Overall, quite a good season. Better than season 1 in some ways, except for, notably, Daredevil himself. High points were Elektra and Punisher. Low points were too much generic ninja action.
Punisher and Elektra both shineif for no other reasonon the strength of their casting. They are both standout choices who bring enough gravitas to their scenes to make up for whatever deficiencies the writing is leaving them with. It didn't shock me that Jon Bernthal was good, but I wasn't expecting Punisher to be so well realized. Elektra, on the other hand, did shock me a bit. Elodie Yung had a great onscreen presence and I was constantly surprised that she was selling the material she was being given. I didn't seek out the marketing for the season, but from what I did see Elektra was M.I.A., so the fact that she had a large [and good] impact on the season was a surprise.
There were a lot fewer outright bad scenes this season. S1 had a number of cringeworthy Foggy scenes, but he was perfectly fine here. Karen is a little worse this season, but not bad except for her Hero monologue in the finale, which was very weak.
The fight scenes/choreography are not as good as season 1 in final estimation. Episode 3 is definitely good, but there's little else to appreciate through the rest of the season aside from a number of brief, thrilling moves that Elektra and Daredevil get in occasionally. The exception is that The Punisher's action is good throughout. Overall Season 1 simply had a much more raw feel to its fights, while Season 2's Daredevil never feels like he's in any danger whatsoever.
Finale was weak at parts. First, it felt noticeably worse in terms of editing. Then the use of the Punisher at the end was a huge missed opportunity. He just shows up and shoots one guy then nods and bows out for the season. Could have easily provided support against a greater number of the nigh-unlimited ninjas and made that scene have a lot more oomph. Then came Karen's aforementioned bad monologue, followed by the never-interesting notion of a character who just died being resurrected. I didn't hate the finale, but it was the weakest episode of the season by far and that's a shame.
Seasonal structure was superior to Season 1. Four episodes of a Punisher arc, a few episodes-long Elektra arc, then a convergence of the major plotlines, ending in a branch-out for each. Much better than season 1 in this respect, which was just a slow burn of Daredevil and Kingpin's gradual entry onto the scene.
Season 1 did a good job of establishing that, while Daredevil is super-humanly capable, he is still blind and has certain limits. Season 2 essentially treats Daredevil like he can literally do anything and see anything. His surroundings and how sound interacts with them and gives him a "picture" are practically non-existent. As a consequence, Daredevil himself is a lot less engaging of an onscreen hero. Daredevil was probably my biggest disappointment with the season, even though it wasn't Charlie Cox's fault, and DD wasn't actually bad in any way.
The antagonists were a definite weak point. Nobu was inferior to his Season 1 appearances, and wasn't nearly enough to carry the final episodes this time around. The Blacksmith didn't need to be much more than he was, and Clancy Brown was fine, but what happens after he's revealed is mostly forgettable. To the extent that The Punisher is treated like an antagonist in the first arc, the season is well served. But that's about it. To be fair, Kingpin's appearances are also good even though they're limited.
While the ninjas did not rise to the level of being embarrassing, they were mostly a distraction from everything else I wanted from the season and basically all of the action surrounding them was uninteresting.
If I had to rate this season compared with season 1 they would both get pretty equal [solid] scores, just with varying strengths and weaknesses.
