Season 3 is a huuuge improvement over the previous seasons, definitely the best MCU television since S1 of Jessica Jones, though in some ways surpassing it. This is far more focused and well paced than any previous season of the Netflix Marvel fare, though one episode dedicated mostly to Karen Page flashbacks comes at an inopportune time and isn't particularly interesting. It mostly feels like one consistent story arc that doesn't get sidetracked or padded. I'm still not a fan of Vincent D'Onofrio's character or performance, though his menacing schemes woven throughout the story go a long way in painting him as threatening and building up the stakes, which feel especially personal in this outing.

And they've really outdone themselves on the action. I've felt the long-take fights from previous seasons were a tad overrated and mostly felt like the team showing off for its own sake. With the biggest fights in S3, the long-takes are shorter, but put to better use. Not overextending the takes affords them opportunity to throw in more elaborate stunts and more flexibility in editing, while still clearly establishing the geography and layout and doing justice to the elegant, brutal fight choreography as long-takes are meant to. The newspaper building fight is one of the most eye-popping action sequences I've ever seen on a television budget.

I had largely written off Marvel's television fare after so many disappointments in the last three years, but now I will be genuinely saddened if Daredevil joins Luge Cage and Iron Fist in getting axed.