The first season feels like a very long movie. It tells a gritty and realistic crime story, keeps away from the more fantastical superhero clichés. There are some surprising twists and there isn't much that seems unnecessary. The story could have been told with one or two episodes less, and that's not much for a TV serial with 13 episodes. (8/10)

Hardly anything is supernatural. Matt Murdock was blinded as a child by some stuff that also gave him special senses that much more than just make up for his loss of eyesight. Other than that he's a normal guy and in fights he gets hurt, badly, a lot. He and his friend Foggy start their career as independent lawyers in "Hell's Kitchen", an area southwest of the Central Park in New York. Slowly they get deeper and deeper involved in the criminal machinations that afflict their quarter. At night, Murdock moonlights as a - yet - nameless vigilante, dressed in black and wearing some kind of bandana that covers the upper half of his face.

The main villain is Wilson Fisk, one of Marvel's first iconic supervillains, the quadratically shaped Kingpin. The original Marvel claim was that there is not an ounce of fat in his body, it's all muscles. Maybe he fell into a tub of radioactiv lard? A live-action version of him would have been ridiculous. Eventually they turned him from a crypto mutant into something like a sumo wrestler, a mere human. And that version is played by Vincent D'Onofrio with rare comic correctness. D'Onofrio is big (1,92 m), with a massive physical presence, he dominates the scenes he's in, just as this crime boss is supposed to do. His Kingpin is sensitive, extremely intelligent and strong, extremely violent-tempered und brutal.

The second season is very different. It's much more like a regular superhero show. Murdock finally got his Daredevil costume. Two supervillains or maybe heroes discuss with him the main question of the season - and of (super) vigilantes: Is it justified to kill really bad guys? The robotic ex-soldier Frank Castle (Punisher) and the spoilt rich girl adventuress Elektra are very much in favour of terminally finishing their jobs. The lawyer and catholic Murdock is opposed to the idea of killing anyone, he is not just into justice, he is into law and order. The main villains in the second half of the season, the ninjas from the ancient mystical organization "The Hand" are not bothered by such questions. They are doing things that are not well explained, but certainly supernatural - basic comic book stuff. Compared to the first season, the second is a bit all over the place, with too many different storylines. Karen Page, the first client of Murdock & Foggy, and later on their secretary, is now a legit journalist. Her story feels forced and unnecessary. All in all, season 2 could have been better if it had been told in just 9 or 10 episodes. (6/10)

The third season cancels the second, there is no continuation, it's back to season one. Daredevil is wearing his old clothes, Wilson Fisk is the main villain, it's a gritty crime story. But the way it is told is extremely long winded and uninvolving. Two many times Murdock/Daredevil is just a supporting character in his own show. The main focus is on Karen and on some new, fairly uninteresting characters. Fisk's mannerisms get more and more tedious. He's got nothing new and is no longer an enigmatic force of nature. In the end, all the storylines meet, more or less satisfyingly. But it is rather doubtful that many viewers will make it through the predominantly boring episodes. The story should have been told in 4 instead of 13 episodes. (4/10)