A Daredevil Insight (?)

So I finally watched Daredevil, the Netflix series not the movie. Well only the first episode as of now, but I think I can only talk about the first episode for school credit. Fortunately I can say I did enjoy what I saw, and plan to watch the full series later.

I know I said I enjoyed what I saw, but I am going to complain about the first scene. I do dislike most usage of shaky cam. I know why they used shaky cam and made such rapid cuts. They used it to good effect. They encapsulated the confusion, chaos, and disruptive nature of a young Murdoc being hit by a car and his father's resulting panic. From a personal taste I disliked that, but from an editing and story telling perspective I think it was a good choice. S why am I complaining? the part of I really didn't like about the scene was switching from a third person view to a first person view from Murdoc's perspective, and back to third. I think this was a jarring choice, even if it was to visually show Murdoc losing his eye sight. It seems weird to switch to a smaller first person shot and then to switch back to a larger third person shot

When we moved into the present I quickly took to enjoying the show. It has only been one episode and I already like this Matt Murdoc more than the one in the Daredevil movie. It is hard to make any notable statements of the characters in the show having only seen one episode. What I can say for sure is that I enjoy Murdoc and Foggy's relationship, and Foggy being the comedy relief character is definitely going to die at some point in the show. Karen Page was so forgettable of a character in this that I had to look up her name to write this. She is the main focal point of the plot of this episode and I'd wager the entire season or series, and she seems here to stay.

I must give praise to the fights though. The way they were shot and edited was fantastic. They seemed to pick the best angles possible, and switched shots at the best time. That's to say nothing of the choreography which was well done. I enjoyed the more human feeling elements of the fights. Most super hero shows would have the characters shake off all hits and get back into the fight. This show had them often on the ground and starting to limp through out the fight, which made them feel more human than anything else in those fights.

I have a few notes on minor things I noticed. First off, I noticed that this show has an obsession with painting any scene involving Murdoc in yellow. This definitely means something but right now I couldn't tell you right now. Another thing worth noting was the show's opening. The opening had many images be formed out what I assume is blood. This ranges from sky scrapers, Hell's Kitchen, and a devil face. These all have something to do with the show's plot, and the usage of blood could be seen many hundreds of metaphors. The final really small thing I noticed was the attention to detail. The easiest example was after Karen's strangling she had been bruised at her throat for the rest of the episode. Nothing huge, but I know would have forgotten about it.

I liked how they tied the title of the episode “Into the Ring”. This title was tied in so many times. The first and most obvious was when Murdoc talked about his father and how he was a boxer. The other times were less obvious, like how Karen's case was Murdoc and Foggy's first case, or step into the ring. The final reference of the name was how this episode was the first time Daredevil crossed the villains, and how both of them are preparing for another round. It's nothing high brow, but I feel like I should mention it.

Those were my thoughts on the first episode of Daredevil.