Six Reasons You Should Be Watching Daredevil

3. No stereotypical characters allowed

Sure, there’s nothing in this day and age that’s completely trope-free, Daredevil included. What you have to admire is the way the producers and writers avoid falling into the most obvious super hero clichés, resulting in both heroes and villains who are compelling in their own ways.

The titular hero is certainly one of them. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers have their moments of doubt, but Matt Murdock has a full-on crisis of conscience. He’s not sure if beating up bad guys and operating outside the law is the right thing to do, and even then, he’s uncertain if his efforts are even going to make a real difference. Matt’s also no billionaire, and he’s wrestling with trying to pay the bills while doing some good with his law practice by day.

On the other side, you’ve got Wilson Fisk, a man who appreciates the finer things in life (art, for starters) but still takes a decidedly hands-on approach when things in his meticulously organized criminal empire start getting out of control. There are subtleties to these characters that we don’t often see when super heroes cross over to other forms of media.

Daredevil isn’t the first work to explore the idea that the hero and villain are just flip sides of the same coin, or that they both think they’re doing the right thing, even if others don’t agree with them. It is, however, doing the best job with this dynamic of anything we’ve seen outside of the pages of comic books. That’s no small feat.

Next: Plenty of support