DAREDEVIL: SEASON 2

“You’re just one bad day away from being me.”

You’ve seen the series-long origin story. Now, get ready for round 2. Daredevil returns, and after the fall of Wilson Fisk, Hell’s Kitchen is ripe for the taking. As various crime syndicates prepare to rise to power, a new evil strikes through Hell’s Kitchen, in the form of Frank Castle, better known as The Punisher. As his one man reign of terror brings fear to the hearts of the people, Daredevil must stand and fight against someone with nothing left to loose. Oh, and a bit later on Elektra shows up and The Hand’s ninjas descend upon Hell’s Kitchen.

I’ll start with the obvious new additions to series 2, The Punisher and Elektra. When the creators cast Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, everyone started raving that he would be perfect for the role because of his role in The Walking Dead. As I haven’t seen that show, I didn’t have much of an opinion on how good he’d be. Having watched him as The Punisher, I think he’s nailed it. Through the series, I kind of viewed the character in the same way as Tom Hardy’s from The Revenant. Yeah, he’s clearly a bad dude, but you can see his reasons for doing things. I mean, his entire family is killed in front of him. Thankfully though, the show doesn’t in any way glorify his twisted version of justice, and it isn’t afraid to show the deeply unsettling results of ripping someone to shreds using nothing but bullets. Bernthal does a stellar job in bringing a character with that much history behind him to life, and definitely stands as the series’ strong-point.

Elektra is played by Elodie Yung, who I’ve never heard of or seen in anything. She too does a great job in bringing the character to life, but it took a bit longer than Bernthal as The Punisher. Seeing as the last time Elektra was done in live action was those God awful Daredevil and Elektra movies, she didn’t exactly have to do much to improve upon the performances.

The rest of the cast is still brilliant in their roles, but aside from a key few, most of them are far outshined by the new additions. Charlie Cox is still great as Daredevil, but there are moments when he doesn’t really bring anything new to the role.

The series’ plot on the whole is pretty good. While the first series had to be bogged down in introducing most of the characters, series 2 is free just to add to them. Yes, the series does serve as Punisher’s origin story, but it does it in a really clever way, and doesn’t spend too much or too little time on the new characters. Yes, there are a few moments that let the series down. Y'know, those moments where you're shown soemthing but you're given no answers for it. The worst offender for this is probably when Daredevil and Elektra find a forty-story hole in the middle of a warehouse. There's zero explanation there. And not in the good way. The narrative on thw whole flows well, and any sudden changes in direction are handled without making the plot lose focus.

There is one big shift in episode structure that's different to the first series. This time round, there's no slow build to the big villain. Yes, it worked perfectly in season 1, but this time, there isn't really a big villain to build to. Instead, Daredevil is faced with two anti-heroes that will push him to his limits. That structure works incredibly well, and means that series 2 isn't just a repeat of series 1 with some different characters in it.

So, you now when the guys behind it said this series would include a major fight scene like the first one did, but ‘on crack’? Well, they weren’t lying. After Daredevil breaks free near the end of Episode 3, he takes on a biker gang, first in a corridor then down a star-well. Like last series’ scene, it’s brutal. Really brutal. What I really love though, despite the face it’s a small touch, is that you can see Daredevil getting exhausted as the fight goes on, unlike in movies where the heroes seemingly fight for hours without breaking a sweat. It really helps the series add another layer of subtle realism. And, to make things even better, it’s not the only big fight scene in the series. Or the most brutal. That award goes to The Punisher’s fight scene in prison.

Looking back at the series, it’s things like this that give me hope that Marvel haven’t lost their touch. Not just yet, anyway. Daredevil’s darker tone and slightly brutal nature helps prove that light-hearted and non-gory movies aren’t always the way. Plus, if Marvel ever needed convincing that a Punisher show would work, this series does a damn good job of doing that, seeing as, Y'know, he's by far the best part of the series. Overall, Daredevil series 2 was a damn good watch. Yeah, it does lose some momentum during the middle episodes, but the use of fewer flashbacks and less origin stories allow the show to evolve at a steady rate, while expanding upon Marvel lore.

9/10