Pablo Picasso once sort of-famously explained that “the purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” That idea put him squarely at odds with the 19th century philosophy of “art for art’s sake,” which valued aesthetics over the idea that art should have some larger utility within society. It’s then worth pondering how Picasso might have felt about Episode 7 of Daredevil: Born Again, “Art for Art’s Sake.” Despite featuring a Daredevil daring to buckle his swash in broad daylight and some shooting and some blood and shit, “Art for Art’s Sake” somehow feels more like the “filler episode” fans seemed convinced Episode 5 would be.
Though it’s not a poor episode, “Art for Art’s Sake” is the first time—and truly the only time—that Daredevil: Born Again felt like a stitched-together show. It seems unlikely that Disney ironically placed the title it did on the episode; however, that’s essentially how this episode fits into the bigger picture. It exists to exist and nearly all of what happens within its runtime has no larger utility in the structure of the series other than to put a disappointing end to the one arc that was beginning to approach entertaining.
While screening the series in early March, it was right about the time that Muse died that I began to realize that not only does Daredevil have a Kingpin problem, but also that Daredevil has a Kingpin problem. For the third time in four seasons (and early returns from production on Season 2 would indicate it’ll become the fourth time in five seasons), Wilson Fisk is the primary antagonist of a Daredevil series. Yes, Dex was the physical opponent in Season 3 of Daredevil and Matt got to fight crazy buzzsaw costume guy once but with Muse, the creatives had a chance to do something really special…and instead they made him into background noise so that we could get to some more Matt and Wilson stories. I understand the place Fisk holds in the Daredevil mythos; however, it’s ok to let the Fat Man take a break and give Matt something else to do.
And so, rather than having an episode that washed the dust of daily life off of our souls, it seemed to just add another layer. Hope does spring eternal, however, and photos from the New York City set of Season 2 have revealed that somehow, some way, Muse will return and showrunner Dario Scardapane also revealed that the character will be a multi-season problem for Matt. However, without any solid idea of what the future holds of the character, it’s easy to feel disappointed in the way he was incorporated into Season 1. Already changed from the (probably) Inhuman-ly powered character in the comics, Hunter Doohan‘s Muse deserved to be a bit more than the catalyst for another round of Daredevil vs. Kingpin.
Leave a Reply