{"id":3786,"date":"2015-04-24T04:31:29","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T11:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=3786"},"modified":"2015-04-24T04:34:09","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T11:34:09","slug":"review-daredevil-netflix-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=3786","title":{"rendered":"Review: DAREDEVIL (Netflix Series)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>The week before \u201cAvengers: Age of Ultron\u201d opens in hopes of topping the $1.5 billion in worldwide box office of its 2012 predecessor, Netflix subscribers can see a humbler hero on the small screen.<\/p>\n

The comic book genre gets deathly serious and a so-called PG-15 rating with \u201cDaredevil,\u201d the first of five comic adaptations coming to the home streaming service. The gritty, more realistic approach sets the stage for the next four Netflix comic book series\u2013\u201dLuke Cage,\u201d \u201cJessica Jones,\u201d \u201cIron Fist\u201d and \u201cThe Defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDaredevil\u201d follows Matt Murdock (played by Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer, who masquerades as a street-level Marvel hero in New York City\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen. The series opens with a moving origin story\u2013Murdock as a boy is involved in an accident on the street and some sort of chemical renders him blind. But other powers begin to develop. In time, his hearing will become so acute that he can \u201csee\u201d better than most. And because he was raised by a single parent father, who was a hardened boxer, Murdock\u2019s fighting skills are imposing.<\/p>\n

The series is a slow burn. While there is action involving fast-paced hand-to-hand combat as Murdock dons a mask and begins his crime-fighting career, the narrative plays out like some sort of legal drama. Murdock and his law partner Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) decide to open a practice right out of law school. Their clientele is scant, but when they get a chance to represent Karen Page (\u201cTrue Blood\u2019s\u201d Deborah Ann Woll) the organized crime world begins to take notice. Meanwhile, Murdock\u2019s nocturnal activities take their toll on him physically, and he turns to the medically trained Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), who becomes his cut man.<\/p>\n

Setting up the \u201cDaredevil\u201d world takes time but viewers who stick with the show will be rewarded. Time is taken to develop the personality of the characters. For example, episode four spends much of its time introducing us to the mysterious Wilson Fisk (Vincent D\u2019Onofrio), who is one of the most disturbing Marvel villains to date. And because the level of violence on this Netflix series is said to exceed the usual PG-13 rating reserved for most comic book fare, Fisk is permitted to completely lose control and the results are ultra-violent.<\/p>\n

Cox, of HBO\u2019s \u201cBoardwalk Empire,\u201d is a good choice for the title role. The character is blind, but given the superhuman powers he develops, his \u201cblind\u201d act does not have to be entirely convincing. Murdock spends much of his time on screen leaping from rooftops and engaged in martial arts style combat, so, after the first two episodes, the fact that the character is blind is hardly noticeable, although it does make for some amusing banter.<\/p>\n

The key to the success of \u201cDaredevil\u201d has to be D\u2019Onofrio\u2019s affected performance as Fisk, aka The Kingpin. He\u2019s downright terrifying, and yet, he\u2019s able to somewhat tenderly romance an art gallery owner while not hiding his positively unsettling personality problems. And when he lets loose, you have to look away, because he becomes a one-man meat grinder.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaredevil\u201d smartly keeps the action grounded. Murdock and Foggy are budding defense lawyers trying to help out their home town folk. And every show offers an opportunity for the duo to take on new clients, against the backdrop of a larger organized crime threat. The fact that one of Murdock\u2019s powers permits him to hear a person\u2019s heartbeat comes in handy when trying to get to the truth.<\/p>\n

The Marvel Comics Universe (sometimes referred to as \u201cMCU\u201d) has evolved with this new take on a character that was poorly adapted in a 2003 feature motion picture starring ironically the new Batman, Ben Affleck. The good news is that few will likely remember that film as this series begins a new chapter. And because the action is set within the existing and popular MCU, there are opportunities for \u201cDaredevil\u201d to appear alongside other heroes in films and series on the horizon. But unlike heroes that fly and destroy entire cities in their concerted efforts to save the world, \u201cDaredevil\u201d is content saving his neighborhood, one street at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In advance of AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, Jonathan checks out Marvel’s latest on the small screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3786"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3791,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions\/3791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}