Daredevil Season 2 - Spoilers ahead!

[Brakkart]

Binge watch completed and that's 3 for 3 on Marvel's Netflix seasons thus far, roll on Luke Cage, season 2 of Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Defenders and now really hoping for a Punisher series too. Really enjoyed watching that.

[eldargal]

Five episodes in, pretty good so far. Just met Elektra so yay. I like her. Angsty McManpain is ok.

[Mr Mystery]

How did people find Elektra?

I'm not terribly familiar with her character, so I've no idea if the role was anything like fans were hoping for.

Punisher I really enjoyed, and I think they handled his backstory really well, leaving it out until we've just sort of accepted he's a psychopath, then showing more of the motivation.

And Wilson Fisk.........every bit as superb as the first season. Definitely my favourite character.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Love it so far, and I really want to send the Punisher to parliament, I think that will solve everything.

Great series, onto ep5 next - can't wait for Elektra...

[eldargal]

Only got to watch another episode or two last night, its still very good but I have to say its starting to lose its edge. Matt is annoying as **** this season, last time he was kind of sympathetic and you understood why he was doing what he did but he is starting to seem like kind of an arsehole. Also kind of annoying the only other woman in authority we've seen in the show is your typical grasping, ambitious but incompetent female district attorney (whom I can almost guarantee will be dead before the end of the season). Angsty McManpain is ok, hope we get to see a bit more of his motivation behind losing his family. elektra is awesome, and if the show follows the comics I know how her intro arc will end but that's fine so long as they follow what happens after too. Her own show would be nice, its already a 3-1 female ratio with he Netflix shows getting Elektra and Punisher would at least make it 4-2 instead of 4-1. It would also be nice to have some female characters actually interact with one another, and I don't mean Karen ordering drinks from Josie.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Loving Elektra so far but only on ep5 - Reminds me of Mine Fujiko a bit which is always a good thing in my book.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Great series, only one criticism really but that will spoil it for others. Season 3 please.

I hope for an Elektra spinoff, she was awesome. I didn't like Punisher to begin with, but I liked how we got to know him over the series.

[Kirsten]

Elektra was a total waste of time, the arc did nothing, went nowhere. boring, and wasted half the series. Punisher was far more interesting, they should have stuck with that instead of having two totally unconnected story lines running in parallel. Series One Fisk stole the show, amazing story and acting, overshadowed Daredevil himself. Series Two the Punisher overshadows him. I am starting to feel bad for him

[YorkNecromancer]

Finished season 2.

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Pros:

• Punisher handled very well - Bernthal's performance is magnificent.
• Contrast in Daredevil/Punisher combat styles as method of characterisation likewise excellently handled.
• Fisk's episodes were superb; all the prison scenes were superb.
• You could drop Murdock, have Karen Page and Foggy Nelson take over as protagonists and the series would be just as good.
• Any time Punisher had a fight scene.
• Punisher and Daredevil on a rooftop talking ethics.
• The whole courtroom drama.
• Young girl playing Elektra in flashback scenes was amazing. Only time I cared even slightly about the character.

Cons:

• Elodie Yung cannot act.
• Elektra is a boring character - comes off as a poor woman's Talia Al Ghul.
• Not sure if The Hand is lazily racist 'yellow peril' archetype or not, but tending to think yes. Certainly they're boring as f**k.
• The Hand's goals are so vague as to be infuriating. I ended the series with exactly as much idea about what they wanted/believed as I did going in. Their pursuit of Elektra was completely confusing. Did they want her because of powers, or because of hereditary leadership, or wh - actually, f**k it. I couldn't give a s**t why they did anything. Their plotline was confused, tedious, and derailed the whole season for me. Compare the nonsense of the Hand to the superlative build-up of Fisk in season 1, and there's no contest. Literally every moment the Hand were on screen I was bored. Including the fight scenes, which meant nothing, because I had no idea why they were happening, so they had no stakes.
• Stick's constant harping on about a coming war. After the five thousandth time, I just wanted him to say between who and why. Once or twice, it's spooky and cryptic, but they just overused it, and without knowing the stakes, like the ninja fights, it just became tedious.
• Claire Temple disappearing halfway through the season never to return.
• No logical build up, foreshadowing or use of Chekov's Guns to the reveal of who was behind Punisher's family dying, turning what could have been an amazingly intense betrayal into an a**-pull.
• After the glorious Fisk and terrifying Kilgrave, Nobu was a joke. He was precisely as interesting as "Thor 2"'s Malekith, which is to say, not at all. Malekith is the yardstick by which all lame villains should be measured, and Nobu is easily as boring. I really, really hope he stays dead.
• Elodie Yung cannot act.
• Elodie Yung and Charlie Cox have zero chemistry.
• Murdock's arrogance is never once addressed. There are plenty of references to him being up on a cross, but his core harmartia - his almost solipsistic conviction that everything bad that happens is due to his actions, that disgustingly conceited, hubristic arrogance... No-one ever calls him on it. They call him on his martyr complex, and his jerkery, but never his world-shattering arrogance. And as a result, that flaw is never overcome, meaning that by the end of the season, Murdock just comes off like a jerkface.
• Elektra's going to come back from the dead. No permadeath = no further stakes in any story, ever. You can't resurrect your characters if you want death to be more than a slap on the wrist. Granted, this is a poisonous habit inherited from the comics, but that doesn't make it any more acceptable. It was bad enough when they brought Coulson back; if they keep doing this, keep turning death into a minor inconvenience rather than the absolute cessation it is, well: where's the drama anymore? The road you go down is one where Emma Frost is talking to Cyclops, saying 'Really Scott, these re-runs of your grief must be getting tiresome by now', and when death is a joke, why bother with the stories?

Overall:
I wanted to like season 2, but mostly I was bored off my a**. The first few episodes were great - exactly as good as season 1 - but after Elektra showed up, all that went out the window in a mist of cod-philosophy, fights that meant precisely nothing and bad, confused storytelling.
If this had been the first season, I don't think I'd bother with the next. However, season 1 and 'Jessica Jones' lead me to believe that the problem is simply the Hand. Their arc was just The Worst. Hopefully, we won't have to put up with too much of them in future, and if we do, hopefully Fisk will have returned to make things significantly more interesting.

[eldargal]

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I thought Elodie Yung was excellent and had great chemistry with Murdock. The trouble was the plot was completely nonsensical, it feels like they imported Elektra's backstory from the comics, made it revolve even more around Murdock, and hoped for the best and it didn't work. Nobu sucked. Stick needs to die ASAP, he was irritating in season one he's grating as hell in season two.

The thing about Elektra is as I said they basically just regurgitated Elektra's origin in the comics, without taking into account the different context. So her dying and coming back is what happens in the comics, but its kind of silly on tv.
And Murdock was a real **** this season I was quite disappointed.

Punisher was well acted I'll give him that but I still don't find Angsty McManpain very interesting.