Daredevil (TV Series) In the Blood (2015) User Reviews

So... That's the King Pin

[masercot · 8/10 · 16 April 2015]

This has been a good series, so far. The previous episode gave us a quick look at King Pin at the end. In this episode, we meet the man.

I have to say, watching him interact with his date was excruciating. He was a man who was at the same time confident and completely inept. It was a complexity that I wasn't expecting.

The Daredevil role is being maintained nicely. I thought it was a little early in the series to put the nurse/confidant in danger; but, that prematurity made it an unexpected turn.

The performance I'm really enjoying, so far, is Toby Leonard Moore's "Wesley". A character that is both suave and subtly menacing.

Hopefully, they'll keep the quality up on this series.

Say not his name, for even whisper will be costly

[quincytheodore · 8/10 · 16 April 2015]

It's only the matter of time before the show gives us a look of the villain. The casting of Vincent D'Onofrio surprised me from the last episode's closure. He has proved to be a psychopath debonair, able to deliver awkward yet suave speech and numbingly vicious performance with equal elegance. Vincent D'Onofrio has played roles from the other side of the law, apparently he's just as versatile as an underworld crime boss.

The episode's story mainly follows a Russian gang led by two brothers, which part time as a cab company. Few of the antagonists have shown displeasure for the change on their insidious schedule, the Russian takes things further in almost rebellious way. Due to their volatile nature, they might even close in on Murdock and Claire. This gives Daredevil an immediate and dangerous threat to deal with. The Russian brothers are different from Fisk, they are brash and clearly violent. It's interesting to see the contrasting nature within the adversaries.

Acting is consistently solid for all mainstay actors. It's only been four episodes but they all feel familiar. Page has ventured deeper on the conspiracy, despite lacking means and money. She seems to be frail yet determined at the same time, it's hard not to root for the lady. The series depicts its characters with a touch of humility, which are so easily identifiable with audience. This also goes for Fisk, who steals the show with his unexpected low voice as well as slightly childish mannerism.

D'Onofrio is also physically menacing. At this point high caliber action from Daredevil is expected and this episode adequately produces such combat scene, although part of the action is attributed to D'Onofrio who might just participate in the most brutal scene yet. The show has neatly set foundation for the hero, and now it's done the same with the villain.

This city was a part of me

[jhudson-11704 · 8/10 · 3 August 2017]

We finally get to see Fisk in his many layers in the fourth episode in the season. There is also more great bonding between Matt and Claire, and Karen and Ben.

First, let's start with Karen and Ben. Karen starts to look into the company she used to work for, Union Allied, in order to find out the truth about what is going on with the mysterious company. I'm glad that she is getting important scenes because Woll is a great actress. I also like how Ben knows how the world works and that if you're going to play the game, the other players can't know you're on the field.

Matt and Claire had a more traumatic storyline in the episode. The Russians are starting to close in on the man in black and they find out that Claire might know something. With her abducted by them, Matt has to go save her, going full stealth mode and being completely ominous and threatening while also easily taking out the Russian mob.

I really like these two together because she understands him for his dual persona and he respects and likes her for her bravery and wisdom.

Now for Fisk, who showed his true character in this episode. We first see him awkwardly asking out Vanessa, the woman who sold him the painting. It was uncomfortably sweet to see this because we know that he is a mob boss but watching him struggle to muster the courage to ask out a woman makes him just so relatable. At the dinner between the two, Fisk reveals that he is trying to make his city a better place by doing what he believes to be right. I like this contrast between Fisk and Murdock as they both want the same thing, but have a different way of getting there. The best scene of Fisk this episode was when he showed his ferocity over one of the lead Russians by decapitating him with a car door. This wasn't initially strategic but was because the Russian embarrassed him at dinner. After this, he made a strategic play as to how to make this work in their favor but it is really compelling to see him make drastic actions because his emotions easily clouded his thought process.

So it sort of seems that Matt's first task is to take down the Russians as they are the ones he's been fighting and they are the ones that are the most vulnerable. Foggy, however, was basically just there to say "I could have been a butcher" to Matt and Karen, so literally doing nothing but eating up screen time.

+ Matt/Claire relationship + Matt rescues Claire + Karen and Ben keep chipping away + The many sides of Wilson Fisk, especially the brutality - Foggy seems unimportant

Final Score: 8.6/10

Keeps Progressing!

[prospectus_capricornium · 9/10 · 28 April 2015]

Episode 4: In the Blood Neither the momentum nor the level of violence is telling this show's track is deteriorating, in fact it's picking up a satisfying pace. Now, it places Wilson Fisk on spotlight. I'm no religious Marvel fan, let alone Daredevil's fan, but I think I'm right to assume he's gonna be a major supervillain here. It exposes more of Rosario Dawson's character, Claire too, and tries to establish a brewing chemistry between her and Matthew. This episode also drops references to the Marvel cinematic/TV universe, too, which is exciting (Foggy's saying Matty's not someone who wears an Iron Suit and someone who has a magical hammer). This show keeps progressing, and the gore keeps picking up!

"A woman that can be bought isn't worth having"

[sebtwister · 9/10 · 22 March 2016]

This episode explores Wilson Fisk's personality more and how brutal and ruthless he can be (just you wait till the end of the episode). His love for Vanessa leaves him in a vulnerable emotional state, making him irrational. His date with her is uncomfortable watch to say the least! It's clear right from this episode onwards that Vincent D'Onofrio is absolutely perfect casting for this role.

This episode mainly tells the story of two of the Russian brothers Vladimir (Gideon Emery) and Anatoly Ranskahov (Nikolai Nikolaeff), who work for Fisk despite a clear disregard for him. They come after Daredevil after finding out about his connections with Claire, and their gang kidnap her in an attempt to draw him out and ambush him, you don't see the violence against her but it's very uncomfortable and intense to see her so bruised and bloody.

Also there's another side plot Karen Page meeting Ben Ulrich trying to get a story about Union Allied and exposing them. There's a great dynamic here with these two because he tries to keep her in the dark to protect her because of what's happened to people who have informed him of the crimes he exposed in the past.

Despite a lot of side plots all of it makes sense for the great episodes that followed, it progresses the story further and gives you so much important character development. Very solid episode in my opinion.

It most definitely is in the blood!

[hiren8484 · 8/10 · 12 April 2015]

An episode more for the supporting characters - allowing for good character building, especially for one character in particular! The storytelling is great and the star performer in the episode was Vincent D'Onofrio - absolutely terrifying!! We have seen many types of villains from many of movies/shows. Sometimes they are really great (Iron Man, Thor, Avengers) and sometimes it doesn't quite work out (Hulk, Thor 2) but here they are fleshing out a great complex character and one that I'm looking forward to seeing more of!

The thing I like a lot about the show so far is that even though this is still part of the shared Marvel Universe, it's keeping the story grounded, unlike Agents of Shield, can at times tries too hard. This works well here and I hope it continues.

In summary, a good episode with a great ending.

Excellent

[amindostiari · 10/10 · 21 March 2021]

So far, this series has shown good and bad in two different aspects. Wilson's character was interesting and impressed me. Daredevil is great and It makes my hair stand on end!

I guess everyone needs a little romance

[wms-92741 · 9/10 · 28 March 2022]

In this episode, Wilson Fisk - aka "Kingpin" - goes on a date.

Given the nature of his business, of course the date doesn't go entirely as planned. Vanessa, a lovely art dealer, is charmed by Fisk at first but is alarmed when she discovers he just might be a little shady. This is not surprising, given the dark atmosphere in which Daredevil (the show) takes place.

Vincent D'Onofrio gives a nice performance here as a monster struggling to be human, to fill a quiet longing within himself. And Kingpin is a monster, as monstrous as any character in the Marvel universe.

Matthew (Daredevil) is of course our hero. He's charming, brave, and noble, with a bit of a dark side. As such he's not uninteresting, but the real draw of the show for me is Kingpin, a villain with depth. I know this show was on years ago but it is new to me, and the reason I plan to continue watching is to see the evolution of Kingpin on screen.

In the Flesh, indeed.

[wetmars · 9/10 · 6 January 2022]

Wow, that was excellent. At this point, I do think that this Kingpin is better than the Spider-Verse one. He has a lot of depth of his emotions (( you can say humanizing rather than being sadistic. )), backstory, behavior like having struggles with social interaction which I can relate to, and more menacing. I was thoroughly thrilled watching him having a "date" with Vanessa he met in the Art Gallery. I never thought any kind of dialogue in the Netflix Marvel TV shows can make it comfortably entertaining for me. Always glad to see the bond of Matt & Claire growing.

I have to say my heart was beating fast when she was captured. My mind process was like: "Oh no, is she gonna die? Please no, she's a great character!" Seriously, Daredevil has a lot of Batman vibes and it isn't going to stop for example when he takes down the Russians one by one. After the other Russians discover the whole mess, one of them has enough to contact Fisk and... just ruined his date!

Resulting in the woman regretting going out with him and sensing that something is wrong with him. God damn, I feel bad for Fisk. This pretty much upsets Fisk that leads to him beating the frick (fu) up to one of his men, then smashing his head car door impacting him until he's decapitated.

After this, Fisk's assistant asks him about the corpse. Fisk responds to take what's left of him and send it to his brother. Holy smokes (sh), that is ruthless. Fisk's assistant warns him that it'll start a war, but Fisk doesn't give a crap. What a scene!

Overall, I do have a problem with the pacing in the first act, but it picks up in the second/third act. Good humor with Foggy's butcher joke, and a great reference. "An iron suit or a magic hammer." Just a lot of character development here!

9/10.

Scary

[klausvarbr · 10/10 · 7 March 2024]

Continuing my marathon and what a stupendous episode. I love Karen and Ulrich's research team. Even Fisk has a date with a woman and I don't, I'm going to shave my head, maybe I can. I saw people on IMDB criticizing D'Onofrio's performance, man, Kingpin is perhaps the best hit in the series in The Defenders saga, along with Kilgrave who was played by David Tennant in Jessica Jones. Charlie Cox and Krysten Ritter are wonderful in the lead roles in these two series, but it's the villains who steal the show. Kingpin enters the scene and we are already scared to death (I'm even more scared of Madame Gao), where can this be considered bad acting? And another, I saw people complaining that it shouldn't be so violent. Guys, it's in the age category that will have heavier scenes, if you don't like it, just watch Peppa Pig. I've never read any comics, but the synopsis for Jessica Jones on Disney+ says that it's based on a comic for adults, so just don't watch it. I exaggerated, sorry. Episode four watched on March 7, 2024.

Devil In a Black Costume

[ThomasDrufke · 7/10 · 1 May 2015]

4 episodes in and we finally got our first extended look at Wilson Fisk played by Vincent D'Onofrio. Because I have heard many things about his performance, I had a bias coming in. But I'm impressed so far. To say he had a violent entrance is an understatement. He literally bashed a guys head into a door about 30 times. He also has a problem in social situations as we saw on his date with Vanessa. I do like the writers attempt at humanizing our main villain.

For the first time in the series we got a direct mention of other heroes with Wesley's comment about a magic hammer and an Iron Suit. Unlike Agents of Shield, this show takes a much more subtle approach at referencing other heroes. It's great that they don't rely upon that and instead create their own intriguing story. This episode focused a lot on the Russians and there run ins with Daredevil, or as they would refer to him as just 'the devil'. This got Claire into a bit of trouble as the damsel in distress of the week. The scene was pretty much identical to Batman and how he deals with criminals. Turning the lights off and taking each man out one at a time.

Meanwhile, Urich and Karen are working to fight back against her company. This side story is fine, but I want to see more of the trio back at the firm. I'm pretty sure we will soon, but I just feel like we haven't gotten enough development in that area. So Daredevil continues to be a solid show, just with a few small flaws here and there. Nothing that cant be figured out and fixed in no time.

+Claire & Matt progression

+Batman like scenes

+Fisk is terrifying

-Want to see more of the trio

7.8/10.

Well handled

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 13 July 2021]

I liked this one. The villains get more developed here, the big bad especially, and the last scene is insanely violent again. I liked the Russian stuff including the prison flashback, while Rosario Dawson's damsel-in-distress sub-plot is predictable but well handled.

Not innovative as the first two episodes!

[asb_deutsch · 6/10 · 4 November 2017]

The references of Iron Man and Thor were good but not copying Batman! The scene was pretty much identical to Batman Begins and how he deals with criminals by turning the lights off and taking each man out one at a time. Even the voice acting was very similar.

"In the Blood" getting 8.9/10? Sheesh!

Fisk's Brutality [7.6/10]

[panagiotis1993 · 7/10 · 12 May 2023]

Live Reaction / Review for Daredevil Season 1 Episode 4: The previous episodes were amazing, I hope this one is good too. Claire is right, he needs a suit. I like Wilson's vibe, also is he in love or something? Matt has some sick parkour moves. Another cool fight scene in this episode with Matt fighting the Russians in the dark. Im glad we have more Ben in this episode, I like his character. Damn, Wilson is giving the Russian guy a serious beating, he got moves. That final scene is really violent, even disturbing I woud say, very brutal. Fisk is a psycho, destroying this guy because he embarrassed him infront of his wanna be girlfriend. Really good episode but I liked the previous ones more. My rating is 7.6/10.