Netflix’s secret algorithms that predict whether or not a user will like The ‘Burbs enough to give it three stars or four are pretty much as advanced as algorithms get. You just binge-watched all of Parks And Recreation? Well, thanks to the infinite amount of information about yourself that you’ve given Netflix over the years, it knows that the next thing you’re going to want to watch is a PBS documentary called Honey Badgers: Masters Of Mayhem. A recommendation like that might not make any sense, but if Netflix can’t tell us what we should like, then who can?
Well, Steven S. DeKnight, the showrunner for Netflix’s upcoming Daredevil series can, apparently. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, he compared his show—which is about a blind lawyer who fights crime as a masked vigilante—to almost every highly regarded crime story there is. He says the show is taking inspiration from The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, and Taxi Driver, and also that it will be “very, very grounded, very gritty, very real.” If that talk isn’t big enough, he also says Daredevil will be more like The Wire “than what’s considered a classic superhero television show.”
This is the showrunner equivalent of Netflix saying you’ll like a show about honey badgers because you watched Parks And Rec. Is the honey badgers thing as good as Parks And Rec? Not necessarily, but if Netflix thinks the two can be compared in any way, then it must be, right? Ergo, Daredevil will be as good as The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, Taxi Driver, and The Wire. On top of all of that, it exists in the same universe as The Avengers movies that everyone loves, even if Marvel’s Jeph Loeb says the series will have “no magic hammers.” We look forward to Netflix telling us how much we’ll like Daredevil—based on the five-star rating we gave Honey Badgers: Masters Of Mayhem—when it premieres at some point in 2015.