Lacking the freshness and precision of the first season, still enjoyable, but left wanting better from future stories.
Daredevil season 1 was an excellent, grim, well-scripted, bleak, introduction to the world of Daredevil and his supporting characters. The Netflix/Marvel production inititiated the adult-themed, gritty series of shows, to which Jessica Jones has been added, and left viewers keen for more.
This second season, although good (and very good at times) didn't continue the level of excellence, and had more than a few issues, both with the script, and the overall plot.
Without going into too much detail, it seemed like a couple of stories mashed ineffectively into one season, with not enough time, or clarity given to either.
Punisher
The season starts with the introduction of the Punisher, played by Jon Bernthal (not your best friend from AMC's 'The Walking Dead'). Bernthal's Punisher sets the right tone for the character - unstable, confused, yet strangely focussed on the task in hand. The early episodes introduce the character well, and lend weight to the threat he poses, and how his methods conflict with Daredevil's eventually leading to their conflict. |
| Finally, the death skull |
However, having set the character up, he is then shuffled off to the side too quickly - the trial resolution happens off-screen, and for the remainder of the season (save for an impressive mid-season fight sequence, and memorable meet-up with another Daredevil character) he's on the periphery, or left to wheeze the same lines he's already given. There's more back story here that we could have had, but it's being left for later, one assumes. I'd like the story to be given more treatment, personally.
Elektra
The second major, new character we meet is Elektra, played by Elodie Yung. Yung physically looks the part, and her accent is also very good - Elektra should have a mixed-European accent of no specific country, to indicate her lack of being tied to one place, and hint at her troubled childhood. Physically, this is all very good. However, her fighting skills (much like Daredevil's in Season 1) are a bit all over the place. She ought to be the Hand's greatest assassin, trained by both Stick and the Hand, as a lethal killing instrument. Here, at least initially, she's inferior to Stick and Daredevil, requiring saving on several occasions. Maybe this is an 'early' Elektra, and the ending suggests such, but she is still an assassin, a Stick protégé, and should have that level of capability. There are also a number of confusing motives that seem to draw her to be more 'plot device', then genuine 'agent' ... there could have been an arc to put her in the lead of this war, yet she now seems side-lined as a someone swept along by it. |
| Elektra *sighs* |
Excited as I was to see Elektra in Daredevil, I'm more than a bit disappointed in how she's treated. A complex character, hard to show, but it's not really attempted here. A shame given how capable Yung is, and how right she looks for the part.
***SPOILER***
I'm just confused by the way The Hand treat her. If she is 'the' Black Sky, then what about last season's one? If it's all a little 'Buffy' and we can have potentials/actuals, why the focus on her alone? Then given their interest in her, and apparent subjugation, why do they fight against her? And why care if she is/might be killed, as death is no problem?
Also, when Stick is captured, this appears to be achieved by "killing the lights". When two of the three participants are blind, I'm not sure what this achieved, other than a shortcut to get Stick in peril. Unless it's what he planned, how did the three or four Hand guys over-power him, when neither Stick nor Daredevil were disadvantaged, and the bad guys were?
Karen Page
In season 1, Karen's story led the plot, and essentially drove the events forward. Although we can see why she's interested in redeeming Castle, she's more often than not consigned to teary-eyed, sobbing of choked lines like "Matt, I just can't ..." à la Jack from Lost. She was introduced as more capable than this, and it seems a waste of Woll's talents, although she at least seems capable of following through on a lead.Out of all the characters, only Foggy seemed to get a good deal in the second season - a new, and better paid (well, paid) job, and the chance of playing a part in Jessica Jones's story.
Overall, early promise, but not followed through, and either too much story for one season with the new characters, or not enough, had they trimmed the cast list.
Still, it's not The Flash or Supergirl.
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