Watching “Daredevil”

While I’ve got this free trial of Netflix, I’ve been watching “Daredevil.”

You know, Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Tony Stark (Iron Man) are enormously wealthy so don’t need to hold down a day job, and they’re basically loners (one because he’s a dangerous psychopath and the other because he’s an abrasive narcissist) so nobody depends on them. But Matt Murdoch in this show is like a study in the destruction addiction wreaks in a life.

Murdoch is a likable, intelligent guy with great prospects and wonderful friends. But he also has this other, secret [superhero] life, which drives and compels and damages him, which he can’t really share even with those who know about it. It makes him fail everyone who relies on him, it poisons his relationships, it fills him with conflicts he can’t express to anyone, it makes him become what he hates, but he can’t see any way to stop. If nothing changes, his secret life will chew up and spit out his career and everyone he loves (but evidently doesn’t love as much as he loves his secret thing.)

Murdoch’s superhero problem could stand for porn, gambling, heroin, adultery, practically any life-controlling compulsion. (What we theology-types call a “passion,” which manifests itself in scripted, destructive behaviors we call “sins.”)

As a card-carrying Comic Book Guy I want to binge-watch this series, and as an audience I am impressed with the quality of the writing. And this is that rare TV show that isn’t trying to be religious or spiritual [e.g. “Touched By An Angel”] but puts its characters’ Christian culture in a positive and fairly realistic light.

But I’m not sure if I can watch any more because it hurts to see characters you like damage themselves and wound each other; that’s too much like real life, which I watch TV to get away from.