» Blog Archive Daredevil Season 2 Sets Hell's Kitchen Ablaze -

After successfully kick-starting the MCU’s arrival on Netflix last year, Daredevil is back with another season less than a year later. The Punisher and Elektra join the Devil in Hell’s Kitchen as New York is faced with a new threat that pushes the series further onto the dark, violent streets of the city. Any doubts to be had are quickly swept away as the series sets a new standard for itself and all other comic book properties.


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If it’s any indication, Netflix has provided Marvel with the opportunity to push their characters farther than the ones slated for the big screen. Last April, Daredevil was successfully redeemed after the ill-fated movie in 2003. Ben Affleck and company have gone their separate directions from the property, and Charlie Cox moved in to make the character his own, and successfully did so. Between his Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, Daredevil was thirteen episodes of adrenaline, mystery, and exposition for something bigger.

And since then, new players have been announced for season two: The Punisher, played by Jon Bernthal, formerly of The Walking Dead, and Elodie Yung of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo assuming the role of Elektra, helped up the ante for this season from the get-go. And as secrecy was wrapped around the events of the season, leaks kept hyping up Bernthal’s Frank Castle, claiming he was a force to be reckoned with. Now finally, it is evident that all the hype attached to this season was for a good reason.

Season two of Daredevil expands the series in new directions best left to be discovered by the viewer, but hits the ground running. A chase scene on the streets of New York quickly winds up in a chapel with a hostage at gunpoint, with the assailant breathing heavily between a mix of fear and exhaustion. As the camera pans out from behind him, Daredevil stands, slightly silhouetted, but just visible by the candlelight to make out the horns on his head, the newly added red lenses to his helmet, as well as his signature red and black armor. It’s the intimidating look that his persona brings, but even with the fighting skills to back it up, Matt Murdock has his plate full in the next thirteen episodes.

Daredevil

Things escalate to a quick boiling point in the first episode, when bodies of criminals start turning up in Hell’s Kitchen. Some of which are hanging from meat hooks or are just brutally slaughtered like pigs in a slaughterhouse. Dubbing him The Punisher, Daredevil sets out to confront this new foe and ultimately finds The Punisher to be evenly matched for him.

From there, the season sprawls out into a spiderweb of intermingling conflicts, as Matt’s life is thrown into chaos by new and old threats. One of which is Elektra, his old lover from college. Elektra has her own goals in mind and begins to drag Matt around in order to make those ends meet.

The action is remarkable and intense, showing that the team listened to the praise from the first season and gave more of what worked so well. In episode three, an action sequence unfolds in a seemingly one-take manner down a winding flight of stairs that is very much in the same vein of the famous hallway scene from last season. Daredevil’s source material has never been one to inch away from violence, and the show remains consistent with it, too. The Punisher exhibits brutality in its finest form throughout, with Daredevil and Elektra breaking bones, cracking skulls, stabbing, and many more creative disarmaments and executions throughout.

And with the violence comes with the morality of making a difference: “I hit people and they stay down!” The Punisher yells at Daredevil in one scene, where their code of ethics meet in a head on collision. Daredevil is constantly at an end to make sure he takes no lives in his crusade, never abandoning the belief that reform can come to the criminals of Hell’s Kitchen. Elektra and The Punisher, however, see Daredevil’s methods never being able to achieve that end-goal and don’t hesitate when attempting to take a life.

The Punisher

The constant balance of morality is a theme throughout the season, and the discussions between Daredevil and the two make for some of the best scenes the series has to offer, possibly in any Marvel property. It’s in these personal, intimate moments that the show’s writers display what kind of grasp they have on these characters and how well they truly understand them. The idea of this conflict is nothing new, but in particular with The Punisher do you really start to question it being right or wrong to begin with. Bernthal and Yung both give excellent performances, as well, and show an amazing amount of chemistry with Charlie Cox as an actor. You truly believe, as their relationships change and evolve through the season, that these people are connected in some way beyond sharing a common comic book publisher.

Respect should be given to Charlie Cox, however, for showing much chemistry with all the characters on screen. In particular, Karen Page, played by Deborah Ann Woll, comes into fine form with her scenes alongside Matt; the two characters skillfully developing in peculiar ways with one another are entrancing to watch and show these two work exceptionally well together. Karen’s character, in general, has significantly improved since she first arrived in the interrogation room in the first episode of the series, and her newfound development takes her on a journey that spins between Matt and Foggy, as well as other characters. Karen’s role is just as vital as it was last season, but how she goes about these tasks is more mature and shows how strong she has become.

Elektra

Up until the season finale, this season charges headfirst into Daredevil’s extensive lore, taking cues from multiple different authors over the years. Frank Miller’s influence is still felt, and the dark tone only lets up for moments so it can bring you back down again. As a fan of the source material, however, one may be irked to know some changes have been made to certain events that play out, but the impact is still felt in the same way.

The series also makes a conscious effort to start answering questions left over from season one. Answers are given, but in doing so, it only raises more questions for the future. The season does an excellent job at possibly leaving threads to converge into The Defenders, (Whenever that’s going to happen) but the season itself gives you just enough to satisfy, but leaves you in the dark until Daredevil’s next appearance.

Make no mistake, though, Daredevil’s return to Netflix is a little bigger, just as violent, and consistently engaging as it was the first time. The Punisher and Elektra are a welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we can only hope that we’ll get at least a miniseries for Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle. Yung’s Elektra, too, is exceptional in that it erases the memory of Jennifer Garner’s take on the character. Improvements all around, Daredevil proves why he is Netflix’s secret weapon, and possibly one of the best depictions of any superhero we’ll likely ever see on television or film.

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