2x05 Kinbaku

The proverbial devil on one side and the angel on the other. Do we really need a Betty and Veronica storyline for Daredevil here? Anybody who's watched Dexter, at least, knows this story. There's the kind-hearted, sweet girl who doesn't know everything about our hero on the one hand, and a bad girl who knows the secrets and encourages him to give into his dark side on the other (with a British accent to boot)! It's a rote conflict for Matt, and one that's not especially interesting for the viewer either.

Elektra is such a transparent cliched "bad girl." I cannot tell you how many times I rolled my eyes during this episode when Elektra would steal a car or break a glass or do god knows what else to show how edgy she was. Her and Daredevil's conversation at the bar in the flashback where they were sizing each other up was the same sort of standard reparte that could have been pulled from a thousand other flirty cliche back and forths. We just don't need the weak attempt at a film noir femme fatale.

There's some good structuring to the episode, more or less. Mixing the flashbacks in with the interactions between the two in the present is a tidy little device to show the contrast in their relationships and keep the episode's momentum going. But the problem is that I just don't care about that relationship. It's hokey and full of Poochie-level misbehavior that is so desperately trying to convince you this girl is just wild man and no one, not even Daredevil, can tame her!

Karen is a much better character on the other side of Matt's romantic divide, but the problem is that I just don't care about her and Matt's relationship. If Elektra is out of a bad modern day film noir, then Karen and Matt's date is out of a bad romcom. Chemistry is tough. The writing isn't necessarily bad here, or at least, it's hard to say for certain, but I just don't buy Karen and Matt having that kind of connection or energy between them, so it makes their long looks and the charged atmosphere the show is trying to create ring false.

At least we get to see Karen getting to the bottom of Punisher's past. Showing her digging around the office of the Bulletin (with a nice return appearance from Ben's editor) is the Karen character at her best -- determined, focused, and willing to push things to run down her leads. Knowing the broad strokes of Punisher's backstory from the comics meant that the big reveal was kind of a non-event for me, but ex ante it's a nice way to deliver the information.

The problem is that one tidbit is a lost in a sea of poorly-done contrasts between Matt's relationship with Elektra and his relationship with Karen, meant to show how much he's changed in the intervening time. Elektra is one weak cliche after another, and Karen and Matt lack any real spark, so the result is an episode that cannot find its footing on either side of the divide it's trying to set up.