I started watching the show a few months ago because some reddit comment really drummed up the law aspect of the show. I don’t know why because the lawyering and journalism is pretty ancillary to the plot. But that’s not the point.

I don’t have any enlightening criticism to share. Just some random thoughts that I want to write down before I forget about it completely.

Murdock’s catholocism angle was decent I think. In that the religion endorses a personal ideology of self-flagellation and martyrdom. So Daredevil often is his own worst enemy because he choses to act alone and isolate himself. It was interesting but I didn’t expect to draw out for the whole three seasons. I felt that the contradiction should have been resolved in a season or so.

I found Wilson Fisk very interesting in terms of his personality and cadence. His backstory is not very fleshed out. He is shown in the beginning as sort of an anti-hero that loves “the city”. Obviously this is not true. But then somewhere along the show this portrayal completely dissipates and he is shown as a self-centred and self-interested villain. The contradiction between the earlier rhetoric and the real nature just disappears without being addressed except for when our heroes insist that he is a villain. I found this characterisation unsatisfying. Not that I wanted him to be humanised or anything but if this contradiction was laid bare it would have been interesting.

Regarding his personality, I am not sure if the actor did an excellent or a terrible job. It’s the way he talks. “There were some… complications.” That pause at the end before using an euphemism was so weird and common I could do nothing but wait for it and notice it whenever he spoke.

Then there is Vanessa. Her relationship with Fisk felt sort of shoehorned in so that she just seemed like an object or a possession that he cares deeply about. She doesn’t affect him in any tangible way other than becoming a weak spot for him. You could argue that she brings comfort and normalcy to him but this angle was not given much attention other than some verbal confirmations.

That yeeter fake daredevil at end just appeared out of nowhere. I think they expect viewers to know that there is a supervillain named Boomerang. I didn’t know this until I had finished watching and I found his introduction very jarring.

Overall I would not recommend watching it. My main problem is that it doesn’t try to be interesting. But if you want to kill time with some heroslop (understandable) you could give it a try.

Also the whole premise of season 1 where a cabal of “foreigners” is wrecking “the city” is kinda racist or is it just me?

EDIT: This is now a Marxist critique because I used “contradictions” three times.