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Daredevil Season 3

Welp, following on from my last post I absolutely loved S3 of DD. There was literally one thing in the whole series that didn’t chime with me. Across the various series we have been with these characters a while but we still got to discover new things about them. I particularly liked the fact that Foggy had something major to do other than wring his hands and occasionally lambast Matt. I can’t say it was “nice” to see Karen’s backstory filled in but it fit well with the tone.

And that tone was a general sense of dread and mistrust. I had a constant feeling that something very bad was going to happen and I just couldn’t see any real way out. I’m not sure I have felt like that since The Dark Knight. The Kingpin and newly introduced character Dex, are both suitably terrifying.

Vincent D'Onofrio is again excellent as Fisk. Probably one of the most memorable characters I have seen in a TV show.

As this all adds up, It’s not hard to empathise with Matt’s torments, though his internal conflicts take on a new form this time round.

I’ve always preferred masked vigilante Matt to red suited, novelty dildo Matt, so I was pleased with a lot of the visuals this series. Though I do wonder just how long it takes to thai those ropes (o-ho). Some excellent fight choreography as usual, with some real standout scenes. The presence of Dex provides a much needed slant on the usual fisticuffs. I’m not sure I am sad it has been cancelled. It ended in a great place but I do wonder if the final shot was harbinger of more. I guess we’ll never know!

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Keeping up with the Marvels

I'm really glad I decided to stick with the Netflix Marvel shows.

I wasn't a huge fan of the first season(s) except Daredevil, which I loved. Like most people I found S1 of Iron Fist poor but I actually got that Finn Jones was playing a dick on purpose. However, his "siblings" were way more interesting, especially Ward and his Dad.

I got on OK with S2 of Daredevil. The introduction of Frank was great, and Jon fully deserved his own series. And that was OK too aside from the very rote conspiracy plot.

But then The Defenders was very disappointing and it kind of put me off the main four heroes.

I watched S2 of Jessica Jones because I heard good things. I was one of the few people I know that didn't think S1 was amazing. This praise seemed to stem from the idea that Kilgrave was an amazing villain. I just spent the whole of S1 wondering why someone didn't just put a bullet in his head from 30 yards. But it was well done and Krysten Ritter is great. And she's great again in S2. But the story? God, spare me.

At this point, I'm dreading Luke Cage S2. I think my wife and I failed to get into it twice before I finally went solo and stuck at it. And, damn, it was actually worth it. Initially, Bushmaster seems like the laziest type of villain these stories throw up: equivalent powers to hero but doing bad things with them. Fucking yawn. I guess that was one thing that made S1 of JJ stand out, at least. But then Bushmaster develops this very deep and credible backstory and Mariah Dillard is revealed as an absolute monster.

So, then, chronologically, I bump up against Iron Fist again. Again, it took two tries to get into it and, yup, once again, the villain is a mirror of the hero but there was a bunch of other stuff going on that was way more interesting. Not least Alice Eve as Mary/Walker, who I actually found genuinely scary until her charcter was fully explained. Despite the last episode being the inevitable (disappointing) showdown I thought was well worth the time. The fight between Colleen and the tattoo artists is up there with the Daredevil hall fight. And it doesn't all turn out how you might expect.

I'm about half way into S3 of Daredevil and I was pleased with how it started. Guess we'll see how it goes.

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I've always been a fan of the new Thunderbirds Are Go show. It took everything that was great and ditched the less great.

However, the show from the 60s was that bit more mature. Scarier shit happened, people died. Sometimes the tension was almost unbearable.

This is one my favourite episodes from S2. A good old fashioned "life or death in the nick of time" story. No subplots, no cool gadgets and the old tension was back; my 7 y/o barely breathed.

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Really enjoying The Expanse. This is by far my favourite moment!

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Today I had to admit to my boss that I missed a conference call because I was watching the TV eating my lunch.