Finished watching this last night, I guess I’m sort of done with the gritty Netflix Marvel stories for now although I would probably watch more if they hadn’t all been shitcanned. I won’t talk about this in much detail so don’t worry about spoilers.

“I’m here to pick up a pair of those bullplop martial arts training sticks and expose the criminal activity of Kingpin by use of a prior to death confession from corrupt FBI Agent Nadeem then beat the fuck out of him and tell him to stay in jail this time otherwise I’m going to go after his wife, and oh look, I’ve got the sticks.”

I really enjoyed this season, even though I watched it in a very haphazard way. I enjoyed the Luke Cage series more, but Daredevil had been … well, I won’t rank them. I liked different things about each of the shows but Luke Cage was my favourite. Season 2 of Daredevil seemed a bit of a slog to me, but this season was really interesting.

Kingpin, I guess he was sort of missing from season 2 – or was he? I honestly don’t remember. Anyway I remember him being a highlight of season 1 and he was absolutely a highlight here. Such a chillingly written and wonderfully acted villain, there was a genuine air of malice and barely-contained aggression in him. Sometimes not contained at all, and then it got messy.

The plot, too, was nicely paced and the story was compelling. Not too much angst although it’s Daredevil so there’s always going to be some. Call it a Jon Snow out of a possible FitzChivalry, or maybe the other way around. Karen and Foggy finally had some meat in their roles and it all folded together well. The crooked FBI network and Kingpin’s general master-criminality was nicely handled, so he wasn’t a complete God but he came very close so you shared the despair of the protagonists and got a lot of the “frustration with a broken system” that seems to be the flavour of the decade. The resolution was satisfying, and gut-churning, all while remaining in character and in character arc. Well done.

The newer characters, like Nadeem and Dex, were really excellent and fun to watch. Brilliant performances. Dex could have killed Mrs. Kingpin. I wouldn’t have minded. But I think ultimately this is a case where the writers had a better idea of what they were doing with the show than I do, so fair play to them and I concede to their better-told story.

All in all this was a good watch, and ended on a nice note considering there are likely more cancellations and continuity fold-ups to come. Let’s see where it goes, but I’m satisfied with the way it ended. If there’s another season, that’s okay too.

– Posted from my Huawei mobile phone while on the bus.