Punisher makes the season. Brilliantly acted, utterly captivating.

I love how I'm sure the writers intended to make Murdok the sympathetic one while cramming 'Castle is a psycho' down our throats all season... But, well, #teamPunisher here.

I loved Elektra though. I'm willing to admit that my love could have a lot more to do with how much I dislike Paige...

Claire is still best girl.

And the prison massacre was my fav fight.

 

Eh David Tenant was overrated as Kilgrave imo.

Yeah Paige just annoys me tbh.

The thing annoyed me the most was how little lawyer he was this season.

 

I enjoyed it in general, I just kept watching...

Jon Bernthal was phenomenal. He'll be robbed in next year's Emmys, mark my words.

 

Just like last season, it seemed that Matt/Daredevil was the weakest character in the series. He just can't compete with such intense, magnetic personalities like Kingpin and Castle. Hell, Foggy, Paige, Electra, and Stick blow him out of the water

He's boring. No (good) humor, no personality quirks, no moments of genuine character growth. He's white bread, douchey, douchey white bread. He treated his friends so poorly, and for no actual reason. Blah blah protecting them blah blah, he could've at least shown some respect or self-awareness, but no he was a selfish ass. Poor Foggy. Several times he was the worst part of an episode. His whole "code" seemed to fly in and out whenever the writers remembered it, and all his dialogue in the second half of the series boiled down to: "I'm Sorry/ It Wasn't my Fault/ I can't talk right now/ NO!!!"

He wasn't even redeemable from a superheroing perspective. He seemed to be lagging behind everyone, no proactive planning from this guy, no sir. The only people who have less confidence in themselves are acne-riddled thirteen-year-olds at their first dance. He got his ass kicked by every other major character, repeatedly. He still hasn't figured out that punching someone in the face 10 barehanded takes a lot more time and is a lot more punishing than just breaking their fucking knee and moving the fuck on. He seems to be capable of only beating lackeys. He also appears to be a shitty lawyer. Generally a protagonist, especially a fucking superhero has to have at least one of the following to be likable : competence, confidence, charm, a truly good heart, etc. Matt can only get a "kinda" in any of these categories and a serious fucking hell no in the confidence and charm departments.

Maybe I was spoiled watching series like Batman TAS and such, where the hero can actually plan ahead, but I was seriously disappointed that Daredevil did not develop from season one. Oh wait, he suddenly realized he can hear breathing which he couldn't before because plot.

I was also not a big fan of the whole Hand thing, they should have seen what they could do with the superb Bernthal and a tighter story with a hell of a lot more character growth.

I hope the writers intended for me to be rooting for the punisher by episode 3, cause that's what happened. God damn he was awesome. The physicality Bernthal gave him, his walk and he presence were all great.

Foggy was also great, really showed himself as genuinely good person and a damn good lawyer.

I kinda get the Paige hate, by the episode 8 her constant obsession with finding the truth was wearing thin, but before that her motives were relatable, she showed competence and passion, and she had some seriously beautiful moments in the earlier episodes.

Wasn't a fan of Electra at all, she just seemed like a lazy generic "femme fatale". Really didn't do justice to what an impressive and driven person she could have been.

I would watch Fisk eat for whole episodes. He's just great.

tl;dr Fuck Daredevil, Season 3 should be called MuthaFuckinPunishin

 

Finished it tonight. On the whole, I think series one was slightly better - largely in the coherence of the plot. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I was a bit vague on what the Hand actually wanted, beyond chaos and shenanigans.

Matt was kind of an asshole, but it was done well. Karen was mostly great, although her career path seemed a little sudden. Loved the new cast members and the returning ones, although most of my favourite scenes were, as I said earlier in the thread, Foggy being amazing. Spectacular action scenes, too.

 

It hasn't really been fully explained what the Hand wants, beyond the return of

Spoiler

the black sky, and the supposed power that comes with that. Although there is a little tidbit where Stick is explaining the war between the chaste and the Hand that would seem to indicate that world domination is their ultimate goal. I would suspect that the penultimate chapter of the Hand will be resolved in the Defenders miniseries.

I think I'm going to have to disagree with the Karen bit, though. It seemed to me that the writers were setting her up as a replacement for Ben Urich, long before he even died. Her ability to ferret out information (such as the whereabouts of Fisk's mom) and her bone-headed determinedness to get to the "truth" regardless of the perils it placed her in, would seem to indicate as much.

 

Finished it today. Overall a good show, but I think it was weaker than season 1.

I feel like there were too many action scene for the sake of it; how many time did we see DD fight a trillion ninja just to get to Guy/Point A? Yeah, a quadrillion time. We get it, they have an infinite number of super ninja that don't have a heartbeat, no need to shove it down our throat every two minutes. The fact that the fight scene were actually of lesser quality did not help; I would presume that after the experience of season 1, the director would have an idea of how to film one-take fight scene so that it doesn't actually show that they aren't really hitting their target. Add to it the fancy moves that served no purpose at all (backflip knee kick to finish someone already on the ground? Just fucking kick his head and be on with it!)

The plot development was also of lesser quality. The whole Punisher arc was great, his origins until his trials. However, the Hand plot was full of plot hole (such as hearing heartbeat but not breathing...which one is the easiest to pick up you think, seriously) and could be resumed to: DD fights 3 trillions ninjas. Murdock laments himself. DD fight another 3 trillions ninjas. Murdock and Elektra having fun. DD & Elektra fight another 3 trillion ninjas...

Character wise, the Punisher was awesome. The actor was great, his presence on screen commanded the attention of the viewer like no one else. His character development was also great, from an emotionally scarred man hell bent on revenge, to seeking the truth and finally embracing his new nature. Karen was alright, I wasn't a big fan of her last season, but I feel like she did pretty well this season. She wasn't so stupid or annoying with her remarks. Foggy...was awesome, just as Marcie. Murdock was fine at first, the whole superhero crisis was a good idea to start off the season with, especially with the Punisher on the loose. But at some point, the character has to develop which he does not until the very end.

Bonus point for having a hidden easter egg dedicated to our very own @Joe

"Writer's Block."

"Hmmm."

"There's a cure, you know." He raises his glass. "Scotch."

 

Yeah, I didn't phrase that well in my original post. It wasn't becoming a journalist that seemed off, it was the fact that she went straight to having Ben's old office, which would surely go along with a fairly senior position at the paper. Especially since by the end of the series she was talking like she'd never actually filed the reports she was intending to write about Frank, with no obvious sign that she'd written anything else either.

I mean, it's a super minor thing, it just kinda leapt out at me.

With regard to not being able to hear the Hand, I was quite happy handwaving that as weird ninja powers trump weird sensory powers, until it turned out that it simply hadn't occurred to him to listen to their breath. That was pretty bullshit...but the aftermath was awesome, so yeah.

 

Funnily enough, as awesome as the action in this show is, I agree that it felt like too much.

Until Castle too, it didn't 'feel' satisfying. It kind of lacks...brutality?

Everyone DD fights feels like a 'punch sponge'. He hits them a million times, seemingly with little effect, and he's down for the count with one punch.

I've also a problem with how he acts the fights. The sound effects do a lot of the work, but no back and watch some scenes, his actual hits don't look like they'd actually hurt all that much. It looks like a lot of the force just isn't there in each strike, and with the amount of fights, it started to get annoying.

It's usually a problem I have with actresses and their fight scenes. It's a complaint I'll mirror with Cox's acting. Their fighting looks more like gymnastics than something brutal.

 

I think that's at least partly intentional, to distinguish Daredevil from Captain America and Jessica Jones, in the sense that he doesn't have superstrength and so he needs to hit them several times while minimising how much damage he takes in return. I haven't really had an issue with it, but I can see why you'd think it went a little too far in the opposite direction.

 

I just finished up moments ago and really enjoyed S.2. The Punisher a.k.a. Shane a.k.a. John Bernthal was excellent. I think "John Bernthal as Himself" is how he's going to start being listed in credits.

I can't remember exactly how the fire that took Nobu out the first time got started, but I definitely just saw Daredevil revenge "kill" Nobu. Like, is that just going to slide like he didn't intend to kill the guy when he kicked him off the roof? Does this count as crossing the "I kill guys now" Rubicon or what? I don't really care either way, just something that struck me while posting this.

Also, Karen is best girl. She's a babe. Karen X Matt OTP. KarenxMatt 100 years.

 

Euroclydon: Nobu being set on fire is a bit ambiguous; he's accidentally soaked in gasoline, then when Matt shatters a light bulb the sparks set him on fire. It was presumably supposed to be a (happy) accident, but could be seen as a deliberate attempt to kill Nobu in self defense depending on your interpretation. But yeah, he flat out tried to kill him this time. You could maybe argue that given he's survived being burnt to death, Matt took a gamble that the fall wouldn't kill him, but more likely it was just rage and grief getting him to a state where he doesn't care.

I doubt he'll be killing people left right and centre in future episodes though. He might not regret his actions, but I can't see him doing it again (or at least, Marvel letting them turn him into an outright killer. You never know though.)

 

Finished today.

I'm unsure whether this season was better, worse or the same as the first one, but it definitely wasn't as captivating. It took me five days to finish it instead of being "forced" to watch it in just two.

It did feel disjoined though. Like someone put together two very different concepts for the season that never managed to connect.

Punished and Electra, while both were more than good, at the same time together weren't enough to successfully replace Kingpin. They simply lacked his presence, something that his appearance in two episodes confirmed to me.

I'm not sure whether they changed Daredevil's costume a little or I just got used to it, but it looked great, unlike the first season's finale were it looked out of place to me.

As for the next season, as much as I would like them to do Born Again already, they probably should wait for the season 4th with that. Instead they could finally introduce Bullseye and have Kingpin slowly rebuild his empire from behind bars.

 

Watched the first ep of Season 3 before bed. As tiresome as the downtrodden hero schtick is, I thought whatshisface did a really great job with it.

Also, while I like Fisk, bringing him back so soon as the main antagonist for another season seems pretty lazy. Hoping there is a twist in there.

 

I was pretty down on DD after last season and Netflengers (Avengeflix? I dunno, I forget what the group one was called, lol). Let me know if MM becomes less irritating.

 

Season 3 of Daredevil was my favorite yet.

As usual, the Karen bits were annoying, but aside from that...I loved it.

 

I wasn't all that impressed, tbh. Barely better than season two, which is a low bar.

Spoiler

Fisk plot was a very bland rehash of season one. They did nothing new with the character, and the FBI corruption/manipulation aspect was contrived as fuck.

Karen drama was boring. Matt's spiritual crisis was a cringefest and the suff with his mom just made me roll my eyes.

The pinnacle of my enjoyment was Bullseye throwing stuff. There needed to be more ridiculous ricocheting, but it was still fun to watch.

 

Huh. Only point I agree with you on is Karen.

Fisk was the first time we really get to see his Kingpin skills.

Matt’s spiritual crises was legit. Honestly I was very pleased with how they handled it. A bit cliche? Yeah, but typically Hollywood botched anything to do with religion. Matt’s anger towards God and Journey was something I think a lot of religious people can relate too. It was handled well imo.

 

I'm really enjoying the season so far. There's some excellent character work here: Foggy stepping up, Matt having left a piece of his soul buried under Midland Circle, Dex's struggle with his own inhumanity. The plot wasn't as engaging as previous seasons - as a massive nerd, I would have liked to see the more fantastical elements of things be developed further - but the characters pulled it through for me.

Spoiler

Dex was a breakout success. He was both utterly monstrous and highly sympathetic, with a good balance of moments which made you genuinely hope for his redemption thrown in there. The nun was annoying at first, but I quickly warmed up to her when the bitchiness mellowed back from caustic to just abrasive. Ray was bland for the most part, but the revelation of Fisk's rise back to Kingpin status through his eyes was fantastic. Karen continues to be dull. Her perpetual desperation wore thin back in episode three. Of season one.

 

Cancelled. It seems pretty clear after this one that they are simply getting rid of 'all' of their marvel shows. Jessica Jones and The Punisher will be cancelled as soon as their next seasons are aired.