The 9 Best Superhero Shows on TV

I published this over at Medium. Click to read!

Frame Rated: DAREDEVIL - Season Two

I recently binged the second season of the Netflix/Marvel series DAREDEVIL, and you can read my thoughts over on Frame Rated.

It's fair to say Netflix's Daredevil was one of 2015's biggest surprises, because it did something fresh with a superhero indebted to Batman, in a show with conceptual similarities to The CW's Arrow, while overcoming a negative perception of Daredevil thanks to a misfiring 2003 movie. In going darker and meaner than everything else in Marvel's Cinematic Universe, Daredevil offered something for the slightly older crowd who crave deeper emotional stakes, narrative complexity, and mature content. Continue reading...

The Best Television of 2015: No.5 - Netflix's DAREDEVIL

Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox), a young lawyer blinded by chemicals as a boy, is secretly able to perceive the world thanks to a heightened super-sense, and operates as a vigilante to save Hell's Kitchen from a turf war being won by a burly gangster called Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio)...

What made it so good? The unexpectedness of how well accomplished the show's story and performances were, as memories of the misguided 2003 Daredevil movie refused to budge before its debut. Daredevil is quite a prominent Marvel superhero, but concerns he was being shunted to television (when he could theoretically work just as well on the big-screen, as part of The Avengers) proved unfounded. This was actually the perfect medium to tell a Daredevil story heavily inspired by the most acclaimed graphic novels, with an excellent cast serving the material extremely well. I don't think anyone expected Vincent D'Onofrio to create one of the most sympathetic-yet-horrifying villains we'd ever seen, and throughout the first season the show kept on surprising us. The fights were extraordinary cool and realistic (putting equivalent, CGI-augmented scenes in Marvel's movies to shame), and it was a joy to binge-watch this over a long weekend. Flaws? Yeah, it has some. The ending was a bit of an anticlimax, and I really dislike the Daredevil costume (which arrived with undeserved fanfare), but these were very minor issues.

DAREDEVIL returning with new showrunners; plus more spin-offs

I'm full of admiration for Netflix's DAREDEVIL, as you can tell by reading my four-star review of season 1. It was a no-brainer they'd renew it for a second season, but now we have confirmation it'll debut in 2016. However, there's worrisome news: showrunner Steven S. DeKnight, who took over from Drew Goddard during production (who left to develop Marvel movies), is stepping down. His replacement is Doug Petrie, who helped produce and write the first season, but is best-known for running seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Petrie will be partnered by Marco Ramirez (Sons of Anarchy).

DAREDEVIL - Season One

★★★★

'Into the Ring' • 'Cut Man' • 'Rabbit in a Snowstorm' • 'In the Blood' • 'World on Fire' • 'Condemned' • 'Stick' • ' Shadows in the Glass' • 'Speak of the Devil' • 'Nelson v. Murdock' • 'The Path of the Righteous' • 'The Ones We Leave Behind' • 'Daredevil'

(Spoiler warning: the following review shouldn't be read if you haven't seen the entirety of season 1, although an effort's been made to avoid ruining the experience by mentioning notable deaths and revealing the ultimate outcome. But still, caution advised...)