Daredevil: A Cold Day in Hell's Kitchen
March 20, 2016 6:52 PM - Season 2, Episode 13 - Subscribe
In the season finale, Daredevil is backed into the ultimate showdown for his own life--and the future of Hell's Kitchen.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO CHEKOV'S MINIGUN, GUYS?
Seriously, I was waiting for Frank to open up on the ninjas with it. At least we finally got the white skull.
Still, I was really happy with the series and I can't wait for season three. I wonder what other major arcs are going to be adapted?
posted by entropicamericana at 7:11 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Seriously, I was waiting for Frank to open up on the ninjas with it. At least we finally got the white skull.
Still, I was really happy with the series and I can't wait for season three. I wonder what other major arcs are going to be adapted?
posted by entropicamericana at 7:11 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Wow, that was Arrow-level bad. Last episode was disappointing, but this was just mediocre junk:
-Karen getting kidnapped and somehow being in the middle of the action again
-Foggy just showed up at the final fight for some reason
-Matt intentionally kills Nobu (or at the very least throws him off a tall building not caring if he dies), thus negating the debate of Matt's way vs. Frank's way set up over the entire season. I guess Frank was right and you need to kill people.
-Come to think of it, all of the questions raised and debated so explicitly over the season were basically forgotten: Do vigilantes have a place in society? If so, how far should they go? The show kind of just forgot that that was once the entire point of the season.
-Elektra died too early. They could have saved her famous death scene for a future season where they introduce Bullseye. I thought that was where they were going back when Elektra met that French guy at the air hangar, that he was going to be Bullseye.
-Stick decapitating Nobu and walking away in front of like 100 cops
-As entropicamericana says, a complete waste of the Punisher. I too thought all the shots of the minigun and the shots of the hordes of ninjas coming to attack Matt on the roof was going to lead to Frank mowing them all down and evening the odds when Matt and Elektra go out on the roof to fight. It would have been the perfect way to set-up a final fight with Nobu alone, with the rest of the Hand all dead by the Punisher.
-Matt and Elektra having a minutes-long death scene while Nobu is lying on the ground and the ninjas are, I guess, just standing around doing nothing?
-I did appreciate that Karen's article finally gave up the pretense that there is any part of New York in this world that isn't Hell's Kitchen.
-Previous episode, but the resolution to Frank's arc (the identity of the Blacksmith) was just weak. It turns out the Big Bad behind Frank's nightmare is some guy we only saw for a few minutes out of the entire show that no one cares about? It was a complete anti-climax, and drained Frank's final confrontation with him of any meaning since who cares if that guy dies?
Overall I thought it was better than the first season, but once again the ending wasn't very good. They really need to work on that for next season.
I wonder what other major arcs are going to be adapted?
Given the set-up of the Kingpin's return and Karen now knowing Matt's identity, I'd guess it will be the Born Again arc with Page revealing Matt's identity to the Kingpin for some reason. It's going to be very different than in the comics, but perhaps the Kingpin finds out she killed Wesley in S1 and blackmails her? We'll see. I wouldn't be surprised if Bullseye is introduced either.
posted by Sangermaine at 8:35 PM on March 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
-Karen getting kidnapped and somehow being in the middle of the action again
-Foggy just showed up at the final fight for some reason
-Matt intentionally kills Nobu (or at the very least throws him off a tall building not caring if he dies), thus negating the debate of Matt's way vs. Frank's way set up over the entire season. I guess Frank was right and you need to kill people.
-Come to think of it, all of the questions raised and debated so explicitly over the season were basically forgotten: Do vigilantes have a place in society? If so, how far should they go? The show kind of just forgot that that was once the entire point of the season.
-Elektra died too early. They could have saved her famous death scene for a future season where they introduce Bullseye. I thought that was where they were going back when Elektra met that French guy at the air hangar, that he was going to be Bullseye.
-Stick decapitating Nobu and walking away in front of like 100 cops
-As entropicamericana says, a complete waste of the Punisher. I too thought all the shots of the minigun and the shots of the hordes of ninjas coming to attack Matt on the roof was going to lead to Frank mowing them all down and evening the odds when Matt and Elektra go out on the roof to fight. It would have been the perfect way to set-up a final fight with Nobu alone, with the rest of the Hand all dead by the Punisher.
-Matt and Elektra having a minutes-long death scene while Nobu is lying on the ground and the ninjas are, I guess, just standing around doing nothing?
-I did appreciate that Karen's article finally gave up the pretense that there is any part of New York in this world that isn't Hell's Kitchen.
-Previous episode, but the resolution to Frank's arc (the identity of the Blacksmith) was just weak. It turns out the Big Bad behind Frank's nightmare is some guy we only saw for a few minutes out of the entire show that no one cares about? It was a complete anti-climax, and drained Frank's final confrontation with him of any meaning since who cares if that guy dies?
Overall I thought it was better than the first season, but once again the ending wasn't very good. They really need to work on that for next season.
I wonder what other major arcs are going to be adapted?
Given the set-up of the Kingpin's return and Karen now knowing Matt's identity, I'd guess it will be the Born Again arc with Page revealing Matt's identity to the Kingpin for some reason. It's going to be very different than in the comics, but perhaps the Kingpin finds out she killed Wesley in S1 and blackmails her? We'll see. I wouldn't be surprised if Bullseye is introduced either.
posted by Sangermaine at 8:35 PM on March 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
Also: What the hell was that giant hole the Hand was digging for? I sure hope they remember to resolve that next season. And what happened with Frank in Kandahar?
posted by Sangermaine at 8:40 PM on March 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Sangermaine at 8:40 PM on March 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
-Matt intentionally kills Nobu (or at the very least throws him off a tall building not caring if he dies), thus negating the debate of Matt's way vs. Frank's way set up over the entire season.
Matt knows Nobu is unkillable. He's already killed him twice by this point. So there's no issue throwing him off the roof.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:06 PM on March 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
Matt knows Nobu is unkillable. He's already killed him twice by this point. So there's no issue throwing him off the roof.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:06 PM on March 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
Also: What the hell was that giant hole the Hand was digging for?
Wasn't it the big pot that they put Elektra's corpse in at the end?
And what's the point of Stick assassinating all the black skies if they can just resurrect them?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:08 PM on March 20, 2016
Wasn't it the big pot that they put Elektra's corpse in at the end?
And what's the point of Stick assassinating all the black skies if they can just resurrect them?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:08 PM on March 20, 2016
Matt knows Nobu is unkillable. He's already killed him twice by this point. So there's no issue throwing him off the roof.
No, Matt specifically and repeatedly says he doesn't believe in all of that, that it's all just stories used to scare or control people. I think this very episode Elektra says the Hand can do things they can't explain, including Nobu being alive, and Matt says just because he can't explain it doesn't mean he believes in fairy tales.
That's part of the problem. We as the viewers know Nobu is unkillable, but the show has had Matt very strongly reject the mystical things he's heard.
posted by Sangermaine at 9:56 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
No, Matt specifically and repeatedly says he doesn't believe in all of that, that it's all just stories used to scare or control people. I think this very episode Elektra says the Hand can do things they can't explain, including Nobu being alive, and Matt says just because he can't explain it doesn't mean he believes in fairy tales.
That's part of the problem. We as the viewers know Nobu is unkillable, but the show has had Matt very strongly reject the mystical things he's heard.
posted by Sangermaine at 9:56 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also: What the hell was that giant hole the Hand was digging for?
Wasn't it the big pot that they put Elektra's corpse in at the end?
Huh, I totally did not get that the hole was just a by-product of digging for the magic sarcophagus, they made it seem like the hole was some mystical thing. Or maybe I just assumed it was, since Manhattan is an island of bedrock, not sand, so the idea of something being buried 40-stories deep never occurred to me.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:17 AM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
Wasn't it the big pot that they put Elektra's corpse in at the end?
Huh, I totally did not get that the hole was just a by-product of digging for the magic sarcophagus, they made it seem like the hole was some mystical thing. Or maybe I just assumed it was, since Manhattan is an island of bedrock, not sand, so the idea of something being buried 40-stories deep never occurred to me.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:17 AM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
I double-checked the dialogue from the beginning of this episode about Matt's belief in the Hand's powers:
And then he throws Nobu off a roof.
posted by Sangermaine at 6:52 AM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Matt: You know, whatever you're feeling it's gonna pass.That doesn't sound like someone who has accepted that the people he's fighting are immortal, and nothing happens in this episode to change that view. And this wasn't the first time Matt's said things like this, he's been expressing skepticism over Stick and Elektra's tales of magic and resurrection from the beginning.
Elektra: What do you know about what I'm feeling?
Matt: Just...consider the possibility that there is no such thing as a Black Sky. That it's...it's mysticism, you know? It's nonsense.
Elektra: I've been trained to kill it since I was a kid.
Matt: Yeah, maybe everything they taught you was a lie.
Elektra: Stick says I have a gift. The special kind very few people have --
Matt: Yeah, "the kind very few people have or deserve." I know. I got the same speech. Stick likes his fortune-cookie wisdom, but that's all he needed 'cause he was training children to fight a war.
Elektra: You can't deny it. Some of what the Hand does defies explanation.
Matt: Just because I don't understand something doesn't mean I'm ready to chalk it up as some fairy tale.
And then he throws Nobu off a roof.
posted by Sangermaine at 6:52 AM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Maybe because Elektra just died before his eyes ?
posted by Pendragon at 7:07 AM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Pendragon at 7:07 AM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah, but Matt has been adamant that killing is wrong no matter what. If killing is okay when you're angry about the death of someone you loved, he owes Frank an apology.
posted by Sangermaine at 7:55 AM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Sangermaine at 7:55 AM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
I don't know if you've noticed this, but Matt isn't the most consistent person: During the day, he is a lawyer who believes in the law and he runs around beating the holy hell out of people at night.
Matt Murdock isn't Bruce Wayne any more than he's Frank Castle.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:30 AM on March 21, 2016 [12 favorites]
Matt Murdock isn't Bruce Wayne any more than he's Frank Castle.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:30 AM on March 21, 2016 [12 favorites]
Can I, should I, hope for more Marci Stahl in season 3?
posted by nicebookrack at 2:11 PM on March 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by nicebookrack at 2:11 PM on March 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
Nice work oh yeah!
I finished this run last night. It's surprisingly fast-moving when you skip through the boring scenes, which in this season, I discovered after five episodes, was a) anything where people aren't in a costume and at least one of those people isn't Frank Castle or Kingpin, b) anything with Elektra in it where she isn't fighting.
Even the fight scenes got pretty samey after the first dozen, and while I get that this is a superhero show, the amount of mouth-blood with zero repercussions was a bit beyond the pale. Except, strangely, in Castle's case, who was bruised like a banana for all fifteen episodes, and there were only 13 episodes.
Bernthal's and the show's take on Punisher was an interesting one. It's not the Punisher I know and love - Thomas Jane is my favourite mainly because I like really Thomas Jane, but then War Zone is my favourite Punisher movie and Stevenson's Punisher is as close to the mark as I think has been on-screen. And I thought Castle asking for the cell door to be opened after he murdered the prisoner dude on Kingpin's behest was a real misstep -Punisher would have immediately known the result and wouldn't have said anything, he woulda just started killing. But still, Bernthal did a good job, and was the most compelling thing about the season.
Also, Kingpin benching five wheels. 495lbs, if you wanna know. The plate clanking sound effect was all wrong though.
The Elektra stuff was just an agonising series of increasingly-wet farts in increasingly-cramped boxes. Yung is a good actor, I can tell, but the character she's been given is just a slender bundle of stuck-in-her-teens angst and unhinged Trump-esque privilege, and I just couldn't bear it after episode 5.
On the one hand, I liked the gore, because it made all the moral lesson stuff (Foggy talking down the gangbangers in the hospital) even stupider than it already would have been. On the other, the "we are all New Yorkers" thing at the end was just cringe supreme.
That said, it's made me want to watch Jessica Jones, and I'd probably fast-forward though a third season of DD to get to the Punisher bits, and I suppose I'm curious now about Iron Fist and Luke Cage.
In summary, then: breezes.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:45 PM on March 21, 2016 [5 favorites]
I finished this run last night. It's surprisingly fast-moving when you skip through the boring scenes, which in this season, I discovered after five episodes, was a) anything where people aren't in a costume and at least one of those people isn't Frank Castle or Kingpin, b) anything with Elektra in it where she isn't fighting.
Even the fight scenes got pretty samey after the first dozen, and while I get that this is a superhero show, the amount of mouth-blood with zero repercussions was a bit beyond the pale. Except, strangely, in Castle's case, who was bruised like a banana for all fifteen episodes, and there were only 13 episodes.
Bernthal's and the show's take on Punisher was an interesting one. It's not the Punisher I know and love - Thomas Jane is my favourite mainly because I like really Thomas Jane, but then War Zone is my favourite Punisher movie and Stevenson's Punisher is as close to the mark as I think has been on-screen. And I thought Castle asking for the cell door to be opened after he murdered the prisoner dude on Kingpin's behest was a real misstep -Punisher would have immediately known the result and wouldn't have said anything, he woulda just started killing. But still, Bernthal did a good job, and was the most compelling thing about the season.
Also, Kingpin benching five wheels. 495lbs, if you wanna know. The plate clanking sound effect was all wrong though.
The Elektra stuff was just an agonising series of increasingly-wet farts in increasingly-cramped boxes. Yung is a good actor, I can tell, but the character she's been given is just a slender bundle of stuck-in-her-teens angst and unhinged Trump-esque privilege, and I just couldn't bear it after episode 5.
On the one hand, I liked the gore, because it made all the moral lesson stuff (Foggy talking down the gangbangers in the hospital) even stupider than it already would have been. On the other, the "we are all New Yorkers" thing at the end was just cringe supreme.
That said, it's made me want to watch Jessica Jones, and I'd probably fast-forward though a third season of DD to get to the Punisher bits, and I suppose I'm curious now about Iron Fist and Luke Cage.
In summary, then: breezes.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:45 PM on March 21, 2016 [5 favorites]
Matt and Elektra having a minutes-long death scene while Nobu is lying on the ground and the ninjas are, I guess, just standing around doing nothing?
Oh yeah, that too. wtf lol
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:47 PM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oh yeah, that too. wtf lol
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:47 PM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
In the run up to the final fight, it certainly seemed like there were WAY MORE NINJAS than showed up to the actual fight. All those shots of the rooftops swarming with ninjas, and supposedly a building full of them coming through that door any minute... and then like 20 guys show up to fight at the end? I feel like the ending was rushed and there were a lot of little things that felt off. Frank didn't really have resolution to his story but it would have felt more natural to end it with him finding the stash of weapons (instead of weirdly lugging around a minigun on his trip to the suburbs to work on his branding and blow up his house).
The cops didn't really have anything to do while hanging out at the end, and there were weird little things there like the order to throw a bunch of spotlights up at the roof and then... nobody did? At least it didn't seem like it. And Karen's portentous "this might be the end of vigilantes in New York" line was very odd, in line with her weird faux-deep article at the end. Like, you don't even believe Karen really believes that line she says - surely the huge high profile Punisher case and its fallout would have put the nail in the vigilante coffin before some random rooftop brawl between Matt and some lady you don't know and some ninjas, some situation you've seen like... maybe 1/10th of? She's kidnapped, she's put on the bus, the old guy is shot, they're put in the room, they're rescued with relative ease. She doesn't know Elektra and doesn't know Frank will be there. That's all Karen experienced of the Hand and the situation on the roof that night before making that pronouncement. Weird writing.
I thought the season was largely very good, I really did enjoy the hell out of it, but that ending was weird. And the whole Hand plotline doesn't feel very organic, it's there because it was there in the comics but I don't think it sells a personal angle for Matt since he's so estranged from Stick, so it seems like it's just something he's fighting because it's happening in Hell's Kitchen rather than something he has compelling personal stakes in.
ALSO, the deaths of Owlsley and Urich are really felt this season. They were both such a huge part of my enjoyment of the first season. You need someone like an Owlsley to take the piss out of the overly serious melodrama. And Urich was just such a standout performance by Vondie Curtis-Hall that it stings that there isn't more of him. And I still resent Urich's old boss no matter how much he helps Karen because way too little, way too late, guy.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:57 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
The cops didn't really have anything to do while hanging out at the end, and there were weird little things there like the order to throw a bunch of spotlights up at the roof and then... nobody did? At least it didn't seem like it. And Karen's portentous "this might be the end of vigilantes in New York" line was very odd, in line with her weird faux-deep article at the end. Like, you don't even believe Karen really believes that line she says - surely the huge high profile Punisher case and its fallout would have put the nail in the vigilante coffin before some random rooftop brawl between Matt and some lady you don't know and some ninjas, some situation you've seen like... maybe 1/10th of? She's kidnapped, she's put on the bus, the old guy is shot, they're put in the room, they're rescued with relative ease. She doesn't know Elektra and doesn't know Frank will be there. That's all Karen experienced of the Hand and the situation on the roof that night before making that pronouncement. Weird writing.
I thought the season was largely very good, I really did enjoy the hell out of it, but that ending was weird. And the whole Hand plotline doesn't feel very organic, it's there because it was there in the comics but I don't think it sells a personal angle for Matt since he's so estranged from Stick, so it seems like it's just something he's fighting because it's happening in Hell's Kitchen rather than something he has compelling personal stakes in.
ALSO, the deaths of Owlsley and Urich are really felt this season. They were both such a huge part of my enjoyment of the first season. You need someone like an Owlsley to take the piss out of the overly serious melodrama. And Urich was just such a standout performance by Vondie Curtis-Hall that it stings that there isn't more of him. And I still resent Urich's old boss no matter how much he helps Karen because way too little, way too late, guy.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:57 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Huh, I totally did not get that the hole was just a by-product of digging for the magic sarcophagus, they made it seem like the hole was some mystical thing.
I could be wrong, but if they didn't dig it, where did all the sand in the train trailers come from?
But then again, how the hell do you dig a 40 storey hole in Manhattan and not get noticed?
Maybe it's a gate to hell thatBuffy's sister the Black Sky opens?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:11 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
I could be wrong, but if they didn't dig it, where did all the sand in the train trailers come from?
But then again, how the hell do you dig a 40 storey hole in Manhattan and not get noticed?
Maybe it's a gate to hell that
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:11 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Frank didn't really have resolution to his story but it would have felt more natural to end it with him finding the stash of weapons (instead of weirdly lugging around a minigun on his trip to the suburbs to work on his branding and blow up his house).
He seemed like he had plenty of guns before, so I was hard pressed to see why that stash of guns was such a big deal to him.
But also, whose stash of guns was it? I mean, it was just a random stash in a random shed in the middle of nowhere, right?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:13 PM on March 21, 2016
He seemed like he had plenty of guns before, so I was hard pressed to see why that stash of guns was such a big deal to him.
But also, whose stash of guns was it? I mean, it was just a random stash in a random shed in the middle of nowhere, right?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:13 PM on March 21, 2016
I think they were the Blacksmith's guns? I think that was his weird little murder hut and he was taking Karen there. But it wasn't very clear.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:36 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:36 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah, he wasn't going to dispose of Karen in his home--he seemed to be pretty insistent on separating his work from his home life (that was the only real reason I could think of for his not having some goons around the house or on the grounds--it was good enough for Walter White, though).
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:16 PM on March 21, 2016
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:16 PM on March 21, 2016
I don't think it was clear that the magic urn was excavated from the hole. I don't think we know what the hole is for yet. My guess is that there is an Iron Fist link. Maybe there's a dragon down there. Also, did anyone think it was a dick move for Matt to throw the flashlight down to check the depth? Sure, you don't need it...
Overall, too many monologues and too many ninjas this season. Why couldn't Matt detect the ninjas again? From season 1, he's supposed to "see" via sound, smell, air currents and temperature... Like a "world on fire". The ninjas may be quiet, but they can't mask all of that.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:37 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Overall, too many monologues and too many ninjas this season. Why couldn't Matt detect the ninjas again? From season 1, he's supposed to "see" via sound, smell, air currents and temperature... Like a "world on fire". The ninjas may be quiet, but they can't mask all of that.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:37 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think they were the Blacksmith's guns? I think that was his weird little murder hut and he was taking Karen there. But it wasn't very clear.
It's implied they were driving for a while before Frank rammed into them. I don't know what a retired Marine Colonel makes, pension-wise, but I don't imagine it's enough to afford an estate just outside of Manhattan. Of course he was the Blacksmith and whatever, but how come nobody picked up on it before? It's like, "who's been stealing from the gas station till?" and the night shift guy is rocking up in a Ferrari with nine Rolexes on his arm.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:44 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's implied they were driving for a while before Frank rammed into them. I don't know what a retired Marine Colonel makes, pension-wise, but I don't imagine it's enough to afford an estate just outside of Manhattan. Of course he was the Blacksmith and whatever, but how come nobody picked up on it before? It's like, "who's been stealing from the gas station till?" and the night shift guy is rocking up in a Ferrari with nine Rolexes on his arm.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:44 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Hand have never been my favorite part of the Daredevil world, it's so firmly rooted in being a 1980's Frank Miller thing and as much of a fresh take as it was at the time, it was silly even then (just ask Eastman and Laird). I think they had a great opportunity to reinvent The Hand here and they missed it. Something like, well, The Hand can reanimate the dead as soldiers, and you've got this kill-crazy Punisher guy out there mowing down scores of guys - there's some really fun stuff when you combine those two. Frank pushed to breaking because his whole "when I put them down, they stay down" philosophy proves to be factually wrong, Hand soldiers who actually blend in like ninjas because they're just people from the area, all kinds of toys to play with on the Daredevil Catholic symbolism front. Plus, that would make the Punisher and Elektra storylines work together instead of being so noticeably separate except for the unnecessary last minute Frank appearance.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:28 PM on March 21, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 9:28 PM on March 21, 2016 [4 favorites]
Pretty disappointing to set up Nobu as the main (fighting) antagonist when we've already seen Matt beat him in Season 1. Maybe if Nobu upped his game somehow, or there were multiple Nobus, that would've been interesting, but as it was, DD's triumph was a foregone conclusion.
posted by adrianhon at 4:24 AM on March 22, 2016
posted by adrianhon at 4:24 AM on March 22, 2016
Mostly I was just confused a whole lot. And I hate to say it, but I'm really sick of ninjas.
I wish we'd gotten to see Karen's reaction to the helmet. "What the fuck? Also, HOW?!?!?"
"Matt's way vs. Frank's way set up over the entire season. I guess Frank was right and you need to kill people."
Theoretically we can't have a superhero go around murdering people EVEN IF THEY REALLY SHOULD BE KILLING CERTAIN PEOPLE out of sheer practicality. It's not old school heroic (especially if you like to emphasize that your hero is a religious Catholic) to be all, "Look, some people just need killin'." But seriously, some people are just not gonna stop the murders or you can't keep 'em in a cell and let them live out their lives or whatever. I just redacted some spoilers for another show, but let's just say I was watching something else and thinking, "Don't let that guy go, he just murdered a ton of people, all of his family are dead and he literally has nothing to live for except offing all of you! Sanctity of life, my ass! Don't just "banish him" like he can't just go hide in the woods and come back in five minutes!"
"Do vigilantes have a place in society? If so, how far should they go?"
I thought the whole point of vigilantes was to fill in where the cops can't. That seemed to be a point of the show. Much as that cop was grumbly at the idea, sometimes you just gotta have a random dude in a suit fill in.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:56 AM on March 22, 2016
I wish we'd gotten to see Karen's reaction to the helmet. "What the fuck? Also, HOW?!?!?"
"Matt's way vs. Frank's way set up over the entire season. I guess Frank was right and you need to kill people."
Theoretically we can't have a superhero go around murdering people EVEN IF THEY REALLY SHOULD BE KILLING CERTAIN PEOPLE out of sheer practicality. It's not old school heroic (especially if you like to emphasize that your hero is a religious Catholic) to be all, "Look, some people just need killin'." But seriously, some people are just not gonna stop the murders or you can't keep 'em in a cell and let them live out their lives or whatever. I just redacted some spoilers for another show, but let's just say I was watching something else and thinking, "Don't let that guy go, he just murdered a ton of people, all of his family are dead and he literally has nothing to live for except offing all of you! Sanctity of life, my ass! Don't just "banish him" like he can't just go hide in the woods and come back in five minutes!"
"Do vigilantes have a place in society? If so, how far should they go?"
I thought the whole point of vigilantes was to fill in where the cops can't. That seemed to be a point of the show. Much as that cop was grumbly at the idea, sometimes you just gotta have a random dude in a suit fill in.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:56 AM on March 22, 2016
My guess at Karen's reaction to the mask:
"Yeah, I figured that out ages ago. Why didn't you tell me until now?"
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:30 AM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Yeah, I figured that out ages ago. Why didn't you tell me until now?"
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:30 AM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
What the hell was that giant hole the Hand was digging for?
Obviously to have someplace to put Fin Fang Foom.
At this point I'm SO ready for a Nextwave series.
posted by happyroach at 8:46 AM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Obviously to have someplace to put Fin Fang Foom.
At this point I'm SO ready for a Nextwave series.
posted by happyroach at 8:46 AM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Thinking on it, I'm going to guess that the giant hole ties into Iron Fist and it's some kind of attempt by the Hand to access the mystical city of K'un Lun. That or some strange way of setting up the Shadowland arc.
posted by Sangermaine at 2:53 PM on March 22, 2016
posted by Sangermaine at 2:53 PM on March 22, 2016
I have a theory that they write these series in one long session, around a table with a huge number of bottles of scotch on it. It starts OK, and by episode seven they've got a pretty good buzz on. But by the time they get to the last episode they're almost out of whisky and they're just dictating random nonsense to the last person still capable of typing. I don't mind at all with Daredevil as I'm mostly here for the brutality, though it really annoyed me with Jessica Jones.
posted by Grangousier at 4:16 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Grangousier at 4:16 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
By the way, the kanji on the lid of that thing means "resurrection". But I suspect we kind of guessed that. According to my wife, who also reports that the Japanese script was more or less accurate for meaning but rubbish Japanese. I suspect we kind of guessed that, too.
posted by Grangousier at 4:23 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Grangousier at 4:23 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also: What the hell was that giant hole the Hand was digging for?
What? You forgot Torchwood: Miracle Day?
(And, I don't really joke. That's what I kept thinking of. That, or Fing Fang Foom).
That said, it's made me want to watch Jessica Jones,
Wait, now?
Not before?
I was so over ninjas by the end.
And Electra was a charisma suck, so if they can leave her on the boil for a while, that would be nice.
Punisher was great, except he just turned up.
I want next series to be more Waid and more *small targets*, maybe Owl and such, before building to Fisk etc in S4.
And, I need at least a Night Nurse mini series.
posted by Mezentian at 4:26 AM on March 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
What? You forgot Torchwood: Miracle Day?
(And, I don't really joke. That's what I kept thinking of. That, or Fing Fang Foom).
That said, it's made me want to watch Jessica Jones,
Wait, now?
Not before?
I was so over ninjas by the end.
And Electra was a charisma suck, so if they can leave her on the boil for a while, that would be nice.
Punisher was great, except he just turned up.
I want next series to be more Waid and more *small targets*, maybe Owl and such, before building to Fisk etc in S4.
And, I need at least a Night Nurse mini series.
posted by Mezentian at 4:26 AM on March 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
*sigh*
I just realised, if they had set this in the 1970s LIKE GOD INTENDED, we could have had an Agent Carter Vs Night Nurse crossover.
posted by Mezentian at 4:57 AM on March 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I just realised, if they had set this in the 1970s LIKE GOD INTENDED, we could have had an Agent Carter Vs Night Nurse crossover.
posted by Mezentian at 4:57 AM on March 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Matt has been adamant that killing is wrong no matter what
Apparently you missed his convo with Punisher on the boat, where he was pretty much ready to go along with letting Frank murder the real Blacksmith once they found him? It's probably setting up the starting point for his arc next season, but finding out the Kingpin was running the prison pretty clearly shook Matt's faith in not-killing-people.
Plus, while Matt may reject the mystical explanation for Nobu's unkillability, that doesn't mean he's rejecting the empirical evidence that Nobu seems to be unkillable. He saw the guy burn, he knows he should be dead.
Yung is a good actor, I can tell, but the character she's been given is just a slender bundle of stuck-in-her-teens angst and unhinged Trump-esque privilege, and I just couldn't bear it after episode 5.
Yeah, no, you should've stuck with it or done a little less fast-forwarding. The spoiled bored bratty rich girl we are introduced to is all an act, both a cover identity and a mask over her real hurt, and they did a nice job of peeling it back in the last few episodes so we could see how damaged she really is underneath. You can infer a lot from her reaction to finding out she was the Black Sky ("So that's why everyone always ends up hating me"), plus those flashbacks to mini-Elektra. Overall I thought they did a nice job at making her a complex character. (Now if only they'd do something to make Stick seem like an actual person rather than a jumbled mess of tropes.)
Gotta admit though, that final battle was definitely short on ninjas, spotlights, and Frank Castle actually making an impact. TBH it sorta felt like maybe the show ran out of money for ninjas or something? A couple quick shots of some of the ninjas lower in the building being preoccupied with holding off the cops, plus having Frank gun down a bucketload of ninjas to make it to the roof of the building nextdoor when he finally did (or slightly sooner so he could preoccupy the ninjas during Elektra's death scene) would've made that final battle work better for me.
posted by mstokes650 at 7:07 PM on March 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Apparently you missed his convo with Punisher on the boat, where he was pretty much ready to go along with letting Frank murder the real Blacksmith once they found him? It's probably setting up the starting point for his arc next season, but finding out the Kingpin was running the prison pretty clearly shook Matt's faith in not-killing-people.
Plus, while Matt may reject the mystical explanation for Nobu's unkillability, that doesn't mean he's rejecting the empirical evidence that Nobu seems to be unkillable. He saw the guy burn, he knows he should be dead.
Yung is a good actor, I can tell, but the character she's been given is just a slender bundle of stuck-in-her-teens angst and unhinged Trump-esque privilege, and I just couldn't bear it after episode 5.
Yeah, no, you should've stuck with it or done a little less fast-forwarding. The spoiled bored bratty rich girl we are introduced to is all an act, both a cover identity and a mask over her real hurt, and they did a nice job of peeling it back in the last few episodes so we could see how damaged she really is underneath. You can infer a lot from her reaction to finding out she was the Black Sky ("So that's why everyone always ends up hating me"), plus those flashbacks to mini-Elektra. Overall I thought they did a nice job at making her a complex character. (Now if only they'd do something to make Stick seem like an actual person rather than a jumbled mess of tropes.)
Gotta admit though, that final battle was definitely short on ninjas, spotlights, and Frank Castle actually making an impact. TBH it sorta felt like maybe the show ran out of money for ninjas or something? A couple quick shots of some of the ninjas lower in the building being preoccupied with holding off the cops, plus having Frank gun down a bucketload of ninjas to make it to the roof of the building nextdoor when he finally did (or slightly sooner so he could preoccupy the ninjas during Elektra's death scene) would've made that final battle work better for me.
posted by mstokes650 at 7:07 PM on March 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
I was so over ninjas by the end.
I think it was just the hot weather causing them to swarm.
I am concerned that without natural predators (such as wolverines), the ninjas may over-reproduce and cause a "rabbits in Australia" problem.
posted by happyroach at 2:40 AM on March 27, 2016 [10 favorites]
I think it was just the hot weather causing them to swarm.
I am concerned that without natural predators (such as wolverines), the ninjas may over-reproduce and cause a "rabbits in Australia" problem.
posted by happyroach at 2:40 AM on March 27, 2016 [10 favorites]
I've seen folks complain that the season didn't stick the landing for its finale and I agree for pretty much most of the reasons already discussed. The dozens of missing ninja at the end simply flabbergasted me - where'd they go?! The Punisher was criminally underused in the finale and should, as mentioned, mowed down a number of ninja. I really wonder if there was an intention to do so, but they reworked the ending and took it out. The finale, in general, had something of that feeling to it - such as Foggy's weird appearance.
posted by Atreides at 12:46 PM on March 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Atreides at 12:46 PM on March 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
I am glad that I'm not the only one who was shocked that even though they teased the minigun in the previous episode, and they had a million zillion ninjas lined up like a row of hedges, they did not do the obvious. For a season finale, the payoffs were pretty weak.
Also, I know Matt is a lawyer, but his no-kill code has a pretty big loophole if he just incapacitates his enemies while his companions murder them left & right. "Oh, I'm not killing them, Stick & Electra are!" And at the end, he gives Punisher a little salute by way of thanking him for picking off the ninjas one at a time. Again, it wouldn't bother me as much as a viewer if it hadn't been set up as the central conflict of the season.
It was nice to see Hogarth again, and Foggy working at her firm puts us one step closer to a Jessica Jones/Daredevil meetup. Plus it actually did make sense that they would be looking for people willing to take on these vigilante cases.
posted by Jugwine at 11:25 AM on March 28, 2016
Also, I know Matt is a lawyer, but his no-kill code has a pretty big loophole if he just incapacitates his enemies while his companions murder them left & right. "Oh, I'm not killing them, Stick & Electra are!" And at the end, he gives Punisher a little salute by way of thanking him for picking off the ninjas one at a time. Again, it wouldn't bother me as much as a viewer if it hadn't been set up as the central conflict of the season.
It was nice to see Hogarth again, and Foggy working at her firm puts us one step closer to a Jessica Jones/Daredevil meetup. Plus it actually did make sense that they would be looking for people willing to take on these vigilante cases.
posted by Jugwine at 11:25 AM on March 28, 2016
Also, I know Matt is a lawyer, but his no-kill code has a pretty big loophole if he just incapacitates his enemies while his companions murder them left & right.
Also he set Nobu on fire, threw him off a balcony, and then garrotted him and threw him off a roof! You can't tell me he wasn't trying to kill him.
Also, some of those ninjas had to have died from their injuries. When he was rescuing the hostages, he rammed one guy's head into the concrete floor three or four times, using his entire body weight. Even if that guy's skull wasn't caved in, his brain was probably bleeding.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:20 PM on March 28, 2016
Also he set Nobu on fire, threw him off a balcony, and then garrotted him and threw him off a roof! You can't tell me he wasn't trying to kill him.
Also, some of those ninjas had to have died from their injuries. When he was rescuing the hostages, he rammed one guy's head into the concrete floor three or four times, using his entire body weight. Even if that guy's skull wasn't caved in, his brain was probably bleeding.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:20 PM on March 28, 2016
The deleted scenes on the Bluray will include a scene in which ninjas are diagnosed with CTE at Metro-General.
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:40 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:40 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
The deleted scenes on the Bluray will include a scene in which ninjas are diagnosed with CTE at Metro-General.
Their treatment program is just to throw the ninjas out a fifth floor window and then pretend that ninjas don't exist.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:33 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
Their treatment program is just to throw the ninjas out a fifth floor window and then pretend that ninjas don't exist.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:33 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, this could have been a lot leaner, really. Cut the stuff with the cops and the whole supporting cast showing up en masse, bring in the Punisher )or maybe Stick?) earlier so he's the reason Matt and Elektra aren't swarmed by ninjas, and have Elektra kick Nobu off the roof after being stabbed. Most of the problems with the climax go away at that point.
More generally, show needs to underplay things a bit more, as they did in most of Season 1 and in the early episodes of this one. There are just too many lines of dialogue in the last few episodes that seem designed to take the subext of the previous line and make into BIG BOLDFACED TEXT. Similarly, the Hand needed to be underplayed a bit more; their high point was the hospital, and Nobu becoming the awesome leader of a bunch of interchangeable henchmen (and making their immortality a prosaic matter of "he just gets back up again") actually diminishes their spookiness and their threat level. I'd have preferred some followup with the kids they brainwashed and with whatever the hell the giant hole and the seemingly Hand-controlled hospital were about.
I liked Karen and Foggy's last scene...Hell, pretty much all of Foggy's scenes. All season, really.
In general, Daredevil is at its best when its a superhero story filmed, scripted, and paced as an action-punctuated crime drama or quasi-horror thriller. It works poorly when it tries to be a Marvel movie on a TV budget.
a million zillion ninjas lined up like a row of hedges
For the unenlightened.
posted by kewb at 2:45 PM on April 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
More generally, show needs to underplay things a bit more, as they did in most of Season 1 and in the early episodes of this one. There are just too many lines of dialogue in the last few episodes that seem designed to take the subext of the previous line and make into BIG BOLDFACED TEXT. Similarly, the Hand needed to be underplayed a bit more; their high point was the hospital, and Nobu becoming the awesome leader of a bunch of interchangeable henchmen (and making their immortality a prosaic matter of "he just gets back up again") actually diminishes their spookiness and their threat level. I'd have preferred some followup with the kids they brainwashed and with whatever the hell the giant hole and the seemingly Hand-controlled hospital were about.
I liked Karen and Foggy's last scene...Hell, pretty much all of Foggy's scenes. All season, really.
In general, Daredevil is at its best when its a superhero story filmed, scripted, and paced as an action-punctuated crime drama or quasi-horror thriller. It works poorly when it tries to be a Marvel movie on a TV budget.
a million zillion ninjas lined up like a row of hedges
For the unenlightened.
posted by kewb at 2:45 PM on April 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'd have preferred some followup with the kids they brainwashed and with whatever the hell the giant hole and the seemingly Hand-controlled hospital were about.
Weren't there five brainwashed kids? The final scene with Elektra in the resurrection thingy has five ninjas.
posted by grouse at 5:09 PM on May 28, 2016
Weren't there five brainwashed kids? The final scene with Elektra in the resurrection thingy has five ninjas.
posted by grouse at 5:09 PM on May 28, 2016
RE: Tick references, I'll admit I reacted to Castle shooting the ninjas with "well, it's not like he shot a collie or anything..."
posted by Karmakaze at 8:29 AM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Karmakaze at 8:29 AM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]
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Glad that Karen finally knows Matt is Daredevil, sad that her reaction is cliffhangered to the next season (or The Defenders?)
posted by oh yeah! at 7:03 PM on March 20, 2016