Marvel's Daredevil: Season 1 (2015) - Review

Daredevil is a series that has developed a lot of hype since its release on Netflix. It seems few people were bothered about the two official trailers released by Marvel, and the sour taste of disappointment from Agents of SHIELD was still lingering, despite the modest success of Agent Carter in the US (which has been stuck on some awkward to watch channel here in the UK). I do worry that some people will set the bar too high for Daredevil to be great, but then again - it depends on what you're looking for.
It feels very much like Marvel trying a new tone, approach and audience - more so for a teenage/adult or fan audience as opposed to more of a family audience like a majority of the films. While Agents of SHIELD also tried a darker approach in Season 2, it never really worked for the show. Daredevil, however, feels naturally suited to this tone, and delves into a story that feels very comfortable with its BBFC 15 certificate. I do feel whatever moments have actually been toned down in the show were for budgetary reasons though. Despite looking visually stunning and having great fight choreography, Daredevil's Netflix series budget does show through on occasion, particularly in the finale. Maybe it was just how the directors wanted to stage the scenes, for dramatic purposes - or maybe Marvel worry that some younger fans might be watching too.
The grim tone isn't too depressing though, and we do get some jokes and light-hearted moments along the way. The character of Foggy Nelson is mostly to blame for these moments, and despite at first seeming like comic relief, Foggy's character arc really goes somewhere by the end of the season. Episode 10, "Nelson v Murdock" really delved into his character, and his friendship with Matt Murdock. Foggy isn't too silly at point, and his jokes are always a welcome relief with many of the grim moments in the show.
Daredevil is really a show about Matt Murdock though, played by Charlie Cox (who still hasn't seemed to have had a breakout role yet) with a mix of charm and solitude that a character like Matt would need. I'm not sure how much of the stunt-work he did on the show, but its all done very well to make sure it looks like him - probably why the designers made sure the mask covered most of his face. But Cox is also a great actor, displayed in various moments throughout the series, and particularly in the finale where he just breaks down with it all.
Matt Murdock's character arc in the series is that of becoming the super hero Daredevil, which gives the show a bit of an Arrow-esque feel with such a long origin story. Its probably more noticeable with Daredevil as its the one story spread over the 13 episodes as opposed to multiple 23 episode seasons in Arrow. The initial costume looks a bit cheap at first, but you soon realize why - it looks cheap, because it is cheap. Matt Murdock isn't a billionaire after all. But the red suit (seen only in the finale, fittingly titled "Daredevil") looks fantastic. I look forward to seeing where they go from there in the second season, already in filming.
Then we have Karen Page, played by Deborah Ann Woll, and I'm not sure what to make of her. I still feel like we as an audience are missing large parts of her backstory by the end of the series, but her character is left with an interesting cliffhanger for Season 2 to resolve.
There are various characters and great actors I could also talk about, but the one I have to mention is Wilson Fisk, played by Vincent D'Onofrio. His character is introduced as an awkward introvert asking out a woman on a date at first, showing him to be a really nice guy...until his date goes a little bit wrong and he smashes the culprit's head in with a car door until it severs his head. Fisk is a character who can't control his emotions very well, although I still feel that we have yet to see him really angry in the show.
Fisk's backstory is also quite interesting to watch, and the actor playing the 12 year old Wilson was brilliant in the flashback sequences - scenes that you could imagine really did mess up Fisk so badly that he became the man he is in the present day sequences. Its a shame they never call him the Kingpin, but maybe they're saving that for later.
There are also flashbacks detailing events from Matt Murdock's childhood, showing what happened to his father and detailing how he learnt to fight, as well as what drove him to becoming a vigilante (and no, it wasn't the death of a family member), which is quite interesting to watch but a little inconsistent in where it happens in the series.
The 13 episode structure of the series means that the story ends up being paced very slowly and methodically, although I feel like the equivalent of an entire episode could have been cut if the writers had combined the stories for two episodes together. As great as "Nelson v Murdock" is, the scenes in the present between Foggy and Matt get a bit repetitive after a while, and even the finale doesn't seem to get going until the final 20 or so minutes.
I'm not sure whether this is bad pacing, or whether its just how they wanted the series to be structured. There are some elements of the series left open in the finale that I would have liked to have been resolved, but weren't, which, considering the 13 hours they had to tell this story, is very disappointing.
The music by John Paesano is very good, and works brilliantly for each scene, and I really like the title sequence and theme for the series. The whole production quality is very, very good, and I hope that the stunt-work on this series gets the recognition it deserves - especially given that our main action hero is blind.
Overall, Daredevil is not a perfect series, but its brilliant nonetheless. I'm intrigued to see where they go from here, and maybe I'll look on the series perhaps more fondly in the future to see the masterpiece others do, but so far, I just find it to be a brilliant series that could have been streamlined a bit. That said, it truly is worth watching and shows Marvel actually trying different things with their properties. The cast, direction, cinematography, lighting, stunt-work, writing and score are all brilliant, and all are pretty award-worthy. I really enjoyed Daredevil.