Daredevil — Season 2

Daredevil’s season 2 has taught me a lot about fan service.

I usually hear the expression related to anime or manga. If you haven’t heard it before, it’s content added not because it improves the story or develops the world or characters, but simply to please fans.

Fan service manifests in different ways. In anime it usually takes the form of teasing, adding references that a fan would like to see, or simply increasing the level of sexualization for a popular character. The expression gratuitous titillation, from the Wikipedia definition, gets it exactly right.

After Daredevil, I’m now wondering about what the ways in which fan service is executed can tell us about a work, or more importantly, its viewers.

In Daredevil, fan service manifests as specific characters mangling each other until one of them is too tired to continue.

Yes, action series, there’s fights between tough people, big surprise, right? And like Daredevil’s first season, this one still has the best long-take close-combat skirmishes in the industry, so… what’s the problem?

It’s not that there are fights, of course.

It’s the way they’re mechanically scheduled above all else, how the plot contrives to put two characters together so we can get a nice knuckle-dusting. Punisher vs. Daredevil! Daredevil vs. Stick! Daredevil and Elektra vs. the ninjas! Daredevil vs. Stick vs. Elektra! Punisher vs… well, pretty much everyone! Then more ninjas! And the ninjas are on fire! (Or used to be)

What you end up with, after you poke at the wee bit of connecting tissue they gave us and it falls apart, is a series of combat dioramas with some plot glitter sprinkled between them. Merely gratuitous titillation for fans who get heart palpitations at the thought of seeing two characters clash.

So focused are the writers on preparing their melee death matches, that otherwise intelligent individuals end up acting with all the foresight of a lobotomized goldfish, just so we can get a closing shot promising an even bigger fight for the next batch of episodes.

No spoilers, but…

Suppose you’re a fairly smart guy. Suppose you know for a fact that, no matter how crazy it sounds, your mass-murdering enemy can freely print as many nuclear artillery shells out of thin air as he wants. Hell, suppose there’s two of you there, both fully aware of this fact.

Do you leave just the howitzer they want lying around in public, waiting to be stolen, because you ran out of ammo?

Jeez guys. You’re supposed to be only literally blind, not figuratively as well.

Yes, it’s a decent string of episodes, if not as strong as the first one.

Yes, we get a good Elektra.

Yes, it’s the best Punisher we’ve gotten, with no fuss, no whining, just pure efficient murderous retribution, while still being articulate in his own way.

Yes, there’s a Clancy Brown cameo that got me doing little claps when he showed up, and thinking of the great job he could have done of playing Frank Castle over 20 years ago, if they’d only gone with him instead of Dolph Lundgren.

But for all of that, it’s empty.

It’s competent popcorn, and if you’re into a snack that’s made out almost entirely of flavoring then the more power to you, but after a while I get tired of chewing on air.

It’s not a season. It’s only seasoning.