Interesting pair of episodes today.
With Interest
The first one, the "St Patrick's Day" one felt, frankly, like a filler episode, and a "before the new showrunner episode" (which, to be fair, the new showrunner did kind of warn us about). We didn't learn anything at all about the characters (not even Matt), the plot wasn't progressed, there was zero Kingpin, and all it seemed to do was introduce Kamala Khan's slightly irritating-charming (is there a word for that?), deeply self-involved, somewhat cowardly and surprisingly unprofessional father, as a totally unnecessary and un-asked-for MCU link.
The episode also had weirdly cheesy/nasty morals/vibes, with the way the diamond was returned (and also who gives two shakes of a lamb's tail about some unidentified rich guy's - probably blood - diamond? It was at best probably stolen from refugees in WW2 or something anyway!), and with like, Daredevil scarring and crippling that robber for life for what, the grand crime of getting away with a piece of candy after not killing or hurting anyone at all? After surprisingly mildly threatening people? He didn't even seem to hand him in to the cops. That seemed very weird and out of character. Like why so vicious? Truly despicable oathbreaking criminals who have actually killed people, rather than inconvenienced them, often don't get half that from Daredevil. I suspect whoever wrote that scene didn't "get" Daredevil, and just thought hyperviolence against any and all criminals was his deal. Cargo-cult plotting. No wonder they removed the first showrunner entirely.
On the flip side, I did enjoy the immediately-identifiable Northern Irish accent on the lead robber, his use of "solicitor" instead of lawyer*, and also Charlie Cox did some nice voice work there (as did the cop). And the characterisation of the cop was weirdly good. Also I laughed at that joke too, even though I realized I'd heard it before as I did.
As noted The format was also different, not only no Kingpin, but no BB elements etc., and all in one location/time period, so I really strongly suspect this is one of the episode from before the new showrunner took over the show.
I previously thought they did two episodes because they were trying to get them out of the way before Andor. Now I am pretty sure it's because this episode was sufficiently weird-in-a-bad-way (despite some charming elements) that if we'd got just it, people would have been discussing it all week going "Wtf man?!" I presume they kept the episode either at the request of Disney/Marvel to link the MCU in more, or because it was quite together and charming in a couple of ways (insane violence notwithstanding - also the stairway fight was cool at least).
Also kind of a big plot hole, because isn't one of the robbers (the one with the shotgun in the bank) going to be all "The blind lawyer guy beat the ever-loving hell out of me!"? Which, I'm sorry, I've met cops, that story would spread like wildfire, even if they just thought it was funny/unbelievable. And they will know someone definitely beat him up (again this points to this being an "old" episode imo).
Excessive Force
Second episode back on track, great! Sharper writing (not that the dialogue/characterization was bad in the first one, it wasn't, just the plot and morals were weak/confused), faster pace, nice intercutting, much stronger ideas about the character and show, notably better music (!!!), albeit the villain is slightly ridiculous so far.
Tried a little too hard to tie it in to the previous episode, with the extreme convenience of one of the other hostages randomly being the mural-cleaning guy, and the hostage negotiator cop randomly being assigned to this crime (?!?), but like, I get it, you've got solid actors, you use them, and it makes things feel more intentional and less like they remade much of the series.
Only weak plot point in this episode was that assuming the blood was from "victims" was a completely irrational leap-of-logic from the cops without victim ids, which they explicitly don't have. The natural assumption would be stolen or volunteered blood (I could find you 60 New Yorkers willing to donate blood for an anti-capitalist art project in about an hour on Twitter lol). I mean, they're right, but it's completely irrational, because someone killing dozens of people would leave dozens of at least partially exsanguinated bodies, which would be a hell of thing, whereas it'd be very doable for someone working at blood bank or something to be half-inching some of the blood. Kingpin also 100% correct that if it is a serial killer, the fact that the sanitation department figured that out, not the NYPD speaks extremely poorly of the NYPD (especially if there are bloody 60+ victims! Good god!). The show has kind of shown the NYPD so far as largely incompetent, bloodthirsty, and deeply corrupt, but still seems to want us to be sympathetic to their chief? Like, why would we be?! Also really weird and convenient that Muse (lol what a name, goddamn it Marvel that's not what a muse is, I presume this one is on the comics) starts dropping bodies by his murals (not really "graffiti" on that scale!) the second he's discovered, but before it's actually publicly known. Muse also seems like kind of a Batman villain more than a Daredevil one, at least based on what we know so far. (Also how the heck did DD find him? Maybe that'll be revealed next week - I'll let it slide for the awesome "running out of the train lights" shot).
Random thoughts:
Angela (the kid) gets great lines and is a very convincing young actor.
Nice dropping in of El Aguila (edit: Swordsman, I guess! That kind of makes accidentally psychic though lol because has the show given us any way to connect the footage to the mustache guy? Am I mentally racially profiling mustache-accent white guys as sword-fighting vigilantes?) as one of the guys at Kingpin's function (and good use of him in the BB segment earlier). His actor isn't really quite hitting the right note to fit with the vibe though, hope that sharpens up if/when he appears more.
God Charlie Cox is a good actor, and has such vulnerability, he's so perfect for this role.
The "bad apple squad" thing is hilariously prescient, it'd be too on the nose if this wasn't written months ago. Appreciate the nuance at least one of them isn't drinking his own KoolAid and knows he's a bad person, so doesn't buy what Kingpin is selling (whereas the majority do).
Pretty sure you should take the weird blood extraction device OUT of someone BEFORE doing CPR mate. Or at least tourniquet above the device if you're scared to remove it.
* = For the word nerds only - Being real, I feel like that was a flourish - he would probably actually have said "lawyer", most people who aren't in the legal sector do and further the "twist your words" comment is more of a barrister thing than a solicitor thing - if he was a criminal who disliked lawyers because of court, it'd be barristers he'd have beef with - that would probably just have been really funny though because I think of a lot of Americans would have been like "Why is he mad with baristas? Did they get his name wrong at Starbucks?". So makes sense to avoid that.
