When I was a kid I used to watch whatever popped on the screen. A drawback of watching so much bad TV is the inability to accept simplistic moral and social conundrums as worthwhile. Sure, there’s more to it than that. I grew up around so much good literature that I came to recognize nuance and depth of character. I don’t see it a lot in TV. I see aspects of it; I see people making the effort in one way or another, but fully formed characterizations are rare. Daredevil is no different, but on the other hand it is based on a comic book—a form of visual literature that relies on still images to create pathos and understanding. Moving pictures are different and rarely translates from still in the original fashion.
That brings us to the new Daredevil series on Netflix.
I was drawn to the series simply because its another Marvel title and part of the cinematic universe. I knew of Daredevil as the gritty Hell’s Kitchen ‘Batman’ who moved through darkness like it was a clear afternoon. I queued up the first episode and fell right into it.
I stayed into it to this day, but I realized I needed to recognize the show for what it is: Really good action sequences spaced by standard and somewhat limited characters and drama.
The central argument in the series is about how to save ‘Hells Kitchen’ The Daredevil (the good guy) wants to do this by eliminating the criminal element. The antagonist want to save the city through gentrification and uses violence to bring some of his competitors in line.
That’s the whole thing right there. Of course they try to add the personal drama for each character but those characters seem more like the comic counterparts due to scripts that highlight one pivotal life moment for each of them–a life moment that presumably sent them on their separate paths. It gets worse too: each of the characters are often stereotypes that are limited, scene wise, to the stuff that advances that one issue or often personality trait the show decided was relevant.
In short watching Daredevil is awesome, but do it for the action. There is a scene in Furious 7 where this hacker-chick stares at Toretto’s team and assigns character traits to them (Alpha, Hacker, comic relief, etc…). I feel like someone did that with this show and wanted us to know exactly how we should feel about each person and enables us to only understand them through that lens.
I can’t be mad about it. It happens in the comics all the time.
Some Thoughts:
- Today was the first day in months that was just about me for most of the day.
- 1805 was the year an American boxer knocked out a British one–forever lending support to the all too predictable stereotype of boxing as being more than just two people beating on each other but a more. Instead it has and will continue to be about political, racial, and class-based relationships in metaphorical form.