An Impressionistic Painting: Thoughts on Daredevil
In the fifth episode of the new Netflix series Marvel's Daredevil , lawyer-by-day, vigilante-by-night Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox) explains to his new friend Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) how he sees the world. Blinded in a childhood accident, Matt discovered that his other senses had become superhumanly sharp, allowing him to perceive far more than ordinary people. "You have to think of it as more than just five senses," he tells Claire. "I can't see, not like everyone else, but I can feel. Things like balance, direction, micro-changes in air density, vibrations, blankets of temperature variations. Mix all that with what I hear, subtle smells. All of the fragments form a sort of... impressionistic painting." It's a speech that offers insight not only to Daredevil 's title character, but to the show itself, which often feels less like a straightforward narrative than an impressionistic work in its own right, zooming in and out of its story in a