Wrapping up our coverage of Marvel Studios’ newest series Echo, here’s three interviews I conducted with cast members Devery Jacobs (Bonnie) and Chaske Spencer (Henry), director Sydney Freeland, and executive producer Richie Palmer.
Continue reading “Insights From the Cast and Creative Staff of Marvel’s ‘Echo’”
Marvel Studios has heard the complaints from everyone post-Endgame, and has decided to create a dedicated banner specifically for one-off character stories: Marvel Spotlight. Like the comics that inspired the moniker, these shows will focus on telling stories about single characters that can be easily decoupled from the grander arcs of narrative building within the MCU. And the first series to be released under the Marvel Spotlight banner is Echo.
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘Echo’ is Hard Hitting and Emotionally Resonant”
The question looms over every Marvel Studios release these days: “Is it a game-changer?” Does this latest show/movie/sequel change the formula, or rekindle the magic or… accomplish anything? Marvel’s new series Echo certainly serves as a frame-changer, centering a Native American character who also happens to be deaf and an amputee.
Continue reading “‘Echo’ Changes the Game and the Frame for the Marvel Cinematic Universe”
It was a pleasure to talk with Alaqua Cox about Marvel’s Echo, premiering January 9 on Disney+ and Hulu, with assistance by an ASL interpreter. We’ll be sharing more from the Echo press event over the coming week.
Continue reading “‘Echo’ Star Alaqua Cox on Motherhood and Deaf Representation in the MCU”
In November 2021, Hawkeye debuted as a lovely Christmas present to fans. It continued the adventures of everyone’s favorite archer Avenger, introduced the world to Kate Bishop, gave closure to Yelena Belova, brought back the Kingpin, and introduced a formidable new villain in Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox). Now Maya is back, in her very own series: Echo!
Continue reading “First Look at Marvel Studios’ ‘Echo’ with Director Sydney Freeland “
With Britney out this week, it’s up to Keith and Dominic to cover a week even an A.I. Kevin Feige couldn’t predict, such as the fallout from the latest MCU schedule shuffle, as well as She-Hulk lampshading Marvel’s greatest flaws.
This week, Britney, Keith, and Dominic are joined by Friend of the NOC, Catrina Dennis to break down the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer, and marvel at Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal’s ascension up the Disney ranks with Andor and Werewolf By Night, respectively. They also geek out over Daredevil’s appearance in She-Hulk and share what’s nerd poppin’ from Star Trek: Picard to Hocus Pocus 2 and “Super” Black Adam rumors.
Listeners beware! Lots of things are getting spoiled for Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hawkeye in this episode of Hard NOC Life! Also, Keith returns while Dominic and Britney argue over their diverging opinions on No Way Home. This is also the final episode of 2021. We’ll see you in January! Happy Holidays!
So.
I can’t say what I would have to say about the orientalism in Daredevil Season Two any better than Arthur Chu, so I will leave you to read that and bristle at will.
My thought process upon reading about Daredevil killing Nobu and not counting it as killing a person went as follows:
Continue reading “Racist Like Daredevil with this One Weird Tip!”
Some of my fellow NOCs and other contributors have written eloquent season reviews and critiques of Daredevil so I’ll keep this brief. I’m pretty biased with this character and while I tried to restrain some and was somewhat critical, there was a lot of praise throughout my recaps. When something that’s been a part of 2/3 of your life finally is treated correctly, it can be quite the emotional ride. Congrats to Netflix for this, their greatest and most-watched original series. Netflix and Marvel: the new Kingpins. Best superhero show? Yes. Best Marvel property? Yes. Best show, movie, anything a camera has filmed? Shit, probably. Sure. Yes.
What a groundbreaking ride this has been. I am so thrilled that this character and his world that connected with me as kid has finally fallen into the right hands and ended up not just revolutionizing the superhero genre, but TV and film in general. Therefore, it’s fitting that show runner Steven DeKnight took the writing and directing duties for the finale. After all the defending of Daredevil I’ve done up to this point with haters of the “lesser Spider-Man,” not to mention the failure of the movie, it feels personally triumphant for me. Bill Everett and Jack Kirby have passed, but I can’t imagine how Stan Lee must feel watching a Pavarotti moment with these characters in the finale culminating the origin story and thusly named: “Daredevil.” I think Puccini would approve.
“The Ones We Leave Behind” is another dense episode that fortunately doesn’t feel like it drags. Two of the leads deal differently with killing, there’s some backstabbing in the consortium, some classic Daredevil roof hopping, and another climactic and shocking ending. Damn. Fucking Sony.
It opens with Karen tossing the gun in the river. She’s obviously messed up after murdering Wesley and this plays out once she gets home and hits the bottle hard to put herself to sleep. She wakes up startled thinking she hears something, but then relaxes and decides to switch to beer for bed. Does that ever work? She turns from the fridge and our bald menace is staring her down. He delivers another stellar speech telling her he knows how hard it is to take a life. He goes on about how you feel the weight of the person’s life, the cherished moments, and such. Then he says: “I want you to know something, something important that I’ve learned: that it gets easier the more you do it.” And he attacks. And Karen wakes up. Really wakes up this time. The old nightmare within the nightmare. Well played writers.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: So Much for a Complete Daily Bugle Staff”
Four of our favorites are paired up once more and give us some outstanding on-screen chemistry. Claire’s patches up Matt again, even if it’s for a brief moment. While Vanessa is in recovery, Fisk and Wesley share some very tender moments as Wesley tries to balance his BFF’s sanity with keeping the machine moving. Nelson and Murdock Attorneys at Law continues to unravel with Karen upset and the boys still not talking to each other. Mr. Potter battles like a gladiator and we get quite the climatic ending in “The Path of the Righteous.”
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Saw Blades & Tender Villains”
Yes, the boys are fighting and Foggy Bear attacks like a… bear. It’s Foggy’s turn to learn about Matt’s powers and the first part of “Nelson v. Murdock” basically repeats previous scenes and flashbacks of folks that know about Matt. Nothing new that we don’t already know until the way Foggy plays it at the end. Besides Foggy’s cross examination of Matt, we get flashbacks to their meeting and law school daze days, Madame Gao puts Fisk in another time out, Karen tricks Ben in a game changing way, and a benefit dinner really could have used a Medieval cup-bearer.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: The Trial of the Incredible Matthew Murdock”
Ninja fight! Maybe you didn’t get that, let me clear my throat: FUCKING NINJA FIGHT!!!!!! I feel like I’m 12 again. One aspect of this episode I loved and found very original was the use of the ninja battle as the tie that binds. Though the ninja fight scenes are one complete fight, they are broken up chronologically and are stuck between all the other subplots. So essentially, the fight itself becomes not just a fight, but its own overarching subplot. Very cool. Credit due to the director Nick McCormick (The Good Wife), Silvera, and crew for a new take on the use of and cutting of a fight scene.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Ninja Nobu! Ninja? No. Boo.”
At this point, the similarities between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk both wanting to make their city a better place have been repeated a few times. Yep, they’re two sides of the same coin; we get it. Well, there’s another strong tie that binds; they both have serious daddy issues. Matt’s came earlier and now we get to see a big reason why Fisk is who he is. I mentioned there may have been a hint at potential childhood trauma on the fourth episode recap, and my, my; “hint” seems so wrong after this. In addition, Matt ends up in Karen and Foggy’s (and Ben’s) investigation, and Fisk’s grip on his empire starts loosening, creating tension among the consortium in “Shadows in the Glass.”
I love Stick! Sticky Sticky Stick! I lost my mind on this one. It’s still hard to pick a favorite, but this episode is a strong candidate. This is the first time the character has appeared off the page — because we are not counting the terrible Elektra movie — and after Daredevil/Matt, he’s right there as my next favorite character. Why? I think it goes like this: having grown up on many (mostly shitty, some good) martial arts flicks and having trained for years, there’s this stereotypical Mr. Miyagi idea of what a teacher — a sensei — should be like. Kind, gentle, wise, patient, caring, loving, etc. I’ve even had some that sadly seemed to be playing the part.
The wise part, sure, and ninja master indeed, but stereotype be damned. Dude’s an asshole! An arrogant, mean, crotchety old piece of shit asshole. This is the way Miller created and wrote Stick, and Scott Glenn knocks it out the fucking park. I couldn’t get enough. The Golden Broken Arm is yours sir.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Sticking it to Matt Murdock”
The Russian that we love to hate ends up taking one for team Murdock in “Condemned.” We get our first Fisk/Murdock confrontation (via walkie talkie), get to see Urich working the case, and in my opinion, get the best Easter Egg of them all to this point.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Say Hello to My Little Friend”
When great writing, directing, and acting come together in a crime drama, every so often we are treated to interesting and complex characters that are so much more than just “the bad guys.” It also turns out, from stage and some screen experience, these are the roles actors salivate over. Whether they admit it or not, everybody wants to play the villain. Even more want to play a villain with depth that can get the audience behind them. This episode gives us deeper insight into the well-oiled machine that is the extremely organized crime operation run by concert master Wesley on the ground, but overseen by the true conductor of the symphony: Wilson Fisk.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: Symphony of Destruction”
by Takeo Rivera
So let’s get one thing out of the way: it’s probably safe to say that Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil is the finest piece of television ever made in the superhero genre. With its stellar cast and consistently tight writing and direction, the show can easily go toe-to-toe with any other major serialized TV drama in this golden age of Mad Mens and Breaking Bads, elevating superherodom to an unequivocal status of high art in much the way Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica elevated the space opera. And, as a cherry on top, Daredevil happens to be one of the most progressive shows of the genre; in particular, Matt Murdock battles not some alien Super-Wario intent on blowing up the planet with an ancient glowing Rubik’s cube, but a scion of urban “redevelopment” — read gentrification — in Wilson Fisk, and spends an unhealthy time fighting white collar crime and community displacement by punching the crap out of it.
But Daredevil also has one massive problem: Asians. That is, Asians are the problem, and Daredevil’s problem is that Asians are a problem.
It’s been three weeks since Marvel dropped Daredevil on Netflix, and the nerdosphere is still head over heels for the show. Now that Netflix has announced a second season of their hit superhero series, Hard NOC Life returns to talk about how Marvel is taking over the streaming television game with Black Nerd Problems’ Jordan Calhoun (@jordanmcalhoun) — whose Daredevil piece you’ve probably read — and returning Hard NOC champ Raymond Chow.
I brought this up in my recap for “Into the Ring,” but “Rabbit in a Snowstorm” is where we really get the Law & Order: Hell’s Kitchen portion of the show. We can break this one down into three parts too: bowling alley/back alley; Karen, Ben, and the devious corporation formerly known as Prince Union Allied; and the murder trial. There’s an up, then down, then back up wave feel in terms of rhythm in this one.
This being an outstanding ensemble drama, the writing and acting sparks get passed around nicely. I’m going to start giving out (drum roll…) “The Golden Broken Arm for Best Performance per Episode.” Appropriate, right? The best performance from “Into the Ring” goes to Charlie Cox, and “Cut Man” is all Rosario Dawson. This episode, though, is actually tougher, but I’m going to go out on a limb. (Ha, “limb” — more on that later).
Let’s begin though, with Sason Jathom. Who?
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: aka Law & Order Hell’s Kitchen”
This one’s amazing. Holy shit. Wow!
Okay, I think we can break it down into three acts: Matt and Claire, Battlin’ Jack, and the beat down at the end. I guess there’s also the Karen and Foggy bender that’s cute and light. Enough on that? Okay, good. Ding, ding, there’s the bell. Let’s get in to episode two of Daredevil, “Cut Man.”
Fight!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Daredevil: I’m Bleeding, Save Me Rosario!”
