Daredevil: Born Again

Episodes Viewed: 9 of 9
Streaming On: Disney+

It’s been a decade since we were first introduced to Charlie Cox’s Daredevil on Netflix. With its gripping hero/villain dynamic, note-perfect performances, and intense, ambitious action, it was a superhero series which quickly put itself on the map. Though it was abruptly cancelled after three seasons in 2018, that show still has a great deal of fans. So it makes a kind of muddled sense that Daredevil: Born Again — which began life as an 18-episode season, unconnected to the earlier iteration — did an about-face midway through production, undergoing a complete creative overhaul that replaced its showrunners and brought back Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson). This latest incarnation retains much of what was great about that Netflix run — now confirmed to be part of the wider MCU canon — and adds in just enough fresh elements to keep things interesting.

For those who haven’t been initiated in that earlier show, Born Again just about gives newcomers a jumping-on point, with dialogue solidly recapping past events when necessary. Those already in the know, meanwhile, may initially find the storytelling a bit too broadly familiar at times: the season’s core strand — drawing on the parallels between Daredevil and Kingpin, as they both desperately try to rise above their dark, violent natures — has already been well-mined. But digging deeper, there are more complexities and contradictions to both men that yield rich fruit. This is especially true with Fisk; a plotline dealing with marital issues is excellent, and not the kind of approach you would expect in a show like this.

Just as bone-breakingly brutal and bloody as we’ve come to expect.

That it’s all still compelling is also down to Cox and D’Onofrio. An early scene between Murdock and Fisk as they trade thinly veiled warnings and establish the status quo over coffee is tense, riveting TV, and they constantly prove why they are two of the best casting decisions in Marvel history. You wish they were on screen together more often than the story allows.

New showrunner Dario Scardapane and directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have injected some fresh ideas that feel right at home in Daredevil’s world. For one thing, it takes the people of New York into account more so than any MCU film or show has done in a long while, as various citizens debate the pros and cons of vigilantism, whether or not Fisk can be trusted as Mayor, and much more besides. We get much of that exploration through Matt’s perspective; the season zeroes in on his heightened senses every chance it gets through simple auditory and visual techniques, and it’s incredibly effective.

Born Again also remembers that Matt Murdock is a damn good lawyer. The strongest subplot of the season focuses on Hector Ayala, aka White Tiger (the late Kamar de los Reyes, in a soulful final performance), and it leads to several very strong courtroom sequences, stretching across multiple episodes.

Still, the bread and butter of Daredevil is its action sequences. Any worries that the move from Netflix to Disney+ would mean the show is less violent quickly prove unfounded. The fights are just as bone-breakingly brutal and bloody as we’ve come to expect, with choreography that incorporates Daredevil’s signature billy club in creative ways. The season’s opening skirmish is a thrilling tone-setter that other bouts don’t quite reach, but the standard remains high throughout. That’s true of the show as a whole: it’s a strong overall return to the fold for Nelson and Murdock, Attorneys at Law.