When I reviewed the first season of Daredevil: Born Again, I spoke to the momentum that the revival built as it found a style adjacent to the original Netflix series, yet still its own path. I was worried that many people were going to not make it to the fifth episode, where Matt saves Kamala Khan’s father and a bank full of civilians. That was a perfect example of old and new mixed together. Momentum can be fickle if not capitalized on, and I’m delighted to report that the second season of this show finds an absolutely thrilling groove and runs with the intriguing direction that was left hanging at the end of the first season. I wouldn’t go as far to say that this is on the same level of the best of the Netflix years, but there are so many moments that come incredibly close to those highs.
Season one of the show was surprisingly personal, hyper-focused on the parallels between Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). I called it “risky” at the time because it was basically a dual character study for the first two-thirds of the season, finally ramping up the action in the final few episodes with a dash of Bullseye (Wilson Bethel, back again) and the Punisher (Jon Bernthal, you’ll see). This second season broadens the scope back out quite a bit and really gives the other characters more of a role in what has grown to be an epic, five borough-spanning story. It is very much still about a show about Murdock and Fisk, their similarities and their key differences that make them hero and villain. However, Season 2 is just as much about the city of New York and the public perception of these two characters. Simply put, its war between Daredevil and the Kingpin, and Born Again focuses on how the city, all populations and all demographics chooses sides.
There has been notable reporting over the last few years of the restructuring of this show. Once planned as one long season of television, showrunner Dario Scardapane plus key creatives Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (all MCU veterans) made the decision to split the story into two seasons. Season one was nine episodes, and as I detailed, took a little bit of time to reintegrate these characters. It was about Matt and Wilson trying to be better and ultimately, from a certain point of view, failing. Season two is pretty much all payoff, a reaction to the big changes at the end of season one and the bloody, violent, grim fallout of Matt and Wilson’s utter inability to resist temptation.
Six months have passed since the end of season one. Mayor Fisk has succeeded in turning the public against Daredevil and the other vigilantes. Like last season, young BB Ulrich’s digital reporting provides plenty of insight into the minds of New Yorkers, who praise Fisk for his ability to “clean up the streets”. Many seem naive to the work of the Anti Vigilante Task Force, who are emboldened to arrest anyone they suspect of vigilantism. Their tactics are brutal, their targets sometimes only tangentially related to the actual vigilantes, if at all. If you’re lucky enough to avoid injury/death, the process of prosecution is the equivalent of a kangaroo court, a panel of Fisk-loyal judges deciding the fate of anyone that the mayor considers the enemy.
It is really dangerous times for those who ally with Matt. He and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) are fully in hiding, having rekindled their romantic relationship while trying to take Fisk down from the shadows. A point of focus is the Red Hook Port, designated as free, unprosecutable land for Fisk and his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer). He’s running weapons through that area, with the assistance of the mysterious Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard, a very welcome addition to the fold). With the full might of City Hall behind him, Fisk’s level of power is almost too absurd to be believable. But D’Onofrio is such a gifted performer, and never overplays it or threatens to take an egomaniacal turn. Fisk is what he’s always been–a criminal whose delusional prejudice makes him think he’s doing the right thing at all times.
Matt and Karen’s uphill battle, supplemented only by the likes of retired cop Cherry (Clark Johnson) and Matt’s legal partner Kirsten (Nikki M. James), often feels hopeless. As is often the case with the best Daredevil stories, season 2 of Born Again does a great job of examining the necessity of mercy even in the face of evil. Karen particularly struggles with this through the eight episodes, asking why murder is off the table (Matt already made peace with this last season). Having been basically removed from last season, Deborah Ann Woll is back in full force. Her rage is really compelling, and she gives the best performance she’s ever given as this character.
The recalibration and expansion of this story into two seasons certainly allowed the showrunners to add more material for certain assets in the cast. There’s a lot more for Michael Gandolfini to do, and he delivers a great performance as Fisk’s press secretary Daniel Blake, torn between the do-gooding BB and a devotion to his dangerous boss. Blake is swept up in the promises of Fisk’s New York, and that feels like a great allusion to how a…certain U.S. leader has appealed to the worst impulses of young men across the country. Watching Gandolfini try to decide whether he’s going to join what amounts to a version of the mob also has some wider context given his father’s most famous role.
There is a lot of intelligence and emotion in the writing of this show, but the swagger of the production has really kicked it up a notch this season. The show looks great, cleaning up a lot of the shoddy CG issues I’d had with the initial nine episodes. This has never been a section of the MCU to shy away from violence, and there are quite a few astonishing scenes of action in this season, with particular highlights in the third and fourth episodes. As per tradition, there are a few great “one-take” sequences that blend digital trickery and gritty camera movement that make you feel the full force of Daredevil’s fists.
Born Again season 2 is a terrific Daredevil story, with longtime characters getting a lot of the shine that they’ve been due. But it is also a great progression of the greater MCU as a whole. The marketing is making it no secret that Krysten Ritter returns as the superheroic private eye Jessica Jones. I won’t say where and how she shows up, but Ritter has not lost a step in the role, and she and Cox continue to have great chemistry.
What I keep coming back to with this revival is how much it values the importance of New York. You could argue that the city is just as important to Daredevil as it is to Spider-Man. Born Again is just as much about the people affected by the violence and the carnage of the Daredevil-Kingpin saga, and how the people picking a side can make all the difference. There’s one notable sequence, set to Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” that feels like the peak of what this show was always meant to be. It’s the same Daredevil, but with an entirely different look and personality, and that is a very satisfying way to approach any revival.
Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again premieres today–episodes released every Tuesday.
