In Review: Daredevil Season Three

Synopsis: Shattered physically and spiritually after barely surviving the events of ‘Defenders’ Matt Murdock finds himself questioning his purpose. Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin puts a plan into motion, which will see him retake New York.

Review: After what felt to many like a very uneven second season, which kind of tried to do too much by having both a Punisher and Electra storyline. The third season of Daredevil gets back to the basic nuts and bolts of giving viewers the complex psychological drama, which made the shows first season so successful and uses elements of the ‘Man Without Fear’ storyline from the comics to do so.

The Story

Season three opens up with Matt Murdock at an absolute low point. He’s hiding out at the Church where he is taking counsel from Sister Maggie who is played brilliantly by Joanne Whalley. Everyone in New York believes Daredevil and Matt Murdock to be dead, and the fractured man hiding out in the Church would rather it stay that way.

Elsewhere, FBI agent Ray Nadeem has found a way to get Fisk to sell out other criminals, but it winds up being a tad too good to be true as the tide slowly turns against Nadeem, who is little more than a pawn in a very well thought out scheme.

The Acting

We have some wonderful performances in this season, which makes it really difficult to point out one. While Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, and Vincent D’Onofrio  were all fantastic and gave great performances. I really liked what was done with the character of Benjamin ‘Dex’ Poindexter, who was played brilliantly by Wilson Bethel. Poindexter is looking to be the origins of Bullseye, but we do not see him become that in the series, but the signs are definitely there.

I really enjoyed how Bethel’s character was written and thought the actor did a wonderful job of slowly showing us the journey that Poindexter is on.

D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Fisk is as layered as ever and we get to see the many complex sides of the criminal mastermind as he slowly pulls the levers of his plan. He’s playing the long game.

Cox does a wonderful job of showing us Murdock’s journey out of self-loathing to the point where he retakes the mantle of not just Daredevil, but that of Matt Murdock Lawyer for the needy. I really enjoyed Cox’s scenes with Sister Maggie, who is part of a fantastic twist in the story towards the end of the season.

Overall

With its complex storytelling, fantastic character beats and unbelievable human drama. Daredevil season 3 brings back the formula that made the shows first season so successful. But also manages to improve the formula by adding a few new characters for us to fall in love with.

The season ends on an upbeat note with Foggy and Matt’s friendship very much repaired, but we are also left with a looming threat and some unfinished business, which leaves things open should Netflix decide to give us a fourth season.