Arrow or Daredevil

@superadam: I'm not a huge fan of Marvel and I love the show.

First season of Arrow is better than DD right now. To give a good judgement we need to see Daredevil transit into seasons 2 and 3 to see how much they are gonna f*ck it up

@rbt: I have to acknowledge that. Daredevil right now is so grounded, it doesn't yet feel like a superhero show.

DD is a cliched story with great acting

Arrow actually tries new things like having Ollie kill people in the first season

Arrow S2> Arrow S1>DD>Arrow S3

Watch Daredevil first, then watch Arrow.

@super_adam

I'll respectfully have to disagree with everything you've said in this thread.

Just to preface this, I consider myself a neutral party in terms of comic book company preference though in terms of my reading habits, I'd have to consider myself more of a DC fan (my favourite hero is Superman, my favourite comic book movie is Batman and my favourite comic book is All Star Superman by Grant Morrison). I just think the whole brand divide is silly and childish, but I digress.

But from an objective standpoint, the acting on Daredevil is leagues ahead of Arrow, which actually does have some genuinely awful acting. Roy and Thea in S1 had some middle school play level acting in some scenes and aside from Stephen Amell, very few of the actors in the series have any semblance of subtlety or nuance and often come off as wooden or hammy. This is coming from a fan of Arrow, as well. There are many things I love about the show but the performance level of many of the actors is not one of them. None of them are going to be considered for any reputable awards anytime soon.

With Daredevil however, there is quite a lot of buzz among reputable critics, actors and directors who have heaped praise upon the cast for their performances with many touting the performances of Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio in particular as early possible nominees for the Emmy Awards.

The writing is also much better with much more natural and sophisticated dialogue whereas Arrow too often relied on character's broadcasting their thoughts and feelings in the most blunt fashion possible (I recall a line from S1 where Thea literally said something along the lines of "Last year my dad was alive and I was happy and this year my dad is dead and now I'm sad"). The characters in Daredevil were also far more fleshed out and complex, especially the protagonist and antagonist, with the duality between the two of them serving as the primary thematic hook for the majority of the series. This strong thematic narrative carried out through the entirety of the series while also dealing with other complex issues which Arrow only scraped the surface of.

Not to mention the production values and cinematography are far more advanced and creative than the decidedly "made for TV" aesthetic of Arrow.

Really, in the same way that The Dark Knight is just as much of a crime drama as it is a superhero story, Daredevil has more in common in terms of themes, characters, atmosphere, performances and overall quality with programs such as True Detective and The Wire than it does with Arrow.

Arrow does have it's merits and it even has things that it does that are better than Daredevil. For example, the Season 1 climax was more surprising and enjoyable than the climax of Daredevil. But overall, in terms of performance, characters, writing and production values, Daredevil is miles ahead.

@godzilla44: I do not at all respect your opinion, and think that it's extremely asinine.

Daredevil (Netflix) has manage to capture the exquisiteness and authenticity of such a unique character. The creativity and writing more than compensates for anything the show lacks.

Arrow is a terrible show, with repulsively stiff acting models and desperate writing. Every time I try to give it a chance, I feel as if the show deliberately insults my intelligence.

Daredevil...but its also a lot shorter so if you have time you could do both.

Unless you were a fan of Dawson's Creek or some other forced teen-isn drama show, Daredevil is miles ahead of Arrow (and any other comic oriented show out there to date, period).

Arrow had predictable, lame tongue-in-cheek dialogue, terrible acting and unnecessary plotlines (I get, Oliver was on a damned island.....stop showing cutscenes of him working out shirtless in his lab, also).

I was never a huge fan of the DD character in the comics, and the show made me a fan. Thats how good it is.

I can't understand how people can like Daredevil. But that might have to do with me viewing it as someone who generally doesn't like Marvel. Whereas someone who loves Marvel might view the whole thing in a completely different light.

Well, with this mindset, I suppose there's never really any chance that you would have liked it. But just to help you understand why neutral parties without any preference for either company would love the show, here's a few excerpts from reviews of the "Top Critics" of RottenTomatoes (who would be considered some of the most respected film analysts working today).

"Daredevil" is not an epic, like "Game of Thrones," but neither is it one man's chronicle, like "Breaking Bad." It has many elements of a typical super-hero tale but they are used in different ways. Like a game of checkers being played with chess pieces, "Daredevil" is only deceptively familiar.

-Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times

As for those much-mentioned fight scenes, they are remarkable. Daredevil is human, though one with extraordinary abilities, and can’t take a punch the same way Thor or Captain America can. This often lends the fight scenes a heavy, clumsy texture which makes them exhilarating. The corridor fight in episode two is so good it brought to mind RP McMurphy wearily fighting the orderlies in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Directorial inventiveness – one fight scene is played out with the camera staring at a spectator’s face, another is glimpsed out the back window of a taxi – stop these scenes becoming a repetitive collage of cracking bones and high kicks.

-Chris Bennion, The Independent

What drives a man to put on a mask and a costume and fight crime? That opening monologue suggests that for Matt, being Daredevil is the way he honors his dead father by summoning forth the shared demonic spirit that bonds the two Murdock men. And the series exposes that devil inside through powerful, intricately choreographed action sequences. This show is very violent, but the violence serves a purpose, revealing a dark side of the character that connects him to the villains he’s fighting. The show will delve deeper into that idea as it continues, but the seed is planted in this first episode’s two action sequences.

-Oliver Sava, The AV Club

I guess what you can gather from this is that many people who have no preference to either Marvel and DC and in fact, many who couldn't care less about comic books in general, have praised the show for its nuanced and multifaceted characters, thematic consistency and complexity, strong performances from the leads, creative direction and cinematography and it's action sequences.

It's fine if you don't see any of those, but just know that a fairly large number of people who study and analyse film for a living as well as many who work in film itself with no ties to either Marvel or DC have enjoyed Daredevil for the above reasons.

As muchas i love arrow, the acting script are all very childish and bland, the best things about it are gone, merlyn and slade( merlyn in occasionally though)

DD is more adult

watch daredevil, if you want to watch Arrow just watch the first two seasons because season 3 sucks

Well, I can understand people watching it just for the choreographed fight scenes, since those scenes are spectacular. But, honestly, I can't understand why this show is as popular as it is. To me, its cheesy and corny. But this is just from watching the pilot, so perhaps the quality has a spectacular improvement in the second episode.

Another reason why I might not like Daredevil, is maybe its just too close to Earth for me to get into it. I like fantasy shows in fantasy settings. That's why I love the Flash so much. Its so unrealistic. I definitely prefer the Flash to Arrow or Daredevil or Gotham, or pretty much any show on, right now. I think the reason is the other shows are much closer to real life scenarios. Daredevil does has superpowers, but these powers aren't that fantastic or unbelievable, when compared to other superheroes. Arrow doesn't really have any superpowers in the whole series, except for the crossovers with Flash. It might be because I get into fiction when I want to completely escape the real world, and so I simply don't like fictional stories that remind me too much of the real world. And I don't really like gore or extreme violence, at all, and never have.

But, you have to admit, Daredevil's pilot, atleast, had some serious flaws, such as bad acting, bad camera work, and the "hysterical women" trope in full force for one scene.

@medusa_merc: have you decided on a show?

@regiebravo: Finished the first seasons of both, and re-watched the first season of Heroes today.

That's very mature of you to say, no reason to post such a immature reply

Well, remember, even you have admitted that you are viewing the show through a wildly subjective lens that predisposes you to dislike it. What you view as bad acting and bad camera work is most likely due largely to your predisposed distaste of Marvel products, especially because there are many performances in Arrow, especially within the first few episodes that are objectively bad. Though you may view the camera work and performances as sub-par due to your predisposition, objective parties with no stake in either company such as respected professional film analysts, acclaimed Hollywood directors, writers and actors have praised the series and even the pilot specifically for its acting and camera work.

As a fan of Arrow, it's several orders of magnitude more cheesy than Daredevil and leans far more heavily on cliches and tropes, as well as having objectively more rudimentary cinematography due to the constraints of its budget.

Your other predisposition towards more fantasy based fiction is another mark which may cause you to be inherently biased towards any positive qualities of Daredevil that the majority perceive. As I've said before, in terms of its quality of performances, the complexity of its themes and writing, the quality of its camera work and cinematography, as well as the consistency of its tone, Daredevil has more in common with crime dramas such as Breaking Bad and The Wire than it does with Arrow.

In the end, Daredevil, much like The Dark Knight, is a serious crime drama with superhero elements that relies heavily on its strong performances, cinematic quality and dense, nuanced character writing. Arrow is a cheesy, action superhero soap opera filled with tropes, cliches and one dimensional characters and it is at its best when it embraces that level of cheesiness and ridiculousness, often failing at the heavy handed attempts at drama such as in early season 1 or most of season 3.

I guess what I'm saying is, you certainly don't have to like it, and I'm certainly not advocating on agreeing with everything that critics say. But when the vast majority of audiences, professional film analysts, directors, writers and actors who have viewed the show praise it for its acting, writing and cinematography, then I guess you just have to accept that maybe there are certain things that your predispositions simply won't allow you to enjoy.

Well, the entire "Modern Art" movement is proof that critics can be completely, objectively wrong about things. So just because virtually every critic praises Daredevil, doesn't mean a thing to me. For me, I think movie critics and especially videogame critics are moving in the same direction art critics went with the modern art movement. Praising works that nobody cares about, while insulting works most people enjoy, just so they can prove how superior their tastes are to the average person. This eventually leads to the critics praising only garbage, and the average person simply stops caring about the medium. This is why painting and sculpting are dead artforms, and part of the reason books are dying out.

Well, I guess that applies with certain mediums, but currently, critical sentiment and audience sentiment with Daredevil are entirely in-line with each other. It's the most watched Netflix original series, even mores than the wildly successful House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. The audience score on RottenTomatoes is also at 96% as compared to the critics 98% and the Top Critics' 88%. It also has a critic score of 75/100 on metacritic and an audience score of 8.8/10. It also has an audience score of 9.1 on IMDB. All evidence points to the average audience actually enjoying the show just as much, if not more than critics.

Critics love it, audiences love it. Critics can be objectively wrong, but in this instance, they agree entirely with the audience. It's a massive success from a critical standpoint, from an audience standpoint and from a ratings standpoint. You certainly don't have to agree, but just know that there's certainly a large audience for serious crime dramas such as this.