Foggy! As far as non-powered best friends in Marvel
shows go, he’s way up there. Whenever
all the Netflix properties cross over in The
Defenders, can we get a scene of Foggy and Trish in a bar, commiserating
over how messed-up Matt and Jessica are?
I’ve already covered that side of things, so today, we’re looking at the
man himself (some Foggy-related spoilers.)
I’ve
loved Foggy since the pilot, when, trying to turn Matt off of a beautiful
woman, says, “…And she kind of told me she thinks blind people are ‘God’s
mistake’?” He’s provides some stellar
(and much-needed) comic relief with irreverent comments like the above, along
with flashes of goofiness, a self-deprecatingly-false cocky routine, and
fantastic reactions to insane situations.
In a lot of ways, he functions as an audience-insert character,
commenting on the absurdity when the other characters get embroiled too deeply
in it.
And comic
relief is great, but the best comic-relief characters bring more than just
that, and Foggy has plenty to offer. As
I’ve said, he’s fiercely loyal to and protective of Matt, but he also doesn’t
blindly get in line and do what the superhero tells him to. Matt has major issues, and Foggy’s not afraid
of using tough love or truth bombs when his friend puts himself in danger. His long history with Matt also helps ground
our hero. Their easy banter, irritated
bickering, and hard-truths shouting matches hit all the right notes.
A lot of
this is down to Foggy (and former Bash Brother Elden Hansen, who plays him) –
he tends to work great with whoever the show puts him with. He and Karen together have variously felt
like Scoobies, legal comrades in arms, and friends against the world, and I
love his scenes with Claire. There’s
just something about Foggy and the way he plays off of other people.
Did I
mention that he’s a pretty awesome lawyer?
He goes up against some awfully big fish with very few resources and,
given Matt’s penchant for leaving him in the lurch due to superhero business,
often very little help. But Foggy works
it out. He gets the jump on powerful people, he can
find the smallest thread to cling to and keep a case alive, and in season 2’s
big case, he pulls out some incredible lawyering practically on the fly. As Matt lets Nelson & Murdock down time
and again in a huge, high-profile, enormous-stakes case, Foggy just keeps on
doing his job
I also
like that he gets really nervous about all this stuff and that his confidence
in his abilities can be shaky. First, it
shows that, even though he jokes around a lot, he’s very invested in his
clients and wants to do right by them.
Second, it reminds you just how hard all of it is – what Foggy’s pulling
off is no cakewalk. And finally, it makes you root for him that
much harder when he digs deep and pulls off an amazing save.
In a
genre where the hero’s everything tends to overshadow everyone else’s
everything else, Foggy – as a friend, a professional, and a person – is pretty
great in his own right.
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