Grumpy Bird Reviews: Daredevil s02e13 A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen

Well, this is it. The last episode of Daredevil. I started off loving this season and slowly that praise lessened. Did the last episode pull it off and end on a high note? Read and find out!

Daredevil s03e13: A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen

Director: Peter Hoar

Writers: Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez

Netflix

Quick Review:

I’m really of mixed feelings here. While I do think this episode was better than the last several, I also think that much was relying on the emotional investment that the early episodes established. That, to me, those episodes were lacking kept this episode from delivering the punch that it was hoping to. That it assembled the five main characters as witness to the final conflict did feel more shoehorned than I would have liked.

Spoilers Lurk Below.

Analysis:

The big failing of this episode was that it didn’t win me over enough to have me accept little coincidences. This includes Karen being involved in the final conflict and especially Frank’s appearance. Neither of these are big things, but rather than accepting I found myself challenging these moves. Because the show hadn’t won me over and because these inclusions were ultimately unnecessary.

For the fight scenes, we are at last not in a long corridor and that alone is a breath of fresh air. There are some great moments of Darrdevil and Elektra fighting as a team. This was a fun watch but ultimately cut too short as they split opponents and rather than being a big brawl there were effectively two fights going on next to each other.

But the big point between Daredevil and Elektra was that this was the first episode that I felt something between these two. Until know I never really bought into this relationship. This was the first inkling of true feeling. Sadly it was the last episode so what should have been an emotional ride merited a mere “Huh, maybe they did have something.”

At the end I’m still not sure if what the Hand wanted outside of Elektra and to win. Nobu was never an engaging villain in the way that I was interested in Kingpin or Madame Gao (who to me has possibly been the most interesting villain.) Having the Hand being led by Generic Villain to accomplish Evil doesn’t really make for a compelling feud.

Plus having the show almost end on the groan worthy Everyone is Heroic, not so good.

Wrap Up:

As a whole I don’t know what to say about this series. Those opening episodes had me in. But the rest of the series was a slow slide to average. Maybe it was damned by high expectations, but ultimately season 2 was a disappointment.