Thoughts on Daredevil
Season 2 was really really bad.
Season 2 had too many plotlines, and none of them was handled really well. If it had been being made in real time, I would have assumed that people were reacting badly to the Punisher plotline so they scrapped it in favor of something else, and that was most of their trouble. But they did this all in one piece, on purpose. I...don't get it.
Well, okay, I partly get it. The reason they needed a second plotline was to give Matt something to do instead of his job. The actual main story of the season was the falling out between Matt and Foggy, the incompatibility of Matt's two lives, and Matt ultimately quitting his day job to become a full time vigilante. Which, okay, ~~drama~~, but...how does he feed himself? And pay rent? Like, if your vigilanteism is "self-financing" it's just...crime. How does he buy all that beer that's always in his fridge. Matt. How are you going to live?
tl;dr: Matt Murdock is an idiot.
I really liked Frank Castle, which was probably down to the actor. He was so good he fooled you into believing that Frank had actual motivations and a story that made sense and just wasn't telling you. I liked the conversations between him and Daredevil, the...kinship, even though they were on opposite sides of things. And I really liked the idea of the Soldier narrative, by explicit contrast to the vigilante narrative - the fact that Frank doesn't wear a mask, has no problem with killing people, etc - which could have dovetailed really nicely with the "this is a War, you are a Soldier" narrative that Stick is pushing ... except that it didn't. They didn't do the thing. They did a bit of paralleling of the Stick/Matt relationship and the Frank/colonel-Obviously-Evil relationship, which was nice, but...honestly they could have done a lot more than that, and have it be more than just Beating Up Your Father Figure For Fun And Profit.
I think that they were doing a bit of an Inigo Montoya think with Frank. Having dedicated his life to revenge, once he gets what he's going for, he doesn't really know what to do with himself, and so becomes the Dread Pirate Roberts. And again, if he'd had the whole season to himself, that would have been really cool and come through a lot better. But instead, we got...ninjas. An infinite number of ninjas. There is nothing interesting about seeing Daredevil fight an infinite number of ninjas except the meanhearted satisfaction of seeing him lose. Which I am by no means above.
Talk about a McGuffin. Gotta get the Black Sky oh no the Black Sky oh crap the Hand has won the war cuz they got the Black Sky can't let them get the Black Sky oh dear the world is ending the Black Sky - okay just stop. What actually is it. What does it do? I get that Elektra is way into the murdering people but. She's not a doomsday weapon? She can't personally just murder everyone? So what is the point?? A lot of mileage can be gotten out of being mysterious, but being too mysterious and it's just like okay. There's nothing actually going on, is there? The Hand's plan, such as it is, is almost tautological. "We serve the Black Sky." Okay and then what? The object of their plan is to get their plan to succeed. ??? Give us at least something. And WTF was that giant hole in the ground?? That was the episode 7 twist - but it never got cashed out.
And that's the thing. Nothing in this season got cashed out. Nothing happened in this season. They were doing too many things at once and doing none of them well. And like - the last episode is set on Christmas? A fact that came out of nowhere. When it could have been there all season. Purple vestments on obligatory priest man for advent. A line anywhere that Christmas was coming up. Christmas music in the BGM for the shops. Why even have it in the last episode when it's relevant at no other point in the season? Which took place over about a week I guess. And that's the problem with the whole season. No follow through. It's really just messy.
It might be that part of why I like Frank Castle so much is that I'm getting a lot of interference from Frank Parker, the hero of Seven Days. Seriously, if I want a catholic with a disability superpower who punches people a lot I'll take Frank Parker over Matt Murdock any day of the week. He's more likeable, he's better at being a catholic (not that it takes much. Does Matt do anything catholic apart from going to confession badly?) and there's time travel. Seven Days was not a good show, but it didn't pretend to be either. That makes a difference. So does time travel. 90% punching people and 10% awesome time travel. I am such a sucker for bad 90s sci-fi.
The high point of the season though was Frank's trial and Wilson Fisk. Again, it would have helped to know at least some of Frank's motivations. And how exactly is the DA gonna shut down the crappy law firm? And why? (It...it doesn't work like that guys. It just doesn't). But I felt so bad for Foggy, negotiating an incredible deal for Frank, just to have his loser client not do the thing. That at least was realistic. Clients never do what you tell them to, especially if it's in their best interest. I don't know why they thought they needed to win the trial. Idiots. Like. He murdered 37 people. Nobody was claiming that he hadn't murdered 37 people. YOU DON'T GET ACQUITTED AFTER YOU MURDER 37 PEOPLE. THAT'S NOT HOW THE LAW WORKS. Foggy is going for a Murder 2 verdict based on the arguments he's setting up (since Frank won't let him do an insanity defense). Good for Foggy. And Wilson Fisk was just. Fabulously perfect. Only really good moment in the season, in my opinion.
So. Foggy is definitely being set up to be next season's villain. I don't know how I feel about that, except that I'm sure they'll reconcile at the end of the season. But in the last handful of episodes he's wearing black (and red), emoting a lot less, being a lot more cool, confident, and logical, he's stopped defending vigilanteism to the world at large for Matt's sake, his hair is neat, and he's on the verge of personal and financial success. Call me a cynic but that to me spells "villain." Foggy man, I just want you to live happily ever after. If you can do that by growing up to be Xanatos (admittedly unlikely) more power to you.
Anyway, Matt's an idiot. And this season was a mess. And between the Hand and the Foot New York is gonna end up with enough ninjas to build Kraang a new body.
Season 2 had too many plotlines, and none of them was handled really well. If it had been being made in real time, I would have assumed that people were reacting badly to the Punisher plotline so they scrapped it in favor of something else, and that was most of their trouble. But they did this all in one piece, on purpose. I...don't get it.
Well, okay, I partly get it. The reason they needed a second plotline was to give Matt something to do instead of his job. The actual main story of the season was the falling out between Matt and Foggy, the incompatibility of Matt's two lives, and Matt ultimately quitting his day job to become a full time vigilante. Which, okay, ~~drama~~, but...how does he feed himself? And pay rent? Like, if your vigilanteism is "self-financing" it's just...crime. How does he buy all that beer that's always in his fridge. Matt. How are you going to live?
tl;dr: Matt Murdock is an idiot.
I really liked Frank Castle, which was probably down to the actor. He was so good he fooled you into believing that Frank had actual motivations and a story that made sense and just wasn't telling you. I liked the conversations between him and Daredevil, the...kinship, even though they were on opposite sides of things. And I really liked the idea of the Soldier narrative, by explicit contrast to the vigilante narrative - the fact that Frank doesn't wear a mask, has no problem with killing people, etc - which could have dovetailed really nicely with the "this is a War, you are a Soldier" narrative that Stick is pushing ... except that it didn't. They didn't do the thing. They did a bit of paralleling of the Stick/Matt relationship and the Frank/colonel-Obviously-Evil relationship, which was nice, but...honestly they could have done a lot more than that, and have it be more than just Beating Up Your Father Figure For Fun And Profit.
I think that they were doing a bit of an Inigo Montoya think with Frank. Having dedicated his life to revenge, once he gets what he's going for, he doesn't really know what to do with himself, and so becomes the Dread Pirate Roberts. And again, if he'd had the whole season to himself, that would have been really cool and come through a lot better. But instead, we got...ninjas. An infinite number of ninjas. There is nothing interesting about seeing Daredevil fight an infinite number of ninjas except the meanhearted satisfaction of seeing him lose. Which I am by no means above.
Talk about a McGuffin. Gotta get the Black Sky oh no the Black Sky oh crap the Hand has won the war cuz they got the Black Sky can't let them get the Black Sky oh dear the world is ending the Black Sky - okay just stop. What actually is it. What does it do? I get that Elektra is way into the murdering people but. She's not a doomsday weapon? She can't personally just murder everyone? So what is the point?? A lot of mileage can be gotten out of being mysterious, but being too mysterious and it's just like okay. There's nothing actually going on, is there? The Hand's plan, such as it is, is almost tautological. "We serve the Black Sky." Okay and then what? The object of their plan is to get their plan to succeed. ??? Give us at least something. And WTF was that giant hole in the ground?? That was the episode 7 twist - but it never got cashed out.
And that's the thing. Nothing in this season got cashed out. Nothing happened in this season. They were doing too many things at once and doing none of them well. And like - the last episode is set on Christmas? A fact that came out of nowhere. When it could have been there all season. Purple vestments on obligatory priest man for advent. A line anywhere that Christmas was coming up. Christmas music in the BGM for the shops. Why even have it in the last episode when it's relevant at no other point in the season? Which took place over about a week I guess. And that's the problem with the whole season. No follow through. It's really just messy.
It might be that part of why I like Frank Castle so much is that I'm getting a lot of interference from Frank Parker, the hero of Seven Days. Seriously, if I want a catholic with a disability superpower who punches people a lot I'll take Frank Parker over Matt Murdock any day of the week. He's more likeable, he's better at being a catholic (not that it takes much. Does Matt do anything catholic apart from going to confession badly?) and there's time travel. Seven Days was not a good show, but it didn't pretend to be either. That makes a difference. So does time travel. 90% punching people and 10% awesome time travel. I am such a sucker for bad 90s sci-fi.
The high point of the season though was Frank's trial and Wilson Fisk. Again, it would have helped to know at least some of Frank's motivations. And how exactly is the DA gonna shut down the crappy law firm? And why? (It...it doesn't work like that guys. It just doesn't). But I felt so bad for Foggy, negotiating an incredible deal for Frank, just to have his loser client not do the thing. That at least was realistic. Clients never do what you tell them to, especially if it's in their best interest. I don't know why they thought they needed to win the trial. Idiots. Like. He murdered 37 people. Nobody was claiming that he hadn't murdered 37 people. YOU DON'T GET ACQUITTED AFTER YOU MURDER 37 PEOPLE. THAT'S NOT HOW THE LAW WORKS. Foggy is going for a Murder 2 verdict based on the arguments he's setting up (since Frank won't let him do an insanity defense). Good for Foggy. And Wilson Fisk was just. Fabulously perfect. Only really good moment in the season, in my opinion.
So. Foggy is definitely being set up to be next season's villain. I don't know how I feel about that, except that I'm sure they'll reconcile at the end of the season. But in the last handful of episodes he's wearing black (and red), emoting a lot less, being a lot more cool, confident, and logical, he's stopped defending vigilanteism to the world at large for Matt's sake, his hair is neat, and he's on the verge of personal and financial success. Call me a cynic but that to me spells "villain." Foggy man, I just want you to live happily ever after. If you can do that by growing up to be Xanatos (admittedly unlikely) more power to you.
Anyway, Matt's an idiot. And this season was a mess. And between the Hand and the Foot New York is gonna end up with enough ninjas to build Kraang a new body.