Actually, Arrow utilizes it's fair share of cliches, most notably in the romance department. The whole, "We can't be together because you/I could die" angle is so over-used it's annoying. Contriving reasons for Oliver/Felicity to not be together, for example, is just eye-rolling bad. Interestingly enough, this was also the most annoying part of DD (for me), the whole contriving a reason to keep Matt apart from Claire. But with Arrow, after Slade went down, the show has hit a stale point that I just don't see being turned around anytime soon. Merlyn is great and made a great villain, but he's been castrated. Thea/Laurel both annoy me to no end lately, but Plamer sends me for the fast-forward button all the time - another terrible character. The whole League of Assassins plot has just been 'meh' to me, and I confess I miss the first season.
Netflix is a pay service. It only stands to reason that network TV, usually being 'free' with basic cable, makes its shows more 'readily available', so my assertion still stands. Whether it's Netflix or HBO, you're limiting yourself because those channels are obviously additional pay services that not everyone has. I didn't have Netflix myself - I got it because of DD. Netflix has ~62 million subs - worldwide. On the other hand, free network broadcast is available to that many people in the US alone using -just- an antenna, not including all the cable subs that include all the free local broadcast channels. One day in the future, there might be more Netflix subs than 'free TV' viewers, but right now, more people and more eyeballs have access to non-Netflix programs.
I thought DD's take on Fisk was excellent. It gave the character some gravitas, other than being just 'another organized crime boss'. Seeing him exhibit emotion other than anger and machismo was refreshing for me, just as seeing Matt take a believable beating on a regular basis as a super-hero was similarly refreshing. Giving Fisk a grounding mechanism like Vanessa was nicely done, and I rather enjoyed watching his comfortable 'band of baddies' start to crumble around him, like the walls were closing in. He has style, and he has both a soft side, and a ruthless hard side. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. :)
Costume-wise... neither is what I would call 'perfect' by any means. I remember Affleck's costume just had that 'biker look' to it that didn't jive with me at all. The series costume has a more leather/ballistic mesh look to it that makes it look better... but not by much. I definitely agree the face portion of it could use a bit more work...
You guys have covered the whole 'why doesn't DD just knock out the lights wherever he goes'.... no lights=bad TV experience, I'd expect. ;)