Daredevil - Season 1 (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Creator: Drew Goddard
	Actors: Charlie Cox (Stardust), Vincent D'Onofrio (Men in Black), Deborah Ann Woll, Rosario Dawson (Deathproof), Elden Henson (Deja Vu)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning:  25-28 April 2015, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Blind since he is nine, Matt Murdock (Cox) is a freshly graduated lawyer during the day, vigilante at night. In both tasks he is helped by his friends Foggy (Henson) and Karen (Page), in order to counter the plans of the Kingpin (D'Onofrio).
Review: Twelve years after the disliked Daredevil movie with Ben Affleck, the blind vigilante is back in a series produced by the VOD giant Netflix. It actually takes place in the same Universe as the Marvel blockbusters (Iron Man, Captain America...) some time after the events of The Avengers. The partial destruction of New York is in fact what triggers a fierce competition for rebuilding the city and making the most money out of it. I have often read the description that "The Avengers save the world; Daredevil saves the neighborhood", and find it fitting. Indeed I cannot imagine the Gods and Superheroes of that elite team getting interested in the fate of one NY neighbourhood: Hell's Kitchen. This is Daredevil's job. The series format is interesting but defeats a bit the purpose of getting addicted and waiting for the next episodes, as the whole season was released in one shot. This is telling something about the way people watch series nowadays, and that is not on TV at a fixed time. The series is well executed although it sometimes look cheap. I noticed that the first few episodes are especially dark, maybe to force us to focus less on images and identify with Matt Murdock, but that made it difficult to watch them on a projector during daytime. It was in particular hard to appreciate the otherwise impressive stunts: Daredevil is using a fighting style of his own that I have never seen before (a mix of some Muay Thai, Kung-Fu and Parkour), although it is sometimes exaggerated (doing a flip to jump a 50 cm step...). Charlie Cox (that have recently discovered in Stardust) is a good cast for the role, partly because I find he has an expressive mouth, important for a character wearing a black mask down to its nose, or even sunglasses during the whole day. That might have helped giving him the role. The character of Matt Murdock and his duality is interesting, and his vulnerability (he often gets beaten up and comes back home bloody) makes it easier to identify with. The best actor in the series is without a doubt Vincent D'Onofrio playing brilliantly the bad guy. I wouldn't be surprised if  he received an Emmy award. He really gives life to this character so that he becomes quite lovable in a way, and several times I had to remind myself why we was indeed a bad guy. Another good character in the series is Vanessa: it is indeed not often that you get to spend so much time with the bad guy's companion (he usually even doesn't have one). The Kingpin's right arm Wesley is not bad either. On the contrary, I didn't like much Leland nor Foggy, especially during his courting of Karen in the episode #6: Condemned. As remarkable episodes I could mention #2 Cut Man for its incredible corridor fight as in Old Boy, and the flashbacks of Matt's youth. In episode #7 Stick, the meeting with Matt's mentor brings a nice B-series feeling far from the A-grade of the Marvel movies. Episode #9 Speak of the Devil starts a religious discussion that will continue until the end. I like in particular the before-last #12 The Ones we Leave Behind and the small part of Fantastic it adds (#7 did that also), while I found the season finale #13 Daredevil a bit disappointing although it brings a nice and expected (predictable) closure. Looking back at the series I find that in contrast to all the good things mentioned above, that first season contained too much character development, discussions (as in all series) and not enough lawyer stuff. This will probably be corrected in the second season that has already been announced for 2016.
Rating: 7 /10