Tag Archives: Marvel

‘Squawk Alley’: ‘Daredevil’ Refreshing

SquawkStreet41015

I returned to Squawk Alley this morning, to discuss today’s debut of Marvel’s Daredevil, and my Quartz story about how terrific Marvel and Netflix’s first collaboration is. Here’s a portion of my segment (as usual, CNBC doesn’t stream the various Daredevil clips that were shown during the segment; there are placed with a big CNBC logo in the streaming footage).

I did today’s segment from CNBC’s Englewood Cliffs, N.J. headquarters, which is usually more convenient for me, but that won’t be the case for much longer. Stay tuned…

‘Daredevil’ refreshing: Quartz’s Lynch

Inside Netflix and Marvel’s Titanic Team Up on ‘Daredevil’

daredevil

Marvel is no stranger to powerhouse collaborations — look at next month’s Avengers: Age of Ultron — but its most promising, game-changing partnership this year has nothing to do with Iron Man and Captain America. Instead, it kicks off tomorrow, when its new TV series, Marvel’s Daredevil, debuts on Netflix. As I wrote at Quartz,

Bringing together Marvel and Netflix, Marvel’s Daredevil, which debuts its thrilling 13-episode first season on Netflix April 10, ushers in an Avengers-level teaming up of Hollywood titans. In the past few years, no two companies have changed the entertainment landscape as much as Marvel (now every studio is pursuing its own version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and Netflix (which between pioneering binge-watching and creating groundbreaking shows like Orange is the New Black, has knocked every other network on its heels). Now they are at it again, devising an exciting new path for the crowded TV superhero genre.

And the series — the first of five Marvel/Netflix shows that will culminate in Marvel’s The Defenders, an Avengers-like teamup of its “street-level heroes” — is fantastic:

Unlike the other TV superhero series, Daredevil is aimed at grownups—or, at least, not the kids who watch much of Netflix’s other superhero fare. Karen Paige (Deborah Ann Woll from True Blood), the firm’s first client turned secretary, notes that after the violent events of the first episode, “I don’t see the city anymore. All I see are its dark corners.” And that is where Daredevil lives: the show employs a very dark palette (after all, Murdock doesn’t need lights). While Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel’s Agent Carter are glitzy and glossy, this one is gritty and grimy. An early episode features a brutal, gruesome decapitation; not something you’d find on any broadcast TV show.

But where Daredevil—which erases all memories of the mediocre 2003 film with Ben Affleck—really shines is in its inventive action sequences, particularly an ingeniously executed, prolonged fight sequence late in the second episode. It feels real, and brutal. You can see superheroes fighting back guys all over TV, but nowhere else does it feel this visceral.

Marvel and Netflix still have a long road ahead, but they couldn’t have asked for a better start to their partnership than Daredevil. Don’t miss the series when it debuts tomorrow!

Inside Netflix and Marvel’s titanic team up on Daredevil

Marvel’s TV Takeover: Television Chief Jeph Loeb on What’s Next After ‘Agent Carter’

agent carter loeb

As Marvel’s Agent Carter wrapped its brisk, eight-episode first season in fine form last night, I spoke with Marvel’s head of television, Jeph Loeb, for this Daily Beast story about what’s on tap for the company next (five upcoming Netflix series, starting with Marvel’s Daredevil) and why Agent Carter was able to immediately connect with audiences in a way that Agents of SHIELD did not last season.

From its outset, Agent Carter received a much more enthusiastic response from audiences than S.H.I.E.L.D., which Loeb attributes to confusion over what exactly S.H.I.E.L.D. was when it premiered in fall 2013. “There were certain expectations about S.H.I.E.L.D. that people had,” he says. “Despite the fact that we had a very strong message out there which is ‘not all heroes are super,’ I still think people came to the show thinking that the Hulk was going to be in the first episode and Iron Man was going to be in the second episode and Cap was going to be in the third episode. But once they got into the show and realized, ‘Oh, look at all these characters and look at this world and look at what we’re getting out of it,’ then they were ready to get into the show and take it where it was. With Carter, there was no misinformation. It was: Here she is, this is the world that we’re in.”

And even with seven Marvel series on-air and in the pipelione, Loeb doesn’t think the market is oversaturated yet:

“There’ll always be room to expand. This isn’t about which shows we’re doing. It really is about, ‘What’s the best story?’ We’ve never chosen any of our shows based on a particular need as much as the stories that we want to tell and how they can work both to help build out the brand, and at the same time help build out the storytelling that we’re doing,” he says. “Part of the reason why the Netflix shows happened was because we’ve wanted to be able to tell the stories of the street-level heroes, and that was a better fit for that network than what we were doing over at ABC. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other shows at either network that wouldn’t be fun and exciting to do.”

Check out the rest of the interview, in which Loeb reveals which Marvel actor is already begging for a Daredevil cameo, how Marvel keeps track of all the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and which films/shows they’ve appeared on and why the company’s TV moves aren’t a response to whatever rival DC is doing.

Marvel’s TV Takeover: Television Chief Jeph Loeb on What’s Next After ‘Agent Carter’

Why You Shouldn’t Get Too Excited About Marvel and DC’s Long-Term Movie Plans

marvel-characters1

Yesterday, Marvel announced its Phase Three slate of films, two weeks after DC Comics unveiled its own ambitious lineup, stretching into 2020. Both announcements whipped fans into a frenzy, but as I wrote at Quartz, you shouldn’t start locking in your 2019 plans just yet:

It’s a potentially thrilling lineup of films to anticipate for many, many years to come. And there’s admittedly a lot to be excited about, particularly the introduction of Marvel’s first female (Captain Marvel) and black (Black Panther) superhero standalone films. Yet at the same time, there’s also a very real chance that despite all these company’s meticulous long-term plans, one—or all—of these franchises could veer wildly off-course, as soon as one of these films stumbles at the box office.

Why you shouldn’t get too excited about Marvel and DC’s long-term movie plans

The Five Ways American TV Has Changed Forever

five ways american TV has changed

That’s a wrap on TCA summer press tour, which means that it’s time for one last story before I leave L.A.: a roundup of noteworthy developments from press tour, which reveal several new truths about the TV industry. Chief among them: Nothing is a ratings guarantee — except football.

Somewhere in the vicinity of 100 shows were paneled at press tour, but as CBS president and CEO Les Moonves pointed out, “When you come back next year, not all of them are still going to be on the air. Even ours. However, this is a sure thing.” He was referring to Thursday Night Football, which is moving to CBS for the first eight weeks of the NFL season (after which it will return to NFL Network, where it has aired since 2006).

As NFL commissioner Roger Goodell noted, “Sunday Night Football is now the number one franchise in all of television. Not just in sports, but in all of television.” Sunday Night Football was indeed the top-rated show on TV last season, averaging 21.5 million viewers. CBS and Fox’s Sunday afternoon broadcasts draw a similarly-sized audience, while ESPN’s Monday Night Football averaged 13.7 million viewers. And the Super Bowl is always the most-watched program each year, with a record 112.2 million viewers tuning in last February. As such, Goodell expects that Thursday Night Football will be “the biggest thing” to happen on TV this season.

There’s lots more about 3D TV, 4K TV, Hulu, Amazon, binge-watching, late-night and series based on comic books. Take a look; now that press tour is over, I’m going to sleep for several days!

The five ways American TV has changed forever 

How ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’ Finally Found Its Way

agents of shield s1

No series arrived this season with more hype, and more disappointment, than Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. The show seemed destined to seamlessly expand Marvel’s bigscreen dominance to television, but as I wrote at The Daily Beast,

Instead, for much of its dreary first season, S.H.I.E.L.D. was a pretender, saddled with cut-rate CGI, one-dimensional characters (and in some cases, half-dimensional actors) and most damning of all, devoid of anything even remotely resembling fun. Yet in true comic book fashion, just when it seemed that all hope was lost, in the past month the show—against all odds—finally found its way. Now, Tuesday night’s feisty, rewarding season finale has me doing something I never would have thought possible: counting the days until next season.

I delve into the show’s many problems this seasons, and how the big twist from April’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier has finally helped Agents of SHIELD became the thrilling show it was always supposed to be.

How ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’ Finally Found Its Way

Marvel’s Next Mission: Conquer Primetime Television, and Save Disney’s ABC Network

qz-marvels-next-mission

One day after making my Quartz debut, I’m back with this look at the new ABC series Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, which has the daunting task of trying to save Disney’s slumping ABC. As I wrote,

ABC hopes that S.H.I.E.L.D. will rescue the beleaguered network from its ratings doldrums—for the past two seasons, it’s been last place in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic among the four broadcast networks—and give it a legitimate chance to finally expand beyond the network’s female-skewing programming like Scandal, Revenge and Grey’s Anatomy.

I was also able to share some insight from star Clark Gregg and executive producer Jeph Loeb that I had picked up at TCA summer press tour. ABC and Marvel have a tough road ahead of them, but I wouldn’t bet against the company that racked up $1.51 billion worldwide with The Avengers.

Marvel’s next mission: conquer primetime television, and save Disney’s ABC Network