Daredevil has always been Marvel’s discount Batman of sorts. Although technically Daredevil is not completely without powers, his superhuman senses tries (and fails most of the time) to compensate for his lack of Batman’s resources. Ironically, both character’s writers have elected to define Batman as something that is more than the sum of his parts, making him practically superhuman while Daredevil, arguably an actual superhuman, to be more human in almost every aspect of his character. It is this part of Daredevil that permeates from Marvel and Netfilx’ new series. And it is this humanity that is an ever-present theme throughout the series with both Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and Wilson Fisk (Kingpin) being as human as possible. Every punch thrown and bone broken is felt as each fight towards their fate.
Charlie Cox’ portrayal of Matt Murdock a blind lawyer with a heart of gold by day and a brutal crime-fighter by night, is charming and charismatic. With the series going into Matt Murdock’s beginnings as a young kid being a hero and paying for it with his sight, and also his relationship with his professional boxer father who struggles to make ends meet, it is surprising to see the series devote as much time if not more to Wilson Fisk’s character and his beginnings. Vincent D’Onofrio (spellcheck) ‘s Wilson Fisk is arguably the breakout character of the series’. Surprisingly vulnerable and powerful at the same time, Wilson Fisk’s history is explored during the latter part of the series. For such a vile, ruthless and violent character, the writers and D’Onofrio’s portrayal gives Fisk a surprisingly sympathetic side that is both terrifying and yet charismatic. The decision on the show runners’ part to balance the series, at least for season 1, equally between its hero and villain is a great move, making a show on a man’s war on crime become one that is about two men’s climb towards an arguably similar goal.
The black outfit makes perfect sense for this first season
Overall, Daredevil is an awesome ride from minute 1 to the final seconds of episode 13. Gritty but not glum, fun yet not campy, Marvel has found the perfect balance for their first street level hero of the small screen. And having the whole of the first season available in one go ensures that you can view each episode one after the other. One of the few complaints with the show though is that it can get formulaic for its episodes, action scene – exposition/character development – action scene, although later episodes definitely break that mould, it is a bit noticeable still whenever they use it repeatedly. In some respect, with Daredevil, Marvel finally takes a superhero with the classic formula (secret identity, one man war, misunderstood motivations) to live action, and no Spiderman does not count since its movies come from Sony. And in their first attempt, Marvel shows the deep understanding of their characters that few other companies command and has made them so successful for most of their theatrical releases as well.
Something shiny. 
