Minor spoilers ahead.
I started watching season 2 of Daredevil yesterday. 13 episodes and a wave of immediate withdrawal symptoms later, here I am writing a review because who needs sleep, right?
Season 2, in a nutshell, is exactly what you’d expect. We know who Matt Murdock is by now. This season is about Daredevil, his double-life and his methods.
Which leads us straight into Punisher, who has a very different standpoint on killing. In that he does it. Like, a lot. Jon Bernthal is perfect as Frank Castle, who is murdering his way to the truth about what happened to his family.
That is, until he is saved by Daredevil, and then beaten by Daredevil, and then basically arrested by Daredevil. So who better to represent him in trial than lawyer Matt Murdock? Who is Daredevil, by the way.
Matt convinces Foggy and Karen to represent Castle, who will be sent to death otherwise and Matt is against people dying and stuff, and during their preparations, Matt and Karen start getting close.
Enter Elektra. Now this is where things start getting messy. Elektra isn’t the problem though. Once you get past her accent (which is best described as a hybrid of every single accent on the planet), Elodie Yung looks and, more importantly, fights like Elektra, and watching her and Daredevil fight together is all we wanted it to be.
The problem is that Elektra’s introduction reverses all that was great about the first few episodes: she pushes Punisher, whose only involvement for a good few episodes is him walking in and out of a courtroom, to the sidelines, and she comes between Matt and Karen just as things are starting to work out for them.
Punisher escapes from prison with the help of Wilson Fisk, who is there to remind us all of the pros of having one, overarching villain, and then Elektra returns to the forefront to end out the season. See what I mean? Messy.
The sad truth is, Punisher isn’t necessary to this season. He and Elektra barely cross paths, have the same lust for killing, and this is Elektra’s season, given that the finale is a fight for her freedom.
Everything Punisher does could have been worked so that Elektra does them instead, and a full Punisher arc could have been saved for a third season.
His appearance in the finale, as Daredevil and Elektra fight Nobu, who sort of came out of nowhere to become the season’s big bad, is only half satisfying. It’s amazing to see him in full Punisher gear, but his involvement could have been so much more if he weren’t shut out mid way through the season.
Right until this final fight, the choreography lives up to expectations. The season doesn’t have a one-shot hallway sequence like the previous one, but it doesn’t need one. It manages to come up with new ways to keep the fights interesting every time, and the introduction of Daredevil’s baton changed the game late on.
Season 2 is every bit as binge-watchy as season 1 was – and a word for Charlie Cox, who upped his game for Daredevil, even more so for Matt Murdock – but it doesn’t flow quite as well.
Punisher and Elektra are well-cast, and they’re well-used for the time they’re on screen. Maybe they cut into each other’s screen time a little too much, but when your main flaw is that there isn’t enough Punisher, you know that you still got some Punisher. And that’s enough.
Daredevil is expected to return for a third season. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist will team up for Netflix’s The Defenders, once each of the characters has their own series.
