Earlier this year, I wrote about how pleasantly surprised by Season Two of Luke Cage, especially compared to the first season, so of course, Netflix decides to cancel it, along with Iron Fist. I’ve also mentioned in that Luke Cage article that the only shows out of all these Marvel Netflix shows that are worth a damn were Jessica Jones Season 1, The Punisher, and Luke Cage Season Two. I should also mention that I haven’t seen Season Two of either Jessica Jones or Iron Fist. But it looks like the surprise continues as having just finished Daredevil Season Three, I think we finally have a great season of Daredevil.
I’ve mentioned that the problem with a lot of these shows tend to be their pacing, and how they often peak around halfway through their 13 episode seasons, and slowly begin dropping in quality. The shows I mentioned in the last paragraph serve as the few exceptions to that rule, even if they do have some flaws of their own.
With Season Three of Daredevil, I can say that it is easily the best paced show we’ve had by far. It’s not fast paced, and it’s not as slow as something like The Punisher or to a lesser degree, Season Two of Luke Cage, it manages to stay consistently engaging, and the way the show devotes its time to each character and storyline is perfectly balanced. Unlike some of those other shows, this season of Daredevil bounces between numerous characters from returning ones like Matt Murdoch/Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) to newcomers like Rahul Nadeem (Jay Ali), Benjamin Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), and Maggie Grace (Joanne Whalley). As the narrative deals in conspiracies, cover-ups, secrets, and that good ol’ Catholic guilt, there’s always something consistently exciting taking focus, the characters are almost always moving with urgency, the plotting is propulsive, and there is very little filler.
And like with Season Two of Luke Cage, this new season of Daredevil got me to care about characters I previously wasn’t into, Foggy and Karen. I couldn’t stand them in previous seasons, but for the first time, I actually cared about them. I suppose it helps that we get to spend time not only with them, but the family they hold close. The first half of Episode 9, simply titled “Karen,” dived into Karen’s backstory living in a small trashy town, and how she was forced to leave. It’s a very good episode, and it provided something that I felt like I needed from that character, to the point where I didn’t get too annoyed when she inadvertently ruined Daredevil’s big plan. Even seeing Foggy interact with his family a few times grounded him in ways that I found endearing.
The big reason I was even somewhat anticipating this was the return of Wilson Fisk, and it absolutely does not disappoint. It’s pretty obvious that the writers were influenced by current events in the way they frame Fisk and his relationship to the city, but it works. I adore this cold, weirdly empathetic, and oddly voiced version of the Kingpin, and it really made me happy to see D’Onofrio get a lot of material to work with here in a way that adds to the character’s depth and intimidation. And while this show’s version of Bullseye isn’t quite what I would’ve wanted, they make all the right moves for this take, and Bethel is a compelling screen presence.
One neat thing about this season was the inclusion of FBI Agent Nadeem, who I initially thought would be a small role, but was excited as I saw him turn into one of the season’s most important characters. I don’t see a lot of Indian actors in American media play roles like this that don’t make a big deal about their background, but still present it as normal, complete with moments where he speaks Hindi with his wife, Seema (Sunita Deshpande), which honestly wasn’t the best Hindi ever, but it was cool nonetheless, and I found myself very attatched to him as the season went on.
There’s not a lot I need to say here, I suppose if you were already interested, you’ve probably binged the whole season by now, but I just wanted to say how pleased I was by this. Daredevil was a show that should’ve always been my jam, but something always got in the way, and here, it finally comes together smoothly. Maybe the new showrunner, Erik Oleson, was able to tap into something different here that previous ones haven’t, but I was engaged from the first episode all the way up to the last. I don’t know how much longer this show will last given how Marvel Studios is being very serious about their upcoming projects for the new Disney streaming service, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more if they continue to be this well done. Hell, the last shot was so cheesy and hilariously out-of-place, but if we’re finally going somewhere that isn’t afraid to be a bit silly, I’m all for it. If you’re someone who feels like they’ve been burned one too many times by these shows, I say give this one a shot.