A warning:  these thoughts are likely not to be popular...

I was looking forward to this one, based on all the enthusiastic comments I'd read here and on tumblr, findthesea's stories and other stuff.  And yes, the acting is good, the cinematography is interesting, and the whole idea of a storyline built on the fallout from the Battle of New York and rooted in real-life things like municipal corruption and organized crime is right up my alley, in terms of plot.

But you know what? Three episodes in, and I'm ready to give up.  Here's why -- it boils down to concerns related to violence and ethics.

1. Excessive, unnecessary violence. So, yeah.  Gritty realism is what they're aiming for, I get that.  And yes, the "Murdoch boys" come from a culture of boxing and fighting and spitting out blood.  Not something I am wildly fond of, but I can go with it for the sake of a premise, and character back story.  But bashing someone's head in with a bowling ball (blood-spattered perp as a bonus), showing splintered bone sticking out of someone's arm, seeing someone impale his eyeball on a spike is something I expect from a Tarantino movie, not Marvel.  "Nice show," muttered my husband. "So ...that happened...." remarked one of the teens watching.  Consensus of all 7 of us on movie night was not to watch another episode that night (we watched a "Newsroom" instead.)

2. Realism is ... Balancing a legal practice with night-time vigilantism (sleep much?) is arguably a very tricky thing.  But taking a client only to find out what motivates him, and attcking him as soon as you get him off and basically torturing information out of him?  Can we spell d-i-s-b-a-r-m-e-n-t?  Seriously -- if you don't actually believe in such things as the rule of law and professional ethics/conduct, why bother pretending to be a lawyer?  Sorry, but that premise is so, so wrong, it's not funny.

3. Torture is a good idea (when done by the hero, for presumably Good And Cogent Reasons, and bearing in mind the Greater Good). No.  Just .... no.

You may perceive a slight contradiction here, with these comments coming from someone who writes about a pair of assassins who go around killing people on behalf of a somewhat shady Government organization.  And you wouldn't be wrong.  No one ever said we are creatures of consistency.  But I guess what got to me with Daredevil is the attempt to root the whole thing in "reality" -- at which point I bring some of my reality to it (the perverted approach to law) -- and the excess "darkness"/"grittiness" or whatever the fashionable term du jour is for what amounts to cinematic representation of brutal violence.

So yeah -- line drawn.  Not a fan.  Sorry, Marvel.