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Enter the Kingpin.
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Good video.
Also, first. 😀 and can’t wait to comment on today’s Nostalgia Critic episode.
In retrospect, I kind of wish the show had more scenes in the courtroom. This episode has the only ones I remember. The show did a very good job building up the Kingpin, who is one of the more interesting villains I’ve seen in the MCU.
The beauty of this show- and Rob hit it on the head in the last vlog- is the juxtaposition. In the coming episodes as Fisk is developed he becomes the perfect foil for Murdock.
The painting which is seen throughout as well- becomes a perfect representation of Fisk’s psyche. Great episode. Great vlog.
Regarding Fisk
~~~~~~~[Minor Spoilers]~~~~~~~~
Fisk’s intimidation factor is great for the first several episodes, but almost completely vanishes by the latter half of the series. I really felt like the season was simply to short to adequately tell the story they were trying to tell with him. It ends up feeling very bi-polar almost. On the one hand they build him up to be so incredibly powerful and well connected, with nigh absolute control over local law enforcement and even highly placed political allies, that I couldn’t at all buy that things were spinning out of control for him so severely (which is what we are supposed to think). You hear his “associates” talk about how bad things are going in the council meetings but it never feels like it really is. I never had the impression that Dare Devil had really become anything more than a minor inconvenience for Fisk.
At the same time however, very quickly after he is introduced it feels like he simply does not live up to the fear people were shown to have initially. everyone pretty much drops the whole “do not speak his name” thing pretty damn fast, his associates turn on him pretty simply, and he’s not a dominating presence in the room during those “mob style” meetings. A lot of hemming and hahing is made over this woman he’s dating, his associates saying she’s distracting him and making him sloppy, but it feels very forced – I never had the impression she had become any kind of liability (in fact the biggest impact she has is the direct result of them trying to get rid of her) – which I think again is just because there wasn’t enough time to do this storyline correctly in 12 episodes.
I really think they should have focused more on exploring Murdoch/DD, maybe had a few one off stories with some smaller villains, and grown the Fisk storyline in the background. Kept Fisk simmering behind the scenes for at least a full season. That would have given them enough time to really show Fisk’s power and enough time to believably show his fall. Fisk makes a decision to do something towards the end of the series, in regards to how he operates, that I think really should have been in the S1 finale and would have been a perfect launching point for S2 being all about Fisk’s fall.
I do like Dinophrio’s (spelling) portrayal of Fisk, though I think it would have been better if they had kept his social awkwardness more confined to private scenes with Wesley and Vanessa. When he’s “Conducting Business” I feel like he should have been a dominating force in the room, quiet and reserved sure, but confident and commanding. Again though this take on Fisk may have worked better for me if they just had more time to develop this plot arc.
First off, just to help you, It’s D’onfrio.
Second of all, THAT’S THE IDEA. For example, in those first episodes they refer to him namelessly (my employer and whatnot). And then, everyone– the Russians, Gao, Nobu, Leland– starts calling him by his name. It’s a symbol; a representation that he is losing his power. He only held this group together through fear and intimidation. The minute they say his name, that power is gone because they no longer fear him
I understood that, I just felt it all happened way way to quickly. It would have had a much bigger impact if he had spent at least one season in control, and had they shown the erosion of his power in a more gradual way over the course of a season and a half (at least). It felt rushed.
[spoilers]
I also didn’t buy that enough had happened to truly make Fisk embrace his “epiphany” in the finale where he quotes the bible passage in the armored car. Throughout the series you get the sense that he is genuinely convinced that what he is doing is for the betterment of the city, he believes what he is doing is right and necessary, I just didn’t buy that things had truly gotten so bad as to make him completely abandon that view of himself. They showed him powerful enough to use 90% of the police department as his personal hit squad, he had judges and senators in his pocket, the only negative things that actually happened to him was the destruction of the Russians (which he seemed to actually want to happen) and the attempted assassination of Vanessa (which seemed pointless, as they never really show her actually having a negative affect on him). Again it just felt rushed, like there were several episodes missing from this arc.
I’ve heard some fan theories posit that this is supposed to be an origin story of sorts for Fisk turning into Kingpin, that he will be a much stronger force in future seasons. Which, if that’s how they wanted to do it, could work. But Season One as it is in a vacuum just didn’t feel like it was long enough to explore this arc in a convincing manner.
Dammit, my spelling was off. D’onofrio
Since you brought it up Rob, you should know that yes there will be a Luke Cage spin-off. The Netflix Marvel Universe will be doing several Mini-series,
The next one will be based off the Alias comic called AKA: Jessica Jones, that will be coming out sometime this year probably pretty soon.
Followed by Daredevil season 2
then the Luke Cage spin-off
then a Immortal Iron Fist Spin-off, Madame Gao comes from those comics so she’ll probably show up again here at the least.
and finally a Defenders spin-off
Judging by how Jessica Jones will also be taking place in the Hell’s Kitchen, Claire being a Luke Cage character and Madam Gao an Iron Fist character there will be a lot of cross-over stuff. So you guys might have forced yourselves into covering more than you thought.
This episode was one of the best. Focusing on Fisk’s past was very intriguing. In a way, this episode got me to have sympathy for the guy.
OH MY GOD ROB! “I kind of forget he’s blind.” I’m so with you on that!!!!
About the blidness thing, I saw an interview with the actor. He had a blindness coatch, a guy who lost vision at infancy, one thing he did was looking at people when they talk, because that was where the sound was coming, but he didn’t looked at their eyes. When he acted that way it kinda came off because that is the kind of thing you notice only in first person view and to the camera he looks like to be staring at the person eyes.
I had also heard that he had a blindness coach, but I even before I knew that, it still came off as really convincing to me. One of my closest friends in high school was a blind guy, and its actually sometimes kind of uncanny how many mannerisms the actor has in common with my friend. Especially “looking” in someone’s direction when they talk, but not directly at them. So the only scenes where I’m not always reminded that he’s blind are the ones where he’s wearing the mask and it covers his face.
As another person who’s had blind friends, yeah, he’s really convincing to me too. The exact type of scenes that the guys find least convincing, when he’s talking one on one with someone like Claire, are the same ones that made it obvious to me that he’d put effort into getting it right; he’s looking at the person but usually his eyes are looking a little lower or to the side of where a sighted person would be looking, and he never looks like his eyes are actually focusing on anything.
The one thing that always reminded me he was blind in the show was when a character felt the need to explain a physical gesture to him. Like someone would shrug and Foggy would tell Matt about it. It was done often enough to feel like a normal thing, but not so much that it became annoying.
I almost wish there was a scene in which someone tried to use gestures to have a private conversation around Matt.
In this I loved Ben Urich, but I got very tired of Karen’s interactions with him. They start to feel the same after a while.
Wow…way to shit on Michael Clarke Duncan there guys…The only good thing about the movie and you guys completely got the actor wrong.
This episode felt like a set up episode in that it seemed to mostly be about setting up plot points for future episodes, I still found it rather enjoyable especially the court stuff, and I agree that there is this sense of dread over the whole thing
I didn’t even realize that the hitman was the guy that daredevil interrogated at the end, I assumed it was some other criminal, I’m not sure why I made that mistake, I did like how horrified Murdock was when the guy committed suicide, wondering if this is the beginning of a character arc.
I agree that Murdock doesn’t feel very blind most of the time, if I didn’t know he was blind I would just assume he’s a guy with a super sensing abilities.
Something I love about this series being part of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is, it’s about a hero on the small scale.
Unlike the Marvel movie heroes, i.e: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, etc… Daredevil’s powers aren’t as grandiose as his contemporaries. That’s reflected in the series being about a hero who’s not saving the world, just his home turf. Especially because while the Avengers are out saving the world, they’re leaving out the smaller scale crimes. In comes a local superhero with enough power to take down a whole room of thugs, but not an army.