Daredevil is the best thing the MCU has produced so far. I say that as an adult and as someone who, this show, is appropriate viewing. This is not The Avengers. The Marvel Universe is such a wondrous place because it contains the gods and monsters who fight in mainstream books, mutants, inhumans, an entire cosmos to rival Star Trek, a mystical realm of the supernatural and dirty, street-level people just doing the best they can to protect the neighborhood they love.
Daredevil nailed everything about the character, his supporting cast, the dark and brutal nature of his world, his conflicted soul over his actions, etc. I rate it among the finest seasons of TV I’ve ever seen and I have seen A LOT. The pilot was perfection, and we got a great Batman Begins-esque fight scene in it, but it wasn’t until the end of episode two that we say what Charlie Cox and this team was capable of with fight choreography. In a single take, NO CUTS, Matt walks down the hall, goes through the rooms on both sides and walks away with the girl being held hostage. It’s violent ballet.
The thing is, though, this would be cool all on its own, but the very beginning of the show is Matt confessing to his priest, talking about his boxer father and how when he would really lose it, a piece of him would go away, his arms would fall slack to his sides, and he’d just walk into hell to deliver the punishment he felt was coming. Matt does the precise thing here. It’s not commented upon; but there is so much layered nuance to this show that , THAT was the moment I knew we were in for something special.
I cannot WAIT to watch this show.
You know… it’s being reported that Joss W fought with Disney, big time, over AOU. Astonishingly, Disney didn’t want the stuff with Hawkeye’s family. Also, they had a problem with the dream visions. And Wheadon wanted Captain Marvel and Spider-Man, but obviously there were legal difficulties with the latter, and as far as the former goes I just don’t think the film could have supported any more characters without a three hour plus running time. While the farmhouse was a vital, nessasary part of the film, I can at least fathom Disney’s feelings on the matter, because the sequence did slow the film down. It’s just that it was not a bad thing for the film to slow down at that point. But fighting with Wheadon over a few seconds of dream sequence footage? I don’t see how that was ever going to remotely hinder the performance of the film.
If this is the real reason Wheadon isn’t doing the third one (two?), that’s disappointing. But reading this today made me realize just how insanely ambitious AOU is, and to Disney’s credit they got behind it (mostly). We were talking about AOU in terms of IM2, but that one doesn’t even come close in terms of plot strands or balls in the air.
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Oh they did more than just fight. I was right about how much Disney and Marvel made him cut and the farmhouse scene was basically the reason Thor’s subplot is so thin. They essentially said, cut this stuff or the farmhouse goes. From Whedon’s tone in the very frank interview I read, they probably cost themselves a chance to ever work with him again and if he doesn’t make a Star Wars film because of Marvel’s running time phobia, I’m going to sh&t a brick. And breathe. Daredevil is superb. And Whedon’s disciples who took over Angel ran and wrote a good deal of it so in a way we did have his hand in that too.
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