Daredevil on Netflix could very well be the best screen based media Marvel has ever made. Season 1 was excellent and this season was as well, mostly because of the way the show runners wrote the Punisher character. The first two episodes of season 2 alone was already better than any of the Punisher movies. Add to that the rest of the season’s episodes and you have the most complex, nuanced onscreen Punisher ever written. I was also glad that the showrunners didn’t go into a flashback where we see Frank’s family killed, the way it was done in the Thomas Jane movie; one of the ways we get his backstory is after a weary, beat up Frank spills his guts to Daredevil in a voice choked by tears. And nearly the entire 13-episode was his origin story. He doesn’t don the trademark skull logo until the final episode.

When Jon Berenthal was first cast as Castle/The Punisher, I was a little disappointed. I only know him as Shane from The Walking Dead, and I didn’t like his character (though to be fair, this is sometimes the sign of a good actor.) But as Daredevil unfolded, Berenthal won me over. He is clearly the best Punisher to appear on-screen. The Punisher can be portrayed as a fairly simple character; in rageful grief over the death of his family at the hands of criminals, he sets out to dispense deadly justice. In a way, he’s something like a cyborg out of the Terminator franchise, an unstoppable killing machine. He could’ve been dull quickly outside of his action sequences but the writers of Daredevil portrayed him as a compellingly sympathetic character whom we’re both rooting for while being repulsed by. And Berenthal’s steely antihero, stoic most of the time but demonstrative in spots, is probably the best performance and character of the entire series this year.

The Punisher was an excellent foil to Daredevil because they’re so similar yet a world apart. Both are Catholics who become vigilantes after criminals killed their loved ones but where Daredevil wants to believe in the law and the justice system, the Punisher doesn’t. In a superb scene taken from the comic books, the Punisher has captured Daredevil and duct-tapes a gun into his hand. He then forces Daredevil to make a difficult choice that gets right to his soul and the core set of beliefs that governs all of his actions—kill him or watch him execute a murderer.

The second half of the season was about Elektra and an ancient war waged by a ninja clan called The Hand. Following the realism of the Punisher storyline, this story felt off. If the first half of the season was great drama punctuated by action that completely fit in with the story, the second half was what a B movie would be in the hands of good writers and actors. This Japanese storyline, as written by Frank Miller, was riveting in the books but here the hackneyed tropes of the enigmatic Asian villain commanding hordes of disposable, easily defeated henchman was very disappointing given how fresh and different the rest of the show is. In the finale I was shaking my head at the silly sight of the army of scurrying ninja sent to defeat Daredevil and Elektra. Any fiction with conflict between people greatly benefits from a strong antagonist that is an emotional and physical match for the hero. Was there ever any doubt that Daredevil would defeat the colourless Nobu and his redshirts? And would we care? The best parts of the Japanese storyline were the flashbacks of Stick and his relationship with Elektra as a child. (I found the present day adult version of Elektra annoyingly cheeky but Élodie Yung, like Berenthal, won me over in the finale.)

Despite my gripes about the second half, Season 2 was thoroughly entertaining from beginning to the very end. The finale had resolution while setting up enough plot lines that I can’t wait to know what happens next.

Miscellaneous notes:

– Wilson Fisk returns for a few episodes and Vincent D’onofrio was superb in his scene with Matt at the prison. He goes from civilized to absolutely unhinged when Matt makes a threat involving Vanessa. And you could see Matt visibly shaken after Fisk assaults him.

– Karen Page feels like the focal point of the show when there is no fighting involved. I like the actress and character so didn’t mind but I’m hearing that others don’t like her.

– I still don’t particularly like Daredevil’s costume and think it should look more like Deadpool’s but the v2.0 of the helmet is much improved because the eyes are now a solid red that at times has a subtle glow at night when light hits it. Since Daredevil can’t see, there was no reason to have open eyeholes. This is far more intimidating and more Batman like.

England rather ingloriously left the World Cup without even getting out of their group (finishing with no wins and only one point.) Perhaps because of this, and to my benefit, England merchandise has been discounted throughout the web. Although USA is my primary team and France my secondary (followed by Japan), I have little connection with England that would cause me to have any kind of emotional connection with the team. First, I’m not a fan of its past colonialist ways, and who’s a fan of the monarchy? Still, I have let bygones be (and my own government is not exactly good and pure.) Secondly, when I last visited London I met a host of rude people, one after another, from staffers working the Tube to wait staff in restaurants. (Contrast this with the friendly Parisians I met in France and the polite and amiable people I met in Japan.) Anyway, I do have a fascination with British culture, including music, actresses, and literature. And of all the kits in the World Cup, the English designs are by far the best in my opinion. France’s clothing design is sharp as well, in sleek dark blue and white, but the Gallic Rooster is not as appealing as England’s regal three lions. The kit designs as well are eye-catching, from the bold red of the away kit to the crisp, understated elegant all white of the home kit. So after England was ousted I took the opportunity to pick up an English kit (white) for nearly half off. I contemplated getting the matching shorts as well, which features a smaller matching three lions crest on the leg. Perhaps, whether permitting, I shall be an English footballer for Halloween this fall.