“…it was always scripted that this scene was going to be a one-shot. ..We were able to slow down the fight, and just have this raw, animalistic feeling happening…There were no cuts in that fight. Every performer, the actors and the stunt doubles, were in there performing that fight full on. …We had maybe a few days to set up…most feature films would get weeks to rehearse something like this. …I felt like the New York stunt community stepped up in a big way. To me, it’s going to be a highlight of the show.”
Fight Choreographer Philip J. Silvera in The Observer

Netflix Daredevil_ I’ve broken two conventions here.

One, I didn’t use the actor’s name ( Charlie Cox ) because I didn’t think anyone would know who I’m talking about.  He has been creeping slowly toward stardom (with scene-stealing roles in Encore’s Moby Dick and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire ), but his breakout role as Daredevil in the Netflix series just started Friday, so I think it will be a little while before his name becomes well-known.

My second break with convention is highlighting a fight scene from a TV Show.

But the show is so good (the best superhero TV series and in my opinion, equal to the best Marvel movies ( Iron Man and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ).

The fighting was intentionally modeled on the best of the new film fight choreography (exemplified by the Bourne films and The Raid films) by fight choreographer Philip J. Silvera .

Here, in a scene reminiscent of the “hammer in a hallway” sequence in the excellent original Koran version of Oldboy, Daredeil (already badly injured from a previous fight) rescues a kidnapped boy by taking on many armed Russian mobsters.

As the son of a professional boxer, its not surprising that the character’s fighting style is mostly dirty boxing, with a little Parkour-like gymnastics and BJJ thrown in.  His superpower is mostly a combination of being able to sense attacks (so he slips many punches) plus the ability to take a shitload of punishment.  Daredevil is, by far, the superhero who suffers the most damage in his pursuit of justice.

Daredevil was one of the superheroes I used to read in my 12-14 year old comic reading heyday, but now I like the character because of this new gritty treatment but I also like his mission.  Unlike so many superheroes who wander all over the place looking for trouble, Daredevil is just cleaning up his very narrowly defined neighborhood, the ten blocks that constitute the so-called Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan, an area which, while now quickly gentrifying, used to be a dangerous holdout of crime and poverty until the late 90s.

He is the one superhero who is focused on acting local!

Check it out.