Daredevil: Recap Episode 1 **SPOILERS**

Netflix’s Daredevil released today. All 13 episodes have been released and now it is time to binge watch. Although I would love to watch all the episodes right now, I do need to sleep so I will only be posting on the first episode right now with the rest hopefully to follow very soon. Remember this post will include spoilers.

Ep1: Into the Ring

The show starts off with our introduction to how Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox) lost his sight. A tragic car accident where we learn Matt saved the life of an older man and put himself at risk and because of that lost his eye sight.

Jump to present day with Matt Murdoch at confession talking about his father being a boxer and how he wasn’t very good but sometimes he would change and become enraged and start to win. Matt understands the feeling of becoming uncontrollably enraged and tells the priest he doesn’t want forgiveness for his past actions but for those he has yet to commit.

Faith is a huge running theme in the Daredevil. The idea of right and wrong and what is true justice constantly come into play. It begins to affect Murdoch’s morals and what he begins to see as just.

We then see Matt dressed up in an all black outfit and a full mask covering his face and eyes as he is about to fight. He fights off a terrible group of men who are trying to lock a group of women in a shipping crate. A crazy bad-ass fight scene occurs. A lot of hand to hand combat. What is cool is the subtle way the show has the Daredevil use his other senses to notice what is around him and defend himself. It helps him hear the cocking of a gun and avoid being shot.

If this is any indication of the fight scenes to occur on the show then this show is gonna be incredible.

The title then plays. Beautiful opening sequence revealing some of Hell’s Kitchen and the Daredevil but almost being covered in a blood like substance which is extremely artistic and befitting of the show.

We wake up with Matt Murdoch after the rough night and are introduced to his law firm partner Foggy Nelson.

He seems to be the comic relief for the show. The show is clearly very dark and any comic relief will allow the audience to have a break from the intensity that occurs during the show.

We then see Karen Page covered in blood standing over a dead body with a bloody knife in her hand. She is then arrested by cops and taken to the police precinct. Nelson and Murdoch meet with Miss Page because their firm has no clients and they are desperate for any one. Although she can’t afford it Matt still wants to take on her case. He decides this based on his heightened sense of hearing where he hears her heat pounding out of her chest. He uses that sense as a lie detector.

In the next scene, we learn that a bookie has retired and all his books and accounts have been acquired by a new man. This new man is clearly very powerful and is willing to do anything to get what he wants. He threatens to kill a man’s daughter if he does not do what he is told.

Murdoch and Nelson attempt to come up with a plan to help Karen. Murdoch is still confused as to why Karen wasn’t being charged with the murder. She was just being held in her cell. Meanwhile in Karen’s cell we see the man whose daughter was threatened and see that he is a cop. He enters her cell and attempts to strangle her with a bed sheet and murder her. Karen manages to escape and scream for help.

Nelson and Murdoch get her out of jail. Karen reveals she was the secretary for the chief accountant at a company. She came across a file with a lot of money that was being transferred and embezzled. She revealed it to her boss and to the man who was murdered in her apartment. She meets with that man for drinks to discuss what happened and she was drugged and then all she remembered was waking up and he was dead. Matt offers to have her stay at his apartment for the night as a means to protect her and keep her at ease.

The direction of the show and the cinematography is just beautiful The colors are gritty but dynamic. The lighting choices create such raw emotion and reflect the world around the characters.

Back at the apartment Matt begins to ask Karen about her situation and he offers up a theory that Karen must have something that the company must want since they didn’t kill her at first. He asks her is she kept the file she saw and she claims no but he can hear her heart racing which is a sign that she is lying.

We move over to the man who made the threats earlier. He is meeting with a group of people and they discuss what happened in the first scene. They talk about how one man fought off the men and he is a vigilante.

A small wink to the Hulk seems to have been made when one of the men says that opportunity arises for profit everytime a vigilante steps up or someone punches a person through a wall.

In the middle of the night, Karen heads back to her apartment to retrieve the file she stole. She is attacked in the apartment but the Daredevil shows up to save her. Another incredible fight scene with moves not seen in a series before. The Daredevil and the bad-guy fall out the apartment window down to the ground.

A flashback is shown to Matt with his father. It shows their strong connection and the influence that his father still has on him today.

We continue the intense fight scene in a dark alley in the middle of the rain. The show uses a lot of acrobatic fight moves and slow motion to help us interact with the Daredevil and understand how he thinks. The Daredevil defeats the man and leaves him infant of the police precinct.

The man making the threats earlier is now in a car talking to his employer. He reveals that although their plans were thwarted they are still ahead of the game and this won’t slow them down. The man also says that he tied up all the loose ends except the man in the mask who seems to be getting in the way, the Daredevil. The cop who tried to kill Karen is dead as well as the man who framed Karen for murder.

Karen offers to pay back Nelson and Murdoch by working for them as an assistant for free. Jump to Matt working out at the gym with a montage of all the terrible crimes occurring in Hell’s Kitchen. It features many elite characters who will come into play very soon. One is a small asian woman who seems to be running a cocaine ring with workers who are blind, another with a group of people handing out guns and also a mugging and a kidnapping. We see Matt standing at the top of a building dressed in his black crime-fighting outfit and listening to the noises around him. His heightened sense of hearing hones in on the boy being kidnapped and his lowers his mask to spring into action.

This pilot was exceptional. The cast is superb, the direction is incredible and the story was perfect. It offered a great origin story that is still being developed. The smart writing and timing within the show are what will make the show last. It isn’t just a comic book tv show, it is a dark drama that deals with issues of real life and relatable scenarios. The fight and action scenes are just the icing on the cake that is a fantastic production. I just wish I could stay up for the rest of the episodes. Till tomorrow then.
Check out recaps for episodes 2-4 l 5-7 l 8-10 l 11-13