The 10 Best Scenes from Netflix’ Daredevil

The 10 Best Scenes from Netflix’ Daredevil

By Rick Olivares

Since Netflix released the entire 13-episode first season run of Daredevil on the Internet, the response has been positively overwhelming. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported a 97% approval rating; a far better cry than the Ben Affleck film that came out in 2003.

This drama, legal, and action series is one of the surprise break out hits of this year (very much like Marvel’s film of Guardians of the Galaxy). And here are my 10 best scenes from the first season.

1. Hallway Fight scene (Episode 2)

Vigilante Matt Murdock takes on the Russian mob in a single-take hallway fight scene eerily reminiscent of Korean film, Oldboy. In this fight scene, I love how it shows that Matt is just an ordinary Joe who doesn’t have superhuman strength or any powers. He gets his share of beatings and… gets tired. Have you ever seen this in another fight scene anywhere else?

2. Wilson Fisk brutally beats Russian mobster Anatoly to death then cracks his head open like a melon by crushing him with a car door.  (Episode 4)

Bloody hell.

3. Foggy tells off Marcy at the building lobby (Episode 5)

Marci Stahl, a former classmate of Matt and Foggy's who works for a firm that represents the Kingpin tells Foggy and Karen Page that their client (Mrs. Elena Cardenas and her co-tenants) they can take a pay off or leave without taking them. Foggy’s riposte is highly quotable: “See you in court where I will  absolutely dismantle you (Marci) from the top of your salon blowout to the bottom of your over priced pumps.”

Whoever said that Foggy Nelson is here for comedy relief or some buffoonish sidekick to Matt Murdock?

4. Matt lays the smackdown on four crooked cops who have been sent to eliminate Vladimir.

He throws one cop down face first knocking out some teeth. (Episode 6)

5. Eating ice cream with Stick in the park (Episode 7)

Casting Scott Glenn is a home run out of the park for this. Been a fan of Glenn since I saw him in Wild Geese. He’s got that gruff attitude of Stick down pat. It’s like Frank Miller’s creation emerged from the comic book page. This scene where he puts Matt’s heightened senses in its proper perspective is just awesome.

6. Wilson Fisk beats his father to death with a hammer (Episode 8)

Fisk’s first murder is different in filmdom as opposed to comics continuity. In the four-colored pages, Fisk fights off one of the bookies with a hammer and the sparks in an otherwise delicate location set off some sparks that light a fire and burn the baddie to death. As Fisk said in Last Rites (written by Dan Chichester and drawn by Lee Weeks in Daredevil #297-300) that is some sort of sequel to Frank Miller’s DD tour de force in the “Born Again” saga, “when a little blood on one’s hands was the mark of success.” In the Netflix version, he goes hammertime on his abusive father who is beating up Wilson’s mother.

7. Matt’s battle with Nobu. Lears to use his billy club when fighting (Episode 9)

Nobu. Black Sky. Stick. Could the Hand be far behind once this series resumes? Love the battle as Matt finally uses his sticks (later on his billy club) to ricochet at certain angles.

8. Foggy unmasks Matt and they verbally spar for a long time (Episode 10)

The avocados at law (an in-joke that you will have to watch to understand) argue after Foggy learns the truth about Matt’s dual life. It threatens to unmake their burgeoning law firm. But you know the saying, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

9. A morose Fisk sits next to the corpse of his lieutenant Wesley then kisses him on the forehead. (Episode 12)

The web series succeeded in some way that the comic book could never get me to do – feel a tad sympathetic to Fisk. It’s a surreal moment when Fisk sits next to the bullet-riddled body of his closest confidante and “friend.” He beats up Francis, one of Wesley’s “men” after he followed orders and allowed the Kingpin’s lieutenant to go off on his own. Then Fisk kisses Wesley on the forehead.

10. The final battle between Matt – now wearing his Daredevil garb as made by Melvin Potter (the Gladiator) and Fisk. (Episode 13)

A brutal battle ensues when Matt seeks to collar the Kingpin who is making a run for it after his hired goons spring him from police custody. Matt returns the favor after the beatdown he received from the Kingpin in Episode 9. The resulting tete-a-tete is sumptuous at the climax of the battle shows the two characters’ battle for turf:

Matt/Daredevil: This is my city. My family.

Fisk: Do you think one man in a silly little costume will make a difference?

Matt kicks Fisk’s teeth in.

And to the arresting Officer Mahoney: I told you before Sergeant, I am not the bad guy.