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| Review by Lenny Schwartz |
After the success of the first Daredevil series on Netflix, you knew there would be a season 2 to binge watch. And why not? Netflix has been having success with these darker tales, first with Daredevil then with Jessica Jones. More are coming with Luke Cage around the corner and Iron Fist…and I say keep em coming. So how does this season fare?
Pretty damn good actually. The new showrunners Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez don’t waste any time and pick up right where the previous season left off. So if you haven’t seen season one…well watch that first then this. You owe it to yourself.
The series picks up with Daredevil(Charlie Cox) fighting crime in Hell’s Kitchen NYC. Some have complained that Cox is dull as Daredevil…but I like him. He plays Matt Murdock exactly as I pictured him, and he’s pretty compelling if you give him a chance. His Daredevil is fantastic however, grounded and physical, a brawler on the streets of NYC.
And hey, they fixed his costume from the awful one that appeared at the end of last season.
This time out he truly looks and moves like the Daredevil we know.
This season we are introduced to two new characters…Frank Castle aka comic book favorite The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Elektra (Elodie Yung).
Yung is a great fighter. Her Elektra is one you wouldn’t want to mess with and her fight scenes are killer. However, when she has to act and not fight, she barely registers on the screen. She’s painfully dull and there is no spark between her and Cox. They might as well be talking to a wall in scenes they have to converse in. It’s hard to see what these two would see in each other. But hey, at least the fight scenes are spectacular.
And hey, at least she’s not Jennifer Garner.
Bernthal as the Punisher though…man, he’s great. This is the Punisher people have been waiting for. He’s physical, angry, scary…yet Bernthal is so good he adds a layer of humanity. Every scene he is in is brutal to watch. He elevates the show past its season one, and makes it a better season because of it. Netflix would be wise to give him a Punisher series. He certainly deserves it.
One of the other drawbacks of the series is its weak supporting cast.
Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson and Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page are particularly bad. Every time they appear onscreen without Cox or Bernthal, it gets so painfully dull, you may be checking your cell phone repeatedly.
The good part though is that these moments are fewer than the first series. Combine that with some breathtaking fight scenes(the staircase in episode three will be one everyone talks about) and some pretty damn good stories, and you have a show that is worthy of binging from start to finish.
My only two recommendations is to either bring in Bullseye for season three…or even better do the Born Again storyline as I think Netflix would handle it great.
