Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Nerd J Report. I'm your host, Pavlon. Joining me, as always, is Mr. Brian Scholz. Brian, episode seven, Daredevil, I'd have to say, I don't know. Brian is sort of mixed in terms of how people are reacting to some of these episodes.
There's some people who are really high on it. Does it compare to Netflix? No. To me? No.
Am I enjoying it? I mean, I enjoy certain moments, but when some of those moments come, they're not impressive. Outside of the actors, Brian, I'm not really too much. I'm not that excited or satisfied with the.
The fight sequences. Again, this is a problem.
I'm always good for the performances with Vincent D'Onfield and Matt Murdock. What's his name? Charlie Cox.
And, you know, you. And you look forward to seeing the Punisher. We got him once. I mean, I don't know if the story is progressing fast enough for, you know, we only got two more episodes left, and it just doesn't feel like it's too much of a slow burn, in my opinion. What are your thoughts?
[00:01:16] Speaker B: I think that there are more elements now that we're seven episodes in where I can see the promise of the show, and I think I can see what this show could have been if the cohesive creative vision for it had been there from the beginning.
But I agree with you that I think that ultimately this. This is turning into, like, it's more like season 3.5 than season 4, if that makes sense. It's just like there's putting pieces on the board. There's stuff that's left over from the first things that they were shooting that they just didn't want to let go.
And it's creating an uneven show that has some really good elements.
And you're kind of just sitting there thinking, okay, well, season two, they had a chance to shoot from the very beginning with the Netflix team and with the new vision for what they wanted Born Again to be. Maybe that will be a little more consistent and a little more propulsive than this show is turning out to be. Because to your point, there's two episodes left. So episode seven, I think, continues the streak of there's some really interesting things now being put into this show where it's like, okay, it's a shame it took us seven episodes. You know, I feel like there is a little bit of momentum. It's uneven momentum, but there is momentum. So things that I really liked about the episode, I liked the Dynamism in Vanessa and Wilson's relationship. Like, we finally saw her starting to. Which we knew. Right. You hit on it from the very beginning when he walked into the room and she's running the meeting, that she didn't really want to cede power. She didn't really want to give up her seat at the head of the table. And finally we start to see her with her own plans and machinations and become a character in the show as opposed to just a face. So I really like that, and I want to see where that's going. We can talk about the last scene because I'm not totally convinced that what we saw is exactly what we're supposed to think, but I like that aspect. I liked Michael Gandolfini finally showing more of a heel turn in the conversation with Bibi. I think among new characters, it was the first time I kind of felt like new character to new character. We were getting somewhere. We were like, getting something that was like, okay, I kind of want to see where this goes.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: 1. One of the things that I didn't like was the fast forward answers in rapid fire giving us who this Muse guy is.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll get to that.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that. That was. That was, to me, very disappointing. And again, I don't know. The five speakers don't look good to me.
You know, just looks like two guys fighting in the costume in a room. You know, like, it's just visually. It doesn.
Is not visually impressive compared to the first iterations on Netflix. Yeah.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So the Muse part is my least favorite part of this episode. There's two parts. Episode I really didn't. Didn't care for the Muse part and the scene with Matt McDuffie and Cherry.
Those two scenes to me didn't work. And they didn't work for the same reason, which is.
I keep having it stuck in my head. The comment from the creators and Disney going into. And Winderbarm going into this season where they kind of said we wanted to tamp down some of the long conversations and we wanted to increase the action.
I think those scenes are examples of why the long conversations and the way Netflix structured some of its show really not only worked, but were necessary to caring about all aspects of the show.
I do think there's potential with Muse. Like, I'm interested just because I know what Muse is supposed to be. And I'm convinced that maybe what happened in this episode is actually a prelude to my point about we aren't into the real season yet. A prelude to getting real Muse or something closer to real Muse on the board.
But I agree with you in the sense of. If you recall how they brought Bullseye into season three. I mean, we spent an entire episode with him as a kid, how he was parented, like, how he was abandoned. Like, they give you the backbone of why he's so twisted, right? Why he has so much. And here's a guy speaking of therapy and Heather Glenn, a lot of that is spent in therapy, where he's talking to his therapist and then feels like his therapist abandons him. And that actually kind of is a recurring theme in his life.
So that when you see Bullseye in season three doing what he does and breaking fully bad, it makes sense in a grounded way how this guy could get to that place. With Muse, you don't really have that. Right. Muse, you kind of have what he is today. And then you have basically two stories. Him telling Heather Glenn that he feels seen because of all this in her book and all sorts of stuff. And then you have sort of the. The. The profile given to you, not by Muse himself or in flashback, but just kind of told that, like, oh, you know, he had the taekwondo training from this guy, and then he killed the guy. You're just told that. Right. So it's a different approach to building up the character's backstory. It takes less time, which is what Disney wanted. But in the end of the day, I think it makes the character feel like less when he goes crazy and then is in this fight with Daredevil that ostensibly leads to him being killed firmly in quotation marks.
So I didn't love that. And for the same reason with McDuffie and Cherry.
That's not Foggy and Mahoney or Foggy and Ben. Like, we haven't spent, like, McDuffie's just a. I mean, I hate to say it, but McDuffie's checking some boxes right now as a character. There's nothing to that character at all.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: As to why I care about her, why what her motivations are for working with Matt, like, where she comes from, there's nothing the characters literally wouldn't.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: And what makes her that good? That she's a partner.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Correct. There's literally nothing. Like, if you think about not just Foggy's comics history, but, like, the episode Nelson vs Murdoch where Foggy finds out who he is, and then they flash back to them in, like, law school, getting to know each other. Like, they make sure that you understand the entire world of Daredevil from Foggy's perspective. Right. His. The lawyering all of it to where they're jousting with each other morally and legally. Like, it carries real weight. Like, this woman, like, I don't care. Like, so she's in the room and she has her opinions. I'm like, you don't matter at all. And then similarly with Cherry, it's like Cherry acts and tells us, like, he's known Matt for years, right? There's that conversation of knowing. But I don't feel that. I don't feel any familiarity with him as, like, a Commissioner Gordon type character, you know? So it's a scene that's supposed to really have some weight, but I just feel like it falls flat because I just don't care about the two other people in the room and their connection to our lead. So I feel like, could it work? Like, if Disney gave me that over the next. Over the next season, yeah, it probably could. It would flesh those characters out, and then those scenes might matter more. So it's not like a lost cause, but I think it's a creative choice right now that I'm struggling with. And it makes the episode like this one be. Feel uneven.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: It almost puts into question, what if they had the 18 episodes to play with, to really explore some of these things where you can go back and see a scene with Cherry and Daredevil back in the day, where you can see little vignettes of a child being, you know, growing up and, like, the muse. Like, who is this kid that we keep going back to? You know, oh, okay. This could be the. What if they had had 18 episodes to really flesh this out? Because it seems like obviously this is.
This shouldn't be season two. This should be season one, Part two, the way this is going.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is this is where you. Like I said, you can always feel in every episode, the multiple shows.
And as I said, there's always elements of these episodes now, especially, you know, four. I think from four onward, in particular, like four, five, six, and seven, there's been multiple pieces where I'm like, they have something here. They have something here that I don't want to let go of, that I want to spend more time with, that I really want to develop, and I hope they carry forward. But it's.
It very much is like an unfocused picture. It's like I can see little bits of it, but that whole. It's not coalescing in, like, a powerful way yet. It could. That's what I'm saying. Season two could be really, really Good. Like, I. I really still have hopes for it because I'm seeing. I'm seeing the strands, but this particular season does really, really feel like, you know, the editing room and the. The two different shows and Kevin coming in after they had done what it was. It shot four episodes and being like, no, we're not doing this anymore. Like, it just really. I feel like it's taken you out of what this show could. What this season could be.
So I think that's. That's where we're at now. I did want to ask you about. We'll get to the action because that's a whole. I have a theory. I have questions and theories on. On that, but do you think Muse. Because we know we've. We've seen some reports that Muse will be back in season two.
Do you think after this episode, he will.
They will basically give him. If they don't call him an Inhuman, they will at least give him his sort of contra mat power, which is the anti sense imperceptibility.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: There is the. There lies the curiosity of how they make that work.
I want to see if they can pull it off. You always want to see some struggle and see if someone can overcome. There's a whole thing of Rocky. Right.
So you're in to see if Andy Ruiz can be Anthony Joshua. Yes. You want to see that.
Shout outs to Marks, who didn't pick up my call. I could have made eleven hundred dollars that night.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Oh, you had Ruiz.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yo. Because the elements. There was too many unknowns, and I just felt it, and it happened.
It happened. Anything else regarding the Muse?
[00:12:00] Speaker B: I. I don't think he's dead. I mean, in the parlance of this show, we often see this where it's like, oh, they hold up the mask. He's down. Like, I don't think he's dead because I don't think you would invest what they invested in this season as far as his murals. You know, the kidnapping of Angela, the previous fights, to then dispense with him in episode seven and be like, great, we're on onward and upward.
I'm just saying if he survives. And obviously, we've seen, like, with Bullseye. I mean, Bullseye's been killed how many times at this point, basically. And, you know, he just.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: But we know why. For him, of course. But I'm saying for Muse, I don't know. I don't know how they do that.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: But that would be the. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe he. But again, Muse is supposed to be an Inhuman. What if they make him a mutant, like, what if they give him a twist genetically, something where him being killed actually unlocks that. And now that's dress.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Right. So I don't think they would give him the super strength and the super speed because that's never been the Daredevil world.
But I think that the imperceptibility is what makes the character interesting. Right. He literally is a sensory blocker for everything Matt is able to feel here in a heightened way. To introduce this character of all characters and then not explore what that might look like on screen to me would be. Would be criminal malpractice as a. It really would. I mean, it's just to your point. It's like, I remember when he was fighting the hand and he's trying to solve, like, why can't I hear the heartbeats? Like, why? And then remember, sticks, like, you got to take it up a notch. And he starts listening. He starts listening for the weapons, and he starts listening for the breath when they put away the weapons. Like, that stuff is cool, man. I know you don't love all of season two and all this sort of stuff, but, like, him solving that as.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: That part was dope. Yeah.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: It's just cool to see it. And so I think with this guy, you know, saying he's a Taekwondo expert is not enough. Right? That's. That's silly. That just gives an excuse for, you know, what.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: You know what I thought about when they say Taekwondo expert? Tommy Lee. Best of the best.
Love that movie. Yeah.
Coach Eric Robbins crying every five minutes.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: I just think if they don't do that, I think they're really missing out on. On what this character could be and something that could, I think, be a really nice, interesting strand of television. So I really.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: But that. But there lies the, like, if they make that dope, that. That. That explanation and how he's able to do. I like all that stuff. Right. But it has to sort of make sense and not just poof, you know, saying he's a mutin. Okay, that's the getaway. That's the key. That's the.
The Phoenix, how we say, you know, the. The. The. The MacGuffin to. To just make everything okay.
But we'll see. We'll see how they do it.
Action.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Yeah, they're still struggling, I think, a little bit, but I think.
I think they're struggling in part for some fixable reasons. And I'm actually starting to wonder if there's a purpose to some of this. I have to. Maybe I'm Giving him too much credit. And maybe it's because I'm hoping you notice how he's fighting in the daytime a lot. That feels so conspicuous and not a good idea that it almost makes me think that it's, like, setting up. Like, I know he fought Muse in kind of the subway area and sort of that type of area.
But, like, he had a broad daylight fight, not as Daredevil in the last episode. Now he has one in broad day in a day in a sunlit office with Muse as Daredevil.
Even the fight with Bullseye, which is sensibly was at evening, was pretty. Was lit a lot differently than, like, the hallway fight, for example, in the Netflix series or some of the Nobu conflict. It's making me wonder if they're doing a deliberate, like, hey, he's. Because he's descending back into Daredevil. We aren't sending him to fight in the darkness in just yet. And I'm wondering if we're getting there. But it is not changing the fact that, like, by putting it in the daylight, by the way, they're blocking this, like, in the Office.
It just doesn't look as intense or as believable or as visually gripping as the Netflix stuff and the cgi. When they introduce the CGI stuff, it's not working, I don't think, based upon that. Ever since Charlie Cox told us how they were doing it, now I'm looking for it, like, in that Muse fight. You can kind of see where they flourished it, like, with the CGI and him using the, like, the puncture. So it's not working.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: It's not adding, it's taking away.
Yeah. I even liked.
Although some of it. A lot of it was cgi, but in some instances where Ben Affleck's Daredevil was fighting, like, in the bar in the beginning and stuff. Like, some of that stuff was dope.
Some of that stuff was dope. Except for the, like, the park sequence with Jennifer. That was horrendous.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: I don't know how that got past the. Okay.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Oh, by the way. So just since you brought us into that Daredevil for a second, Colin Farrell as Bullseye in that movie is a great example of that. Is definitely not Bullseye, but you can't look away when that's on screen. He's at the very least, interesting.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: Interesting, yes.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: He's crazy in that movie. It makes. It's just hilarious how crazy he is. But he's actually one of the most. He's probably the Most interesting character portrayal, I think, in that. In that film. So to the point of Colin Farrell within this ip, especially if he takes over as Sergeant Rock, his legacy cannot ignore that the bull. The Bullseye cameo, sidekick role is not terrible. That's actually pretty fun to see if you just take yourself out of the. The comics world for a minute. Anyway.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: You like Colin Farrell in this genre. That's the point.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Oh, here's my other thing.
I get that Matt is sort of finding his way as Daredevil, but we gotta watch. We might have to start like a meet account meter for who gives the angry yell more in the action scenes. Matt Murdock or Henry Cavill's man of Steel? Who gives more. Who gives more angry cries when they're at work.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a little bit of a.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Like, I know what you're doing. But like, now we're at. Now we're at number six or seven of these and I'm getting a little like, okay, you can sort of play.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: With, you know, when you're born, you yell, so this is him.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Coming out of this.
So we only got two more episodes. Episode 8 and 9.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: What do you think of Vanessa? What's. What do you think? What do you think's going on? What do you. What do you like this idea of making them sort of like potential sneaky rivals to each other? I like it. I mean. Yeah.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: So wait, wait, wait, wait. You think she's really trying to set him up to. To, To. To be offed?
[00:19:10] Speaker B: So this is what I think. Go ahead.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: I think she is moving up her timeline because I think she knows he's eventually turned. But let me speed that process up, I think. What are your thoughts?
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Interesting. So yours. Okay, so this was my. Maybe it fits then. I wasn't thinking about it quite in those terms. So you're saying she wants the old kingpin back and she's actually now trying to grease the Runway to kind of get that to happen. Interesting.
So I do think she.
I think she double crossed the double cross. My theory is that she set up the hit and then she told him about the hit, which is why he says at the end whether to thank her and what she wants.
I think she did take the meeting with the guy. The guy called the meeting. Right. So she takes the meeting, she makes the call, tells him where Fish's gonna be, basically green lights him. But then I think she told Fisk and Cashman about that and about that this guy was coming. So that's why Cashman's waiting for him and kills him. So I think she's actually on both sides of that event and ultimately still pro kingpin. But there is this sense of her role is going to be different in the organization. Remember, even going back to season three where she's like, I want to be all the way in. Yeah, send me away. I'm always going to be alone with you unless you actually bring me in, you know, so we'll see. But I do think at least intention. I don't think she necessarily would do everything the same way he does.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Side note, that guy, what's his name? Cashman.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Yeah, Buck Cashman.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: He. When I saw him in certain shots, he's a very interesting looking.
I know Henry Cavill is number one choice.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Oh, Bond.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: Interesting, interesting, interesting.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: So I. I do think that scene is not all the way it was shot. You're clearly meant to think Vanessa set up Fisk to be killed. And it was, and it backfired. And I think it's. She actually set him up and tipped him off.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Now the one thing we. The one variable to this, however, is her lover.
And that's the one thing that she doesn't know about. And one wonders how she will feel when she finds out.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Does. Does. Does she know about it? Does. I think she. I think she probably does know. Yo.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Oh, you think?
[00:22:02] Speaker A: I think. I think she's just.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: She just.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Don't kill him.
She says don't kill him.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Oh, I don't think she knows that part. We'll see.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: I think she knows. I think she knows.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: That's the. That's the crazy part of all of this, you know, that. That relationship. She's crazy. You know?
[00:22:20] Speaker B: She is. You're right.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: You know, So I feel like she will go the lengths that she went to. To sort of push Kingpin to be Kingpin quicker than he would probably want to. She was getting tired. She always knew. She. Every time she looked at him. I know you're gonna change. I'm just sitting here and just waiting.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Interesting. Okay. You know, she doesn't know. And I'm gonna go with. It's gonna be a divisive element to this when she finds out how far he took this and then he's going to defend it by saying, I didn't kill him. I kept my word.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Let us know in the comment section below what you guys think. What's happening here with Vanessa. I think she. She knows and she's just wants her old dude back. She wants the old Kingpin back. And she. And she knows everything that's happening.
Yeah. Let us know in the comment section below what you guys think.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: With two episodes to go, feeling like it's really taken us until the middle of the season to kind of get a season going.
I really am kind of feeling like this is very much like a prelude or a part one or like a to be continued type of season one. Like, we knew there'd be a cliffhanger. But you also know how, like, in Daredevil, each of the Daredevil seasons, there was a resolution of sorts to each season as well. I don't think this will have a resolution. I think this is really going to reemergence of full Kingpin, reemergence of the Daredevil that they actually envisioned for this show and them colliding in some way in episode nine. But it is very much like a now we've opened the door, and we're actually starting as we go forward.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: I don't necessarily think we actually get a face off between Kingpin and Daredevil.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Oh, you don't?
I think they have to share at least one more scene together before the season.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Possibly. Yes, possibly. But not in a sense that it's because I'm getting over the whole Kingpin versus Daredevil fight in the last one. You know what I'm saying? And because they have a season two already in tow, the. They're extending those confrontations and those elements because we got to see.
To me, I think we got to see the best of Kingpin for a while until we get that ultimate collision where everybody's watching.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: Everybody's here to see. I just don't think we get away with another face off and then get away with it again in season two.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: I just think that there's a book ending that could be. That seems that's there to be had, where it's like they sat in the diner as reformed men and had a conversation. And if they end the season in costume or in character, even if they're not necessarily blows to blows in the same way they were at the end of season one of Netflix, that, to me, feels like the proper bookend for what this season is trying to do. Like, they're in the shot. Maybe it's he's killed Glenn. Maybe it's Matt's done something to Vanessa, like, but something that, like, is bringing them into the same picture. And, like, Fisk has his tactical suit back on, and, you know, it's full and is big, fully big again. And Matt, you know, Matt is in the suit. And, like, I don't know, it just. It feels like it has to be about those two. And so this season needs to end with those two having progressed to the point where next season, they kind of are the characters we.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
Like, I like the little hints of Kingpin coming back. Like, this jacket is ripping because he can't fit it no more. You know, he's eating bigger meals, whereas in the beginning, he was eating egg whites and stuff like that, you know?
[00:26:02] Speaker B: So the voice is coming back. So that ANSWERS My question. D'Onofrio was slow playing the voice to sound more feeble because there's been scenes now, whereas he's getting bigger.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Where he sounds more sadistic, and he's clearly lowering the tone. So it's actually the actor. So credit to him because he. He fooled me thinking he couldn't do it. He's actually. He actually attuned it a little bit. I need to know the backstory on that, because I heard an interview with him that he didn't explain that. He said that that voice was developed from something in his, like, personal past, and I want to know what that was. I. I question. A little more research on that.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Like, five questions.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Is it his dad's voice? Like, I don't. I'm curious. But he said that voice is very personal to him because it came from something he. It was inspired by something, like, he knew personally from his past. I want to know what that is, because it's amazing. It's an amazing voice that he does.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
Anything else, Brian, before we sign off?
[00:26:55] Speaker B: No, this. But this. This show is definitely still giving me enough to be interested. Like I said, we are definitely. We're not at Netflix level, but every week, I'm kind of feeling like there's more worthwhile stuff to explore, and I'm just really holding my breath and fingers crossed that, like, the editing, as we get into a cleaner season, next season will lead to just a more consistent result that, you know, I think it's funny, I seen some of the comments saying, like, oh, you know, complaint. I'm like, well, the issue. I think the issue of complaint with this show really has to do with the legacy of the show. As I said, if this was the first season we'd ever gotten a daredevil, I think we'd feel probably better about a decent amount of it, I think. But we keep holding it to this appropriately high standard of where Netflix was, and that's where this show is. That's what it shows up against. As we've known from the day that Disney acquired it. This was not. Yeah, this was not. You got back the remains of the Fox verse, right? This was. You got a classic. And we don't want you to dishonor that.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Yeah, you just had a high bar. You gotta stay at it or exceed it. And I think you can exceed it, obviously is yours. You know, you saw what everybody liked. All you got to do is see what it took to get to that and stay there or exceed it. And you have it. You haven't. That's all. But yeah, Let us know in the comment section below what you guys think of the Daredevil.
We usually don't do this. We usually don't cover from week to week a show. We usually like, let it play out and just give a. Give our thoughts on the entirety of the season. But this is the one show that we've been consistent on talking about every week.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: Good for content. However, let me ask you, because that is a big change from what Netflix did. Would you feel any differently about this show if you. We obviously haven't. Let's, let's maybe wait to fully answer this question until episode nine. But when you get to the end of that episode, how would you feel about this season if they had given it all to you at the same time, which is what Netflix would have done? I think it's a question worth exploring as you're going along here. It's been good for content. We could talk about it every week, but like the approach. I'm curious to see at the end of this how we feel. Did it work as a week to week or a week to week with a couple of double episodes versus here's all nine have at it in a weekend.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Let us know in the comment section below what you guys think. Remember to hit that like and subscribe and we'll see you next time on the Nerd GY Report.
