The Devil of Hell’s kitchen is back for a new exciting season

By Matthew Renton, '20

I’ll be upfront about this before I go on with the rest of the review: I am a major fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I don’t love everything it has done (I thought The Defenders was total crap and Thor: The Dark World was unwatchable) and I don’t believe that being a fan impedes my ability to review the show, but I will admit to having a bias that I believe my readers should be aware of when reading this review.

The main question on everybody's mind after the end of The Defenders was “how in the hell did Matt survive a building falling on his head?” And the answer to that question is simple: he just did. Very little explanation is given; indeed, very little is connected to The Defenders at all. While some may view this as poor storytelling or world-building, I see it as a breath of fresh air. The only information you need to know from The Defenders in order to jump straight into Daredevil season 3 is that a building fell on Matt. If Matt had been beaten a little more badly at the end of season 2, it would be entirely possible to skip The Defenders and jump straight into the new season.

Jumping into the season, the heavy themes became clear, including the loss of faith, the ability of those in power to deceive, and the question of doing the right thing in morally gray areas. Thankfully, these themes are rarely discussed in pure dialogue, as the writers have chosen to show the characters acting these themes out within the story, saving the show from becoming a philosophy lecture.

Alongside these heavy themes are the action scenes Daredevil has become well-known for. Once again, the directors have tried to top the now-famous hallway fight from season 1 as they did with the stairwell sequence from season 2, which I (unpopularly, I imagine) believe they succeeded in doing this time.

This season also introduces a new villain, who has an episode with about 20 minutes of backstory dedicated to them that, quite frankly, gave me goosebumps.

However, another established character is given almost an entire episode of backstory that dragged the otherwise fast pace of the show to a snail’s crawl, not ruining the show, but certainly killing the momentum of the build-up to a fantastic climax.

Having said this, all of the returning cast certainly brought their A-game to the show (Vincent D’Onofrio was stellar as The Kingpin, as usual) even in spite of some of the flaws in the writing.

Overall, I thought Daredevil season 3 did a great job of washing the sour taste of The Defenders out of my mouth. Though not quite as tight as the first season, season 3 was a thrilling ride filled with complex themes, brilliant action sequences, and some incredible character development, though not without its flaws, especially in slower episodes that appear to be just fillers.