Here's something a bit different. Let's talk about one of my favorite TV shows, Daredevil (NOTE: While this will not contain any spoilers for Daredevil Season 3, this will contain spoilers for most of these shows due to the preamble and needed references for the review. Just a warning).
Before we get to the review, I want to give my brief thoughts on the Marvel/Netflix shows (Feel free to skip to the review if you like). These series and the idea of a grittier side of the MCU started out extremely well with the show at hand, Daredevil's first season, which introduced one of the MCU's finest heroes in the titular character and one of its greatest villains in Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin. It had great action and a solid story framed by a solid cast of characters. Overall, a fantastic first season that showed plenty of promise for these shows, and, basing off of the next series this Netflix/Marvel collaboration gave us, it was definitely not a fluke.
Next is what I genuinely believe it to be the best season out of all of the Marvel/Netflix and the greatest season of superhero television period, Jessica Jones season 1. While the action isn't as well thought-out as Daredevil, the character work is fantastic, there's always an uneasy tension in every episode, and Kilgrave. Just. Kilgrave. This guy is my favorite villain in anything Marvel, and the best portrayal of a comic book villain since Heath Ledger's Joker. I could talk all day about how great of a character he is and how amazing a villain/hero dynamic he and Jessica Jones have, and his death scene is perfectly satisfying. It's not a very "superhero-like" show, but it's great nonetheless. Every episode of the season has a purpose and every episode is effective. Even the parts you could argue aren't very good end quickly and they never bothered me.
Then after that, well, no season topped nor matched the greatness of those first couple of seasons. Daredevil season 2 came out next, and while the first four episodes focusing on The Punisher/Daredevil story-line were excellent and some of the best material in the entire MCU, it became an uneven and overlong set-up for The Defenders once Elecktra took the focus away from The Punisher, even if The Punisher stuff was still great and seeing Fisk back was awesome. It's an overall decent season, but a far cry from the amazing first season.
Luke Cage came out next, and I like this one more than most people. Luke Cage is a charismatic lead, Harlem is a fantastic setting, and the first half in general is fantastic. The problems with the first season come in the second half. When Cottonmouth dies and Diamondback comes in, it begins to lack a compelling lead villain, which is exactly what this show needed. I love this season, but I love it more than I probably should considering the dip in quality after the first half (Luke Cage is also my favorite Defender, so I have a slight bias).
Then Iron Fist happened. That show sucked. I haven't even bothered with the second season because the first one was so painful to sit through. It's one of the worst seasons of television that I've watched in its entirety. The main character is annoying and just sucks, the action is poorly choreographed and shot terribly, and, despite having a few things I liked, was overall uninteresting and obnoxious.
The Defenders was the next to be released, and while I really enjoyed it and it was an overall satisfying crossover, the villains were underdeveloped and Iron Fist wasn't too much better than before. Then The Punisher came out, and it was also good, but it was far too long and almost unbearably slow at points, even if the pay-off and brutal action in the last few episodes is incredibly satisfying. I haven't seen Jessica Jones season 2 all the way through, but what what I've seen (8 episodes), it's a major dip in quality from the first season and heavily disappointing. However, Luke Cage season 2 was surprisingly really good. Sure, it suffers from being overlong and the plot is rather simplistic, but the characters are at their best here. Basically everyone gets moments to shine, especially the villains, who steal the show (Mariah, Shades, and the new villain Bushmaster are all top notch) and Luke Cages' character arc is fantastic. This show already had great characters, but this took them and made them even better than the first season, and the new additions were all welcome. This is a legitimate improvement from the first season that surpassed my expectations.
So yeah, these shows are almost never been completely consistent throughout their history, but I still enjoy them for the most part and they've given some of the best material the MCU has to offer (You could make an argument for the best with Daredevil season 1 or Jessica Jones season 1 being the best material in the MCU and I wouldn't have a problem with it). So, where does Daredevil season 3 stand among them? Well, they did it. We actually got a season that's on the level of quality of the first two seasons. This season easily stands among the best Netflix shows.
Basically the plot of this season is after The Defenders, when everyone thinks Matt is dead, he's actually alive, as shown in the final scene of that show. While he tries to recover, Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin cuts a deal with the FBI to help them find other criminals by taking him out of prison and keeping him under house arrest at a nice hotel, while he slowly puts a sinister plan in place. When Matt finds out about this, he has to become Daredevil once again and take down Fisk once and for all. With no other Defenders (Outside characters are barely even mentioned; Jessica Jones is referenced once and The Punisher once), this is Matt's journey and his alone.
One big reason why Daredevil season 1 worked so well is because of Wilson Fisk, and seeing him back is extremely welcome. He's one of my favorite villains in anything comic-book related, and here he's as good as ever. His role is mostly as a manipulator this season and he rarely ever uses brute force, even though you do see that in parts and it's great when he does. His presence is felt throughout the entirety of the show, and it casts an ominous shadow that's feels like it could end Daredevil or any of the other characters instantly. It also helps that Vincent D'Onorfrio is at his absolute best here, and he embraces everything that made his portrayal so compelling in the first place. He also gets a lot of screen time, and in a couple episodes, he gets more screen-time than Daredevil himself. This is a case of a lot of a good thing is not too much of a good thing. It excels the show to new heights to have a villain this good.
Charlie Cox gives his best performance yet as the titular hero as well. He proves once again his casting was pitch perfect by beautifully presenting the most emotionally damaged we've seen ever this character. We've seen this character down on this luck before, but not ever on this level. He lost Elecktra, Fisk is ruining his life again, and he gets the crap beat out of him more often then not. Seriously, if I had a nickel for every time he got some major injury, I'd make Bill Gates look homeless, but him being so out of it makes his character arc more compelling. I've heard complaints that his character weak this season, but I actually like that. Both physically and mentally he's pushed to his limits, and he learns to both fully embrace Daredevil, but also become Matt Murdock, the man he once was.
The supporting cast also got a lot of great moments this season, both familiar and new faces. Karen Page gets a ton of screen time, maybe even more than usual. She, like Matt, is pushed to the limits by Fisk and becomes more compelling than ever. They spend a lot of time exploring her past, which I also really enjoyed, and her dynamic with Matt was especially great, particularly in the later episodes.
Foggy's pretty good here too. He didn't have as much screen time as I was expecting, but he brought a good amount of optimism to the show and while his arc wasn't the most compelling this season, I still enjoyed it and it didn't take away from the season.
However, some of the best characters came in the form on the newcomers. Special Agent Nadeem was a welcome addition to the cast and brought a great character arc with him. I can't talk about it too much without spoiling it, since it's a key part of the season, but it's effective and only gets better as the show goes on. At first, I didn't how to feel about him, as his scenes didn't really feel like what I feel this show should be. However, he grew on me throughout the show and then his arc clicked. It made sense in the grander scheme of the story and I loved it.
My favorite new addition was in a form of a new character in the form of Agent "Dex" Poindexter aka Bullseye, who makes for one of the most interesting and twisted characters in any of these shows. I really didn't like him at first, but it was episode 5 that everything made sense and I got to really love this character. To say the least, he's a messed-up character who works off of Fisk extremely well and it made for one of my favorite parts of the season. He's probably not what you were expecting if you wanted a more "traditional" Bullseye (I don't think he's ever called that), but it's a welcome surprise. He makes for a great physical match for Daredevil and a compelling character at that.
Now, let's talk about one of the main reasons this show is talked about so much; The action. This show has had some of the best action in the entire MCU, and this season does not disappoint on any level on those fronts.These scenes are brutal, bloody, and extremely well-choreographed and filmed. Whenever there's a fight scene, you can tell thought was put into it to make it as good as possible. Basically every action scene is good, but the best one is early on in the season. This is normal for Daredevil, as it's become tradition to have an action scene with a long tracking shot somewhere in the first few episodes, and this one might be the best yet. Even if it's not the best one, it's certainly the most impressive. The scene goes on for eleven minutes, and includes great fight choreographed action, scenes of intense acting, and not a single cut. It's stunning that they were able to pull it off, let alone this well. It's one of the most impressive things I've seen in the MCU's entire catalog, and I've seen some really impressive stuff come out of this universe. There are plenty of other brutal fights, like basically everyone with Bullseye, which are intense and well thought-out. What I also love about these fights is that they feel character driven. There's not a fight there because we need an exciting action sequence, but they have a purpose and always lead the characters to further character development or into a new plot development. These are scenes with purpose that also act as entertainingly brutal sequences, and I appreciate that.
What I also found impressive is this season's pacing was terrific. Even with many of the best seasons of these shows, the pacing drags at points and it feels like 13 episodes is too much. Daredevil's second season felt a few episodes too long, as did The Punisher, and Iron Fist suffered from existing. Here, I maybe felt it for 30 minutes of the entire season. That's not even a whole episode. Not since Jessica Jones' first season has one of these shows been paced so well. There's not an episode that doesn't add something to the plot or the characters. Simply put, there's no episodes worthy of the skip here. It's rare for these shows to earn the 13 episode season, but this one does. There's barely any filler, and even the filler that's here is minimal and doesn't distract too far from the plot. Yeah, a few episodes are kind of slow, but they're meant to be and I didn't have a problem with it.
I really don't have much negative to say about this season. I guess since this is done by a different showrunner (Like every season of this show), the characters can sometimes feel a bit different, but they never feel out of character; It's just under someone different and I like and respect their vision.
So yeah, this season actually surpassed my expectations. This is superhero TV at its finest and this honestly might be my favorite season of Daredevil so far. The way the story flows, the characters, the action, the acting, it's all fantastic. Almost everything has a purpose and the story is one of the most compelling in anything Marvel. If you're a fan of this show and if you haven't already, check this season out, it's 100% worth your time. This is a great back-to-basics story that takes everything great about this show and dials to the max (So no Iron Fist. Yay!).
A+
Also, for good measure, here's my current ranking of these seasons (I haven't finished Jessica Jones season 2 or bothered watching any of Iron Fist season 2, so they're not on here)
1. Jessica Jones Season 1
2. Daredevil Season 3
3. Daredevil Season 1
4. Luke Cage Season 2
5. The Defenders
6. Luke Cage Season 1
7. Daredevil Season 2
8. The Punisher Season 1
9. Iron Fist Season 1
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