murdock
Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson
Chemistry between Charlie Cox and Eldon Henson (especially flashbacks)
Scott Glenn as Stick
Hallway Fight
Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple
Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page
Bob Gunton as Leyland Owsley
Matt visits Vanessa at the Art Gallery and meets Wilson Fisk
Fisk calls the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and offers him a Bargain
Daredevil vs Kingpin!
Matt’s Catholicism Explored
Fisk decapitates Anatoly with a Car Door
Karen Kills Wesley (Sad but Great)
Fisk kills Urich (Sad but Great)
Real-world stakes, stories, and violence
Amy Rutberg as Marci Stahl
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Notable MCU Concepts and Characters Introduced:
Matt Murdock / Daredevil. Wilson Fisk / Kingpin. Foggy Nelson. Karen Page. Ben Urich. James Wesley. Vanessa Marianna. Nobu. Madame Gao. Jack Murdock. Stick. Vladimir and Anatoly Ranskahov.
Leave a Reply