Daredevil Season 3, Episode 5 "The Perfect Game" (USE SPOILER TAGS!)

[flickchick85]

Discuss Episode 5: "The Perfect Game" here.

ANY SPOILERS FOR EPISODES BEYOND THIS ONE MUST BE TAGGED.​

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I don't know how comic accurate it is, but I am really enjoying this take on Bullseye. Sure, he is sort of your cliche, mentally unstable psychopath, but the actor is doing a pretty great job so far balancing and portraying that aspect IMO. Those flashbacks with the Therapist actually made me feel a bit sorry for the guy. It was well done, especially with the black and white in every scene.

 

[Saitou Hajime]

Spoiler

How does someone with Dex's background pass his FBI psych evaluation? Fisk's frame job of Matt is pure genius, and has a cascading effect upon Karen and Foggy that pays off a lot of current and past subplots. I like Ray, but I hate how smug and condescending he is towards Karen and Foggy given the FBI's affiliation with Fisk and how they're probably being played.

 

[Mike Murdock]

There were some artistic choices I wasn't thrilled with in this episode. The whole flashback with Benjamin Poindexter's life was almost a weird theater production. I liked the attempts to show real world psychiatry with Bullseye. But I think traditional flashbacks are less jarring.

Side notes: I like the idea of Matt Murdock on the run. But Matt has no life at the moment. I thought it was a bad time to do a story about the Kingpin ruining Matt Murdock's life when Matt Murdock has no life to ruin. He's already at rock bottom. I do like the Wesley story coming full circle, but important disclaimer about writing about the law in fiction: You do not have to give an attorney money for attorney-client privilege to be in effect. At this point, it's just a cliche, but it's not remotely true.

Four Stars.

I don't know how comic accurate it is, but I am really enjoying this take on Bullseye. Sure, he is sort of your cliche, mentally unstable psychopath, but the actor is doing a pretty great job so far balancing and portraying that aspect IMO. Those flashbacks with the Therapist actually made me feel a bit sorry for the guy. It was well done, especially with the black and white in every scene.

I agree those scenes with the actor are well-handled even if I don't like the flashbacks. As far as it being accurate, maybe to a degree.

The big thing about Bullseye's past is it sucked but is otherwise not all that noteworthy. In fact, he hates his past so much that Benjamin Poindexter is just some name he made up. Certainly, he did not have a good relationship with his parents. I believe his mother is actually a prostitute and I'm not sure if anything is ever said about his father. I feel like the comics established he played Baseball for a little while but essentially got bored with it. Aside from that, it's mostly new.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

There were some artistic choices I wasn't thrilled with in this episode. The whole flashback with Benjamin Poindexter's life was almost a weird theater production. I liked the attempts to show real world psychiatry with Bullseye. But I think traditional flashbacks are less jarring.

I thought it worked great as a way to show how it was Fisk putting all this together in his head, by going through the files. He wasn't just reading information, he was putting things together in a way that no one else quite had.

 

[Iceman]

I don't know how comic accurate it is, but I am really enjoying this take on Bullseye. Sure, he is sort of your cliche, mentally unstable psychopath, but the actor is doing a pretty great job so far balancing and portraying that aspect IMO. Those flashbacks with the Therapist actually made me feel a bit sorry for the guy. It was well done, especially with the black and white in every scene.

I liked this take on it and they are building Bullseye up to be a very unstable guy with issues ripe for coercion by someone like Kingpin.

 

[Iceman]

I thought it worked great as a way to show how it was Fisk putting all this together in his head, by going through the files. He wasn't just reading information, he was putting things together in a way that no one else quite had.

It's really well done getting an insight into Fisk's genius at the same time as building backstory for Bullseye.

 

[Lencho01]

FBI just looking like fools hiring someone like Bulleyes and getting played by Kingpin.

 

[Iceman]

FBI just looking like fools hiring someone like Bulleyes and getting played by Kingpin.

Falling for every trap. Fisk is 5 steps ahead of the likes of Matt, Foggy and Karen but 25 steps ahead of the FBI goons.

 

[stillanerd]

Yeah, five episodes in and I'm really digging this season so far, as evidenced by this review I wrote up:
Daredevil season 3, episode 5 review: The Perfect Game In particular, how this series is developing Dex into Bullseye and doing so in a plausible way is fascinating. Plus, the way they told his backstory was one of the most creative montages this series, or any NetFlix Marvel series, has done so far.

 

[Iceman]

I think they've dealt with Bullseye's back story really well. I found the whole thing intriguing.

 

[Web-Head]

I didn't mind the backstory for Bullseye but it seemed like it took up a good portion of the episode

 

[squeekness]

I didn't mind the backstory for Bullseye but it seemed like it took up a good portion of the episode

I didn't mind it, I agree that they were very well done.

 

[kvz5]

Fisk’s plan was just brilliant all around. He means well but god I wanted to punch Ray in the face with how condescending and cocky he is with Karen and Foggy.

Excellent and scary backstory for Dex. I liked that he joined the FBI as a means to channel his energy someplace. Although, I’m surprised he managed to pass their psych tests...

 

[flickchick85]

Excellent and scary backstory for Dex. I liked that he joined the FBI as a means to channel his energy someplace. Although, I’m surprised he managed to pass their psych tests...

Well, that stuff was in his sealed juvenile medical records, and that therapist - whether intentional or not - was essentially teaching him how to pretend to be normal and fool future psych evaluations.

 

[kvz5]

Well, that stuff was in his sealed juvenile medical records, and that therapist - whether intentional or not - was essentially teaching him how to pretend to be normal and fool future psych evaluations.

Yeah that’s true. I forgot that his records (like the incident with his coach) would’ve been sealed.

 

[dmcreif]

There were some artistic choices I wasn't thrilled with in this episode. The whole flashback with Benjamin Poindexter's life was almost a weird theater production. I liked the attempts to show real world psychiatry with Bullseye. But I think traditional flashbacks are less jarring.

Side notes: I like the idea of Matt Murdock on the run. But Matt has no life at the moment. I thought it was a bad time to do a story about the Kingpin ruining Matt Murdock's life when Matt Murdock has no life to ruin. He's already at rock bottom.

Yeah, I agree, it would've had more impact if Matt had a life to ruin. However, that would've required Matt's journey in the first four episodes to be different, and be one where he got out of the convent at the start of the season, went back to his normal life, rebuilt his pro bono practice, and had started reconciling with Karen and Foggy again when Fisk got out.

With the story we have, I think that Fisk should've gone after Foggy instead. Foggy's girlfriend used to work at Landman & Zack and we don't know how deeply involved Marci was in Landman & Zack's illegal activities.

Spoiler

Not to mention that, as revealed later in episode 9, Fisk has already got leverage against Foggy thanks to tricking his parents and brother into committing fraud, so he could've also easily just put that into play.

 

[dmcreif]

There were some artistic choices I wasn't thrilled with in this episode. The whole flashback with Benjamin Poindexter's life was almost a weird theater production. I liked the attempts to show real world psychiatry with Bullseye. But I think traditional flashbacks are less jarring.

Side notes: I like the idea of Matt Murdock on the run. But Matt has no life at the moment. I thought it was a bad time to do a story about the Kingpin ruining Matt Murdock's life when Matt Murdock has no life to ruin. He's already at rock bottom.

In fact, thinking about it, it's amazing that the writers chose (minor spoilers for later episodes) to have Foggy’s “make myself so visible, Fisk can’t touch me” scheme actually works for him, when it should've been the impetus for Fisk to make Foggy's life absolutely miserable. Even with the whole thing where

Spoiler

he's tricked Foggy's parents and brother into committing fraud

, Fisk could have easily ruined Foggy's and Marci's careers, getting them disbarred and whatnot.

 

[SPO2 Dalisay]

Yeah, I agree, it would've had more impact if Matt had a life to ruin. However, that would've required Matt's journey in the first four episodes to be different, and be one where he got out of the convent at the start of the season, went back to his normal life, rebuilt his pro bono practice, and had started reconciling with Karen and Foggy again when Fisk got out.

With the story we have, I think that Fisk should've gone after Foggy instead. Foggy's girlfriend used to work at Landman & Zack and we don't know how deeply involved Marci was in Landman & Zack's illegal activities.

Spoiler

Not to mention that, as revealed later in episode 9, Fisk has already got leverage against Foggy thanks to tricking his parents and brother into committing fraud, so he could've also easily just put that into play.

Going after Foggy would have meant that Fisk thought that was the best way to get at Matt for trying to keep him from Vanessa. And Matt had been missing for months before reemerging so why would he think that Foggy was close enough to Matt to hurt Matt and stop the Devil?

Beyond the lawyer side Fisk also had to go after the vigilante. And now he has the police hunting the Devil again.