Daredevil third season was its best season, and it felt as if the creators knew while making it that the third season would be the final season because everything was wrapped up by the last episode. It starts off aggravatingly slow and so unrealistic that I wondered if I was going to be able to get through all thirteen episodes, but by episode four, the show was so bananas in the best way possible that I did not want to ever stop watching. Usually when you’re watching a show, a viewer expects that the titular character is going to survive, but the fights and odds were so credibly against our hero that he could have reasonably died at the end of almost every episode.
Daredevil starts with the end of The Defenders to find out how Matt survived. Superman called, and he wants his Jesus imagery back. The underlying tension of the third season of Daredevil is waiting for the answer of whether or not Matt will become The Punisher or will he stick to his original values of the law and the church. While I never really believed that Matt wasn’t talking to God anymore (dude, you live in a church), it was plausible that he quit the law and was willing to kill because he is whaling on anyone that stands in his way—ANYONE, including law enforcement! While normally I hate the Marvel trope of making the hero into a criminal and wanted man, I felt as if it was earned in the third season of Daredevil based on the way that Matt was acting—he shares one scary delusion with Luke Cage’s Mariah—and the villain’s master manipulator plot.
Vincent D’Onofrio is back as Wilson Fisk, the best villain that Daredevil ever faced. The third season does a great job of making him seem vulnerable before revealing his genius, unstoppable plan. It felt like a reprise of The Punisher’s pilot season, but better executed, and it made me retroactively question the end of the first season. I actually predicted the ultimate outcome of specific characters’ connection to Fisk, but not how they would get there so it is a satisfying mix of predictable and shocking. You’ll be able to peg who will get caught up in his web, not how. Fisk’s rosebud is breakfast. Will anyone be able to stop him? Side note: Fisk is a loud talker.
Foggy. No, really, it turns out that Foggy was the real brains and moral backbone behind Murdock and Nelson, and he is making it work with Marci, who is behind some of his best ideas. (Does she know Daredevil’s identity?) I am giving the show a demerit for never explaining how he worked things out with his law firm while he was trying to stop Fisk and help Matt. Shout out to Elden Henson for reacting perfectly to hearing that a character committed murder: quiet but body language indicates that horrified as he instinctually backs off. Usually actors play it as if it is easy information to digest or with loud horrified reaction without concern for personal well being. Am I the only one that noticed that Foggy is the personality equivalent of the Manny from This Is Us in Daredevil? All black people love and endorse Foggy. Seriously, pay attention next time that you watch it—all the people that cosign Foggy are black, even the ones that are in opposition to him. And all black women see Karen coming and shoot her looks of disapproval as if they know that she is could get them accidentally killed. I can’t stand Karen, and I could get lured in by a fine selection of deli meat so I was fine with these developments, but when Matt has a choice of two lawyers to beat on and chooses the black one, on one hand, he is the higher profile of the two, but I will return to it with side eye if he does something similar again.
While I still can’t stand that Karen is constantly falling up, I did think that she was tolerable in Daredevil. Her phone interaction with her dad was initially promising because he sounded the way that I felt about her, but when we finally find out her origin story, I was disappointed because I feel as if he didn’t earn his side of the conversation, and Karen’s MO is that she is doing the right thing then gets someone killed, and her story was way less characteristic of her personal style. It felt a bit sensationalized and trite. It is easy to feel guilty about that, but the way that Karen gets people killed is generally in a sideways fashion that you can’t see coming and usually at the hands of someone else during one of her quests to save people. I liked that they made her a foil to Matt and Dex, a new character who poses a considerable obstacle to Matt and Fisk and was a perfect addition to the MCU. We basically have three characters deciding between oblivion and the future.
Dex raised the stakes in a creepily perfect way. While he was vulnerable, and I could feel theoretical empathy for his character as he gets pushed into extremes by both sides, I never let my guard down and rooted for him. Do not teach this man how to fool experts that he is normal. The soundtrack cues for this character were perfect-bees. Points to Daredevil for making vacuuming a room into a disturbing, eerie moment. Also I’m taking points away from the show for not making the characters more careful when investigating him. So what happened to his parents?
Daredevil was not always perfect. I felt as if the real estate developer storyline introduced in the first and second episode was suddenly dropped, and it seemed relevant to the entire season. The most unrealistic part of the show is when a journalist is able to pay someone else’s bills and her own, but when a big firm lawyer decides to take the burden, the journalist agrees to split the check. What!?! Matt is only five feet ten inches. I’m that tall. Really? I wish that I didn’t know that random fact. If you’re not driving, read, don’t listen to, a book. How did Matt get out of the cab? I buy it, but I still feel cheated. Is the first cab driver ok? How did he get Felix Manning? I don’t buy it. I feel as if he is prepared for everything. If I had to choose between Jessica Jones and Karen, I choose Jessica. Do not put Page in your company name, damn it! I’m surprised that working for Fisk does not come with medical benefits. If someone is doing dirt for you, you don’t want that person bleeding from gunshot wounds.
Daredevil’s final season was the perfect ending to a show that started off strong, fumbled and made everything that came before seem like a fluke. It has reclaimed its crown as the best of the Netflix Marvel series, but I am going to add that I don’t understand how Matt could literally fight the law and Iron Fist is basically a glorified bodyguard for a gang, but Luke Cage is the hero that we have to worry about because he inherited a night club and dresses nicely?