More Punisher, Less Elektra

The success of Daredevil’s first season paved the way for NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). to launch their whole line of shows leading up to The Defenders. A plan was put in place, and, in a way, it very much resembled the start of the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe.: create a first work that featured a fairly prominent superhero many might know. Follow it with a second hero’s work (in this case, the first season of Jessica Jones) before going back to the original hero for a second outing. It created some stability, reassurance that even if the second work wasn’t as well received, people knew their favorite hero would be back, doing their thing again.

Except unlike with the MCU films (which went Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and then Iron Man 2), the follow-up work (Jessica Jones) was maybe even better received on television than the second film work of the MCU. In a way this put more pressure on Daredevil. Now, with its second season, it didn’t have to just carry on the format and show there was continuing life for the television franchise; it actually had to try and rise to the occasion, and maybe even out perform, Jessica Jones. Iron Man 2 wasn’t great, but it was a damn sight better than The Incredible Hulk. Expectations were different for Daredevil, and the show had to prove it could handle the pressure.

Unfortunately, it felt like the series was unable to meet those expectations. While one half of the season was great (the part featuring The PunisherAn anti-hero who was never meant to be a hero in the same way as the Avengers, the Punisher has taken on his own life in pop-culture, but that doesn't change the troubling qualities to his characterization.) the other half of the season (everything about The Hand and Elektra) is pretty terrible. The two halves, despite more-or-less running concurrently, don’t really tie together at all and feel like they were mashed in because the season needed to be 13-episodes long and also somehow set up The Defenders. It tries very hard to handle all that, but the pressure of living up to expectations, plus all the other needs placed upon it, causes the season to buckle. It’s not a terrible season of television, but in comparison to both its first season, as well as the first season of Jessica Jones as well, it’s nowhere near good enough.

The season opens with a series of violent attacks of gangs in the city. It seems like a group of trained soldiers is going around and killing violent criminals all over town. New York opinion polls are split as these are dozens upon dozens of murders but, at the same time, they seem to only be striking the worst of the worst. But then it’s revealed that it’s not the work of a whole group of people but one man, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), on a quest to avenge his family who were caught in the crossfire of a gangland shooting. Frank, dubbed “The Punisher” in the press, wants every criminal dead, but people worry that violence like this could spread.

Sucked into the middle of this is Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), who, as Daredevil, wants to try and stop the so-called “Punisher”. However, as a lawyer he knows that Frank, once arrested, deserves a fair trial. He gets his office, Nelson and Murdock, involved in the case, taking up Frank’s defense when the Punisher is finally taken into custody. But then his attention is split when an old flame, Elektra Natchios (Élodie Yung), comes back into town. This leaves the pressure of the Punisher case on Matt’s associates, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), because Elektra isn’t just back for a little romance; she’s here to fight The Hand, a secret group of ninjas who have very evil plans for NYC… and maybe the whole world.

Immediately it’s obvious that Frank’s story, which dominates the first five or so episodes of the season, has very little to do with Elektra’s story. She’s there to battle ninjas and fight for the fate of the world. Frank wants to take out street-level criminals and get revenge. Their plotlines have nothing to do with each other, especially because the season doesn’t, in any way, connect the criminal organizations behind each of their stories, meaning that not only is Matt’s attention split between two completely separate paths, but so is the show’s.

It also doesn’t help matters that Frank’s story is far more interesting than Elektra’s. Frank’s story is grounded and immediately interesting. Love, loss, and revenge are all very easy to grasp concepts, palpable in a person’s mind. We don’t need a lot of explanation, all we need is action and characters looking at the carnage afterwards and we understand everything that’s going on. Frank’s story works, and that’s even before we get into Bernthal’s fantastic performance (which would go on to become the iconic live-action Punisher going forward). We’re sucked into Frank’s story, and could honestly have spent thirteen episodes just tracking him alone (which is likely why he got his own spin-off series).

Elektra’s story, by comparison, is hobbled on multiple fronts. The first is that it doesn’t have the same kind of immediacy as Frank’s story. She is in NYC to fight ninjas for reasons that the series never clearly defines. They want some kind of McGuffin, she and Matt sort of find out what they’re up to, but they never get a clear understanding of what’s going on or why The Hand have to be here. Their grand scheme never comes into focus, in part because this isn’t a story that can even resolve itself here; this season is forced to set up the storyline for The Defenders, meaning much of the season’s run time is actually spent on a story that can’t complete itself during the season. It’s frustrating, and it leaves Elektra’s story feeling pretty empty.

Unfortunately, as a character Elektra is pretty awful. She’s introduced as a trust fund baby just looking for fun, then she’s given a story where she’s a bad influence on Matt, trying to push him down a dark path. She’s temptation in human form, which could work if she were written well and portrayed properly, but she’s not. The writers never get a firm grasp on her character, letting her careen wildly through the season as tiny drips and drabs of her character are doled out. This puts a lot of pressure on Élodie Yung to carry the character and she’s just not able to. Her Elektra feels underbaked, like the actress doesn’t have a firm grasp on her (which makes sense since the season doesn’t, either), and her performance never comes into focus.

What really should have been done is that the setup for The Defenders should have happened elsewhere… maybe in the first season of The Defenders. It would have been fine to introduce Elektra here, in Daredevil, but most of her storyline (battling The Hand, et al) should have been relegated elsewhere. Let her just be a character in Matt’s life, a vigilante he once knew who could tempt him away from his life as a lawyer, his romance with Karen Page (which is another storyline that’s underserved this season), and everything he’s built for himself. Then, when The Hand make themselves known, The Defenders could tackle that problem together without other distractions getting in the way. Meanwhile, this season of Daredevil could have better focused on The Punisher, showing different perspectives on being a vigilante (Matt, Elektra, and Frank) to better unite a single, focused theme.

Daredevil season two tries to do too much, pulling into too many characters, too many ideas, without having enough focus to really sell all that it’s doing. It can’t just be a season of Daredevil; it also has to be a bridge to what comes next, and because of that everything that isn’t just about Matt and his mission feels underbaked and superfluous. This season should have just been about the Punisher, and because it wasn’t we get one half of a good season mixed with a lot of crap that’s just tedious to watch.

And, unfortunately, this would end up creating shaky ground for the eventual crossover to come. Although we’re getting ahead of ourselves there as we still have two more shows to cover first…