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First off, if you're reading this and you haven't watched Daredevil on Netflix, go do it. This show is well written, well acted, and (while I may be digging a grave here) honestly the first Superhero show deserving of an Emmy for best new series. It's that good, you don't need more research, watch it already.
As well as Charlie Cox dons the role of Matt Murdock, no one steals the spotlight in terms of acting, in my opinion, as Vincent D'Onofrio does. When I think of Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, I typically think back to the animated Spider-Man series of the '90s. Given that limited analysis of a '90s cartoon character, my general assumption of Kingpin is merely a wealthy, bald, strong, and clever man.
Essentially, he was written as a boring, strong, rich white guy. There's not a lot to that and, really, any schmuck off the street could've done that and the series wouldn't have suffered from the interpretation. The Daredevil writing staff really threw me a curve ball with their interpretation. They took a risk with the character and changed some elements, and I'll be damned if D'Onofrio didn't take off with the role and make it his own.
Let's be honest, very little of us knew who D'Onofrio is, and if many of us were asked who would play Fisk when the series was first cast, we would've gone with the same answer...
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We can all imagine already how Breaking Bad's Dean Norris would've played the role, and like I said before, that's good enough for what you would expect from the stereotypical portrayal of Kingpin. I applaud D'Onofrio for his taking on the character, making it his own.
This new Kingpin is an introvert. His socially awkward behavior comes through so hard early on it made me uncomfortable in my own skin. At the same time, he's also incredibly smooth in his soft speech that you get the sense the gears are always turning with every word. Seeing him unbelievably calm in a scene where everything seems to be falling apart, but awkwardly stumbling through a first date is a uniquely human element that consistently gets forgotten in the portrayal of villains. It makes him feel like a real man, not just a comic book come to life, and I really cannot express just how much I like that.
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Just a few episodes in and I'm engrossed with this character on a level that was only skin deep in past iterations, and then I'm hit with the violence in Episode 4. It's awesome as I'd began to accept that this new Wilson Fisk was perhaps a corporate figurehead not looking to dirty his hands and then WHAM! I'm like, "Holy s*** this is a bad man!" It's this blending of the two sides that I think D'Onofrio really embodies so well and continues to balance throughout the series. Even in his calm moments, he carries himself as though the crazed mad man is bubbling just beneath the surface, ready to snap at a moment's notice.
The writers also let us understand his character's psychology more so than other villains I've liked this year, like Flash's Wentworth Miller a.k.a. Leonard Snart/Captain Cold. Fisk grew up in an unforgiving environment and truly survives and wishes to make a difference the way he sees as most effective. That's real. That's what we as humans essentially do day in and day out, so while you may think the guy is off the rails crazy, you understand the pathos. You at least understand it more than Snart refusing to leave Coast City "cuz".
I think what the writing staff and Vincent D'Onofrio really set out to do is make you draw parallels between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. They are very much working towards the same goal, ultimately, but in wildly different ways. I've never considered this to be true in past versions of Daredevil, but they laid it out for me in less than half a season.
I put D'Onofrio's portrayal of Kingpin in season one of Daredevil right up there with Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Heath Ledger as Joker. He made me change the way I thought about a well established character enough to make him matter to me. He may not have been the only piece of the puzzle when it comes to Daredevil's success, but he is a damn important one in my opinion.
