Daredevil S02 E06: Regrets Only

We open this episode of "Daredevil" in Quentin Tarantino style reminiscent of Kill Bill as motorcycled Yakuza drag through the streets on their way to take on Daredevil and Elektra to the sound of "Date with the Night" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Cliche and apropos, but I loved it. Great opening. Too bad our 'heroes' make short work of them. The horrifying part is at the end where Elektra, clearly enjoying herself, wants to go out for a bite.

As we know from the last episode, Elektra is more than an adrenaline junkie, she's a sociopath. At the diner sucking down soda and inhaling French fries she matter of factly tells Matt she knows all about Daredevil and even though he wears a mask, "you can't mask that ass, I'd know it anywhere." Another secret identity out the window.

A deal is struck, no killing, and Daredevil will help Elektra with the Yakuza. And if you think that's an unholy alliance, things get more interesting when Nelson and Murdock decide to take DA Reyes on head to head. To keep the Punisher from getting the death penalty, they're going to defend him. I don't like the Punisher, but I like when this show surprises me, and this is one of those times.

The Matt and Karen relationship is moving along wonderfully, as long as you remove the factors from the equation that ruin it all - the Punisher and Elektra. This dishonesty just flushes all the fun and sincerity of Matt and Karen's sweet innocence right down the toilet. It's like a magician doing tricks when you can see the wires and mirrors. Not fun, and not cool.

Karen is pulled deeper into the Punisher's past when he gives a hospital bed confession of his secret origin to her, and her alone. The fact that she knew about his family allows him to trust her. In this way, the Karen/Castle relationship is just a bit more pure than hers with Matt, and it's a shame. Still, even bound to a bed, Jon Bernthal shines in this role.

Meanwhile, Matt and Elektra attend a ritzy Roxxon/Yakuza party. The heist vibe is strong and it's interesting how Daredevil's powers are put to use in this situation. I'd like to see more of this. They get away with something called the Roxxon ledger while a pseudo-reveal is made that this isn't the Yakuza. The Hand, perhaps?

It gets worse. Though convinced to plead guilty, when he gets in front of the judge, Frank Castle pleads not guilty. That means it going to trial. Matt may have to choose between Elektra and the case now. A good episode, more linking than anything else, but good just the same.

Next: Semper Fidelis!

Daredevil S02 E04: Penny and Dime

We open this episode of "The Punisher"... um, I mean, "Daredevil," with the arrival of Finn Cooley in New York City. In the Punisher comics, this IRA explosives expert walks around with half of his face blown off, but here he's played by suave Scottish actor Tony Curran, who I know best as Vincent Van Gogh from "Doctor Who," but has quite an impressive career beyond his cool geek cred.

After wrecking his own family's funeral Finn goes on a meticulous and vicious rampage that gets him closer to the Punisher than Daredevil in three episodes. I mean, it's not like it's old hornhead's show or anything. As what's left of the Irish mob leaves Frank's apartment, with his dog in tow, kidnapping it John Wick style, the Punisher watches. Yeah, this is going to be ugly.

After the credits, Karen goes to pick up Matt, and they share an intimate tie knotting moment, before attending the lonely funeral of Grotto. Also in attendance is Foggy and, returning from last season, Father Lantom. Even though the gigantic church is empty and echoey, Lantom performs the service as if it was full. His sermon reinforces the drives of both Matt and Karen.

While Karen goes in search of the Punisher, Daredevil pays a visit to Melvin Potter. He's got a new cowl for him as well as gauntlets. He also mentions old contacts are back in town coming to him for weapons but he's turned them down. Melvin is a bit concerned with the hero's well-being, tells him to take care. When DD wishes the same back Melvin replies that he is a reveals the Gladiator chest plate beneath his shirt. Enough foreplay, guys, ditch the Punisher and bring on the Gladiator!

There is a subtle line being drawn in this season so far, and was hinted at strongly in "Jessica Jones," especially in the episode "AKA 99 Friends," that battle lines are being drawn between human and non-human. This all led to Captain America: Civil War and continues in the fourth season of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," but it is interesting that it's rearing its ugly head here in the Netflix corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Witness Officer Mahoney's distinction made between cops and criminals and 'you people' in his brief discussion with Daredevil.

Now you folks who have been following along as I've reviewed "Jessica Jones" and the first season of "Daredevil," you know I write these reviews as I watch them, so my expectations and speculations are sometimes a bit off. There was unfortunately one aspect of this season that was spoiled for me - Karen Page and the Punisher getting together. For me, that makes the brief gentle moments that Karen and Matt keep having both bittersweet and exceptionally cruel. Because of that foreknowledge, I kinda hate them.

Despite all that, I have to marvel at Karen's ability to track down the Punisher right down to his origins, and even his former family home. This is more than the police, the Feds, or even the Irish mob was able to do - and the Irish were able to take the Punisher down. I joked about the title of this series at the start of this review, but really how much of a hero is the titular hero when he's so ineffectual and supporting cast and B level bad guys show him up so easily?

With Finn, it's quite a character reveal that with much of his family dead, including his son, at the hands of the Punisher, that what he really wants once his prey is in his grasp, is his money back. The Punisher apparently stole millions from the IRA, and Finn is going to get it back even if he has to drill his point home. Frank gets one point for compassion when he gives up the location of the money after Finn threatens his dog. I still don't like the character.

I did like the subtle stealth and almost casualness with which Daredevil attacked the Irish mob's hideout. It was like he was taking a walk in the park, with his eyes closed - and I guess with Daredevil, that's almost a given everyday. Unfortunately after that however, it falls apart. Rather than letting Daredevil rescue the Punisher, the showrunners give the latter some sort of weird precognition that allowed to know what the Irish were up to, so he rigged his van with the money to explode, and sewed a razor blade into his arm for later. Holy Shark Repellent Bat-Spray!

Daredevil and the Punisher escape from the villains' lair like they're buddies in a seventies issue of The Brave and the Bold. They have a little after party in the cemetery, with Frank opening his heart to DD about the rhyme he says before he kills people. The episode title references it and the tale he tells is one of tragedy that many veterans of war know. Has our hero forgotten about all the people this villain has killed? All the horrible things he's done, all the crimes he's committed? Again props to Jon Bernthal's performance, but he is still the bad guy... why has DD forgotten that?

He hasn't. And when the police arrive, thankfully Daredevil does something heroic. He allows the police to take the Punisher in, specifically Officer Brett Mahoney, and makes sure he takes the credit in an attempt to clear any blurred lines he may have caused with the police. I'm just surprised the Punisher went in without a fight.

The episode almost ends with more gentle moments with Matt and Karen, and most significantly a very sensual kiss in the rain that both reminded me of, and consciously tried not to be, the kiss in the rain from the 2003 Daredevil film. I know that kiss is with Elektra and this one is with Karen, but Deborah Ann Woll is very Elektra here... which is a shame because the real thing is waiting for Matt when he gets home...

Next: Kinbaku!

Daredevil S02 E03: New York's Finest

The first episode of "Daredevil" Season Two ended with our hero shot in the head, and the second with his radar sense failing and the Punisher closing in. When the police arrive seconds later, both combatants are gone. So far, the cliffhangers are hot. But where did Daredevil and the Punisher go? Something tells me I don't want to know.

As we open in the pre-credits scene, Matt is hallucinating from his Catholic upbringing, until he slowly awakens in chains on a rooftop with the Punisher. This apparently right from the comics, from Garth Ennis' Punisher #3, but I can't comment much, having never read the issue before, but it's been praised for the philosophical discussion between these two protagonists. Daredevil's compromised position forcing him to engage his foe verbally as opposed to with his fists.

So I dug up the comic in question, and found it to be much what I expected, and worse. Garth Ennis is an extremely talented writer, but with one serious flaw, especially when working in the world of comic books - he hates superheroes. Unlike other comic book writers who hate superheroes, like Frank Miller, Ennis doesn't usually write superheroes, unless they're twisted parodies like The Boys or dark anti-heroes like Preacher, John Constantine, or, the Punisher.

In this dark and dreary world of Ennis' Punisher, no one is happy, as masterfully illustrated by the late Steve Dillon, rest in peace. Punisher lives in a skewed vision of our world where misery reigns, where he is the twisted mirror of heroism, and Daredevil is a clown that must be shown the error of his ways. On the rooftop chains of the comic book source material, the Punisher must remake Daredevil in his own image. If it wasn't so ridiculous, it would be horrifying.

I read comic books for escape from the real world, to see heroism as it should be, to be inspired to be a better person. Superhero comic books are supposed to make you want to be the hero and change the world. Reading Punisher #3 made me depressed, and most of all, it made me hate the Punisher more than I had before I opened that damned miserable comic. I do appreciate the talent and skill it takes to evoke such a reaction from a reader, but trust me, it will be a very long time before I ever read another Punisher comic.

But that was the comic, I hope the Netflix episode that is aping it can do better. Here it is also, as I described, a philosophical discussion between the two protagonists, but a far more sensible one. While the Punisher goes about his business, Daredevil (or Red as he calls him) remains in chains talking the shades of gray in what they do. It's a difficult chat, each exchange like pulling teeth, and even though they vehemently disagree with the other's method, there is a hint of hatred-tinged bromance at work. I get the feeling that under different circumstances Frank and Red could be friends.

There is some prime acting here, and while Charlie Cox's Daredevil plays a very good counter to Jon Bernthal's Punisher, but the latter is the star here. His performance is spellbinding, saying volumes with an economy of words and gestures. I wasn't impressed when I'd heard Shane from "The Walking Dead" was going to play the Punisher, but he is amazing in the role. The only thing Shane and Frank have in common are we love to hate them both. Serious props.

The bottom line of the debate is killing. Frank will and Red won't. The difference is when Daredevil hits a bad guy they get back up, maybe come back, and when the Punisher hits 'em, they don't. Simple as that. Daredevil's reluctance to kill makes him a "half-measure," a coward who won't finish the job he started. And then it all turns to sh!t, as the ghost of Garth Ennis ruins everything.

The Punisher duct tapes a gun into Daredevil's hand then produces Grotto, beating the man senseless until he confesses to the murder of an innocent. The terms of this ridiculous trap - Daredevil must 'man up' and kill the Punisher before he kills Grotto, and at this moment is when I really started to hate this show. Where are the Owl, Gladiator, and the Stilt-Man when you need them? I really hate what comics and their related media have become...

In a world where Captain America knows that the Winter Soldier murdered Tony Stark's parents, I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that Daredevil is too late to save Grotto. The nearly six-minute fight sequence that follows as Daredevil battles his way down several flights of stairs against the Dogs of Hell motorcycle gang with a gun taped to one hand and a chain around the other is phenomenal and spectacular - topping the hallway fight from last season even - but it in no way makes up for how this turn of events made me feel.

Meanwhile back in the real world, Karen and Foggy bring the only real light and hope to this dismal situation. As Karen fights the very different evil of District Attorney Reyes and learns more about the Punisher's past, Foggy has a heart-to-heart with Night Nurse and breaks up a gang fight in an already insane emergency room. Both are more heroic than the two 'superheroes' we watched for most of the episode.

I always love seeing Rosario Dawson, and Jon Bernthal deserves serious accolades for his performance, and that stairway fight sequence is one of the most amazing I've seen - but I still hated this episode. I may have to take a break before I come back to the second season of "Daredevil." This was rough.

Daredevil S01 E13: Daredevil

We open this final episode of the first season of "Marvel's Daredevil" with the funeral of Ben Urich. His death last episode makes the bloody credits sequence all the more poignant. This was a shocking death as Ben is still alive and well in the comics. And if you don't cry when Karen meets Ben's wife, I just can't help you.

Later in this finale written and directed by Steven S. DeKnight, Fisk confronts Owlsley over recent events. He knows he was behind the poisoning. The Owl thinks he has leverage but Kingpin doesn't care, and throws him down an elevator shaft. I guess I was right about Owlsley's son quite possibly being the real Owl. And Fisk, wow, between Urich, Owlsley, and Vanessa, he's got quite a mommy complex.

On the positive side, it's good to see Charlie Cox and Elden Henson bringing that great chemistry they have back to Nelson and Murdock, and Deborah Ann Woll's Karen just completes that triangle. This works, I wish it didn't have to break before it works again. With most of the cops on the take, the FBI is brought into the equation, and in that way, the good guys win the way Matt wanted it - through the law. Even Senator Cherryh is brought in. Only Fisk remains, and thirty minutes in, they have him too.

It's nice that the good guys win, but where is the superhero action, and especially the kind of action that has highlighted this series from the beginning? DeKnight knows this kind of action even when he doesn't show it. One of the more intense fight scenes is shown only in the subtle reactions on the blood-spattered face of actor Daryl Edwards as crooked cop Hoffman. We see nothing, but we feel everything.

After Wilson Fisk, in custody, on his way to confinement, tells his two guards the story of The Good Samaritan, all hell breaks loose. Vincent D'Onofrio, channeling Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction, speculates on which character from the tale he is. He used to think he was The Good Samaritan, but now he feels he is the ill intent that befell the man. That's when the NYPD ambushes the FBI... and we find that the Kingpin owns people everywhere.

With a showdown approaching and armed men in the streets, Matt goes to retrieve his body armor finally from Melvin Potter. In payment, he promised to keep Melvin's Betsy safe from Fisk. I've a feeling this might not be a promise Matt can keep and we'll be seeing Gladiator in the future especially after getting a glimpse circular saw blueprints. Either way, finally, it's our hero as he's most recognizable.

I don't like the costume. After seeing the lycra outfit that is so flexible and easily movable in, this plated body armor looks bulky, fake, and distracting. I had trouble believing he could move well in it. I don't believe leather and metal can bend like that. And I would have liked some explanation of the billy club, what it does… and how he got so good with it. I know I'm the guy who always wants the superhero trappings, but here, after a dozen episodes in simpler more believable garb, I just don't buy it. I should like it, but I don't.

Fisk has an escape plan, and a countdown to a meetup with Vanessa where they'll leave the city together. I don't think Daredevil will let him get away that easily. The combat is intense, but I have to say I was distracted by the costume for much of it. Besides Fisk, there are happy endings all around yet no explanations of how the police force was cleaned up, if it was, or any of that mess. I guess we'll have to wait for season two, and perhaps Fisk's trial.

At this point all we really know about season two is that there is one, sometime in 2016, and that Elodie Yung will be playing Elektra, and Jon Bernthal, formerly of "The Walking Dead," will be playing the Punisher. As someone likes the Punisher even less than Daredevil, I don't care much about that last one. There have been rumors of Bullseye too, but I already saw that in the Ben Affleck film. Personally, if I get Gladiator and the Stilt-Man, as teased in this series, I'll be happy.

If the rest of these Netflix series are as good as "Daredevil," I will be very happy. I really really dug this. Highly recommended.