ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Daredevil: Born Again Premiere REVIEW - Is Marvel Back?

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Daredevil: Born Again is back, with the shocking death of Foggy Nelson? But was the death worth it, or does it ruin the original Netflix series? In this video, we talk about the show's missing connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and where the MCU goes from here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Their Devil's been gone for a really long time. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and let's talk about the premiere of Daredevil Born Again and the controversial opening to the show. Was it the best thing Marvel has ever done or a huge character assassination?

Now, this is a special video because we're going to be joined by two greats from the Nerd Hall of Fame, Mike Lawrence and Cameron Caskey, and later, I'm going to tell you guys my problem with this premiere, but first, I want to talk about what worked. But first, I am so excited to show you guys this new shirt at our merch store, the No Fear tribute to the hallway fight. We also have the Fist Confix a Campaign shirt, the Rabbit in a Snowstorm, a replica of the Battle of New York newspaper cover, and we have our Nelson and Murdoch logo and the Law and Order parody T's. Links for all of those are below. And don't forget, you can now listen to Screencrush on Spotify, Apple, and anywhere you get your podcasts. Now, Daredevil is a personal character for me because I remember when I read my first Frank Miller comic. I was 11 years old on a field trip and I bought a trade paperback of the Gang War storyline from a gas station.

I was amazed that a comic book could be like this. It changed my idea of what comics could be. And when season one debuted, I actually called off sick and watched it all in one day. I just loved this redheaded loser so much. So I thought season one was the most loyal adaptation we've ever seen of a Marvel hero apart from Ramey Spider-Man. It just felt like it was straight off the pages of those original Miller issues. And Vincent Danofrio took, frankly, a one-note villain like the Kingpin and gave him nuance and emotion. His version of the Kingpin that carries through seamlessly to born again is a broken child.

Fisk has layers of humanity that make his unhuman actions even more tragic. And that is the kind of nuance that we just usually don't get from Marvel villains. He's nervous, he's petulant, and like Matt, he's always holding back his rage. And Charlie Cox embodies a man that can never be happy. He's always going to be tormented by the idea that he is never doing enough to win an unwinnable fight. Now, Daredevil as a character works because deep down, Matt wishes he was on those rooftops beating people up. He's always torn between being the sinner or the saint, and he hates himself for it. Stop on top of that, he can take an unbelievable amount of punishment without one damn complaint.

Well, that's parts of Catholicism. But he's convinced himself that he is also serving God's will. And in these first two episodes, they carried over almost everything that was great, about the old show. Yeah, except for Karen and Fargy. Well, exactly, and I'm going to ask Mike and Cameron what they think about that a little later on. But for me, I didn't mind that they wanted to take the show

in a different direction. I mean, the comics do this all the time. Characters move on. Matt moves to different cities. Writers shake things up by giving Matt different love interests. And the show is about Matt Murdoch and not Foggy Nelson.

And killing off Foggy is a game-changing event for Matt. Like Ned Stark's death on Game of Thrones, it leaves us wondering what the hell can happen next. Losing Foggy also takes the joy out of Matt's life. He loses his direction. He turns himself in, and he buries himself in guilt for allowing this to happen. So if the goal of storytelling is to challenge characters, losing foggy robs the joy out of Matt's life. But it does make me worry that it's a trick the show will keep repeating, which I'm going to talk to Mike and Kim about later on. You know, guys, I have been so excited for this show to start.

After all the delay, strikes, and rewrites, we are finally eating good. In fact, this year, we are so busy with all the Marvel shows and movies and Andor in a few weeks that we are like nonstop every day. Now it used to be that on days like that I would get irritated easy and I would crash in the middle of the day. But then I started drinking my AG1. They're the sponsor of this video. Guys, I love this drink. Even if they didn't sponsor us, I would still be a subscriber. In the mornings, it's the easiest thing I can do for myself to make sure that I'm going to have a healthier day. Or say there, person. We're just wondering, what is AG1?

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shake. And it's just that easy. No messy blenders, just powder, water, shake, and you're on your your way to a healthier day. So again, if you use my code, click this link or the QR code, you can subscribe and save $20 off your first purchase of AG1. I love having AG1 as a sponsor for this video because this drink has made a big difference in my daily life. Now, back to what I was saying. Now, for my money, Daredevil is the best Marvel TV show and it's not even close. All of the other Disney Plus shows, you know, they feel more like a limited series, like they are a quick interlude between movies. But Daredevil is a TV show with A&B plots and storylines that run parallel throughout the entire season until they finally culminate, you know, like a television show. Even WandaVision and

Loki, which are both great, are essentially limited series and not a true TV show. And this goes down to how Marvel used to plan and structure their television division. They planned their shows like movies. Instead of asking writers to submit pilot scripts and then hiring showrunners, they just decided they would make a show and then they hired people to make it. In other words, they ran their TV division like they were still making movies. But that has changed with Daredevil Born Again. This show is based in a traditional structure with showrunners and an open-ended format that would allow for multiple seasons. And unlike a lot of Disney Plus shows, this one feels like it's real. We are on the streets and not in a studio or in the volume or in front of a green screen. The bland flat lighting we

usually see is replaced with natural light or scenic lighting from street lamps. This adds to the idea that Daredevil always feels like he is in danger. The only moment that felt like detached from reality was when Matt runs across the rooftops. But that should feel larger than life. He is a superhero. Other than that, Daredevil always should feel like he is in peril, not because of his physical limitations, because he's an ordinary guy, but because he has been through so much in the comics. He's lost every woman he ever loved. He lost his law practice, his home, his license. And in these first two episodes, Marvel is reminding us that Matt Murdoch cannot win. But he is an appealing character because, like his old man, he always gets back up and into the fight. And Kingpin becoming

mayor is the kind of story that I wish Captain America Brave New World had told. What happens when a villain legally obtains power. I mean, in real life, villains almost always obtain power legally. Hell, Hitler was even elected chancellor. So this is how liberty dies with thunderous applause. And this idea of Kingpin becoming mayor test the line of legality. How can Matt fight the same system that he has sworn to uphold? But the most controversial part of this episode was the death of Foggy Nelson. And actually we have a video coming up tomorrow about why his death actually saved the show.

And man, I am so excited right now because I have an all-star lineup. We have Cameron Kasky, co-host of the FYPod, and returning to the channel. We have Mike Lawrence, who is the co-host of the Nerd of Mouth podcast. Guys, you're two of my favorite, most knowledgeable comic book nerds. I can't believe I'm actually getting to introduce you guys to meet for the first time. You've heard what I thought about the show so far. Mike, what were your thoughts on the first two episodes? I thought it was really good.

I thought it was really well done. And I thought, I mean, I'm just going to get out of the way. Bullseye's costume was terrible. I have to say that, it looked like ass. Well, it's not his final costume, though. Well, either way. Yeah, the deleted, the behind-the-scenes stuff, I think it comes back later with the little. Yeah, because it looked like, like, if they tried to modernize the cookie-cris burglar, like, it, yeah, but I thought it was really well done, you know, daredevil stories are about Matt Murdoch first and less about Daredevil, and I think this is really focusing on that.

The dichotomy of him and Wilson Fisk is really well done. This is, I mean, I feel like this has to be DeNafrio's last time. He looks old. You know, I think he's 65. And it was weird, like, there was a scene where someone was taller than him, and it's weird to watch anyone be taller than the kingpin. But he's so good in the role and just, you know, as an actor that you buy it. But, yeah, I thought it was really well done.

I thought they set up some really cool stuff. I mean, they're taking from many different runs. The Hector Ayala stuff is from Bendis. I think Charles Sewell did the, the Muse stuff. Yeah, so it's really working for me. I mean, I think Charlie Cox was meant to play this character, and I'm glad that they got the band back together to do this. Yeah, speaking of people getting older, as a man who's losing his hair,

I'm noticing Charlie Cox is too. And I'm like, you know what, fine, do an older Daredevil. He owns this part. like I'm watching re-watching boardwalk right now and to see him in that show play a completely different character is weird for me because man like from the moment they cast him I was like that's perfect and in that first season like I talked about earlier I binge that in one day and in my mind I think a lot of people's minds he just always will be daredevil cam what were your thoughts in the first couple episodes I mean I thought it was criminally good and it was so funny because for years Vincent Dinoffrio was tweeting over and over again we can get a daredevil revival guys Hey, don't lose hope, fans. Daredevil might very well come back. And all of us were like, hey, Vincent, this is like kind of sad at this point. You know, they're done with Daredevil.

They're moving on. I like how you're on a first name basis with him. You know, you're like... We didn't follow each other. Like you ran into him at a party. Well, you're okay. All right. You guys are friends.

Let me just start calling Vinnie Dee. Look, listen, Vinnie Dee spent years just saying, like, oh, we can come back. Don't lose hope, everyone. And even Charlie Cox himself was like... And then you said, yeah, but what do you want to order? Yeah. Charlie Cox said, no, Vincent, this is not going to happen. Like, drop it, move on with your life.

And then not only does Daredevil come back, it's back and it's better than it's ever been. And you're like, wow, Vincent DiNafrio, I got to hand it to you. You were right. Not only did Daredevil come back. It came back in top form. I mean, for me, the thing that this show did so well. the cast, they all just play those roles so effortlessly that it was hard to even notice how great the acting was because it felt so natural. But the pace and the way that they kind of fleshed out their world, it was all so great.

I mean, in those first two episodes, they cover more story than your average six-episode season of an MCU show. And the episodes don't stop abruptly after 30 minutes, since the next episode's 40. And I was thoroughly entertained. There's also that. It had that over shows like Secret Invasion, for example. There's just so much happening, but it doesn't feel rushed either. They're happy to live in the moments and let the moments sit with you, and they're happy to give you that time with a character where there isn't necessarily

some sort of pulse-pounding action happening, but you're getting a deeper understanding of that character and what they want. And it was just so weird because it's top-formed television, and it's better than, in my opinion, what I've seen from Daredevil before. And Daredevil Before was pretty great. And I feel like the boy who cried, the MCU is making good stuff again now, because when I call my friends to tell them that, they'll be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You called us after Guardians of the Galaxy 3. You know, you called it.

But I'm saying to them, guys, this could be outside of the MCU. This could be anywhere. This is excellent TV. The pacing is great. The script is great. the, you know, it's, it's unafraid to be a comic book show, and yet it's not relying on the fact that it's a comic book. It's a compelling story with compelling characters anyway, but it's not running away from being a comic book. And one detail I'd highlight just to, just one thing I admired about the show, I'd say, and the way that it kind of fleshed out, it's New York, because the personality of New York in the show is just so great was the way they used B.B. Urich's street interviews.

in between certain transitions, the way they would just cut to different New Yorkers talking about how they feel. I was like, that's such good writing. And it's a connection to the old Daredevil show that you don't even need to know about. Yeah, and that's one thing I always hated about the original show was the death of Ben Urick.

Because in the comics, I mean, Ben is a vital supporting character to remember. I mean, Frank Miller would often hand, and Brian Michael Bendis did too, they hand him the narration. You know, he becomes the driving force, like the driving narrative behind a lot of issues. He's like the Commissioner Gordon for Bruce Wayne, but if Commissioner Gordon had actually been able to work out,

you know, that Bruce Wayne was Batman's secret identity. Where did you guys land on the foggy death? This is what I think, I'm curious to see a lot of fans already on social media and stuff talking about this. Mike, where did you land on that? I mean, I thought it worked because, I mean, I think also it works about this show is that they keep it small. The MCU doesn't have to do everything.

It doesn't have to connect. everything it just has to tell good stories with good performances because that's what we want from everything and I don't think that comic book you know adaptations are immune to that you know I think the best stuff that it has worked I mean Iron Man worked because people love the RDJ performance and and you know people love the the music and the humor of Guardians right so I think with the foggy death I thought it worked because Matt was responsible

for it, you know, he was taken out by one of Matt's villains, and it's all about Matt's reaction to that. And I thought that it worked. I thought that it never lost the

narrative of how that drove a wedge between him and Karen. And you know, like the show is a lot about grief and and I love the I love the B.B. Eurek stuff because like when you know there is there is that tension when she is you know with Fisk and everything and you know it's like this is the dude who like killed her dad and you know you know that she's hoping to to bring him down but they don't they don't put all the cards on the table they don't make it so heavy

handed which I like. If somebody who went to journalism school though I was bothered because I was like you haven't asked him a question yet. They're just going in trying to get a reaction out of him. I was like, I know you're hunting for a soundbite, but come on. You've got to ask him one question. Hey, it's modern journalism. She's just going to do 20 Easter regs that I noticed during the meeting with Wilson Fisk. Yeah, or like the ending explained or the mid-credit scene in my meeting with Wilson Fisk.

Yeah. Anyways. He mentioned bowling, and so he is the kingpin. Oh, stop. Okay, so I do have one question, though, about the foggy death, right? So I'm worried, Cameron, that the foggy death, that we might be going, because I think this already happens to Daredevil in the comics. You know, like on the show Arrow, it seemed like every season was punctuated by a member of Oliver Queen's family getting killed to the point where it lost meaning. And in the original series, which is basically a prequel to this show, we lost Father Lantham.

It seemed like every season, Ben Urick, we were always losing somebody to further his character development. And I don't want it to turn into a thing like in the comics where it's like, in comics everybody, comes back, but Karen Page hasn't yet, but like people keep dying that, you know, Matt had a love interest or a friendship with just to further his arc. I believe you Green Lantern fans call us fridging. What are your thoughts on that and foggy's death in general? I think that the foggy thing worked because it was in service of the story and the characters, and I think that it was consequences. And, you know, the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn't always know what that word means, like when you have a civil war and the closest thing you have to somebody really

getting hurt is, is Rodi falling down? And of course, it split up the Avengers before Infinity War, but the MCU, there's not always very big consequences for the things that happen. And sometimes that makes it hard to watch certain things because you don't really have a sense of stakes. So, like, you know, it's season 12 of Stranger Things right now. None of the main characters ever die and therefore when the main characters go down into the dark seller, you don't really have this sense of are they going to make it out? You know they're going to make it out because they're famous and because they need to be in the marketing materials for the next season. All this is to say, you need some sort of stakes and you need some sort of consequences

and you need to have this idea that just because somebody is a main character that doesn't mean they're going to be okay. And at the end of the day, Foggy's death not only reminded Matt Murdoch that there are consequences for his actions, and no good deed goes unpunished, they also put Matt in an emotional place that kicked off the season and it contextualized what exactly was going on with him when suddenly Fisk is back and he's the mayor now. And for the first time in history, a corrupt, large, physically large crook is in charge of a government body. I can't imagine that ever happening in real life.

I do think there's a lot of foggy, like a lot of Eldon Hansen fans who like ran into their rooms and tore down their mighty ducks posters after his death, but I agree with, I agree with what you guys are saying about it. I just worry that it's, I hope it's not a trick they keep repeating.

It's one of those things like Ned Stark's death, right? You know, they did that, that was great, and then it was semi-repeated with the Red Wedding, but that was such a wipeout that I think it was an escalation but if you keep doing that over and over eventually like with the CW it stopped for me it also took away

stakes because I knew somebody was always going to die so I hope that's not where they go but you I would say that there's a there for on the CW I think so many of the creative decisions being made can be directly attributed to what that season's budget was so when a character got killed on a CW show for me I was just thinking like okay they didn't want to pay

this person that year. And on Game of Thrones, you know, it's a, it's a different story with Ned Stark and the Red Wedding because Ned Stark is kind of a good guy following the rules in a world where following the rules gets you killed, right? And breaking the rules is what wins, even if it only wins on the short term. The Red Wedding was the consequences of Rob Stark's actions, you know, him betraying his oath to the phrase, which, by the way, Ned Stark would have never done, you know, him doing the opposite of what his father would have done, ended up getting him killed. With Foggy, holy shit, Foggy's killed because Matt tried to do the right thing.

Foggy had to pay the price for Matt's good deeds, and that changed Matt's relationship with Daredevil, and, you know, the show had two options, either explain to us that Matt has been Daredevil for the past several years and has just been kind of hanging out and make us play this weird game of ketchup, or let us meet Matt where he is. And just as we are picking up with him, he's picking up with Daredevil. I think it made sense too. I think about the Dark Night Rises and how it never made sense to me that at the start of that movie Bruce Wayne has quit being Batman. When the events of the Dark Night, I don't think left him in that position at all. So I take what you're saying there that it gave us a believable reason that we haven't seen

Daredevil pop up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since then. So I'm with you on. that i just again hope it doesn't continue to be a point of escalation that the riders always fall back on uh but you know you both talked about like kind of the mc u of it right and about other marvel Disney plus shows there was something um how do you feel like this show how do you see this show connecting or does it need to connect mike or no i don't i don't think it it really does you know i mean look they mentioned you know uh spider man very briefly and you know we've seen daredevil uh this daredevil in uh no way home so they're they're connected but they don't really need to be because it's also it confuses things right like if you're watching this

and the whole time you're like why aren't bigger people why isn't somebody like a nick fury stepping away of a criminal like uh wilson fisc running new york right like when you start to think in those terms it just ruins what they're showing you because you're thinking about what's not there and so I think minimizing things is better also on the foggy thing in the

comics he does fake his death and go into witness protection I don't think that's going to be the case here but they may always do like a well he wasn't actually dead but you know I mean you're also talking about a universe where there's

ninjas who raise people from the dead all the time like if they really wanted to bring him back, they would find a way to do it. But also, you could just let him be dead. You could do this crazy thing that people do sometimes in stories where someone dies and they're dead. And sometimes Jordan Martin didn't do that, though. Even Lady

Stoneheart came back, but not only go down a Game of Thrones track, but I'm just going out like, especially in the multiverse saga, and this is where I think this show really stands apart from that. Because the multiverse is all about removing character stakes. It's like when they introduced the cheerleader blood and heroes, all of a sudden, nobody

ever died for real, you know? So I do hope he's dead I hope he stays dead but if they had a good story that brought him back it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if it was a good story or he could just stay dead

because there's you know sometimes if there's a show where there's deadly stakes and there's a character who isn't going anywhere and their presence in the story is not progressing the story sometimes maybe it makes sense

for them to die right you know like imagine if anybody on Stranger Things ever died I was but you got an axe to grind today man you really wanted Max to go. Okay, I actually, Max is one of the only characters. I do want to know.

I mean, no, they kill people, but they kill people in the same season. Exactly. Every character they killed. Bob Eddie, et cetera. They all had a big red X on their chest the second you met them. But all this is to say, foggy dying is great, and it was kind of a message from the MCU to us that's like, hey, we're not up to our usual stick right now. We're letting material be itself.

It was an extremely daredevil thing to do to kill Foggy right up there. You get your Meet the Family scene. You remember why we loved these three characters together. You get a little rapport between them. You get to watch Matt listening to Foggy try to flirt and kind of make fun of him a little bit with Deborah Ann Wolles, Karen Page. You're like, oh, gee, that's why I loved spending time with those three. Oh, shit.

Matt being Daredevil, just everything up. And it made perfect sense, and I was very happy with it. I personally, one of my favorite things about this show, Mike, you mentioned it earlier, I want to circle back, is the fact that they've always treated the Kingpin, even from season, even when seasons he wasn't in very much like season two, as a co-protagonist. And they've really, I think, dived into a couple aspects of him

that the comics didn't, don't traditionally explore as much. And that is that he and Matt are, in their own way, mirror opposites. Because in the comics, Kingpin is more about, you know, his own control, his own lust for power and control. And the show, they kind of reframed it to be, I want to fix this city and all this other kind of stuff, right, by gentrification. But he has that goal, and they did that to parallel him with Matt. In these first two episodes, you see a lot of shots that are the inverse of what we've seen before. You see Kingpin on the roof and Matt in the gutter with Matt looks like he's in hell with the red and the mist and all this stuff coming from the steam vents.

You also had Kingpin from the very first season of the original show. Vincent DiNofrio plays him so fragile. And, you know, Mike, you mentioned kingpin being shorter. Yeah, they cast Michael Clark Duncan specifically so they would have an enormous kingpin. They wanted him to feel like a confident, unstoppable force. How do you feel about this Vincent Donofrio kind of peeling back those layers and showing his humanity? It took me a long time to accept it because. Especially in the first season when he loses a physical fight to Daredevil, it's like, well, yeah, he's not that big.

He's just, you know, and he, he, like, you know, he acts like boss baby. Like, he's just a giant baby at times. I'm really mad that someone hasn't changed my diaper, Vanessa. You know, but it, it's grown on me because he is that good of an actor, you know, it's, you know, and also the voice does have a little bit of that sugar, water, in black like you're waiting for a cockroach to just jump out of them um but i think what they've really done well and and i think it's it's a a story in this season especially where their parallel is the the women that they pushed away they know like i think you look at like the story of you know daredevil and karen being more separate and and fifth story is more about

he took like this you know amazing art dealer and everything and he corrupted her and I think he feels guilt about that of you know now Vanessa is a crime boss herself and I think that

oh yeah that I think that I don't think he's ever questioned his choices as much as that that he took someone outside of his world and you know corrupted them Those two actors are just so great.

I mean, the therapy scene was, there was this pause, this silence where they were, where you were so uncomfortable. And for a second, I genuinely thought that my screen had paused. And I was like, oh, I need to go. And then it was like, no, these actors are just waiting to say what they're going to say. And you really felt it right there. I think the thing about DeNafrio's performance that's so exciting to me is, like, yes, he's not the physical giant that Kingpin needs to be.

I don't care. I don't need Kingpin to be physically large as much as I need him to be formidable and spiritually large. You know, I need Kingpin to be a force more than I need him to be six, seven. Yeah, but I don't care about Kingpin's physical fight scenes. I care about Kingpin who's going to be the mayor and a crime boss. Like, you know, this isn't the Hulk. So I don't, I'm not obsessed with Kingpin necessarily looking like he jumped off the comic book page.

I need him to feel like he did. I need him to feel like he is formidable like that. And the thing that DeNafrio does that's so interesting to me is you feel, when I'm watching it, I feel like I'm seeing deep into him. I feel like I'm seeing past all of the layers. And yet it still feels like there's so much smoke and mirrors. I feel like I'm being let in on personal truths that Wilson Fisk has that maybe he doesn't even completely know yet. And yet I feel like there's so much that both the audience and Fisk,

don't know about Fisk and there's this there's this juxtaposition between certainty and uncertainty where you hear this insecurity in his words and get the way he's delivering them simultaneously sounds so sure and so powerful and so strong and it really is just like an interesting topical and deep performance of someone who has a lot of power and does not necessarily use it for what's best So DeNoprio's performance to me is a highlight. You know, Mike, you mentioned he's boss baby, but somewhere on Twitter, we talked about this in our Easter egg video, somebody did ask him, describe Kingpin in two words, and he said Monster and Child. And I think he never loses that, even in Echo, which is a show, you know, they cut the ribbons and stuff, but the performances he's in for me. I mean, I talked about this earlier, and I want to get both of your thoughts on this, but for me, if you look at the whole breadth of MCU villains, I don't want to.

to get into like spider man and x-men and stuff i think he's my top villain like because he's so human because his humanity makes his inhumanity so much more tragic dude where would you guys rank him or who would you rank above this character just in this universe i thought killgrave was better and more threatening boy killgrave was amazing it's scary um just in this netflix universe uh you know i like cotton mouth a lot um but i mean i do like kingpin a lot it's just You know, I am one of those, like, hardcore fans and not just Bendis' hardcore arc with Alex Believe is she's 46 through 50. But, no, I like that. Bob Gail had an underrated arc right before that, too, just between, just as long as we're, you know, name dropping here.

Yeah, but I like that the only way that Matt could physically beat him is if he pushed himself all the way. and now it's like, you know, it's a 65-year-old guy, and yeah, he's wearing a fat suit. It's like, I never believe that he can't just punch this guy out with one fist. But who cares, man? I care. This is someone who's running for mayor in an examination of power and of structures of power. I don't want to watch the story where Daredevil figures out how to punch Wilson Fisk hard enough to beat him.

I want to watch the story where Daredevil figures out how to outsmart him and defeat him not only practically, but morally. I want to watch Daredevil learn how to stay true to his values and still out-maneuver Fisk. Like, if I want to watch somebody out-punch somebody, I can put on the UFC. Yeah, but can't he do that and be physically impressive? Yeah, for me, it goes back to Unbreakable.

You know, there's that line, there's the hero that fights at the fist and the power of the fights at their mind. I think in the comics, yeah, Kingpin can whip your ass, but he also, I mean, he does Kung Fu and stuff and beats... He's a 500-pound guy that it's all muscle. That is mostly muscle. Yeah, you're right. Very hard to pull that off without CGI, though.

And I'm glad, personally, I'm with Cam. Like, I'd rather see Bullseye be the enforcer. Unless we want to get that guy who played the Mountain on Game of Thrones to be Kingpin. But it's like, you know, I think that it's a matter of who can give us the most compelling performance, right? Like, King Pit. I mean, man, remember in season one when they were cutting back to Wilson Fisk as a child when he accidentally, I was like, oh man, what Donofrio said was exactly right. This is a monster and a child. It's like Cameron Britton has Ed Kemper on Mine Hunter. There's something so dark and so childish about it.

And, you know, never would there ever be a real politician in power whose childish tendencies are something that's dangerous and threatening. But hypothetically, if that were the case, this evokes that. And it makes you think, oh, my God, the scariest part of the thing, Kingpin isn't the fact that he can crack my skull on the table right now. It's the fact that at the end of the day, that little kid inside Wilson Fisk, the guilt he has from being a child, that's what's calling the shots. The big Kingpin on the outside is just the vessel. But he was like a really fat kid that was picked on for being fat.

And let me just say the last thing. One of the greatest things in Kingpin comics that I've never seen on screen, that I would like to just see once, which I believe they did on. cartoons a couple times, but they've never done it in live action. Shirtless Kingpin, just beating up a bunch of dudes. It happens all the time in the comic. It's happened since

Spider-Man in the 60s when Ramita drew it. Frank Miller did this scene a lot. I love it. It's just the best when a bunch of dudes are like, oh, I can take on that blubbery fat guy, and then they're like, oh man, it ain't worth the money. I quit. That sounds odd. I like my

fun. I like comic books to be serious and grounded, but I also like them to be silly and fun. I mean, I know that this isn't that and I have Spiderverse and I have, you know, the video game to a lesser extent, although he's not that big of that either. But, you know, and also as a fat guy, representation matters. All right, Mike, you're going to get Cam too excited here, so I'm going to call it there. Again, we got Cam from FY Pop, Mike from Nerd a Mouth. Mike's great. Let me just follow him on everything. Cam's okay, too, follow him on stuff. Let me tell you guys, why I think this show needed that little bit more of a tie into the MCU that would have been a light

lift but would have made the show a lot better. Thanks guys. So when the first season of Daredevil premiered, I was so excited to see how they would connect it to the movies. My dream scene would have shown Daredevil in a gutter, beating the crap out of some guy, while Iron Man flies by overhead completely oblivious. But over the years, the interconnected nature of the MCU has become more of a hindrance for its creatives. Shows and movies spend too much time seating new projects and characters that end up distracting from the stories of the main characters. Oh, and when are we getting the X-Men? I cannot tell you that.

I thought this was true of Riri Williams and Ironheart. She didn't need to be in the movie, and ultimately we could have spent more time with Shuri, Ramona, or No more. And also, the sheer volume of new shows and movies means that they can't really interconnect them like they used to. Like in the Infinity Saga, it was easy. There was a narrative straight line from Winter Soldier through Avengers Endgame. And then, shows like Agents of Shield could use the Avengers movies as tent pulls to build around.

For instance, we saw the lead-up and aftermath of the Winter Soldier, and we even saw how Fury got the Helic Carrier that we saw on Age of Ultron. But now, the MCU just has one of these culmination events, Doomsday and Secret Wars. So this means that they have not planned out the ground-level storyline with the kind of narrative efficiency that we saw in the Infinity Saga. Like, for instance, the fall of shield led to the heroes being unpoliced and making mistakes, which caused Civil War and the breakup of the Avengers.

But now, events are just happening randomly. Secret invasion, the marvels, Brave New World, All of these huge global stories just don't feel interconnected at all. So I do wish all of this was a little bit better planned out. A Daredevil show that led into a street-level Spider-Man movie involving the Kingpin and the Venom suit, where maybe we see President Ross praising leaders like Fisk for clamping down on vigilantes. This could have led to a story where Ross and other world governments put political pressure on New Asgard and Maconda. And maybe this could have all culminated in some kind of a world war,

which would make the heroes wonder if their universe was even the one worth saving. But within this show, I just wish they would have specified where the hole came from. It could have been from a superhero battle or like a renegade damage control drone. That kind of subtle world building is just the little tiny push that I would like to see the show apply to make it connect to the larger universe without sacrificing the story they're telling. Well, guys, that's just what I thought of the first two episodes. Let me know what you think on our free to join Discord server or down in the comments below. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts.

For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie. Thank you.