Red clad ninjas! And, um, not much else.
Daredevil s01e09: Speak of the Devil
Writer: Christos Gage & Ruth Fletcher Gage
Director: Nelson McCormick
Netflix
Quick Review: An episode that that has the masks of progress but really just feels obligatory. Hard to do a quick review because the everything that happens is a spoiler. A key “nothing can ever be the same episode” but also one that doesn’t live up to the events it portrays.
Analysis: A perfect example of be careful what you wish for. There was a ninja. The ninja wore red. I should deb excited but instead I feel relatively cheated. There was a cheapness (in terms of quality) about this episode that the others have so far lacked. This is very evident in the opening sequence. Compare it to the hallway fight from early on in the series. That was almost art. This was almost something out of Amreican Ninja 3.
All of the other elements felt similarly sleep-walked through. These were big, important events. The first real Daredevil/Kingpin fight. The death of not one but two supporting characters. Foggy and Matt. But all in all weight was not given to these events. They just sat there almost as if there was little effort into making the presentation engaging such was the faith in the content.
But I would disagree. Sure, the contents were big events. But they were also pretty standard events in this type of story. The hero was handed a defeat by the villain. The death of an elder (and in this case someone they were helping). Foggy feeling betrayed by a secret revealed. It just feels so standard. Also, Nobu died. But it doesn’t do much for me because all he ever amounted to was another disposable jerk bad guy. Sure, he was related to a mystery but it feels like that is just set-up for season 2. Maybe it won’t be, but I’d be a little surprised if it was brought back up. And that was the only reason I am sad about Nobu’s passing. If that is the only ninja action we get this season I will be disappointed it was such a waste.
Maybe I’m being overly harsh, but I felt that this was the first episode that has not lived up to the standards that the show set for itself. Hopefully it will be the only one.
Deadly Troubadour 