Daredevil

[03]

no spoilers. just watch this scene and then tell me how many of you think of oldboy and how many think of only god forgives.
best superhero tv series, strictly for the aforementioned cinematography. watch this clip immediately. also wanna know pete thinks of this.

[polkablues]

I feel safe in saying that's the best fight scene ever filmed for a tv show. The simple fact that they make the combat look violent, painful, and exhausting almost seems revolutionary in a medium that's barely moved on from Xena, Warrior Princess-style fight scenes. I've been really impressed at how brutal and serious they've allowed this show to be.

[©brad]

For reals, that was great. I can't really comment on the actual fighting. I'll let Pete do that. It does seem like a shot Pete could and would shoot.

So I should be watching this show yeah?

[polkablues]

So I should be watching this show yeah?

Yes. I'm six episodes in so far, and it's great. Not perfect, but well above expectations.

[pete]

For reals, that was great. I can't really comment on the actual fighting. I'll let Pete do that. It does seem like a shot Pete could and would shoot.

So I should be watching this show yeah?

the fight is fine - like the rest of the show - it's up to the standard it needs to be to work for the target audience, but I don't know if the show is for me. I feel like there is now a sub-genre of superhero movies that are ashamed of being superhero movies. it steals bad guys and premises from The Wire and then just puts a karate guy in there to solve all the problems. It pretends to have some type of darkness or moral turmoil but alls I've seen is the bad guys having up-to-date evil jobs and a good guy going to a church from time to time.

As for the fighting - the telltale sign for intelligence or complexity in fighting, for me, is hands. the biggest difference between the old boy fight and his one is that, as out of shape and old as that actor is, he actually learned to punch. Just like anything else - fundamentals are important. 95% of the daredevil fight was done by a fighting double, but he really has no idea how to punch, neither does most of the stunt guys. There is this trouble that's plaguing Hollywood, which is that most of the stunt guys - as incredible as they are with the acrobatics -do not know how to punch. My guess is because of most of them went through karate schools at the malls where they were never really taught how to fight or some-such thing, and we have a whole generation of high-end fight choreographers who learned their basics from Buffy and Power Rangers. I'm sure I'm the only person in the world who is bothered by this, but there have been countless movies (and 100% of Zach Snyder's movies) that paid great attention to detail to everything and then the fighting falls apart. They're using the same choreography as Buffy, but with better camerawork.

That's all meh.

[diggler]

It was a fun scene, I appreciated the ambition and cinematography. I'm not used to that kind of creative spirit in a Marvel product. The show seems to be tonally all over the place though. The Foggy scenes feel like they belong in an ABC show.

[Jeremy Blackman]

SPOILERS FOLLOW.

This show deeply confuses me.

It's trying to be so grounded, but in an overaggressive way that makes it feel defensive, like it's continuously trying to justify its existence. It feels like it needs to explain itself to an audience who would be confused by the idea of a superhero.

The Nelson v. Murdock episode is a perfect example of this. The show all along had been trying to convey the maximum emotional reality of everything, but this episode took that to its logical extreme. As Foggy interrogates Matt, and we are guided through flashbacks, every emotional angle of their relationship is wrung dry. When Foggy starts repeating things, I think I reached some kind of breaking point, because I turned on him in a way I don't think I was supposed to. The episode redefined his character as a whining idiot baby. And I started to wonder why Daredevil (the show or the character) needs him anyway.

I suppose the objective was that these characters would end up feeling ultra real. Instead, you kind of start pulling your hair out as their dialogue covers the same ground over and over again.

Another thing the writers do is recognize logic gaps and inconsistencies, and have a character ask a question about that in an actual scene. It's as if someone put a note on the script, and the writer said, you know what, let's just plug this in as dialogue so the audience knows that we know that they know. You know? And so that everything is absolutely clear. The last thing we want is our audience walking away with questions. (Karen is usually the delivery vehicle for these in-universe FAQs.)

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, Daredevil abhors subtext. Everything must be text. In some episodes you can just feel where the writers found subtext in a corner, and dragged it out into the light, and excitedly showed it to everyone. There is no mystery about anyone's past or anyone's current motivations. If they discover that at some point a character is doing something unexplained, I'm certain they will find a way to flash back and explain it.

The sad thing is, the show undercuts its own hard-fought realism by semi-regularly dropping an outrageously dumb thing on us.

- At the end of the Nelson v. Murdock episode, Foggy actually tosses their plaque in a garbage can, and of course we have to zoom in on it.
- In an earlier episode, Fisk actually says "I'm not a monster! ... Am I?"
- The Asian characters, endless wells of imitation Eastern wisdom, are at worst borderline racist, and at best grating cliches.
- "What languages do you speak?" / "All of them."
- The writers simply do not know how to write Fisk's public speeches. It's bizarre and embarrassing.

Also, if I hear "THIS CITY" or "MY CITY" one more time, I'm going to strangle the nearest city. Even though D'Onofrio's performance has kept me watching, the way he enunciates the T in "city" makes me cringe. Also it's a little weird that when they say "my city" they're talking about Hell's Kitchen, which is a neighborhood of a borough of a city. (But maybe that's how Hell's Kitchen-ites are, I don't know.)

Pubrick's rule of TV has been ringing in my ears the last couple episodes. Why am I still watching? I'm too close to the end of the season to stop short, I suppose. Plus I need to see that suit reveal. Thank God they're explaining where and how and by whom the suit is being made; I would be so confused if they didn't cover that in extreme realist detail.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Also, if I hear "THIS CITY" or "MY CITY" one more time, I'm going to strangle the nearest city.

MAJOR SPOILERS

[Jeremy Blackman]

A friend begged me to give Season 2 a chance, and I'm glad I did.

(SPOILS)

First two episodes got a lot of stuff out of the way. Third episode was interesting, but I felt like there was way too much talking. I know those exposition scenes are hard to write, but that could have been done better.

THEN... Episode 4 arrived. It's certainly the best Daredevil episode I've seen. The Punisher's monologue was extraordinary — possibly the most real moment the show will ever have. It was so real, in fact, that whenever they cut back to Daredevil in his mask, I had to stifle laughter. And yet, Jon Bernthal was so good that he easily stole the scene back. I'm convinced he must have co-written that scene, because each word seemed to be coming directly from the character.

[Jeremy Blackman]

"It's fantastic! But I would trade it all in for a lifetime of smelling your skin!"

- Daredevil, trying to jump the shark.

[Jeremy Blackman]

"I can't hear anything! The electricity is building! It's too loud! The city is pulsing!"

"Matthew, it's your city! Calm it down!"

[Jeremy Blackman]

Another moment to cherish. (SEMI-SPOILER?) Caption courtesy of the AV Club.

I genuinely laughed when this happened in the episode, then realized I wasn't supposed to when it transitioned into a very earnest montage.

[polkablues]

Yeah, the whole Karen's Adventures as a Journalist plot was wildly ill-conceived. Here's how I imagine it would go after her editor, who hired a person with zero journalistic training or background and gave her her own office before she'd even so much as written an article, read the "What Is It, To Use Commas Weirdly" column for the first time:

[Jeremy Blackman]

Netflix Orders 'The Punisher' Marvel Series

http://deadline.com/2016/04/the-punisher-marvel-series-netflix-1201746504/

Netflix just announced that The Punisher, an offshoot of Marvil's Daredevil starring The Walking Dead alum Jon Bernthal, is getting a series order.

The antihero character of The Punisher, a subject of several failed attempts at launching a film franchise around him, was introduced in the second season of Netflix's Daredevil, which premiered on March 18. The streaming service had been working on the potential spinoff for several months.

The Punisher is Netflix's sixth Marvel series. Following the successful launches of Daredevil and Jessica Jones, production is underway on Luke Cage for a September 20 premiere, with Iron Fist and The Defenders, a crossover miniseries featuring all main characters, also in the works.

Read more