Daredevil Season 2

Daredevil season 2 has been out on Netflix for a week already so that’s given you plenty of time to binge watch the season. Today I bring you my thoughts on the sophomore season of the hit Netflix show following Matt Murdock as the brooding vigilante.

Season 1 ended with villain Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin going to jail and season 2 introduces new characters Frank Castle aka The Punisher and Elektra. What’s different about these two characters is that unlike Fisk they are not clearly “bad”. They are essentially good people, who do bad things for what they feel is justice. Whereas, Fisk is just downright evil. They do their own version of Daredevil’s vigilanteism, but unlike Murdock they have no moral issues with killing.

I’m just going to go ahead and say what pretty much everyone is saying in all their reviews of the show. The Punisher totally stole the show. He was by far the best part of season 2 and I absolutely loved Jon Bernthal’s portrayal of Frank Castle. The Punisher is so badass and is on a mission to seek justice for everyone involved in murdering his family. As a viewer you can’t help but root for him as he goes after all the different gangs. When compared side by side, he and Daredevil both want justice, however Daredevil is not willing to kill to get it, which becomes a running inner conflict that Matt has to deal with throughout the season. Does there come a point where you have to stop putting your ideals on a pedestal because they just aren’t working anymore? During their fight against each other, Frank says, “You know you’re just one bad day from becoming me”.

Jon Bernthal’s performance and the character of Frank Castle/The Punisher was the most solid part of season 2 in my opinion. I hope that the rumors of his role in season 3 and his own spin-off series are true!

The other new character, Elektra, who audiences were made aware of in season 1 is Matt’s college girlfriend who as it turns out is basically an assassin. I’ll be honest, it took me a few episodes to warm up to this character. At first, I wasn’t crazy about her because she was having Matt work with her and it was taking him away from working on Frank’s trial which I thought should’ve been more of a priority for him as his lawyer! But, as the season went on, I actually grew to really love the character. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with her in the future.

Overall, I really liked season 2 but Matt/Daredevil really got on my nerves at times. I also felt like there was just so much storyline to cover in 13 episodes that it felt disjointed at times. There was the whole aspect of The Punisher to deal with and then they also brought in the storyline of Elektra and The Hand. It split Matt’s focus and I felt like he didn’t pay enough attention to The Punisher side. I would’ve actually loved to see more interaction between Daredevil and The Punisher and I was actually anticipating that, so the lack of it was a bit of a letdown.

The big winners for me in season 2 were The Punisher and Elektra. Now in season 3, Daredevil (the character, not the show necessarily) needs to step it up!