Daredevil Which is Better--DD S1 or S2?

[4thWallBreaker]

For those that have finished season 2, is it better or does season 1 still hold the golden gloves?

 

[Snikt]

I feel Season 2 was off to a great start in the first half; then fizzled a bit finishing the season.

Season 1 was great, had a few slow moments, but I felt had a great season finale. Seeing Matt and Fisk go at it and finally locking Fisk away.

Season 2 suffered a bit from a Central antagonist. But was still great. I'll still give the edge to season 2. But not by much.

 

[cryptic name]

I love both seasons. Hard to pick, so many great things in each.

 

[TheFantasticJoe]

I haven't finished the season yet (finished episode 10 earlier, only have three episodes left to go) so I'll reserve my vote until I finish, but so far I consider both seasons equally great.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Season 2 because Frank

 

[the last son]

1 and not really close. Fights were better, writing felt sharper and better villains.

 

[NJCaliboi]

Season 2 has the disadvantage of "expectation". The bar was set so incredibly high that for people to say it's too close to call--or for those who given 2 the edge it says a hell of a lot! I"m only 5 episodes in, but so far so EXCELLENT!!! I think for what it was at the time it came out and for the originality, grit, and rawness it brought to the genre, Season 1 will be very hard to beat

 

[third3ye]

S1 had better writing and main villain, S2 had better supporting cast, better action, and more intriguing main plot.

 

[writer0327]

I think the lack of a true main villain slightly hurts season 2, so I gotta go with season 1. But its a narrow margin if anything.

 

[jonathancrane]

S2

The Stick episodes dragged in S1.

 

[kguillou]

S1 had better writing and main villain, S2 had better supporting cast, better action, and more intriguing main plot.

I agree with this. Season two was phenomenal. I think what would have made it perfect is if Frank was tied more into the finale, it would have been truly satisfying that way.

 

[TheFantasticJoe]

I have finished the season now and I still stand by saying that both are equally great. I feel that both seasons have their pros and cons - season 1 had a fantastic main villain which I felt was kind of lacking in season 2, which also caused it to be a little disjointed in its plots. But when season 2 hit, MAN did it hit hard. The Punisher was fantastic.

 

[BlackFox]

Overall both excellent, I think season 2 reaches higher heights and lower lows than season 1 which was a bit more consistent throughout. Season 1 finished stronger but season 2 had the whole shows strongest run of episodes in 2-4 plus both have really strong supporting casts. There really isnt much between them for me as both had me on my edge of my seat throughout and the binge watching was strong with both.

 

[the last son]

I mean what moment was as intense as season 1, when dd and kingpin meet at the gallery and Matt is squeezing his cane? Season 1 was a slow burn. Took its time to build up.

 

[djsunyc]

I mean what moment was as intense as season 1, when dd and kingpin meet at the gallery and Matt is squeezing his cane? Season 1 was a slow burn. Took its time to build up.

the fisk/frank scene and the fisk/matt scene this year was full of win.

 

[BatsDC]

I adored Season One. It had a more concise storyline, but Season Two was infinitely more interesting. Definitely benefitted by having more than just one storyline going on at once - the Fisk / Punisher / Elektra stuff was great, and allowed us to explore multiple characters with different arcs, whereas in Season One it was literally "this is how ___ deals with Fisk / Daredevil". Would have been nice if it all tied together somehow in the end, even if it was just Frank joining in the Hand showdown earlier on. Still, was a great season, and I enjoyed it a lot more than the first - which is saying something.

 

[los pollos]

Season 2 left a much better impression on me than season 1 did. S2 had better action, less filler, and a more comic book like feel to it than last season while still maintaining a serious tone to it unlike Arrow which degenerated into silliness the further it went along (particularly S3 and S4). I think the biggest improvement with S2 is that the writers really gave the supporting cast better material to work with.

In S1, Foggy and Karen's material were the least interesting things to watch. This time around, I felt more invested in both their stories, and found them to be much more likeable, especially Karen. Frank and Elektra, were perfectly cast for their roles, and not only are they extremely well acted, they felt organic and fit well into Daredevil's world seamlessly. There may not have been a major villain like Kingpin driving the story this season, but I felt it wasn't really as necessary since everything else was so good.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Elektra tips the scale for me, Season 2 it is.

 

[Golgo-13]

Season 2. They're both great but the presence of Frank and Elektra tip the scale in S2's favor.

 

[Docker2.0]

Punisher and Fisk?! Season 2 by far. But they were both good.

 

[ernesth100]

Season 2, I personally think as long as each season brings something new to the table. They'll keep being better than the last.

 

[Whatupman]

I loved season one, but I found season two to be a little bit better. Season one was more focused, tied up things better in the end, and had a great central villain that season two lacked. But season two had better pacing, got deeper into the existing characters while bringing in a couple of great new ones, and the acting was overall better. Season two was also more ambitious, even if it didn't quite hit the landing in the end. And as a fan of the comics, it truly was a joy to see so much of Daredevil in his red suit, kicking ass.

 

[P Supreme]

I liked season 1 better due to having a central antagonist in Fisk he was always the focus loved season 2 but it suffered IMO from not really having a central villain to go against needless to say the best episodes involved Fisk

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

Season 2 gets the leg up.

The improvements:
1. The costume at the end of season 1/beginning of season 2 was hard to look at. They made a solid attempt at/and marginally improved upon the cowl (the new gloves are cool too) and the new billy club gets points for effort too.
2. The child acting in season 1 was a huge, huge distractor. It was cut down to a minimum for Elektra's origin and otherwise much more palatable.

The weaknesses:
1. I'm still trying to decide whether Season 2 was lacking focus. It was in no way as focused as season 1 (with everything centered around taking down kingpin obviously). But this one was: take down frank, help elektra, defend frank, confront Kingpin, take down the hand... you get the picture. It felt disjointed, but in the end they seemed to tie things up at least fairly well.

 

[scatterax]

Season 2 basically is a season in 3 acts, where as season one was a single story line slow burning to a finale. I like the structure of season 2 better, as having multiple smaller arcs within a season makes it less likely to have filler episodes.

Trying to compare villains is the wrong approach, as a fair amount of antagonists this season were morally grey and less pure black. The main antagonist switches from the punisher in the first arc to Reyes and the blacksmith, to the hand at the end. In the middle daredevil and Elektra are basically the b story setting up for the final act while the trial is what I consider to be the meat at that time.

The comparing the kingpin to the punisher is like apples and oranges, but I would say I enjoy the punisher as an antagonist slightly more, while Fisk as antagonist is better than the others mentioned. Also when punisher transitions to more of a supporting character he's still a great addition, and so is Elektra. We get enough presence from season one characters that I now consider s2 the definitive season for now.

2 edges out for me.