The perfect storm of creative talent and a studio that lets it’s talent do what they want came together to make Daredevil. Matt Murdock aka Daredevil is one of Marvel’s oldest and most popular super heroes and these 13 episodes give him a live action showcase to strut his stuff.

Matt Murdock grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, New York with his father, a boxer. At the age of 9, Matt was blinded in an accident. A short time later, his father is killed after not throwing a fight for a powerful promoter. Growing up alone, Matt hones his skills (his other four senses became super acute) through training and goes to school to become a lawyer. The shows starts when Matt and his best friend, Foggy, leave their promising internship at a prestigious law firm to start their own practice. Matt dedicates his life to help his city in the legal system during the day and down in the streets as a vigilante at night.

A lot of smart decisions were made on this show. 1) Great casting for the main cast with Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson and Vincent D’Onofrio (interesting take on Kingpin, like him a lot, great villain and plot to start with), Toby Leonard Moore and Rosario Dawson. 2) Accessible to everyone from longtime fans to those who know nothing about the character. Great pacing through careful plot progression. It doesn’t get bogged down in long flashbacks about origin for example. Keeps moving and gives just enough information at just about every turn. 4) Some of the best action choreography and direction in any American production. It’s played real with great impact, but has fun acrobatics that give it some of that comic book flair. Nice wide shots with long takes that clearly shows what’s going on. Fights aren’t cut to hell and back.

A lot of love went into Daredevil and it shows.  You can tell it was put together by real fans as it respects the characters and the audience they want to share it with. The writing is great with solid dialog and character development that grows with each episode (really like the flashbacks with Matt and Foggy and school and Ben Ulrich as a whole. Journalist characters are tough to write well). I could complain about a few things (the Hollywood Orange and Teal color pallet epidemic is in full bloom), but it’s more or less nitpicking.

If you are a parent and wondering if the content is okay for your kid, Daredevil skews adult. There’s a lot of drinking and smoking, but they avoid anything really overtly sexual. I’d say it runs in the upper PG-13 area due to violence (realistic beatings and aftermath damage shown). There is some swearing, but no F bombs which I thought was rather surprising.

After every episode I wanted to watch more and that’s really the best compliment I think you can make for a TV show.