*Spoilers Ahead*
If the first season of Daredevil was all about exploring what compels blind lawyer, Matt Murdock, to dress up like the devil and go around beating up criminals then it makes sense that the next step would be to show us just how far he’s willing to go in his fight against crime. Morality plays a huge part in this new season of the Netflix series as Daredevil finds himself tempted by two different yet equally intriguing sources.
The first is Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, who makes his presence known by shooting up a laughably stereotypical gang of Irish mobsters. That shooting brings him to the attention of our hero and while Frank Castle firmly plants himself in the space between hero and villain Daredevil is less than convinced.
Bernthal brings a gruff style to Castle that makes sense for a man determined to kill every criminal he meets while also allowing enough room for him to bring out the emotions when we dive into Frank’s backstory. The show wisely keeps from ever endorsing the actions of Punisher and instead focuses it’s attention on what his actions mean for other characters in the show, particularly Karen Page, who ends up making something of a connection with Castle.
At the end of the day though, Castle is just a random guy who happens to be causing a scene in Daredevil’s neighborhood. Matt has no longstanding connection to him, not like Elektra Natchios. Elektra is Matt’s former flame and just as morally flexible as Castle with none of the baggage.
Elodie Yung’s Elektra brings a fresh air of fun and levity to the usually dour stories in Daredevil. She’s someone who has lived a very privileged life and the freedom that has afforded her has led her to be more willing to take chances. While Elektra brings up the same moral quandaries that Castle does for Matt she also still holds a very deep place in his heart which brings a whole new conflict to the table.
Daredevil spends a large portion of it’s season using these two figures, as well as Matt’s increasingly complicated personal life, to put our hero through the wringer and see what comes out of the other side. The show isn’t afraid to make Murdock human in the mistakes he makes and it’s a nice way of endearing him to the audience while not harming the characters who may begin to resent what he does, as is the case with his partner in law, Foggy Nelson.
Subtlety isn’t necessarily a strong element in Daredevil nor does it need to be when the show is all about a superhero battling crime bosses and ninjas but Foggy’s story throughout this season manages to nicely form even when it looks as if he’s not doing much at all. Foggy steps out in his own way, much as Karen does, he expresses his displeasure with how much time Matt’s night activities are taking away from their firm but he also shows what he brings to the Murdock-Nelson partnership. Particularly, when they’re defending Frank Castle, a job Foggy wanted nothing to do with but took up anyway when Matt was unable to do the work. Foggy proves himself to not only be a great lawyer but an ultimately good man. He’s the one person throughout the season whose morals remain unchanged in some way and it’s because he knows where he stands.
In general, the show has improved in it’s consistency and that’s all thanks to new showrunners Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez. Usually it’s hard for a show to adjust to a showrunner change but Daredevil manages to keep it’s style while growing deeper thematically. The directing remains just as enjoyable and the fight scenes remain just as exciting as last season, with two standouts in particular as Daredevil fights through a biker gang in a stair well and Punisher fights through a cell block in viscous, bloody style.
While the consistency has improved dramatically the season ultimately lacks a compelling villain to tie everything together. As great as Bernthal and Yung are as there characters, Punisher and Elektra are not villains and certainly aren’t presented as threats that Daredevil must take down to save his city from doom.
Instead, The Hand becomes the villain along with the resurrected Nobu but they get very little focus as The Hand conflict simply leads to more scenes with Elektra and Stick. Those are great and it’s fun to see more of Scott Glenn’s terrifically, asshole-ish Stick but it gives the villains the short shrift and make the final confrontation between our heroes and them less interesting.
It’s telling that two of the best episodes of the season feature the return of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk and it’s not just because of D’Onofrio’s demanding performance. Fisk is the villain the whole season desperately needs and while his arc is mesmerizing and clearly setting up for future seasons the episodes following it feel a little empty without his presence or something equal to it.
The show also makes some glaring mistakes is regards to certain sideplots, the most egergious being Karen Page’s. While I enjoy the dynamic between her and Frank, especially once it becomes clear as the season wears on that Karen is trying to justify Frank’s actions to wipe away the guilt of her killing of Wesley, everything involving journalism this season is bad, so bad that it made me want to skip through them.
Outside of the idea that the editor, who was constantly hard on Ben Urich last season, is totally cool with letting a woman with no background in journalism start working for him, nothing about the storyline feels especially needed other than to give Karen a way to develop on her own. Not only that but it further highlights the ultimate pointlessness of Urich’s demise last season.
Overall, however, this second season of Daredevil improves on the last by going deeper in it’s story and managing to give time to all of it’s cast of characters. It’s a move in the right direction and another worthy entry in the Netflix/Marvel series of shows.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Jesse Swanson is a would-be writer, podcaster and funny guy who covers TV shows of all shapes and sizes. You can find him on Twitter @JesseSwanson