Yesterday, the second season of Marvel's Netflix series,
Daredevil, happened. Since I had the day off and I needed something to discuss
today, I got up early and binged the whole goddamned thing in a day while I
cleaned around the house and got drunk. I'll admit that I was a little worried
at first that the show might lose a little bit of fire in the belly since the
showrunners seemed to go for broke right out of the gate in Season 1.
First and foremost, Jon Bernthal was pitch perfect as the Punisher or, as I think of him, Who I See Myself As When I Play The Division. Though there have been some good portrayals (despite being in heinously bad movies) over the years, Bernthal has Frank Castle down so well, it's actually a little unsettling to watch. In the first season, the Kingpin was mainly a behind-the-curtain type of villain for the first episodes where we didn't get to see much of him for a while. Season 2 blatantly has no time for that shit. This time around, they get right down to business, throwing us right in the middle of Hell's Kitchen becoming a pot ready to boil over thanks to the new "hero" in town. Punisher's body count in any one episode resemble Steph Curry's season average. The fight scenes are twice as brutal as the first season. Last year, there were a lot of parallels drawn between Daredevil and Batman (the Nolan version) when the show premiered. Clearly, Marvel wanted desperately to distance one character from the other since we're a week away from Dawn of Justice because this season puts Matt Murdock through twice the shit he went through physically last time.
Character development was a bit more interesting. Karen Page definitely evolved from "step into harm's way constantly" to "stepping into harm's way for a good reason or at least good intentions." She's learned a thing or two from being around two friends who are entirely capable of handling themselves despite not being conventional tough guys (as far as she knows). For a show that borrow so heavily from Frank Miller (who has always been trash with writing women), this is a vast improvement. Foggy Nelson develops into someone with a little more personal agency once he realizes his blind best friend isn't exactly the handicapped person he thought he knew in Season 1. He blithely throws himself into some wildly dangerous scenarios without thinking it all the way through, but you feel his need to prove he can handle things on his own since his good looking, confident, silver tongued partner has essentially abandoned him. Even Claire Temple is basically just trying to either a). keep her job, b). DO her job or c). give the main character what they need so they'll get the fuck out of her face so she can get back to keeping/doing her job. You can watch each one of these characters play out their particular issues and be perfectly entertained without looking at your watch, waiting for Daredevil to fly through a window beat the unholy shit out of everyone....though that is usually a plus. The Elektra storyline doesn't have as much emotional resonance as the Punisher plot does, but it's still very well developed and wrapped up about as neatly as could be expected. Scott Glenn is still an absolute godsend as Stick. There simply isn't a single scene that isn't that much better because he's in it. Also....DAREDEVIL VS. NINJAS!!!
Will there be a third season? This series certainly deserves one, but with Iron Fist happening and The Defenders soon after, I could imagine there's some uncertainty as to when they'd get to churn out another Daredevil season. Of course, that was the case with the first season and we were promptly gifted with another, so we'll see.
My comic review for the week on Superman: American Alien
First and foremost, Jon Bernthal was pitch perfect as the Punisher or, as I think of him, Who I See Myself As When I Play The Division. Though there have been some good portrayals (despite being in heinously bad movies) over the years, Bernthal has Frank Castle down so well, it's actually a little unsettling to watch. In the first season, the Kingpin was mainly a behind-the-curtain type of villain for the first episodes where we didn't get to see much of him for a while. Season 2 blatantly has no time for that shit. This time around, they get right down to business, throwing us right in the middle of Hell's Kitchen becoming a pot ready to boil over thanks to the new "hero" in town. Punisher's body count in any one episode resemble Steph Curry's season average. The fight scenes are twice as brutal as the first season. Last year, there were a lot of parallels drawn between Daredevil and Batman (the Nolan version) when the show premiered. Clearly, Marvel wanted desperately to distance one character from the other since we're a week away from Dawn of Justice because this season puts Matt Murdock through twice the shit he went through physically last time.
Character development was a bit more interesting. Karen Page definitely evolved from "step into harm's way constantly" to "stepping into harm's way for a good reason or at least good intentions." She's learned a thing or two from being around two friends who are entirely capable of handling themselves despite not being conventional tough guys (as far as she knows). For a show that borrow so heavily from Frank Miller (who has always been trash with writing women), this is a vast improvement. Foggy Nelson develops into someone with a little more personal agency once he realizes his blind best friend isn't exactly the handicapped person he thought he knew in Season 1. He blithely throws himself into some wildly dangerous scenarios without thinking it all the way through, but you feel his need to prove he can handle things on his own since his good looking, confident, silver tongued partner has essentially abandoned him. Even Claire Temple is basically just trying to either a). keep her job, b). DO her job or c). give the main character what they need so they'll get the fuck out of her face so she can get back to keeping/doing her job. You can watch each one of these characters play out their particular issues and be perfectly entertained without looking at your watch, waiting for Daredevil to fly through a window beat the unholy shit out of everyone....though that is usually a plus. The Elektra storyline doesn't have as much emotional resonance as the Punisher plot does, but it's still very well developed and wrapped up about as neatly as could be expected. Scott Glenn is still an absolute godsend as Stick. There simply isn't a single scene that isn't that much better because he's in it. Also....DAREDEVIL VS. NINJAS!!!
Will there be a third season? This series certainly deserves one, but with Iron Fist happening and The Defenders soon after, I could imagine there's some uncertainty as to when they'd get to churn out another Daredevil season. Of course, that was the case with the first season and we were promptly gifted with another, so we'll see.
My comic review for the week on Superman: American Alien
Also, we're back with part 2 of Chapter 1 of our ongoing fantasy webcomic, Neverland: The Untold. So, definitely check that out.
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