Netflix released their brand new original TV show called Marvel’s Daredevil on Friday, April 10. The show focuses on the character Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), who is a lawyer by day and a crime fighting vigilante by night. Matt has a trait that separates him from the basic crime-fighting formula that has been seen many times. Matt Murdock is blind. This skill does not slow him down in the slightest, and in fact enables him to fight even better. He is able to hear, feel, smell and use all of his other senses much better than the average person. He is able to move around as if he can see, and he can even sense things about to happen because he can hear or feel them in the air, making beating up bad guys as simple as ever.

Matt is a lawyer at Nelson and Murdock, with his best friend, coworker and lawyer, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and their secretary Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll). The two lawyers are defense attorneys and wish to help this city by proving people innocent.

The show follows Matt, or as he is called in the show, Daredevil, and his mission to rid Hell’s Kitchen, New York of organized crime. He discovers that the Russians, Japanese and the mafia are all involved in a crime ring. He learns of the notorious crime-lord Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his plan to rebuild Hell’s Kitchen as a better city, in his own evil and twisted way. Fisk turns out to be extremely cruel and secretive, and it takes Daredevil about half the season to even learn his name.

Daredevil had much higher hopes as a TV show, especially a superhero one, because it is a Netflix original. Netflix originals, like House of Cards for example, are all praised by viewers and critics. Daredevil has proven to branch away from the typical superhero formula where the hero never tires from fighting, has relatively no physical competition, and has unrealistic technology allowing him to find and beat literally anyone. The hero Daredevil actually gets beaten up pretty badly multiple times in the show, and seems to become very fatigued in a lot of his fights; this may sound kind of lame for a superhero show, but it brings an essence of realism, which is lacking in other superhero shows. 

It also explores how sadistic criminals and mobsters can be, by going away from the mindless bankrobbers that would never hurt anyone unless forced to, and moving towards the ruthless criminals that will do anything to hold power, making some villains in the show truly evil and terrifying, which really justifies its TV-MA rating.

The acting in the show is also very good. Many superhero shows nowadays seem to pick actors for characters based more off of looks than acting ability. This may be because all heroes seem to be beautiful in the comics and the show wanted to follow that formula. However, Daredevil has chosen very good actors to play all the characters, making the show feel as real as ever. Daredevil is also very good at keeping small, realistic yet still gripping plots. There are no insanely powerful characters and no situations that would never happen in the real world.

Daredevil  has been able to capture an adult audience, which is a new front for Marvel. Their other TV shows have mostly been cartoons and have only captured the attention of children or teens, and this show, being much more violent and realistic, has been able to veer towards the adult viewing audience.

The show does a great job of showing what it really would be like to be a vigilante trying to take down the mafia, and being blind at the same time. The first season is all up on Netflix, and there is no news yet about the release of any other ones in the future. Rating: 9/10