Daredevil Season 2
Apr. 6th, 2016 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acreIn anticipation of seen Elden Henson at ECCC this coming weekend, I binge watched S2 of Daredevil over the past few days.
Here are some random thoughts:
- Last year, with S1, I did a "hero" edit of the show - where I cut out all of Fisk's storyline and just followed Matt, Foggy, Karen, and Ben. I think if I were to edit S2, I would do a "Foggy+Karen" edit. It'd strip the show down considerably... but in truth, those were the only two storylines that I really enjoyed watching. I think I have a thing for my heroes being in the dark... or, my heroes working within society rather than outside of it or something. I haven't figured out yet what I find compelling and what I don't - but yeah, Foggy and Karen's storyline were the only ones that I was actually interested in. (I know that I have no interest in villains - so my S1 edit choices came as no surprise.)
- I'm not a fan at all of Matt/Karen. I didn't even really realize until it was briefly canon - but, just no. I like them as friends, but that's it. It'll be interesting how it moves forward into S3.
- Man, the ending was depressing in terms of the future of Nelsen and Murdock. I LOVE Foggy, and I know that Matt would never actually leave his right-hand man for long - but, MAN, I really want S3 to be one giant reunification fic... and in the meantime, I hope to read a lot of reunification fic.
- Charlie Cox's body is on point. The suit doesn't do much for me, but the rare scenes we saw with him half naked or in jeans... yeah, nice to look at.
- I was thinking about it and I think it would have been really cool if they had genderswapped Frank Castle and Elektra. I just find female superheroes to be kinda cliche - but if you made them a man, they wouldn't be anymore. Likewise, it'd be cool to see a woman go down the Punisher route - just this hench marine woman, taking no prisoners. 100% more compelling. Of course, if you genderswapped Elektra, the whole love-history between her and Matt wouldn't work anymore.. so, FINE. Because Matt could only be THAT stupid for someone he loved (and as much as I love reading Matt/Foggy fic, I don't actually headcanon a queer Matt.)
- And I'm not trying to say that Frank Castle wasn't compelling. I kinda feel like they could have just focused the whole season on him and I'd have been happier.
- Turns out, I'm really not a fan of ninja-conspiracy storylines. I much preferred S1 enemy - gentrification. I could relate more.
- Also, ninja-conspiracy storylines just... it's just more stereotypical asian roles. It's annoying. There's not one asian person on that show that is NOT part of the Japanese mafia or a ninja (or part of the Chinese mafia). It's ridiculous.
- I found that every episode, Matt was contradicting what he said in the previous episode. "Choose me, not stick! Change who you are!" "You can't change who you are! Go back to Stick" (IT HAD LITERALLY BEEN FIVE MINUTES), "No, choose me AND Stick I know you, and you are secretly a good person!" ... or "We corrupt each other. We're no good together" to "Run away with me!" or... when Matt tells Fisk that he'll only be able to visit Vanessa because Fisk would never leave New York, because he's like Matt and it's in his blood. And then Matt is telling Elektra that they'll run away together, even though he's never been further north than 104th st. I mean, that was probably SUPPOSED to be a parallel... but honestly. I guess maybe it was meant to signify Matt's decent into madness/isolation/confusion... but, it'd have been nice if someone actually called him out on it, even if it was himself.
- So... is Matt really under the delusion that he's never killed anyone? That whole storyline doesn't make sense. YES, he doesn't point blank shoot people in the head - but not everyone in those hallway/stairwell fights are going to survive. And in S1 he once through someone off a roof and didn't actually seem THAT concerned whether he lived or died. Nor did he always call the cops to come get the bodies/injured. The sudden claiming that he doesn't murder people and that he always has to call the police was a little far-fetched. Matt has morals, but not REALLY... I guess he justifies it as self-defense - but in that case, he REALLY shouldn't get mad at Elektra for slitting that kid's throat. The kid knew where Matt lived. But whatever... I guess Matt has to tell himself a lot of lies to sleep at night, what with being catholic and all.
-That's the other thing - why bring fake eastern religious cults into the show when you have the perfect protagonist to explore actual western religions and their consequences. I really liked that aspect of S1 too, and it was COMPLETELY absent this season. Disappointing.
In conclusion - Okay, but not as good a S1. I'm interested to see where S3 goes in terms of the personal relationships in the show, but I have absolutely no interest in the direction that the plot is heading.
Here are some random thoughts:
- I'm not a fan at all of Matt/Karen. I didn't even really realize until it was briefly canon - but, just no. I like them as friends, but that's it. It'll be interesting how it moves forward into S3.
- Man, the ending was depressing in terms of the future of Nelsen and Murdock. I LOVE Foggy, and I know that Matt would never actually leave his right-hand man for long - but, MAN, I really want S3 to be one giant reunification fic... and in the meantime, I hope to read a lot of reunification fic.
- Charlie Cox's body is on point. The suit doesn't do much for me, but the rare scenes we saw with him half naked or in jeans... yeah, nice to look at.
- I was thinking about it and I think it would have been really cool if they had genderswapped Frank Castle and Elektra. I just find female superheroes to be kinda cliche - but if you made them a man, they wouldn't be anymore. Likewise, it'd be cool to see a woman go down the Punisher route - just this hench marine woman, taking no prisoners. 100% more compelling. Of course, if you genderswapped Elektra, the whole love-history between her and Matt wouldn't work anymore.. so, FINE. Because Matt could only be THAT stupid for someone he loved (and as much as I love reading Matt/Foggy fic, I don't actually headcanon a queer Matt.)
- And I'm not trying to say that Frank Castle wasn't compelling. I kinda feel like they could have just focused the whole season on him and I'd have been happier.
- Turns out, I'm really not a fan of ninja-conspiracy storylines. I much preferred S1 enemy - gentrification. I could relate more.
- Also, ninja-conspiracy storylines just... it's just more stereotypical asian roles. It's annoying. There's not one asian person on that show that is NOT part of the Japanese mafia or a ninja (or part of the Chinese mafia). It's ridiculous.
- I found that every episode, Matt was contradicting what he said in the previous episode. "Choose me, not stick! Change who you are!" "You can't change who you are! Go back to Stick" (IT HAD LITERALLY BEEN FIVE MINUTES), "No, choose me AND Stick I know you, and you are secretly a good person!" ... or "We corrupt each other. We're no good together" to "Run away with me!" or... when Matt tells Fisk that he'll only be able to visit Vanessa because Fisk would never leave New York, because he's like Matt and it's in his blood. And then Matt is telling Elektra that they'll run away together, even though he's never been further north than 104th st. I mean, that was probably SUPPOSED to be a parallel... but honestly. I guess maybe it was meant to signify Matt's decent into madness/isolation/confusion... but, it'd have been nice if someone actually called him out on it, even if it was himself.
- So... is Matt really under the delusion that he's never killed anyone? That whole storyline doesn't make sense. YES, he doesn't point blank shoot people in the head - but not everyone in those hallway/stairwell fights are going to survive. And in S1 he once through someone off a roof and didn't actually seem THAT concerned whether he lived or died. Nor did he always call the cops to come get the bodies/injured. The sudden claiming that he doesn't murder people and that he always has to call the police was a little far-fetched. Matt has morals, but not REALLY... I guess he justifies it as self-defense - but in that case, he REALLY shouldn't get mad at Elektra for slitting that kid's throat. The kid knew where Matt lived. But whatever... I guess Matt has to tell himself a lot of lies to sleep at night, what with being catholic and all.
-That's the other thing - why bring fake eastern religious cults into the show when you have the perfect protagonist to explore actual western religions and their consequences. I really liked that aspect of S1 too, and it was COMPLETELY absent this season. Disappointing.
In conclusion - Okay, but not as good a S1. I'm interested to see where S3 goes in terms of the personal relationships in the show, but I have absolutely no interest in the direction that the plot is heading.
