Just finished Daredevil.
Pretty great overall. The best thing about it is how they actually manage to sidestep any semblance of cheesiness for the grand majority of it. Seriously, it's a breath of fresh air seeing something officially part of the Marvel cinematic universe that isn't all about wisecracks and airship showdowns (though that stuff is still cool; Winter Soldier was the bee's knees). It's surprisingly tough and mean and violent, and I'm goddamn serious when I say that it's just as good (for the most part) as I'd always imagined a realistically-handled Daredevil film could be, way back when I first read the Man Without Fear miniseries (recommended read, by the by).
Vincent D'Onofrio was absolutely the greatest choice possible for playing the Kingpin. Just has to be mentioned.
Of course, with all the stuff the series does so, so right, it just makes the stuff it doesn't do right hurt even more.
It sidesteps cheesiness for the majority of the series, but it totally, utterly stumbles in that department in a few cases, such as when Nobu dons a bright red fucking ninja costume that looks like he got it down at the Party Barn last Halloween. Good God that was embarrassingly cheesy. And it stood out like a sore thumb, what with everything before it being so grounded and cool.
Likewise, despite really enjoying the episode with Stick, the ending segment with the muscley movie-trailer-voice-guy felt like a bad omen of more cheesiness planned for future seasons.
Not quite as offensive, but the last episode drops into cheesiness a bit too much as well for my tastes. Every shot of Matt "listening to the city" to find out where to go makes him look like a bird, tilting his head all wide-eyed and whatnot. Just looked silly. Like a pigeon. And when he finally dons the red costume at the end, I thought it looked frickin' awesome... until I got a better look at the mask, which looks really dumb. I'd grown really fond of the black mask, being like a damn blindfold and all... it was just plain badass in that regard. I think they should have run with the blindfold idea for his "official" costume, just make it red and add horns. Would have been much better than the silly molded helmet they ended up with. Plus, the last fight had far too much in the way of tilty camera angles; made it look no less silly than the Affleck DD movie.
And I really have to say this: I hate Karen. Hate, hate, hate her.
Fuuuuck , I hate her. So much.
Honestly, they could have kept the writing the same, kept the character the same, I wouldn't have minded all that... they just should have cast someone else. The actress playing her is terrible . Just about one of the most irritating people I've had to put up with in a show in a long damn while, with her constantly-quivering voice like she's always on the verge of tears, the shit-eating grins she gets on her face when she thinks she's being clever (hint: she's never being clever, because she's an idiot ), that goddamn whispy ginger mustache she has which shows up under the wrong lighting... and all those fucking moles and shit all over her face.
She's ugly and unappealing and annoying and I hate her.
Seriously, couldn't they have found a better, more appealing actress for one of the most prominent fucking roles in the entire series? It just boggles the mind how horrible the casting calls must have been for them to have eventually settled on her for the role. Got to the point I almost felt like fast-forwarding every time she came on screen.
And worst thing of all?
It just has to be her that kills Wesley, one of the most interesting characters in the whole show. That just made me hate her even more.
But all those things aside -- and yes, they are mostly small things when you consider this is like a 13-hour movie I'm talking about -- it was still a really good series. It's stronger near the beginning than it is near the end, but it is a really interesting step for Marvel's cinematic universe. As surprisingly violent as it is, it also strikes me that Netflix would be a great venue for Marvel's more violent properties from here on out. Henry mentioned it before, but a Punisher series in this vein could be absolutely amazing.
Here's hoping.