Review: Daredevil S1

Daredevil Cover

You know how every now and then you discover a TV show that completely destroys your life. You stay up until 2am the night before an important presentation, just to watch “one more episode”, which turns into two or three. You start to care more about the characters’ lives than those of your friends and family. The storylines consume your thoughts and you actually get quite emotional when things aren’t going the way you want them to. Sometimes you’re able to snap out of it momentarily and remind yourself that it’s “just a TV show” (the worst thing anyone can ever say to me, ever btw) but for the most part, you are completely consumed. Well… Daredevil Season One is not one of those shows.

I enjoyed it fine, don’t get me wrong. I think there was one night when we stayed up past our bedtime to find out what happened next, but there were also a few nights when I fell asleep in front of it well before my bedtime. But I persevered because the trailer for season two looks so fricken awesome, and Foggy is just so sweet and likeable I had to make sure nothing bad happened to him.

Daredevil polarised my friends, they either loved it or gave up after two or three episodes. Being a Netflix series, each episode lasts fifty-ish minutes and sometimes that just feels too long, which is unfortunate. It’s got a decent premise though and the action sequences are superb; by far the best in anything currently out there. It seems entirely plausible that Matt could kick Jason Stratham’s ass; even Killer Elite Jason Stratham. Being overly analytical by nature I appreciated the fact that they provided good background and a believable explanation for how a blind man can kick ass in such a manner. All of these are positives.


The acting… also polarised. Some excellent performances, many inconsistent performances, and if the secretary lady had been killed off I wouldn’t have been too disappointed. I don’t think watching Jurassic World slap bang in the middle helped. Seeing the chillingly eerie Wilson Fisk (played by Vincent D’Onofrio) acting as an annoying, ignorant capitalist with a full head of hair and hipster beard probably didn’t do much to help my interpretation of his character. By the end he was annoying rather than scary. And why does he have to talk so damn slowly?! And it all just seemed too simple in the end, like Al Capone being done for tax evasion.

Anyway, with all that being said, I am looking forward to season two (when it eventually gets picked out of the cookie jar) Matt finally has his costume and as mentioned, the trailer looks epic, The Walking Dead’s head rubbing Shane given a chance to redeem himself; possibly as the hero that Hell’s Kitchen needs… oops, sorry, wrong franchise.


Verdict: Very watchable; only 12 episodes; worth your time; 7/10.