Daredevil: First Impressions/Season 1 Review.

Just when you think Marvel may be doing too much at once, they surprise everyone and give us one of the most unexpected successes and compelling TV shows in years. What looked to be a bit naff from the trailers is actually a shockingly high quality show produced by Netflix and succeeds in making an underrated B list superhero into a gripping action star.

Although it appeared like Marvel had settled into the fun tone of Avengers, Daredevil brings audiences to the seedy and violent world of Hell’s Kitchen. A realistic and serious style make this street-level superhero more grounded and believable, with Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox) gaining extremely heightened senses and learning martial arts in order to go out at night and beat the crap out of people whom he deems to be criminals. The show is less like a superhero romp and more akin to a crime drama; fans of Nolan’s Dark Knight would do well to take a look. There’s plenty of gore and some very dark moments, with the main focus being the rivalry between masked vigilante Matt Murdoch and crime “kingpin” Wilson Fisk.

The show may be rough and violent but it’s not entirely sombre and there are plenty of laughs from a solid ensemble cast. Matt Murdoch’s circle of friends add a lot of humanity to this excellently written show and Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll bring the entertainment outside of the brilliantly choreographed fight scenes. This is street-level Marvel that showcases how crimes affect normal people in the everyday world, and the great cost that taking on organised crime has on those who would be heroes. The series is the most morally ambiguous setting in the MCU by far, with Matt Murdoch’s obsession with taking down criminals with his fists often making him seem obsessive and dangerous to those around him. Charlie Cox is charming as the blind lawyer for his day job and compelling as the tortured vigilante. At the root of the show’s morality is the interesting addition of Murdoch’s Catholicism, which adds an undercurrent of ethical and theological questions and makes Murdoch one of the most nuanced and unique characters Marvel have offered so far. It would be fantastic to see this character appear alongside Captain America in the upcoming Civil War, and hopefully judging by the runaway success of this fledgling series, audiences may be clamouring for a cameo or more.

Worthy of special mention is Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk. You may recognise him as Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket, but this could be his defining role in the years to come. The writers bravely give almost as much development time to the series’ villain as to its hero, and so D’Onofrio gets plenty of time to shine and absolutely steals every scene. A few moments even had me wanting Fisk to succeed, and I imagine the character will inspire many Breaking Bad comparisons. Whilst being a truly intimidating villain, he gets a well-rounded backstory and his motivation makes for a very interesting dichotomy between him and Murdoch. What starts as Murdoch trying to take on Wilson Fisk for his behind the scenes crimes as an honest lawyer, escalates into Murdoch taking things into his own hands and getting physical as the masked vigilante. Both have a public and secret side and the ongoing battle between the two is fantastically written. Both actors go a long way to provide great depictions of their onscreen characters, seeming to do the impossible and appear both believable and comic book-esque simultaneously. The show in general is very good at seeming plausible without losing its comic book heart.

Far better than anyone could have guessed, this series does a lot to erase memories of the 2003 Affleck movie and makes Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D look fairly crap in comparison. The show has a great cast with even tertiary characters well realized and the two leading men Cox and D’Onofrio taking the show to surprising heights. Wilson Fisk is seriously one of Marvel’s best villains so far and as an origin story for Daredevil, this is by far the best onscreen version of an under-appreciated Marvel hero; one that will hopefully gain traction and lead to many more seasons and at the very least a guest appearance in a big screen Marvel movie (Charlie Cox definitely has the talent.) It’s a remarkable series and stands even amongst the flood of quality TV in the past few years – as one of the highlights. Check it out.

Star Wars Rebels: First Impressions.

Star Wars is back on TV screens again, not in the live action format that some have been hoping for, but another animated kid’s show in the style of the acclaimed The Clone Wars series. Whereas the previous series took place between Star Wars episodes 2 and 3, this one takes place between episodes 3 and 4, covering the rise of the new Empire and the titular rebels who fight against it.

Disney have gone with an ensemble cast format, featuring the crew of a Millennium Falcon-like ship called the Ghost. We get to know this universe largely through the eyes of Ezra: a force sensitive teenager who is clearly a stand-in for the shows young target demographic, who joins the motley crew in the first episode. The show features their continued efforts to spoil the party for the Empire through theft and sabotage whilst making a profit for themselves. Fans of Firefly and Cowboy Bebop will probably enjoy this series. In fact, the show features the voice of Steve Blum who also voiced Spike of Cowboy Bebop fame, so the inspirations are clearly there. He plays a similarly muscular character here known as Zeb, and is the Chewbacca of the crew (if Chewbacca could talk).

Other crew members include a “cowboy Jedi” (voiced by Freddie Prinze, Jr.), who serves as an Obi-Wan like mentor to Ezra but with far more attitude and a lot less experience. There’s also a Twi’lek pilot, a Mandalorian Graffiti artist, and an astromech droid named “Chopper” who serves as the spunky and obnoxious stand in for R2-D2.

This format of rascals in space who aim to misbehave gives the show a far more focused look at the Star Wars universe than the grand sweeping space opera of The Clone Wars, which had a sizeable cast and would often split its characters off into different groups in order to demonstrate the scale of the war. Instead of beleaguered bureaucrats and Jedi generals leading their clone troops, the show concentrates on a ragtag crew on the fringes of the galaxy, trying to survive against the monolithic empire. For fans of the original trilogy who hate the “space politics” of the prequels and the Clone War era, this is a welcome return to an age of outnumbered and outgunned rebels in a rusty used-universe setting that the original trilogy did so well, fighting against an overwhelming force and using their wits and pluck to survive. It features very similar visuals such as oldschool Stormtroopers and Tie Fighters, as well as a return of some of John Williams original themes, so it definitely feels like we’re back in the same era again.

Is it any good? Well it’s definitely made with a younger audience in mind, so quite a bit of the dialogue is totally corny, but it’s a decent enough look into the Star Wars world which should please long term fans, especially with its return to the original trilogy era.

The Clone Wars now has a reputation among fans for beginning as a rather immature, basic show aimed at kids which later reached new heights of sophistication (and improved animation). Time will tell if this series follows the same path, but it would not be a surprise if we eventually saw some darker, more mature plots going on amidst the fun of the series misbehaving-in-space formula. My favourite episodes of Clone Wars series were the episodes that focused exclusively on the clone troopers themselves, and the ways in which they were brutally and inhumanely exploited. This series’ equivalent seems to be episodes that portray the cruelty and fascism of the empire, which we have seen a little of in the episodes so far, and will almost certainly see a lot more of in the future. There is definite room for interesting themes and social commentary, harking back to the best of the Clone Wars and Firefly. So far it’s been reasonably enjoyable and I look forward to seeing more.