Radar Love: DAREDEVIL show on NETFLIX

finished 9 episodes. this has been outstanding tbh, far exceeding any possible expectations - which for me are pretty low given that I have only liked a few recent marvel things (like guardians). it has its own voice and tone, which (aside from guardians and some of the iron man films) is not a quality of the marvel shit

Just finished chugging the last four episodes. I'm going to hold off on judgments for the time being.

bowling ball was a bit O_o

seven episodes down and i'm really enjoying this. charlie cox has definitely grown on me, and i actually kinda like his black costume. i'm less sure about the red one which netflix have blithely spoilered by including it in their thumbnail for the show - i guess it might look better in motion when it shows up?

one thing that bugs me is that they're happy to depict graphic violence but seem oddly reticent about swearing, restricting themselves to a couple of 'shits' and a 'dickhead' each episode. depicting severed hands and car-door decapitations and endless brutal beatings: just fine. foggy saying 'fuck' once in a while: not cool.

Not really looking for a Frank Miller-esque blood-fest out of this

Miller's Daredevil comics were produced under the Comic Book Code, and are not especially bloody.

it's dark but not really the tone of miller's diet of reactionary bullshit

Can you point to the issues of Miller's Daredevil that are politically reactionary?

are you his lawyer?

I haven't read the daredevil comics he wrote, it was a general and figurative statement on what miller starting turning into with the dark knight strikes again and apparently took to ran new heights with holy terror and most certainly took to further parodic extremes with his issues of (IM THE GODDAMN) batman and robin. honestly that's the whole miller tone. didn't think it was that controversial to call it reactionary, even if that's not the perfect word.

*started

You were worried that they would adapt comics you haven't read for the Daredevil TV series and then add some reactionary politics from comics that aren't about Daredevil (that you have read?)

Tuombot.

lol wtf

Yeah, the series has enough real problems without dragging imaginary ones into the mix.

The quality of the dialogue in the 2nd half of the series went howlingly bad. And Woll and Henson as Karen and Foggy were great casting physically, but they are horrible terribly shitty actors.

Still, I give the overall series a B+.

my whole point was that as dark as this daredevil series has been, it's still not quite going for the ironic-bitter-chuckle "THIS CITY'S GONE TA HELL" tone that miller invented largely in his narration. (I guess it doesn't count against sin city if you consider that a work of pastiche exaggerated for effect but I'm not sure miller meant it as such tbrr)

which is a good thing. fucks sake.

xp to self "popularized in the mainstream" is prob a better qualifier than "invented" before anyone decides to drop more truth bombs

Miller's runs on the book are not the right primary reference point for this series, imo. I'd call it 80% Bendis, 10% Miller, 10% Lee.

I really like this new cover of "Peace Train" but it's weird that there aren't any lyrics about supporting the fatwah against Salman Rushdie.

I think the Frank Miller reference wasn't really to his Daredevil comics, but the fact that his adapted work as of late (Sin City, 300, etc) has thrust a particular image of him into the popular eye and the public, and possibly the writers, would be interested in capitalizing on the "Frank Miller's Daredevil" theme by incorporating some 2015 Frank Miller.

fwiw I think Miller's work on Daredevil is pretty much the primary reference point for every writer that followed

The Spirit and the last Sin City both bombed. I don't think anyone wants to directly associate Frank Miller's name with their product right now (whatever about his influence on the actual content)

i am genuinely not seeing much miller in the first two eps i saw. too much humor and lack of interior brooding.

did the comics deal with matt's catholicism much before miller picked up the reins? i agree they've not leant as hard on miller as i thought they might but the confession scene right at the start, with the 'forgiveness for what i'm about to do' stuff. seemed brooding in a miller-y manner.

miller would've had the priest be a pedophile and matt is punching him through the confession window
i agree that this feels way more bendis-y. i am hoping it makes the turn into Brubaker which is my fave modern arc.
daredevil is one of the only capes and tights books i got in the habit of buying on sight so it's a pleasure to see they didn't fuck it up too bad.

Vincent D is a good actor but I think he's miscast or maybe just misplaying it here. Reads too sensitive and insecure for Kingpin for me. But overall I think this is a pretty good series.

sensitive/insecure kingpin is a take on the character that was done quite a bit in book (that part would be Miller-esque)

I guess, but it feels like by that point in the comics they've already established that he's a ruthless criminal mastermind. Leading with it just feels a little off to me.

i kinda feel like vanessa is going to be the one to provide fisk with the steel to become the kingpin

also: how did i never notice vincent d'onfrio has a such a fucking massive head before

Also I think it was mentioned above but Kingpin is truly a physically terrifying figure in the comics. Character in show as just a normal slightly to seed bald dude feels weird.

also: how did i never notice vincent d'onfrio has a such a fucking massive head before
--bizarro gazzara

No idea. He has a huge head in FMJ

would have thought they'd do some LTOR style framing to make Fisk appear enormous.

Also I think it was mentioned above but Kingpin is truly a physically terrifying figure in the comics. Character in show as just a normal slightly to seed bald dude feels weird.

the comics kingpin is six-foot-seven and 450lbs, which i guess is kind of a tough nut for casting directors to crack. he seemed scary enough to me when he was literally smashing a man's head off with a car door.

Really? He seemed like a pissy out of control weirdo.

You give anyone enough tries they can smash a dudes head off with a car door you know. Big whoop.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Cool just put yr head right here and let put on my head snapping smock.

Character in show as just a normal slightly to seed bald dude

Dang, I must have watched a different series entirely because I didn't see that at all.

To be fair I'm only on ep. 8 maybe he gets more impressive....

I'm 4 eps in and generally find it pretty good, but a little OTT violent than it needs to be.

I feel that this is better than it has any business being.

very much enjoying Ben Urich. I'm assuming they don't have the rights to the Daily Bugle.

yeah, vondie curtis-hall was inspired casting for urich. i guess the bugle rights are tied up with sony and the spider-man movies? urich's editor is no j. jonah jameson, that's for sure.

I loved this, but it was maybe a misstep to have Kingpin and Daredevil's genesis stories running alongside each other. One of them has to lose in the end, so it creates an anticlimax in that arc. But maybe that is actually awesome bc it means there were actually stakes built up for that last episode.

also soundtrack turns all espresso machine for kingpin's coming out party

foggy has gotten reeeeaaaaallllly annoying (or perhaps just weakly acted) in the last few episodes

This whole thing should have been done in about 10 episodes instead of 13. They figured out their 3 act play, divided up the major plot points and story beats by 13 and then realized they didn't have enough stuff for Act III, so we wind up with crap where people are almost literally saying "gee it's so great that we're all friends again" and neverending scenes of drinking at Josie's.

I'm at episode 4 and still find this very plodding. Foggy is eminently punchable

I'm up to episode 9, and I thought it was weird how Rosario Dawson's character has just disappeared for several episodes now, without explanation. Though based on what happens in this ep, it seems likely she'll appear in the next one. It's still odd though, the last time we saw her she was staying at Matt's for safety reasons, and then she's just... not there anymore.

There was a long conversation between Foggy and Matt about relationships and Matt said they broke up. She was only there because the Russians were a threat, which they weren't any more, and we saw them kiss so I guess they started seeing each other. My assumed timeline for the series is over at least weeks, if not months, so I had presumed they dated for a while then stopped.

That's not how I interpreted it, it seemed like the kiss was the only romantic thing that happened between them, we never saw them in the same bed or anything. Then in the next scene they're together Matt says something like that he doesn't want to endanger her, so it seems like he decided they shouldn't date because she would get even more mixed up in the DD business? The story he told to Foggy seems to have been more of a white lie so he wouldn't have to go into detail? So I guess after that, Claire just packed her bags an went home? But it's weird that none of this (whether they dated or just kissed that one time, whether he broke up with her, whether she went home) was ever addressed onscreen, she just disappeared.

Also, I've come to accept that the bad guy in this series is a wholly new character who just happens to share the name with comic book villain. Now that they've given him a Freudian excuse for becoming a villain and everything, it feels like the only thing common between the comic and television Fisk is that they're ruthless crimelords and that they're bald. If you look at TV Fisk as a new character, he's actually a pretty interesting villain! Except that I still can't get past D'Onofrio's faked hoarse voice, it sounds so goofy, even goofier than Christian Bale's Batvoice, because at least Batman was intentionally faking it.