The May 27, 2022 installment of Jake Schoeneberger’s random entertainment opinions
As Stranger Things 4 and Kenobi hang in the horizon, I wanted to make sure I got through season one of Daredevil before I started two new series. Everything about Daredevil has been an absolute joy to watch. The show is riveting, the actors are awesome, and the scenes are consistently tense. They’ve perfectly captured the soul of this character.
With that in mind, here are some random thoughts about the entertainment I’m currently consuming.
This Installment’s Edition of Jacob Schoeneberger Has Been Living Under a Rock Features: Daredevil
*This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.*
The 12th episode begins with Karen throwing the gun into the river. She then dreams of seeing Fisk come to her and tell her about how it gets easier the more you kill. It will be hard for Karen to live with what she’s done, but at this point no one knows she’s done it. We’ll see if Fisk can begin to piece things together based on Wesley talking to his mother.
Fisk actually beats one of his own men because he allowed Wesley to go to the meeting alone. We can see Fisk slowly becoming darker and darker. Now that Vanessa was poisoned and Wesley is dead, Fisk will be on the warpath. Leland keeps insisting he feels this was the work of the Japanese in retaliation for Nobu, but he’s still the only one who has spoken to Gao, so it’s still possible Gao and Leland are moving against Fisk.
Foggy showing Marcy the files he has on Fisk was a smart move. Now he has an inside person within Fisk’s own law firm. He even tells Marcy she could get her soul back by helping.
This show does a remarkable job of showing the balance of power between good and evil, and bringing spiritual and religious themes into play. Even Matt wonders why God made him with the devil inside him. An alternate spelling of Daredevil is Dared Evil. So every character, even the show’s protagonist, must walk that thin line between good and evil.
Two very dramatic moments come in quick succession when Fisk talks to his mother, but she can’t recall that she told Wesley about Karen. Then Ben gets fired for trying to run his article about Fisk in the paper. He asks his editor how much Fisk is paying him to keep the truth out of the paper. It’s another example of how Fisk has his tentacles into every corner of the city.
When Daredevil infiltrates Gao’s heroin operation where she has blind people working for her, I was not expecting her to land a punch as hard as she did, knocking Daredevil across the room. Gao is full of surprises and now it seems pretty obvious she did move against Fisk.
And just one scene later this is confirmed when she meets with Leland. It’s intriguing when she says she doesn’t actually care about the heroin though, it seems she has bigger plans in NY. And when she says she’s returning to her homeland to reflect upon the future, Leland asks if she means China and she says, “It’s a good distance further.” Well, that line has Jacob Schoeneberger scratching his head a bit. Not many places on Earth are a good distance farther away from NY than China. So where’s Gao from?
Jaw-dropping and heartbreaking scene to end the episode when Fisk shows up at Ben’s house just as Ben is going to break his story on the internet. From the moment we see Fisk we know Ben’s time is up but that doesn’t decrease the drama and emotion when Fisk does kill Ben. Every viewer identifies with Ben. He represents a time when we all felt we had good reporters and journalists out there on the street asking the hard questions and following leads in order to bring us the truth. Now we live in an age of misinformation and disinformation, and we don’t know who we can trust to bring us facts. Ben represented those facts and it’s very hard to watch him die. In a way, watching Ben die is like watching truth die.
The season finale opens at Ben’s funeral and it hits the heart pretty hard. He’s a character that will be sorely missed, and he was Karen’s mentor so it will definitely be hard on her most of all.
Matt is talking to Karen and he says, “Everyone that’s taken money from him, everyone that’s helped him tear this city apart, they’re all going to get what’s coming to them.” This line is very reminiscent of what Fisk said to Vanessa about getting back at those who poisoned her. It just further illustrates that it’s a very thin line between good and evil, between Matt and Fisk.
When Fisk figured out that Leland and Gao had moved against him, it was really entertaining to watch Leland try to extort money out of Fisk. If Leland had just walked away, he might have had a fighting chance. But to try and take half of Fisk’s money, after having Vanessa poisoned? No way. That was definitely a pill Fisk wasn’t going to swallow. Leland got greedy.
Crazy intense scene when Daredevil saves Detective Hoffman. Multiple cops on Fisk’s payroll are sent to assassinate Hoffman but Daredevil arrives just in time to crack heads and save Hoffman’s life. The show really knows how to deliver edge-of-your-seat action and tension.
Now with Nelson and Murdock as his lawyers, Hoffman can spill the beans on everything he knows about Fisk’s criminal operation. What follows is a beautiful scene featuring Italian opera music (reminiscent of The Godfather) as the cronies on Fisk’s payroll are arrested by the feds. But while the scene is incredibly well executed and dramatic, there’s something I don’t understand. Why did they spend all their time arresting the people Fisk paid off first, then arrest Fisk? That just gives Fisk time to move pieces into place. If the whole point was to ascertain the extent of Fisk’s crimes, then arrest Fisk first and deal with the people he bought off after. Curious decision.
Continuing the show’s religious theme, as he’s taken into custody Fisk tells the arresting officers the story of the Good Samaritan from the Bible. He concludes, “I always thought that I was the Samaritan in that story. It’s funny isn’t it, how even the best of men can be deceived by their true nature? It means that I’m not the Samaritan, that I’m not the priest, or the Levite. That I am the ill intent who set upon the traveler on a road that he should not have been on.” This quote speaks volumes to Fisk’s character. It reminds us how his father set him on a path that he is now seeing come to fruition. It’s heartbreaking and absolutely dead-on hearing Fisk say this.
Just as he finishes his speech, Fisk’s troops attack the police convoy carrying him into custody. And just like that, Fisk is free again. It’s pretty intimidating knowing how powerful he really is. You’re afraid for Matt trying to go after him. This is just as it should be. The Kingpin should feel untouchable.
In the very next scene Matt finally gets his Daredevil protective suit and it’s a great feeling to finally get to see it. This suit is one of the iconic Marvel costumes and it just feels like everything is going to be ok when you see it appear. That’s the magic of Marvel.
Matt pursues the escaped Fisk and catches up to him. The fight scene between Fisk and Daredevil is beyond awesome. Sometimes I forget how tough Kingpin really is because he’s such a brilliant strategist, but Fisk beats on Matt pretty good. It’s a good thing Matt now has the protective suit because he might not have walked away from this one without it. Ultimately Daredevil gets the better of Fisk and he’s taken back into custody.
As the season ends, Matt talks to Karen and tells her he hears something different in her voice. She doesn’t admit anything to him, but he can hear the guilt she carries from having had to kill Wesley. Fisk is now in prison and Daredevil is guarding the streets.
If there’s one thing Jacob Schoeneberger can say for sure it’s that Jake Schoeneberger cannot wait to watch the next season of this show. It hits on all cylinders and is as entertaining as any other show in the Marvel canon.
The Jake Schoeneberger Random Entertainment Thought of the Day
The time has come for Stranger Things and Kenobi. What a time to be alive!
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