The marketing blitz for Marvel’s forthcoming Netflix series Daredevil has alluded to the show’s gritty, realistic take on the classic comic. The tale of blind lawyer Matt Murdock’s transformation into the crime-fighting Daredevil flopped in the 2003 big screen adaptation, but by and large the small screen renovation looks set to sidestep the errors which befell the feature.
And that hopeful assessment appears to be exactly what’s in store when the series lands next week. A series of early reviews have hit the web and for the most part, they weigh heavily on the positive aspects of the show.
Check out a handful of those advance notices below (via Indiewire):
Matt Patches, Esquire: “”Daredevil” is Marvel After Dark, violent, morally hazy, and peppered with cusses — closer to HBO’s animated “Spawn” series than anything that’s come before it. The show forsakes the Walt Disney Pictures logo for a reason.”
Kevin Fitzpatrick, ScreenCrush: “”Daredevil” marks a much darker corner of the Marvel cinematic universe, that while entirely its own entity as a crime drama, still works in enough odd references to familiar events (and with far less thud than “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) to feel comfortably familiar in a superhero’s world.”
Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: “What’s most encouraging is that the show’s sometimes punishing seriousness seems to rise from a love of the character’s hard-to-swallow aspects rather than a fear of them: Goddard and company seem to be building up to them rather than taking them as a given. I look forward to seeing what their Daredevil’s like when they get him there.”
Victoria McNally, MTV: “If the rest of the series is as riveting as these first few episodes, you’re going to be on the edge of your seat the entire time.”
Eric Eisenberg, Cinema Blend: “I was blown away with what it had to offer to both fans and the broader spectrum of the ever-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe. Really more serial crime drama than superhero show… Armed with a cadre of awesome performances and intensely tight arcs that constantly build on the compounding narrative, it’s intense, beautiful, and feels surprisingly fresh.”
In nine days, the rest of the world – well, those with Netflix subscriptions – will be able to digest all 13 episodes of Daredevil‘s first season in their entirety. If that’s still too long a wait, then feast your eyes on a couple of brand new TV spots that crept online earlier today. Covering ground previously tapped in other trailers (and the first spot that hit this week), there’s still enough unseen footage for eagle-eyed fans to dissect.
You can check out both of the clips below and catch the whole season on Netflix April 10.
“Marvel’s Daredevil” follows the journey of Matt Murdock, who was blinded as a young boy but imbued with extraordinary senses, now fighting against injustice by day as a lawyer, and by night as the super hero Daredevil in modern day Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. The series stars Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson with Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk.
Marvel’s first original series on Netflix is Executive Produced by series Showrunner Steven S. DeKnight (“Spartacus,” “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer,” “Angel”) and Drew Goddard (“Cabin in the Woods,” “Lost,” “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” in addition to writing the first two episodes of “Marvel’s Daredevil”), along with Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Marvel’s Agent Carter,” “Lost”).