What needed more time:
Karen:
I have such mixed opinions on Karen. On the one hand, I believe that Deborah Ann Woll more than held her own in her storyline, and her and Frank’s dynamic was so good you couldn’t help but wonder if the show didn’t at one point think that the best choice would be to pair those two off for the long haul and do the same for Matt and Elektra. The chemistry in those pairings speak volumes, and Karen’s belief in the law and its grayish hues aligned herself nicely with the Punisher.
I believed in the idea that she would make a good investigative reporter due to her gumption and willingness to throw herself into dangerous situations in order to uncover the truth. I just don’t believe in it happening so quickly. Maybe it’s the print journalist in me, but her getting her own (huge) office without having EVER being published pushed my limits of believability.
And again, that ending monologue as she writes her piece on Frank Castle was ludicrous. That wouldn’t get published – it was pure nonsense. But I am happy to see Karen’s storyline and back story unfolding, if only we’d had some of the developments spread out a bit more.
Matt’s reconciling himself as Daredevil:
We had already gotten Matt’s ascent into Hell’s Kitchen vigilante, but this season, as is the case with so many superhero shows, we got Matt (purposefully or not) pushing the people closest to him away as he disappeared further and further behind his mask. The show could have put some more effort into making that a smoother transition, rather than writing it in such an abrupt fashion that it makes his loyalties seem displaced as he comes off more like a jerk towards his friends than a hero.
We get a sense of where this storyline could have gone in Matt’s last real conversation with Elektra when he tells her that when he’s with her, he’s free, that without Daredevil he’s as good as dead. It’s as much, if not more, insight that we’ve gotten from the character all season long. Matt can be a closed off character to those around him without sacrificing character beats that help further explain who they are and where their motives derive from. At the end of the season, it felt like we knew Frank Castle and Elektra better than our leading hero because we got the chance to truly delve deep on these two immensely flawed characters. While we didn’t agree with every action they took at least it had been written to explain the why’s of the matter.
Meanwhile, Matt is written to avoid his friendships, job and any other forms of life but Daredevil by the time Elektra shows up, and considering he’d been managing to grapple both aspects of his life for five episodes prior, it comes off more as contrived writing to move the plot along than actual, natural writing.
Continue to page three for what were the greatest highlights of season two of Daredevil…
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