Netflix’s Daredevil Vlogs: Episode 8 – Shadows in the Glass

Childhood’s not fun.

About Doug Walker

Creator of 5 Second Movies, Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews and more.

14 comments

  1. Anyone else noticed that Vincent D’Onofrio is channelling Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers?

    The way both nervously rub their hands when they are stressed because they are trying to keep their anger under control?

    This Wilson Fisk is basically “What if Kingpin was the Hulk?”

  2. SwedishMovieNerd523

    Still have a hard time taking Fisk seriously – One possible reason for this might be that “fisk” means “fish” in Swedish…

    • Eh every name probably means something silly in some language or another. Besides its just a name.

    • Zig is right (and giving me ‘Alien Nation’ flashbacks.)

      That, and nothing scares me more than a fish.
      (Granted, it’s a particular kind of fish… big, grey, cartilageneous, and with lots of teeth…)

  3. Your analysis on heroes in this video was very interesting.

  4. I think they’re going with a kinda lady McBeth thing with Vanessa.

  5. TragicGuineaPig

    The whole thing with Kingpin’s mother reminded me an awful lot of Arrow Season 2, in which Brother Blood keeps his own mother – a witness to him killing his father – in a nursing home, only for one of the hero’s entourage to fund her.

  6. PrincessPaladin

    Argh. When more Adventure Time? It’s been over a month. šŸ™

  7. I partially agree with Doug, about Kingpin insanity having a somewhat better basis trauma (childhood, especially) suffered by that character; whereas, as an educated adult, and seemingly morally-grounded teacher, WW, in a way, almost transforms as a bit of a sponge: accumulating, acculturating, then re-projecting and becoming part of (and even leading) the myriad of social toxicity that follows Meth, as an industry in the South West US. (i.e. eventually, economy of scale.)

    Remember, WW _knows_ (not-just-unconsciously) that he has become part of the causal link which leads to _mass_ devastation, that Meth house (where Jesse saved that kid from) many-times over. (Benefit of accumulating a few millions for his surviving family is coupled with the Cost of extreme social damage—compared to, say, developing an algorythm/formula for Black Jack, new invention, etc.)

    The reasoning that he is out of time, and that someone else would simply fill that vacuum, so it may well be him, that argument might work to intellectualize his actions, but it might pose less an impact on a deeper emotional level (where moral imperatives are forged and take root). Then again, WW does not become a sociopath overnight. Still, feeding his ego (vanity, pride) does play a role, at times key, on WW journey, to his rise and fall.

    WW _knows_ that he is picking the few (his family; what, three individuals) over the many (mass victims of the manner in whivh he chose to enrich himself/his family); but with Kingpin, he may genuinely _believe_ that his vision will end up the greater good. He may sincerely feel that on an extrinsic moral scale, the final cost/benefit tally will end up being, socially, to his credit. (Even though, on the way, he might intentionally commits acts that are intrinsically immoral acts, to see his vision through; he might even view these necessary steps as a sort of martyrdom, minus him dying, viewing himself as some sort of sin eater -sacrifice.)

    ‘Yes, and I also suffer from monstrous outbursts of rage; I’m a scary MF who does scary MF’ing things,’ he might maintain, but unlike WW, who is simply concerned with a handful of individuals (and f*ck the rest), to Kingpin, in a way, the city _is_ his family.

    Or at least so that character might believe—never underestimate the power of self-delusion—wanting to do, but do-right, what his dad _pretended_ to do when he attempted to become an elected public servant: do good for the city.)

    This, coupled, with his trauma having been derived from childhood, serve to greatly humanize him (as terrifying as he is), I argue, and it places him as a sort of antihero. (Of course, Kingpin is meant to serve as the antithesis-of/antagonist-to Murdoch, not WW; and in this extension, some of the mirrored parallels between his team and that of Murdoch’s —parallels which were mentioned in the review, and which I, myself, otherwise did not pick up on— help to further reinforce this far-from black&white interplay.)

    I should not have gotten high right before writing this. Apologies if my writings fails to make that much sense!

  8. Man, are you two ever misreading both Fisk and Vanessa. Neither one of them are really disturbed(Okay Fisk yeah to an extent) or monstrous. Fisk is doing all this because he believes it is the only way to turn the city into something better by destroying all that made it awful and he tells this to to Vanessa in a way that she is able to understand and agree.

    He says to her while they watching those buildings burn that the men who kidnapped a little boy were now being purged. That he is expunging scum from the city. She’s not twisted in her mind and really anyone’s, what Wilson is trying to do is extreme yes but is for a good cause.

    Also the impression I get from her is she is a strong willed woman who can look past all the bad and love Wilson for the good man that lies beneath everything else.

    In the comic she is very much in love with him and he treasures her. Because though in the comic he is a very cruel crime lord, when he comes home to her that all melts away and he becomes human and cleansed.

  9. What I don’t get is why Fisk’s mom chopped up her husband in front of her kid and had him dump the pieces in the river (no wonder he ended up so fucked up, what the hell!) instead of just CALLING THE POLICE.
    Seriously, he was inadvertently killed by his son (a minor) in an attempt to stop a domestic abuse incident (from which she would still have the belt marks to prove). Then he wouldn’t have to go through another ordeal -on top of- being responsible for his father’s death. Hell, they might have even gotten the kid some counseling.

    • It was a very intense and heated moment not everyone can think rationally in a situation like that and she also didn’t want her son to be taken away from her

  10. Even though I felt the kingpins back-story was pretty good like doug I did think that the dad was a bit too stereotypical, I’m not asking for him to be sympathetic but they should at least try to give him some depth.

    Personally I think that Vanessa does actually legitimately love fisk, a crazy disturbing love but still love.

  11. littlewillie610

    I probably should have seen Fisk killing his father coming, but I initially thought it would be done by the guy he owed money to. Regardless, the parallels between Murdock and Fisk are quite evident. The way they tied in his fascination with the painting to the wall was also really well done.

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