These are my favorite comics. Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist (and Luke Cage appears in each of them). These aren't just comics that I like a lot, in a subjective sense. These are among my best comics, objectively. The writing, the artwork, the social commentary, character building, all of it comes together with a degree of literary cohesion and sophistication that most comic books only dream of. The Brubaker/Fraction/Aja run on Iron Fist. The Bendis/Gaydos run on Jessica Jones. Countless Daredevil runs by way more than just Frank Miller. These are the jewels in my collection. And Netflix has made them into four shows. And now they put those shows together. Episode 1 Review "The H Word"Introductions. We touch base with each of our heroes in what can basically be considered spillover from their respective series. In case you can't follow along, they color code it for you. Daredevil's scenes are always bathed in dim crimson light while Jessica Jones is always shadowed in violet. Luke Cage has a sort of 70's golden vintage thing going on. And Iron Fist has some green. This is nice and all, but evokes too literal of a paint by number analogy. The writers are still checking off introductory boxes before the story really gets started and mostly it just devolves the characters into trite simplification. If you're new to these character (though I don't know why you'd watch this particular show otherwise) this does little to endear you to them or really explain what they can do or why. If you're not new to them, it's redundant and borderline boring. None of the characters meet. As such, it's a waste of an episode, and emblematic of the inherent structural shortcomings of each of the preceding shows (and most of Netflix's stuff in general). They take their binge-watching audience for granted and abuse the decompressed saga-style storytelling. They confuse what should be an opening scene with the entire opening episode. If the hook of the show is putting these disparate characters together, then Episode 1 should be a microcosm and at least conclude with the culmination of that promise (ie, they meet as a cliffhanger). Instead we watch them each meander through vague and peripheral subplots that are little more than a tedious form of delayed gratification. It masquerades as character building, but unlike most prestige television (Breaking Bad, OITNB, even Game of Thrones and the like) this is filler. Not an effective artistic examination of the human condition. To be clear, it doesn't fail because it's the superhero genre (or the noir-esque sub category therein), it fails for lack of pedigree. The depth just isn't there to justify the drudgery. If I submitted a novel with this kind of beginning, the editor would circle this whole first episode and put a red arrow at the end which states, "Start here instead." So it must suck pretty bad then huh? No, it's not as bad as all that. I liked seeing Foggy interact briefly with Cage even if it completely undermined the ending of his series (breaking Cage out in some dramatic fashion would'be been a much stronger opening episode and left an ominous cloud of suspense hanging over his unstable freedom that haunts his status quo all the way back to his own show). And I liked Murdock's struggle to convince himself he doesn't miss being Daredevil as he plays social justice warrior in the courtroom. Jessica Jones is likewise spot on with her perpetual hangover and refusal to grow or learn lessons. In mirroring the various shows that these characters are coming from, they mirror the same pros and cons that those shows had. In short, Iron Fist's scenes may be proportionately as dull and lifeless as his own show, but Jessica Jones is as snarky and pulpy as hers and that's a relief. Luke Cage is as vintage as ever. And Daredevil is once again the continued quality standout. His opening courtroom victory carried some real angst and internal conflict. No surprise, since Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez came over as showrunners from his series. But despite any more intimate familiarity they might hold with Daredevil's specific aesthetic, you'd never know the other characters' scenes weren't filmed by their own production teams. They know how to imitate all sides, they just didn't take the opportunity to improve on any of them. If you were a big fan of Jessica Jones, you'll be happy with some of her one liners. If you hated Iron Fist, well, you'll still hate Iron Fist. Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter and Rosario Dawson continue to carry the acting, with Sigourney Weaver to help remind us why most of the rest just aren't keeping up. Mike Colter, Elden Hensen and Jessica Henwick aren't so bad in my opinion either, they just haven't come into their own as much as they could. Really, it's Finn Jones holding them all down as Iron Fist again. The poor guy just can't compete, he shoulda never taken the part. Other than that, some bad guys talk ominously behind the scenes and a big earthquake happens at the end. The episode ends up being a disappointing status quo update that contributes little but B-material to slog through before getting to the show I came for, hopefully next episode... Episode 2 Review
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