Daredevil: Season 3 — a review

Yes, I’ve heard about what’s going on with most of the Marvel shows on Netflix. I plan to write a separate post about that. This one is a review of the third season of Daredevil.

Matt Murdock/Daredevil was killed during the collapse of Midland Circle in last year’s Defenders. Well, we, the viewers, knew he wasn’t killed, but everyone else in the Netflix Marvel world thought he was. Since that happened, we’ve had another great season of Jessica Jones, a second season of Luke Cage that wasn’t quite as good as the first, and a second season of Iron Fist that was an improvement over its first. And, all the characters in these shows thought Murdock was dead. Foggy Nelson and Karen Page thought he was dead, even at the beginning of this season.

This season demonstrates once again why Daredevil is the flagship series of Netflix’s adventures in Marvel-land. Not only is Daredevil back, but so is The Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, and we’re introduced to Ben “Dex” Poindexter, the FBI agent who is becoming Bullseye. Other new characters are FBI agent Ray Nadeem, who finds himself caught in Fisk’s web, and Sister Maggie, a nun at the orphanage where Matt grew up. Agent Nadeem is a character who evokes both sympathy and anger, and, in hindsight, his story couldn’t have ended any other way. Sister Maggie nurses Matt back to health, but she has a secret connection to Matt that was a surprise to everyone, including me and including Matt.

Wilson Fisk proves, once again, that he is the greatest of all the villains introduced on these series. While he is an imposing figure of barely contained (and sometimes not contained) fury, he proves to be most dangerous as a criminal strategist. He always seems to be a couple of steps ahead of our heroes, above the law. The way that Fisk manipulates others, especially Agent Nadeem and our future Bullseye, is impressive. His actions effectively show how such a man could become a criminal mastermind and kingpin.

Matt is trying to protect his friends by not letting them know that he’s alive. Of course, this doesn’t last for long. Matt, Foggy and Karen are reunited, of course. Along the way, we find out more about Karen’s past, and Foggy runs for DA on an anti-Fisk platform. Dex Poindexter begins to masquerade as Daredevil, while Matt wears a black mask and outfit while continuing to fight crime.

The fight scenes in this season were all top notch. The story was always engaging. I’ve read complaints that Agent Nadeem was given too much screen time. I don’t think I agree with this. Nadeem was a very important character in the season, sometimes serving as the viewer surrogate. His is the story of how good men can be seduced into doing bad things. He is hero and villain in equal measures in this story, and the end of his story arc, while somewhat unsettling, passes the smell test. It’s plausible.

I think I liked this season even more than the first two. The ending of the season promises more to come.

I hope that promise is somehow kept.