Daredevil Season 1, Episode 1 "Into the Ring" (USE SPOILER TAGS!)

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

Pretty dang awesome.

My thoughts:
-The confession scene was a little rocky. I dig the decision to start the show on a quiet scene that takes its time, but the dialogue wasn't up to par for me.
-A lot of the dialogue is pretty great though, notably the scenes between Matt and Karen.
-Amazing opening credits
-Cox is talented and immediately likeable. So is the actress who plays Karen.
-However the guy who plays Foggy was pretty bad. He really brings some scenes down.
-Great cinematography, camera work, production design, etc, for the most part.
-Story held my attention, but was so-so overall. I'm sure we'll get to Matt's main character story soon, but in this first episode we just got a lot of intros and plot, which didn't make for the most enthralling opener to a show.
-The mention of 'hell raining down from the skies' during the 'incident' was clever, but every mention of the wider universe after that sort of took me out of the experience. I hope they keep it to a minimum from now on.
-Such great action, though a tiny bit gets lost in the darkness (maybe it was just my file?). Some of the stylistic choices with the slow-mo, etc, are perfect.

8.5/10

I'm hooked. I've heard some call this the best show they've ever seen, to which I'd say they'd need to watch Breaking Bad, True Detective, etc, but it's still pretty dang awesome. A ton of promise, and I'm sure it'll get even better.

 

[Mister J]

The ending sequence with Matt training played against the montage of the varied criminal elements is go good. Then, the final shot of him listening on patrol...

 

[Joeyjojo72]

Just finished the first ep. It was really really good. I was a little iffy on the guy playing Foggy, but by the end of the episode he had already grown on me.

Everyone else was solid to great, and Debra Ann Woll was stupendous. She was the best thing about True Blood and now she may be the best of a very good cast on Daredevil.

Im waiting for my wife to get home so she can catch up. We are doing two eps a night.

edit: and i would like to personally thank Ms. Woll for the sideboob bonus. Completely unnecessary but totally appreciated. Its the (not so) little things...

 

[declan]

The ending sequence with Matt training played against the montage of the varied criminal elements is go good. Then, the final shot of him listening on patrol...

They nailed the tone in a great introductory episode and that's not easy to do.

Matt Murdock isn't an easy character to nail IMO, but I saw everything there that makes him different than other heroes, and the seeds of everything that tend to trip him up.

I am happy.

 

[kvz5]

I'm late to the party but with just this first episode, I'm SO IN! Amazing pilot. Cox carries the show splendidly. He has that natural charisma that just draws you in. I'm in love. DAW killing it too. I like her chemistry with Cox.

 

[ImOctavius]

I just saw the very first episode. It was excellent! I'll try to see the other twelve parts before "Avengers: Age of Ultron".

 

[Virgo_Luxx]

Pretty dang awesome.

My thoughts:
-The confession scene was a little rocky. I dig the decision to start the show on a quiet scene that takes its time, but the dialogue wasn't up to par for me.
-A lot of the dialogue is pretty great though, notably the scenes between Matt and Karen.
-Amazing opening credits
-Cox is talented and immediately likeable. So is the actress who plays Karen.
-However the guy who plays Foggy was pretty bad. He really brings some scenes down.
-Great cinematography, camera work, production design, etc, for the most part.
-Story held my attention, but was so-so overall. I'm sure we'll get to Matt's main character story soon, but in this first episode we just got a lot of intros and plot, which didn't make for the most enthralling opener to a show.
-The mention of 'hell raining down from the skies' during the 'incident' was clever, but every mention of the wider universe after that sort of took me out of the experience. I hope they keep it to a minimum from now on.
-Such great action, though a tiny bit gets lost in the darkness (maybe it was just my file?). Some of the stylistic choices with the slow-mo, etc, are perfect.

8.5/10

I'm hooked. I've heard some call this the best show they've ever seen, to which I'd say they'd need to watch Breaking Bad, True Detective, etc, but it's still pretty dang awesome. A ton of promise, and I'm sure it'll get even better.

I thought Foggy was out of place too, but later on he's a great character and you feel for him. Especially during the college flashback scenes. Him, Karen and Matt have a great chemistry.

 

[Mad Ones]

I only watched the first episode last night. Cox and the fighting style are definitely the highlight. The sets were also great, especially Matt's apartment. I love that electric sign outside the window. It a) is a clever way to show Matt's blind life and b) sets the tone inside his appartment really well.

Foggy, and Karen cooking and cleaning for the boys were the lowlights. But Cox makes up for it.

 

[Kane52630]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/116241631374/episode-1-into-the-ring-daredevil

 

[Human Torch]

Why wasn't the guy that tried to kill Karen in the cell in jail for attempted murder?(He allegedly kills himself at home in front of the TV!) It really wasn't clear what happened at the end of the scene.

 

[Six]

I believe Wesley says to Fisk on the phone "Farnum's bail has been posted" so I'm assuming they got him off, only to kill him later and make it look like suicide.

 

[Kane52630]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/116358981024/1x01-into-the-ring-daredevil

 

[gildedmuse]

Pretty dang awesome.

My thoughts:
-The confession scene was a little rocky. I dig the decision to start the show on a quiet scene that takes its time, but the dialogue wasn't up to par for me.
-A lot of the dialogue is pretty great though, notably the scenes between Matt and Karen.
-Amazing opening credits
-Cox is talented and immediately likeable. So is the actress who plays Karen.
-However the guy who plays Foggy was pretty bad. He really brings some scenes down.
-Great cinematography, camera work, production design, etc, for the most part.
-Story held my attention, but was so-so overall. I'm sure we'll get to Matt's main character story soon, but in this first episode we just got a lot of intros and plot, which didn't make for the most enthralling opener to a show.
-The mention of 'hell raining down from the skies' during the 'incident' was clever, but every mention of the wider universe after that sort of took me out of the experience. I hope they keep it to a minimum from now on.
-Such great action, though a tiny bit gets lost in the darkness (maybe it was just my file?). Some of the stylistic choices with the slow-mo, etc, are perfect.

8.5/10

I'm hooked. I've heard some call this the best show they've ever seen, to which I'd say they'd need to watch Breaking Bad, True Detective, etc, but it's still pretty dang awesome. A ton of promise, and I'm sure it'll get even better.

I jut started rewatching it (so, yeah, obviously I enjoyed it) but, yeah, the confession was such a horrible "quick, we need exposition!" scene. Even the priest seemed to be thinking, "dude, this is not how a confession works. GTFO."

I mean, why would you walk off the street, go into a confession box, and start narrating your backstory? I like where it eventually ended with Matt asking forgiveness for what he planned to do, but the build up to that moment was just sort of senseless. It had some good lines (specifically "devil in those Murdoch boys") but both times I watched it it really stands out that they just needed a quick and dirty way to convey this information about his dad to the audience.

I can be really weird about exposition, though, so.

On the other hand I adored Fogy and thought he really lifted every scene he was in. I loved how he would tell Matt what people did (she just curtseyed... she gave a vague nod) and it came off as a habit born of friendship rather than anything condescending, which it could have.

 

[HFK]

Just signed up for Netflix so I could watch this. Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. About 5 minutes in I was already hooked. Can't wait to watch the rest but I am going to try and make it last for a bit.

Thank you to the mods for requesting people only talk about the current ep or prior ones in a thread.

My question is to those who have watched all of it should I try and watch the whole season Before Ultron? Just a simple yes or no with no explanation would be good.

 

[Kane52630]

Oh definitely finish it before Age of Ultron.

 

[Wheels]

The dialogue on this show is ridiculously good. The character interactions and legal drama elements are so compelling that the Daredevil scenes feel like a bonus.

 

[James.Bartlett]

I'm just under a month late but I've just watched the first episode, for the second time, tonight.

I love it!

If it wasn't 01:09am where I am, I'd watch another episode but I just love Charlie as Matt. He's brilliant! I hope to see more Daredevil as opposed to Matt.

 

[yonny616]

I started re-watching on Monday, going to take it slow so one episode a week, and man do I just love this show. The only problem I have with it is the action scenes. I don't know what's up with the them, but there's something that just doesn't pull me in and I think its the way they were shot.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Late to the party but here are my thoughts.

1. Liked the production values immensely. It is a very textured show in terms of look. It's a good middle ground. It's not ridiculously over the top "gritty", nor is it so slick as to have no real world weight what so ever. And still, it also manages to have a certain stylized look that conveys things.

2. Yes this episode gave us the incident that took Matt's sight but it wasn't a full on "origin story" despite being the first episode, and MAN, was that refreshing. It shows that not only as a Netflix show there aren't execs breathing down creative people's necks to spell things out as you would for a child, but also that the people in charge of the show do trust the audience to put certain pieces together for themselves and be patient to get the full story of how Daredevil came to be.

3. For the vast majority of the show the tone and the dialog all felt perfect. Serious, real life, but also "melodramatic" as well as having some sly humor. I will say there were a couple of little groans I let out here and there over some dialog ("Those Murdoch boys have the DEVIL in them", was... It was a little to precious let's just say) but since there was so much excellence elsewhere and the dialog in general was on point, so what if there was a clunker here or there.

4. There were SOME things that I wasn't in love with. And it's not that those elements were terrible or horribly detrimental to the proceedings... They just felt like they could have overall been better. To wit... Elden Henson's Foggy... As of this episode I can't say he won me over. It's a first episode and it's a shakedown for a while, I know. But there was something that I found both boring and annoying about him, which is a bit of an achievement I suppose. His dialog and the way they wanted the character to come off... As of this episode I just felt they and the actor himself maybe has no idea of how to make this character hold your attention. He's a little bit nerdy, a little sleazy (maybe just a hustler type), good at looking at and bending the rules. But no one thing stuck out, or made an impression and as such, I don't know... His performance came off as trying too hard or the character came off as trying to hard in some moments. But... For me this is a work in progress. My friend has told me that he had similar feelings at first but then the series progressed and he said Foggy is a big part of why he loves the show, so really, it's wait and see.

5. Deborah Ann Woll was a real strength as Karen, in that her performance and bearing were very real, despite her obvious Hollywood good looks. She really made you believe in this character and her fear in a palpable way. There is a sense of a person just trying to get by there, maybe a little lost even before getting herself involved in some terrible business. I don't know where the Netflix character is going to go at all, but those aspects are actually good to have if you are familiar with Page from the comics.

6. Point blank, for what this show is the fight choreography (and the use of wire work, parkour, and SFX to sell the fights and enhance them) is a good as it can get. This first episode had some totally improbable stuff, but it works in the context of the show. And I am happy that the fights have a good balance of indeed having intricate technique and good rhythm but also hard hitting and tactile. It is definitely flashy, no doubt, but also not pedestrian by any means as well. Seeing Matt go to the gym at the end was fantastic and hopefully they do that often, because what would be required to maintain the skills and physical ability a person like DD would, is usually glossed over in super hero stuff. Usually it's like, "He trained under the secret masters during that early part of the film... And that's all it took." I understand why that stuff is glossed over, but I think such elements can add a lot of depth and can get into DEEP character traits, if done correctly.

7. The presentation of the "underworld" was really great. Fisk's network, the jockeying crime lords, the way they BRILLIANTLY made modern NYC a place that DD can actually ply his trade in is fantastic. Sorry to tell my fellow Americans, but... NYC hasn't been the NYC of DEATH WISH and THE WARRIORS or Miller's DAREDEVIL comics run for a very long time. A VERY LONG TIME. Hell's Kitchen is actually quite Tony these days. So... How do you realistically get DD in business? How do you give him a milieu that evokes the sense of corruption and violence, the neo noir elements that Miller's DD had? Well, they could have just said "Eh, who cares? It's a comic book show. NYC will just be the same fictional NYC we've been feeding audiences forever even if it hasn't been a crime infested town with multiple murders due to gang wars and drug dealers on the street every other day since the early 1990's." But instead they kind of brilliantly used the MCU events to set the back drop of a NYC being rebuilt, and where such things happen you have contracts and unions, and kickbacks and corruption and organized crime and all of that gives you a way to explain certain aspects, like a novice lawyer living in Hell's Kitchen given NYC rents these days. It also suggests that the events of the first Avengers film really has left it's mark on the city.

8. Finally, I really appreciated the way that they presented Matt's dad. Not only was the actor fairly good (if a bit anemic looking to have me buy as a pro boxer) but they did a good job of not Knighting him with sainthood, but not making him some kind of cliche drunk dad or what ever Miller's/Marvel's retcons have been over the years.

All in all the first episode had it's bumps but overall was very well done, and hopefully the series gets more engaging as it goes on.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Finally watched the pilot, and loved it, the dark and gritty tone was perfect and something I hope they adopt in the movies down the line as they would benefit from it. Things were more serious as well with the drama while still having plenty of humourous moments. The whole cast was great with cox as the stand out, will be watching the 2nd episode as soon as I can.

 

[FataLethal]

Forgive my ignorance but the scene with the Xining Airways billboard in Matt's apartment, was that supposed to mean anything? or was it just a way to lit the scene purple?

 

[Mike Murdock]

It explains how Matt could get a nice apartment - it's one that no sighted person could tolerate living in.

 

[Whatupman]

It also gives the scenes in his apartment some light, considering that he has no use of lamps.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Just saw this episode again.
Don't remember the Owsley embezzling scene from my first view.

 

[Kane52630]