Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of March 3, 2025
Daredevil: Born Again
Rated TV-MA
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%
Streaming on Disney Plus
Sometimes being a “film critic” comes with some amazing perks. In this case, it’s Disney allowing me to watch the entire season of Daredevil: Born Again before its release this week. Daredevil was never considered one of Marvel’s prime properties until the MCU suddenly gained interest, and thusly grabbing it away from Netflix. But rather than change it from its gritty, R-rated feel and production style, producer Kevin Feige decided to keep it as is and continue on. So, returning here are the incomparable Charlie Cox as the blind vigilante and Vincent D’Onofrio as the villain Kingpin. While D’Onofrio’s Kingpin got some play in the poorly received MCU streamer Echo, it was his return to Daredevil that has gotten all the fans excited, and rightfully so. With a first episode that will leave you breathless, we find Daredevil’s alter ego, defense attorney Matt Murdoch, laying low, and mostly staying out of trouble. But he badly wants back in when he discovers that Kingpin has somehow now become the mayor of New York City and is up to something sinister. With most of the episodes serving their own storylines while servicing the larger picture, the show is a breeze to binge at the end but will be something to look forward to if you don’t mind the weekly waits. What will have most fans excited is that Marvel has largely left Daredevil alone. It is a tough, no-nonsense vigilante thriller with undertones of our current political climate. If there is any difference, it’s that the writing has improved, with less of the cheesiness that we occasionally got previously. Since I can’t talk plot points yet due to the majority of the ten episodes coming over the next two months, I’ll just point out that you won’t be disappointed. There are some truly next-level baddies with Kingpin’s shadow casting down on the whole thing. A
Paradise: Season 1
Rated TV-MA
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%
Streaming on HULU
Finishing its first season this week is the new streamer Paradise from HULU. This unique crime thriller starts hard as a secret service agent (Sterling K. Brown) assigned to the president (James Marsden) finds the president dead in his room upon taking over his morning duties. This sets off a season-long mystery to discover who the killer is, and subsequently solve the enigma of why this is all taking place in a city under a mountain after what appears to have been an extermination-level event in the outside world. This extremely creative series idea from This is Us creator Dan Fogelman doesn’t really deliver on all its promises, as its ideas far exceed its budget, but it does provide a nice end of the world thriller with some really big surprises and even bigger questions. Sterling K. Brown proves to be one heck of a choice for the lead, and he never disappoints, but the writing and directing at times can be pretty lame, and the rest of the cast isn’t at the skill level to pull it off without flaw. But it starts interesting and gets better as it goes, moving past its obvious limitations with flare. And as it has been quite the popular streamer, season 2 is already in the works. B