'Daredevil' Mega- How is Marvel's First Netflix Series? Recap

"Daredevil" was a name tainted, for most people, by the Ben Affleck movie. Still, Netflix saw the potential in the character for a TV series, and thus "Marvel's Daredevil" was born.

So, how did this new iteration of the classic comic book superhero fare? Overally, pretty well.

The details here are all fairly faithful to the source material: Daredevil is, by day, a lawyer named Matt Murdock. He works with his best friend Foggy Nelson and newly hired receptionist Karen Page. Matt was blinded as a child thanks to a chemical accident, but his other senses are so refined that it's as if he can see as well, or even better, than a person with sight and can use his abilities to fight crime by night.

Other details about Murdock's life remain true, and play out to excellent dramatic presentation: there's Matt's father, Jack Murdock, who was a boxer paid by the mob to throw fights, and there's Matt's other father figure Stick, a blind man who taught Matt how to hone his abilities to fight crime.

All of this is expected for comic book fans, but the series still has surprises in how other characters are portrayed. Karen Page, for example, has a deeper backstory and more to do than her comic book counterpart usually does.

The Kingpin, a.k.a Wilson Fisk, is also presented in a surprising way. When we first meet Fisk, he's lamenting about how alone he feels and fumbling his way through asking a woman, Vanessa, out on a date. This human side of Fisk is reiterated throughout the season, no matter how inhuman Fisk's crimes become, and provides a villain with much more depth than the usual superhero show or movie. The performance by Vincent D'Onofrio helps here as well, as he intercuts Fisk's villainy and rage with moments of sincere vulnerability.

If there are weaknesses to the show, they're twofold. One is in the show's humor, which more often than not falls flat. Foggy is supposed to be our comic relief, but often (due to the writing, his performance, or both) he just comes off as trying to hard. There are cute moments, but not particularly funny ones.

The other weakness is in the show's approach to romance. Matt ends up in a relationship of sorts with a nurse who patches him up after particularly rough nights of crime-fighting (played by recurring guest star Rosario Dawson), but the romantic side of their relationship is rushed and feels forced. Connections between Foggy and Karen seem to make more sense, but their relationship remains muddled and unclear.

Where the show truly excels is in the action. Fight scenes are wonderfully choreographed, including an impressive continuous-take battle in a hallway in an early episode of the series. While Daredevil flips through the air and performs incredible feats, there's also always a sense that he's human: brawls are punctuated by moments where the fighters have to catch their breath, and when Matt is injured, he really seems to feel it.

Additionally, the show is wonderfully shot. The cinematography favors symmetry and depth with New York City's Hell's Kitchen as a backdrop, and the colorization of the show matches the tone of the script perfectly.

The story can be simple at times, or seem slow-moving, but ultimately it works well for a 13-episode arc. Matt and Foggy start to see the corruption in their city when they take Karen as their client. Karen used to work for Union Allied, one of Fisk's subsidiaries that is in reality a big front for his criminal workings.

From there, Matt uncovers (via legal work and via punching people a lot as Daredevil) that Fisk is behind it all with an architecture of criminals working with and under him. It's a plot large enough to involve the Russian mob, the Yakuza and the Triads as they fund operations with human trafficking and heroin production.

It's intensely satisfying every time Daredevil brings one of them to justice, but there's still always the sense that the goal of taking down Fisk is unattainable. Themes throughout of losing one's humanity and if it's ever okay to take a life (Matt Murdock is intensely Catholic) add to the drama of Matt's journey.

Ultimately, "Daredevil" is a successful adaptation of the closest character Marvel has to Batman, and it provides a good groundwork for Marvel to continue working with as shows with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist come out over the next few years.