Has it really been a full year since the first season of Daredevil came into our lives? I've had a couple of weeks to let my feelings on this show marinate. Also, the arrival of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, kind of pushed this out of my mind.
As I reflect back on the second season of Daredevil, I still feel the same. It was really good. I had a few problems, but not enough to make me enjoy the show any less.
So where to begin? Let's start with the Punisher. We get the best Punisher seen on screen to date. Jon Berenthal was a very inspired choice. He was perfectly cast. I like that he starts off as a force of nature in the first half of the season. They give his character an arc and I love the philosophical foil he makes for Daredevil.
While I'm on the Punisher, I will just say that the violence this season was cranked up to an 11. With the Punisher involved, it is appropriate I think. What better way to show how different he is from our heroes?
The other new edition was Elektra. She was her ball of crazy. Her arc takes longer to get going, but I think it served it's purpose. They did flesh her out enough, but she's not the focus.
Let's talk about the main characters. I still really like the portrayal of Daredevil/Matt Murdock. Charlie Cox continues to give a great performance. In true Daredevil fashion, he is put through the emotional wringer in this season. I still do wish they'd give him more time in the court room to show why he's a great lawyer. What little they've shown, has been good. Maybe in my heart of hearts, I want this to be a super hero Law and Order.
I still like Foggy and Karen. This season Karen gets a lot more screen time.
Instead of focusing on individual performances and all that like I usually do, I'm going to summarize what I thought of the show.
I thought this second season was very good. It escalated the events from the first season. Where I think it falls flat is that in the first season, you had the Kingpin. He was a defined end boss for the hero to work towards. In this season it starts off as the Punisher. Then Elektra. Then the Hand. Then who's controlling the Hand. It heaps mysteries on top of mysteries to the point where it felt like they were just checking off boxes in the Daredevil handbook. It very much felt like some of this was just treading water to really open it up in Season 3.
The season started off with such promise, but like Jessica Jones, I think it peaked way too soon by having our hero interact with the supposed, big bad within the first four episodes. While I'm glad they didn't drag out the Daredevil/Punisher conflict, I don't like that it had to happen so early. Seeing as how the rest of the season was paced, I guess they had to.
As I reflect back, they really did pack a lot into this season, to the point where some stuff never gets to breathe. We never really see Matt/Karen enjoy their relationship before it's over. We still don't see much court room stuff from Matt, which makes you wonder how their law firm ever stayed afloat. They do make references to it, but it's just amazing to me.
Also, at the end of the day, the Hand storyline really bugged me. It's fine in the comics, but dare I say, in this show it is TOO comic booky. I like how grounded the show was last season and everything got escalated in season 2 to some ridiculous degrees. Anyone that complained about the violence should stay away from this season, that's for sure.
Speaking of violence, I briefly wanted to touch on the action. The fight choreography in this show continued to be amazing. There was a great fight scene in episode 3 that was a long "single shot" fight scene like the hallway scene in the first season. I absolutely love these scenes and I'm glad they only do it once a season, so it doesn't get over used. A minor quibble is that there were some weird hiccups in some of the fight scenes. They were framed in such a way that you could clearly see missed punches and kicks. That got distracting as the season went along.
I still enjoyed the show, but season 1 was definitely better.
