Daredevil Season 1

Daredevil is the first of Marvel's Netflix series, that are a grittier take on supposedly the same universe as their movies. Far grittier in terms of content anyways, but this is also compared to superheroes series in general which have been pretty light in the past. This also stands in contrast to the downright terrible Daredevil solo film, that did no justice to the material. This is considerably better than that film, and is far more faithful to the source material. I think though that has given the series far too much credit overall though. Not that this is a terrible series but it is deeply flawed one at times. Watching so many shows these days, unlike many in the past, you just assume there will be at the very good performances to watch. Well that's not quite the case. There are many amateurish performances throughout and not just in side roles. Both Deborah Ann Woll and especially Eldon Henson leave much to be desired in their pivotal roles as Daredevil aka Matt Murdock's closest confidants. Now Murdock himself is reasonably well played by Cox, though I will say his performance works best depending on who he shares with. The series most lauded performance was Vincent D'Onofrio aka Wilson Fisk, though I found his mannerism got tired quickly and felt his work lacked the needed menace. There are good performances though, again Cox as well as Vondie Curtis-Hall and Scott Glenn, but it really isn't norm. Now an element that is impressive is the action, particularly within budget, and those scenes work well. What strings them together though stumbles often in its plotting that involves characters repetitious going over their individual conflicts again and again, sometimes through clunky dialogue, with the occasional terrible comedic moment thrown in now again. That isn't every scene or episode though, there is decent writing to be found but never great. It does at least deliver Frank Miller's Daredevil more or less from the comics, the action is very good, it is considerably better than some of its predecessors, but that does not make it a great series. 
3/5