The Netflix Marvel shows ran parallel to the best days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a nice snack to go along with the main meal. Daredevil was the best of these shows, a genuinely gritty, violent, dramatically compelling three seasons that benefited from some of the best casting in the entire MCU. When the Netflix era came to a close, Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel brain trust rightfully identified that it would have been a missed opportunity to leave Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk in the past. Thus, after a few quick appearances in shows like Hawkeye, She-Hulk and Echo, the characters have found a home on Disney+ with Daredevil: Born Again, a show that simultaneously functions as both a continuation of the original series and an epilogue to that era.
In many ways, the nine-episode run of Born Again is just a fourth season of the Netflix show. It features a lot of returning characters, some of which have bigger roles than others. But the story of this first season (a second is coming next year) is very much about trying to embrace a new path forward, as there are a lot of new characters and scenarios introduced. This is applicable to a lot of things, but it is most applicable to Matt and Wilson’s journeys. Even more than what has come before it, this show is legitimately a two-hander, with Cox and D’Onofrio as co-leads. This reinforces the classic comics conceit that even if life seems to take them in different directions, Daredevil and Kingpin’s fates will always be intertwined and bring them back to each other.
When Born Again begins, Matt has given up the Daredevil mantle. The circumstances of why he’s done that are made immediately clear in the first episode. As he often does in the comics, he’s doing everything he can to suppress the violent urges of the mask, instead trying to fight crime in the court of law. Fisk is also making a concerted effort to crush less heads. He’s running for mayor, and his blunt approach and promises of a new New York City electrify his base of voters. As we’ve seen in recent domestic politics, people are willing to look away from the sins of the past if you promise them a better tomorrow. Fisk seems to genuinely believe that he has turned the corner, but much like Matt, his temper can only be satiated by his newfound power for so long. We all know Kingpin is going to get tired of (his own words) “kissing dogs in jackets in Brooklyn.” A lot of this new power ends up directed at vigilantes, particularly his old rival in red.
You know that both Daredevil and Kingpin are going to eventually submit and fall back into their own patterns, but Born Again is a show that exercises immense patience in getting to that point. There is a lot of risk in how this show is structured, and I think there’s a lot of choices that it makes in the first four episodes that will not only be controversial to some, but may turn them off entirely. I must admit that the show is not exactly a mark of consistency in those beginning episodes, struggling to recapture the momentum of the original show. It also has a much different look than the Netflix show, with more CG and Hollywood polish.
That takes some adjustment, even as the creative team attempts their own version of the long-take action scenes that the show has made its trademark. This is where I would pledge patience, which is sometimes not a word that mixes well with superhero audiences. The pacing of Born Again is deliberate, sometimes a bit jagged. The show really takes off around episode five, an action-packed bottle episode that really is a turning point for the entire show. However, I’m worried that some may not make it that far.
The benefits of a more patient approach is that it provides Cox and D’Onofrio with maybe the most leeway they’ve ever had to explore the psychosis of these characters, and they are both more than up to the task. It’s been said many times, but they are born to play these characters. Cox has all of the physicality and angst that make him a perfect Matt Murdock, and Matt is really going through it in this series. D’Onofrio has always been an unconventional choice playing Kingpin in an unconventional way, a quiet giant who could explode into unspeakable rage at any moment. He has now added about 15 dimensions to that strong baseline. Both actors are spectacular, and the few moments that they share together are particularly compelling, especially an early encounter at a diner that has been the center of the show’s marketing.
Without going into too many details, the show really dives into a theme of rebirth, and the dangers of old habits that simply won’t die (hard). There are several times where the action between Matt and Wilson’s scenes directly run parallel to each other. When one resists, so does the other. When one gives in, so does the other. There are key supporting characters that pull at the light and the dark. For Matt, he’s got his old pals Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll), and plenty of new allies like the retired cop Cherry (Clark Johnson), fellow lawyer Kirsten (Nikki James) and therapist/love interest Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva). Wilson’s whole world revolves around his extremely complicated relationship with his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer). He’s also got a lot of people with questionable motives in his ear, particularly the ambitious and opportunistic staffer Daniel Blake. He is played by Michael Gandolfini, son of James Gandolfini, making his father proud with a sometimes slimy, sometimes funny, sometimes intimidating performance.
It is no secret that the show has had a rocky road in its development. This iteration of the character has become a beloved property within the superhero landscape, and it clearly took Marvel some time to figure out exactly how they were going to get it right. The show was redeveloped by Dario Scardapane, who worked on Netflix’s The Punisher (Jon Berthal reappears here). Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead, veterans of Disney+ MCU with Moon Knight and Loki, came in to assist with the recalibrated approach. The resulting show feels a lot like the Netflix show, yet completely different. That Defenders universe made its money on epic action scenes and mythical storytelling. Born Again is certainly violent, in some instances significantly more than the original show, but it is also much more grounded. There’s very little hint of the supernatural, give or take a character or two that pop in for quick beats.
The appeal of the “street-level Avengers” is how they integrate into the ecosystem of the city they protect. That’s something the Spider-Man movies and shows do very well, and Daredevil: Born Again does it well too. The show frequently takes a break from the action for man on the street interviews with various extras representing the people of New York. They add some color beyond the main characters. They’re shot by the young reporter BB Urich (Genneya Walton), niece of Ben Urich, who was murdered in season one. The NYPD plays a major role in the story as well, particularly looking at how Fisk deals with rampant corruption within the department.
The Disney property that I kept thinking about when watching Daredevil: Born Again was Star Wars: the Last Jedi. Before you spear me with a pitchfork, I love that movie, so that is not meant to be a negative comparison. The reason that film came to mind is because of how it was unexpected in so many ways, took a lot of risks, and tilted us off our axis a bit. Born Again does the same thing, particularly in its first third. Not all of the choices work, but it gives the show a rhythm that is distinctly its own compared to previous Daredevil stories and other MCU projects. When the show starts to feel like a more traditional story starring these characters, it is bolstered by the emotional legwork that the first few episodes provided, and by the end, you will be seeing red because of how desperate you are to see where Born Again will go next.
Daredevil: Born Again premieres with two episodes on Disney+ today, then has new episodes every Tuesday.
