Marvel's Daredevil (Netflix)

[Silver Nemesis]

What part is Deborah Ann Woll playing?

She's playing Matt's love interest, Karen Page. I don't want to give away any spoilers for those not familiar with the comics, but suffice it to say that Karen has – ahem – a bit of a rough time. And that's putting it mildly.

I hope the TV version will have an easier time of it, otherwise her arc could turn into a textbook example of the 'Break the Cutie' trope.

[Silver Nemesis]

Marvel has revealed the series logo.

Just a few days to go now before we finally see the costume at NYCC! Hopefully we'll see some footage too!

[johnnygobbs]

That's a great logo.  It promises the type of pulpy fun I hope and expect from Marvel Studios, and which is sadly missing from various other studios' (*cough*Fox*cough*) handling of the various comic-book characters.

[BatmAngelus]

http://marvel.com/news/tv/23448/your_official_first_look_at_charlie_cox_in_marvels_daredvil_on_netflix

The costume definitely evokes both the Rex Smith costume and the early suit from Frank Miller's Man Without Fear comic (and it seems that the costume will evolve since the article says it's his "first suit.")

[riddler]

I didn't mind Rex Smith's portrayal but I didn't like the costume for the simple fact that it implies that Daredevil is visually impaired taking away the element of surprise.

[The Joker]

She's playing Matt's love interest, Karen Page. I don't want to give away any spoilers for those not familiar with the comics, but suffice it to say that Karen has – ahem – a bit of a rough time. And that's putting it mildly.

I hope the TV version will have an easier time of it, otherwise her arc could turn into a textbook example of the 'Break the Cutie' trope.

Right. Yeah, Karen, later on down the line, becomes anything but the girl you want to take home to momma.

[BatmAngelus]

Honestly, I think the suit from the movie was better. Still looking forward to the series, though.

[BatmAngelus]

Anyone check this out yet?

I felt it was pretty solid, though maybe a bit overrated. There were a few episodes that were a little slow for me and a few creative choices I found odd, but overall, a good start and definitely had the feeling of a 13-hour long origin movie for Daredevil and Kingpin.

SPOILERS:
This might just be me, but I never thought the 2003 film was that bad and even felt that the TV show lifted certain elements from it, such as Matt confiding his dilemmas (and his secret identity) to a Catholic priest as well as the character arc revolving around Matt's line "I'm not the bad guy." Both the show and the movie also adapted Fisk's assistant Wesley from Born Again, though the show called him James Wesley while the movie called him Wesley Owen Welch.

Still feel that Affleck's red suit was better, but this red one worked for the context and you can't help but cheer inside once he's got it on and starts taking down Fisk at the end.

I anticipate Owlsley's son will come to New York in the next season and become The Owl, since his father obviously can't take on that persona. Don't think he'll be too happy with Fisk.

[The Laughing Fish]

I watched the entire first season a few weeks ago.

I too felt it had a slow couple of episodes, but it eventually got better, particularly the finale. I'll admit that the show does have this "gritty realistic" vibe that plagued most of the DC film and TV adaptations over the last decade, but the difference is this show does it WAY better, and the characterizations made it work. Murdock does get physically and mentally hurt, and his crime-fighting carries a lot of personal demons in the same way the Affleck movie did, but his relationships with Karen Page, Foggy and the nurse Claire help humanize him. Wilson Fisk is a ruthless mob boss, but at the same time he carries his own demons and is trying to fill a void in his romantic life; which means even he has some humanity left in him. I'd go far by saying that he is one of the most complex villains I've seen since DeVito's Penguin. The old man who played Leland (the warden from The Shawshank Redemption) plays Fisk's snarky financial associate who insults people doing questionable things is something that I for one appreciate. The rest of the supporting cast play their roles effectively too, particularly Karen Page and Foggy Nelson.

I didn't mind the 2003 movie either, but there were aspects I thought the show does much better. **MILD SPOILERS**For example, the show has Matt Murdock being trained by a blind man called Stick, to help control and advance his senses, as opposed to Matt training by himself on the roof top in the movie. Murdock initially saw Stick as a father figure, but the man was too cold and cared only for the fight, and their relationship becomes tense later on.

As a show set in the MCU, it really doesn't feel like it is because of its extreme violence, and serious tone. And that's something that would've bothered me several years ago, but I can appreciate this show because it's much better written and acted than nearly anything that DC has been recently renowned for. So yeah, I'd recommend it.

BTW, for those who haven't checked it out yet, you should see the fight scene at the end of the second episode. It happens all in one ONE TAKE.

P.S. - Personally BatmAngelus, this is how Arrow's third season should've been. Had that show used Brick as the main villain in the same style as Kingpin here, without that BS with Ra's al Ghul and convoluted sub-plots, it would've been so much better.

[BatmAngelus]

I'll admit that the show does have this "gritty realistic" vibe that plagued most of the DC film and TV adaptations over the last decade, but the difference is this show does it WAY better, and the characterizations made it work.

Agreed. This show outdid DC at its own game.

I think it was David Mazzuchelli who said, when working on Batman Year One, that "We sought to craft a credible Batman, grounded in a world we recognize. But, did we go too far? Once a depiction veers toward realism, each new detail releases a torrent of questions that exposes the absurdity at the heart of the genre. The more 'realistic' superheroes become the less believable they are."

In other words, the more you surround these comic book characters in the real world, the more absurd they might seem, as opposed to an Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy where the sci-fi elements are in full swing.

That said, I did feel that once the red suit came into the picture, they slightly amped up the cheese factor. Daredevil seemed to be doing some extra poses/flips in comparison to when he was in the black suit. The dialogue felt a little more on the nose between him and Kingpin during the fight and Daredevil's final slo-mo battle cry punch on Fisk felt a little out of place to me in the same series as that hallway fight from episode 2. It wasn't bad, it just felt like they had switched styles without reason.

And agreed about how this could've been a superior Arrow Season 3, with Brick in the Kingpin role vs Oliver-on-the-streets/without his fortune, becoming the full on Green Arrow by the end of the season (Speaking of the money issue, it was annoying how Season 2 made such a big deal of Slade & Isabel stripping the Queens of their fortune and the Season 3 premiere had Oliver even say "I can't afford anything," yet they completely dropped all of that and allowed him to travel to Corto Maltese, Central City, and Nanda Parbat).

An urban warfare story between Brick and Oliver would've helped it feel like an actual Green Arrow story instead of another attempt to mimic Batman and could've avoided another "This villain wants to destroy the city!" finale. Hell, since Season 3 coincided with The Flash's debut, it could've had Brick as a metahuman from the Flash's particle accelerator explosion and explained how the hell he was impervious to bullets.