“Daredevil: Season Three” – TV Review

And all of the Emmy awards go to…

Cast and Crew Information

Charlie Cox as Matthew Michael Murdock / Daredevil
Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page
Elden Henson as Franklin P. “Foggy” Nelson
Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin
Wilson Bethel as Benjamin ‘Dex’ Poindexter
Joanne Whalley as Sister Maggie
Stephen Rider as Blake Tower
Jay Ali as Ray Nadeem
Kate Udall as SAC Tammy Hattley
Joe Jones as Felix Manning
Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna
Royce Johnson as Brett Mahoney
Peter McRobbie as Father Lantom
Geoffrey Cantor as Ellison
Matt Gerald as Melvin Potter

Written by Jim Dunn, Dylan Gallagher, Sonay Hoffman, Tonya Kong, Jennifer Lynch, Lewaa Nasserdeen, Erik Oleson, Dara Resnik, and Sarah Streicher
Directed by Phil Abraham, Tamara Becher-Wilkinson, Sam Ernst, Lukas Ettlin, Toa Fraser, Jennifer Getzinger, Julian Holmes, Marc Jobst, Alex Garcia Lopez, Sam Miller, Stephen Surjik, Jet Wilkinson, and Alex Zakrzewski

Availability Information

The third season is currently available on Netflix around the world.

Premise

Wilson Fisk is ready to turn state’s evidence to protect the woman he loves, or at least he appears to be. New York should be thankful that Matt Murdock is considerably less dead than was believed following the events of The Defenders.

High Point

You know those season finales that blow your doors off and make you desperate to see the next episode? In this 13 episode season, we get 12 of those. More impressively, they stick the landing with episode 13.

Low Point

In the source material, “Benjamin Poindexter” was an alias used once for a character whose first name by birth is “Lester” and whose last name is unknown.

The Review

This feels original, even for an adaptation. Sure, it draws moments from the greatest comic book story of all time, as well as others I won’t link to for fear of spoilers, but it takes those themes and moments in very different directions that still feel right. The structure and pacing is dramatically different from the “slow build in a 12-13 hour movie” feel from the earlier Netflix seasons, and gave us a compelling story with 13 distinct parts. I give it 6 out of 6.

The effects are flawless. 6 out of 6.

The story is incredible. Absolutely riveting, compelling, and haunting. It really feels like they took their time to plan out or break the story beats and scenes for every episode of the entire season before they started a single script. It just fits together far too perfectly to be coincidence. This is one writing team assembling the same vision extraordinarily well. I give it 6 out of 6.

The acting is incredible in its ensemble. Elden Henson is great as Foggy, and yet somehow, he is still the weakest link in the cast. Everyone else simply personify their characters, while Henson is acting well enough to be the strongest member of the cast in almost any other series. I give it 6 out of 6.

The production is perfect. It’s a well honed team who know how to make the best of their locations, and how to shoot these action sequences. The first season is famous for its standout hallway fight. This doesn’t have a single standout sequence, because they looked at how high the bar was set in season one, and exceed that bar five or six times in this season, acclimating the audiences and denying us the ability to point to one single sequence that delivers to that level. I give it 6 out of 6.

The emotional response is unprecedented. I wrote rubrics to help me rate these shows, and the maximum score in this category is for a show that “completely controls my emotions through the entire runtime.” That is too limiting; this series haunted me when I wasn’t watching, whether I was at work or trying to sleep. For consistency, I cannot group this in with shows that have received a perfect score, so I have no choice but to give it the score of 7 out of 6.

Overall, this is not just my favourite season of Marvel’s Netflix shows, this is my favourite season of any television series I’ve ever seen. I give it 6 out of 6.

In total, Daredevil: Season Three receives 43 out of 42.

8 replies on ““Daredevil: Season Three” – TV Review”

  1. A 43 out of 42. Wild. I also tend to agree. This season really nailed it. You know it’s good when the best low point you can throw in is something that’s almost certainly meaningless to the vast majority of the viewers. :)

    I have to give them major credit for the early episodes where it wasn’t completely clear what Fisk was doing. That had me slightly confused even though I knew Fisk was evil. Then the steady drip of revelations began, on all sides. We got character development from good guys and bad guys alike. And a *competent* villain who could plausibly have won if events had gone just slightly differently.

  2. Blaine, I think you might have a bit of bias in this review. It was great, but you may have overpraised it.

    That said, it was overpraised by much. You are correct throughout. I watched this with my wife and mother-in-law (who was visiting at the time,) and my wife’s face at the Sister Maggie reveal was worth it. I knew who she was because I’ve read the comics, so I was able to watch for it. I was familiar with Dex’s comic counterpart, and while this ended up feeling like his comic counterpart by the end, it felt like a very original origin story for him that we never get in the comics. The best part was how believable everything about a guy who can’t miss felt.

  3. As much as I look forward to watching this and then reading all of your review, I doubt it will live up to a 7 out of 6 overall, or even a 6 for originality.

    If I agree with either of those scores after seeing it, I’ll buy you dinner.

    If my opinion hasn’t changed after seeing it, I get to call you a “squeeing fanboy” in a highly derisive tone. I might even include an emoji of a mocking nature.

    Bet?

  4. First,
    I would like to say that I really did enjoy Daredevil’s 3rd season.
    Zounds! It featured a tense plot, great acting, and thematic complexity.
    I do feel vindicated, however, in my feeling about this review.
    Seriously, it’s great– just not perfect.
    Adapting some established elements with new ones does not merit a 6/6.
    So, originality is less than 100%.
    Questionable plot decisions also occur.
    Even though this has been well-plotted, I put it below a 6 in Story.
    Excusing a few things, I can do.
    Ignoring that everyone should know the identify of Matt’s mother?
    Not commenting on problems surrounding the Kingpin’s sudden release?
    Granted the absurd Truther depth of the conspiracy and corruption,
    Fisk would still require significant court time to get free.
    And finally, I’d give it a 6/6 for emotional response, but I see
    No reason to go any higher.
    But, I consider it among Marvel’s best, alongside Jessica Jones’
    Opening season.
    You just won’t convince me it should receive 43/42.

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