If you hadn’t noticed, Netflix released the first season of their Marvel partnership tv shows “Daredevil” The hype around this show has slowly built up and finally we get all thirteen episodes on Netflix ready to binge right now (and really this is the best way to consume it!) I am 10 episodes in (there are 13!) and can agree that this is an accomplishment for Marvel studios, and should see the series become one of the most successful Marvel properties to date.
To start with it seems as though Marvel have finally learnt something from their rival company D.C Comics. This show is full of badass fighting, dark, gloomy sets, violent and bloody deaths, and finally the end of the quirky one liners as the heroes beat down the villains. Daredevil is often compared to Batman, and what Marvel have done with this, is take this hero from the joke he became with the previous Ben Affleck incarnation, and turn him into one of Marvel’s most interesting and badass heroes on their universe.
It is so easy to compare this to Arrow, both shows have the dark and violent vigilante, torn by his past, this is also accelerated by the extremely dark tones and shades of the set pieces that look alarmingly similar to the CW show. This is not a bad thing at all, this clearly sets this Marvel property apart from the rest of the shared universe and while it is connected, this is clearly one for adults, and definitely not one for children to go anywhere near.
The action sequences are hard, strong and definitely the best choreographed on any Marvel property so far. The crunch of breaking bones and unrelenting drips of blood fly across the screen in large and epic sequences that raise the bar for superhero fight scenes. Usually we are used to Marvel packing an over the top punch with a quippy one liner, none of that is evident in this series, and it works to its advantage. Personally I am a D.C comics fan and while I enjoy the Marvel cinematic universe, Daredevil has hooked me in and I want more of this toned universe. The best part about it, is that instead of a two hour snapshot, we get 11 hours in this world exploring the characters, their motivations and ultimately why after a horribly epic mess with 20th Century Fox, you should care about Daredevil again.
Over the next few weeks we will be releasing reviews of chunks of episodes and exploring them on the Marvellous podcast. Make sure you keep it locked to Novastream for more Daredevil goodness!
Article by Alaisdair Dewar
