Daredevil (Netflix) - April 10, 2015 (1 Viewer)

[Sean Bryan]

The red suit:

http://daredeviltv.net/spoiler-daredevils-red-suit-revealed/

Looks cool.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

What are the spoiler rules going to be for this thread, since everybody's going to be watching at their own pace and it's unrealistic to think most people will have seen all ten episodes on the first day?

So far I've only watched the first episode, and I really enjoyed it. Right up there with the "Agent Carter" pilot for both confidence and a clear sense of what the show's going to be. The core trio of Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson work really well in their roles. Cox and Woll give nuanced, emotionally complex performances where they convey a lot with very little. Henson gives a broader performance as Foggy, but he brings charm and humor to the role.

The joke with these interconnected Netflix/Marvel series is that Hell's Kitchen has long since gentrified and is at least as upscale as most other areas of Manhattan. Drew Goddard's script brilliantly uses the destruction wrought by the final battle in The Avengers as an explanation for the neighborhood's decline, providing a credible pretext for giving Hell's Kitchen it's 60s/70s teeth and grit back.

And while the show is undeniably heightened, it defies the recent Marvel trend of going broader and softer with its violence and conflict. The sense of danger from the first Iron Man is back, as real world horrors start to intrude in on the margins.


My favorite part of the pilot, though, was its sense of place. Characters don't enter just enter stage right and exit stage left as needed. Everything feels like it exists in the same cohesive world, with the actions and motivations of the various players rippling across storylines. Gideon Emery ("Teen Wolf", "Shameless") and Nikolai Nikolaeff (NBC's underrated import "Camp") make appearance as Eastern European mobsters, while Bob Gunton (the warden in Shawshank Redemption) is a hoot as the racist old American crime boss a bit out of his element in an international syndicate. Toby Leonard Moore is deceptively nonthreatening as the unseen kingpin's polished and unflappable emissary.


On a more shallow note, it's nice to see a proper credit sequence again. It helps sell the premium quality of the show. And at 51 minutes, it's nice that the pilot had room to breathe that would have been squeezed out of it to fit a 41 minute network slot.

 

[Todd J Moore]

I, too, have watched the first episode (and only the first episode). My plan is to watch the show an episode a night for the next two weeks. I liked it. Different vibe than SHIELD and CARTER, but still very well done. A little early in the series to tell if it's going to be as angst driven as ARROW. Hopefully not. Cox makes for a good Daredevil and the fight scenes are appropriately brutal. Looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

I watched the pilot episode and found it to be excellent. Looking forward to diving in deep over the next week or so.

 

[Sam Favate]

Just watched episode 1, and really liked it. I very much enjoy Charlie Cox as Matt, and really like how the Kingpin was such a presence, even though he didn't make an appearance. Great first episode. I'm glad to see there are 13 episodes in all; for some reason I thought there were only 8.

 

[Josh Dial]

This show is excellent. Best superhero show on TV (Marvel or DC). Far superior to Agent Carter (see my issues in that thread).

 

[joshEH]

End of the fourth episode. Guess that's one way to make Russian pudding.

 

[joshEH]

Also, the guy playing Wesley looks like Josh Charles's beefier, sociopathic brother.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I watched the first three episodes and I really enjoyed them. This series is quite excellent.

I love the tone. Right from the start, I found myself really invested in the three lead characters. Great performances. The violence is brutal. You really "feel" it.

I wanted to keep watching, but I don't want to rush through them. I hope I can pace myself somewhat, but I can't see myself not finishing this within the next two weeks, possibly sooner.

 

[Stephen Brooks]

The gap between what a serialized show and feature films can do is getting wider all the time. We now have 13 hours of Daredevil. That's nearly as much screen time as all the Batman movies ever made combined, and that's just season one.

 

[Todd J Moore]

Just watched episode 2. I have one complaint about this show and that's the fact that everything is so darkly lit--even all of the interior scenes--that it's hard to see just what's going on sometimes. Otherwise, I do enjoy it.

 

[mattCR]

Has already exceeded my expectations.

 

[Hanson]

The pilot is great. Being unconstrained by network run times and, more importantly, act breaks for commercials, Daredevil feels like a string of serialized mini movies instead of a TV show. Plus, having the lead wear a mask means better and more brutal stunt fighting. I always check out during the fight scenes in SHIELD because they have to dumb it down for the actors.

 

[revgen]

If you like Gotham, then you'll like Daredevil, it's psychotic cousin.


Daredevil does a great job of using "noir" styling like Gotham does in order to set the mood and move the story along. It doesn't have the budget that a series like S.H.I.E.L.D or Carter have, but the atmosphere, extended time (no commercials) for character study, and no-holds barred fighting sequences make up for it.


It's definitely exceeded my expectations so far.


For those wanting to find out how the fighting sequences were shot read this article. Stunt doubles were used at times, but the actors did quite a bit of fighting themselves.


http://observer.com/2015/04/daredevil-stunt-coordinator-on-designing-a-one-shot-fight-scene-for-a-blind-hero/

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Three episodes in and quite impressed. Love how this model of story telling allows so much more layering of characters than what you get in a theatrical release. The cast is all round excellent.


Plus the element of risk is so much greater. DD may have skills but he is also very vulnerable.

 

[Sam Favate]

I also like that Netflix (and HBO) have revived something we haven't seen in about 40 years: the 50+ minute long episodic show.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The sound mixing team also deserves an Emmy for this show. They way they're able to convey his powers without leaning heavily on visualizing his echolocation "red vision" is extremely well done. Some versions of the live-action Superman have also played with this concept to greater or lesser effect, but the use here is so much more comprehensive and nuanced.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Finished episode 9. Wow. This show is just fantastic.

I've done three three-episode viewings. I think I'll finish with two two-episode viewings. I'll hate to be done, but there's no way I can keep from watching something like this given the option.

It's a given that I'll do an encore viewing of the season, maybe I'll spread that out more.

 

[Sam Posten]

Everyone was raving about the fight at the end of episode 2, it was kinda meh for me on first viewing. I then watched it again on the 120" screen instead of the iPad and yeah, pretty pretty good! =)

 

[Sean Bryan]

Everyone was raving about the fight at the end of episode 2, it was kinda meh for me on first viewing. I then watched it again on the 120" screen instead of the iPad and yeah, pretty pretty good! =)

As a home theater enthusiast, you shouldn't be watching anything on an iPad, ever.

Seriously though, that fight was very cool and intense. I think the thing that sets it apart from lots of other stuff is that as "heightened" as it is, is feels very real. You can see just how exhausted everyone is, including Murdock.

But there are even cooler fights (though more one on one) in later episodes. Haven't seen past 9 yet. But 9 has some really intense fight stuff.


I was concerned about watching this over Netflix streaming I've seen some low quality streaming from them in the past, and it isn't pretty on my projector. So I basically avoided it. I don't know if it is the time I have been watching these, but the video quality is great. Much better than Xfinity's HD cable, and almost as good as decent blu-ray, which was surprising to me.