Daredevil Season 3
The Marvel universe within Netflix is hinged around this blind man, who knows no fear and is fighting tooth and nail everyday to save his city, Hell's Kitchen, either from mysterious ninja-gods or larger-than-life villains orchestrating moves from within prison walls. And I daresay, Season 3 is a welcome comeback for Daredevil, possibly the best outing yet. In many ways - bringing us back to the streets of Hell's Kitchen that becomes the bloody chess-board for a game of cat and mouse, between the Devil and hold your breath, the Kingpin [ The villain we love!] and the introduction of Bullseye as the King's daring key-piece to upset the whole board.
See, apart from Daredevil, the other "superheroes" haven't really set our pulses racing quite like Matt Murdoch's alter-ego. There's something heart-breaking and immensely loveable about Charlie Cox's brilliant portrayal of this vulnerable man, questioning his faith in God and his own abilities, time and again - as his tests become brutal, stacked against terrifyingly impossible odds. Defenders picked up the storyline of where Season 2 ended and brings to some closure, the story of the Hand attacking NY city. And so Season 3 picks up - Matt buried under a whole building and yet miraculously alive and having lost his girlfriend and his faith in everything. Including the system, himself and most of all, God.
Matt is a broken man, literally and figuratively trying to find a rhythm in his meaningless life now and extremely pissed with God. Frankly, his dissent with God and his broken attempts to go out into the street in guise of protecting the innocent in the first couple of episodes were, nothing less than annoying. But what breathes life into the first few episodes are the return of Wilson Fiske, the lynchpin around which crime revolves. In full return to form - quiet, menacing and real, Vincent D'Onofrio does wonders to the terrific portrayal of this character with his small tics, slit eyes and infrequently flying into destructive bouts of rage. There are moments when I as a viewer, almost got taken in by Fiske's stories speaks well to the complexity that the writers of the show have given him and brought out so well by D'Onofrio. He is the shining jewel of the show yet again, a remarkably inspired piece of casting for Marvel and Netflix.
Newly introduced into the mix is Jay Ali's character of Ray Nadeem - a desperate FBI agent trying to prove his worth and aching for a promotion, letting his ambitions blind him to the game that Fiske plays him adroitly - with promises of "ratting out" crime-bosses (mainly his own enemies out in the streets) thus making a deal, ensuring a prison release and merely a house-arrest into a secured hotel room. Jay makes a great outing as the man on the ground, trying too hard to put things right, a lowly agent still trying to make the world a better place. I loved the earnestness he brings into the portrayal of Ray.
Introduced into this bubbling seething cauldron of shifty characters and crackling suspense is the origin story of Agent Ben "Dex" Poindexter - a man who's lost his 'North Star' in life, misguided and miserable having lost all the ones he's ever loved in life. Watching Wilson Bethel play out the warring emotions and struggles in his head, ever losing the fight to slowly descend into the swirl of madness [ Oh Fiske plays his part in that for sure !] is an absolute treat of this season. And also one of my favourites this season is Sister Maggie played by Joanne Whally - the one who guides and lovingly nurses back Matt from his confused faithless days. Absolutely acerbic dry wit and tongue-in-cheek performance.
So the first episodes are about moving the pieces across the board, setting it up for an eventual showdown between Matt and Fiske. Things aren't slow but they are chaotic with multiple storylines. Not the least significant of these being Karen Page and Foggy Nelson's side-reel. Karen has become one of my favourite characters of this franchise. Deborah Ann-Woll's fantastic portrayal brings alive the see-saw of fear sowed in by Fiske's manipulations and also her nervous but heart-warmingly brave journalistic sting operations to bring out the truth and thus bury Fiske. Eden Henson also manages to come out of the shadow of being just a comic side-kick relief and ably holds his own - Foggy starting his own winning campaign for the post of DA.
Once the origin stories ( that of Dex ) are rolled out, the character motivations are explained (Fiske starting out from the bottom yet again to play out his long game and machinations) , the line-ups are drawn clear (Matt vs Dex, Matt vs Fiske, Dex vs Ray) - by episode six, things just explode. It is in this episode titled "Devil We Know" - we are matched up for the most brutal and yet exhilarating fight sequence of the season playing out. In the backdrop of a newspaper office where Dex, having given into that devil inside him dons up the Daredevil suit and goes toe-to-toe with Matt's Daredevil who's gone back to donning the black rags and street-clothes from the church donations boxes, faithful to Season One. It is blistering and it hits you without any preamble - Dex's character whom we know will become Bullseye, is adept at using anything available at hand, converting them into deadly missiles. And oh, it is so much fun watching him scrappily pick up office stationary using them even better than knives in this sequence. The choreography is mind-numbing yet again in its brutality and the uncanny beauty of both the Devils' moves. The season has quite a few amazingly depicted fights ( including of course the season finale brutality that is a violent menage-a-trois between the three!) but this newspaper office attack scene is a game-changer, catapulting the season into greatness. It sets the tone for what follows and becomes the sole raison d'être for binge-watching.
There are so many things to love about Season 3 making it arguably the best ever show now on Netflix. The creators of Punisher have now a higher bar, I daresay. In Fiske, we got one of the best MCU Villains. Daredevil and his cronies are back where they started, fighting crime together on the streets. And there's possibly a new threat in Bullseye. Set for crackling times ahead, Daredevil Season 3 is binge-worthy, return to good times and the streets of Hell's Kitchen where it all began. Keep those chips and coffee ready - you're going to need it as you watch this late into the night.
PS. Leaving you with a teaser of that fight in Ep.6.
See, apart from Daredevil, the other "superheroes" haven't really set our pulses racing quite like Matt Murdoch's alter-ego. There's something heart-breaking and immensely loveable about Charlie Cox's brilliant portrayal of this vulnerable man, questioning his faith in God and his own abilities, time and again - as his tests become brutal, stacked against terrifyingly impossible odds. Defenders picked up the storyline of where Season 2 ended and brings to some closure, the story of the Hand attacking NY city. And so Season 3 picks up - Matt buried under a whole building and yet miraculously alive and having lost his girlfriend and his faith in everything. Including the system, himself and most of all, God.
Matt is a broken man, literally and figuratively trying to find a rhythm in his meaningless life now and extremely pissed with God. Frankly, his dissent with God and his broken attempts to go out into the street in guise of protecting the innocent in the first couple of episodes were, nothing less than annoying. But what breathes life into the first few episodes are the return of Wilson Fiske, the lynchpin around which crime revolves. In full return to form - quiet, menacing and real, Vincent D'Onofrio does wonders to the terrific portrayal of this character with his small tics, slit eyes and infrequently flying into destructive bouts of rage. There are moments when I as a viewer, almost got taken in by Fiske's stories speaks well to the complexity that the writers of the show have given him and brought out so well by D'Onofrio. He is the shining jewel of the show yet again, a remarkably inspired piece of casting for Marvel and Netflix.
Newly introduced into the mix is Jay Ali's character of Ray Nadeem - a desperate FBI agent trying to prove his worth and aching for a promotion, letting his ambitions blind him to the game that Fiske plays him adroitly - with promises of "ratting out" crime-bosses (mainly his own enemies out in the streets) thus making a deal, ensuring a prison release and merely a house-arrest into a secured hotel room. Jay makes a great outing as the man on the ground, trying too hard to put things right, a lowly agent still trying to make the world a better place. I loved the earnestness he brings into the portrayal of Ray.
Introduced into this bubbling seething cauldron of shifty characters and crackling suspense is the origin story of Agent Ben "Dex" Poindexter - a man who's lost his 'North Star' in life, misguided and miserable having lost all the ones he's ever loved in life. Watching Wilson Bethel play out the warring emotions and struggles in his head, ever losing the fight to slowly descend into the swirl of madness [ Oh Fiske plays his part in that for sure !] is an absolute treat of this season. And also one of my favourites this season is Sister Maggie played by Joanne Whally - the one who guides and lovingly nurses back Matt from his confused faithless days. Absolutely acerbic dry wit and tongue-in-cheek performance.
So the first episodes are about moving the pieces across the board, setting it up for an eventual showdown between Matt and Fiske. Things aren't slow but they are chaotic with multiple storylines. Not the least significant of these being Karen Page and Foggy Nelson's side-reel. Karen has become one of my favourite characters of this franchise. Deborah Ann-Woll's fantastic portrayal brings alive the see-saw of fear sowed in by Fiske's manipulations and also her nervous but heart-warmingly brave journalistic sting operations to bring out the truth and thus bury Fiske. Eden Henson also manages to come out of the shadow of being just a comic side-kick relief and ably holds his own - Foggy starting his own winning campaign for the post of DA.
Once the origin stories ( that of Dex ) are rolled out, the character motivations are explained (Fiske starting out from the bottom yet again to play out his long game and machinations) , the line-ups are drawn clear (Matt vs Dex, Matt vs Fiske, Dex vs Ray) - by episode six, things just explode. It is in this episode titled "Devil We Know" - we are matched up for the most brutal and yet exhilarating fight sequence of the season playing out. In the backdrop of a newspaper office where Dex, having given into that devil inside him dons up the Daredevil suit and goes toe-to-toe with Matt's Daredevil who's gone back to donning the black rags and street-clothes from the church donations boxes, faithful to Season One. It is blistering and it hits you without any preamble - Dex's character whom we know will become Bullseye, is adept at using anything available at hand, converting them into deadly missiles. And oh, it is so much fun watching him scrappily pick up office stationary using them even better than knives in this sequence. The choreography is mind-numbing yet again in its brutality and the uncanny beauty of both the Devils' moves. The season has quite a few amazingly depicted fights ( including of course the season finale brutality that is a violent menage-a-trois between the three!) but this newspaper office attack scene is a game-changer, catapulting the season into greatness. It sets the tone for what follows and becomes the sole raison d'être for binge-watching.
There are so many things to love about Season 3 making it arguably the best ever show now on Netflix. The creators of Punisher have now a higher bar, I daresay. In Fiske, we got one of the best MCU Villains. Daredevil and his cronies are back where they started, fighting crime together on the streets. And there's possibly a new threat in Bullseye. Set for crackling times ahead, Daredevil Season 3 is binge-worthy, return to good times and the streets of Hell's Kitchen where it all began. Keep those chips and coffee ready - you're going to need it as you watch this late into the night.
PS. Leaving you with a teaser of that fight in Ep.6.
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