Warning: this review contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 1.
Daredevil: Born Again brings back Matt Murdock as the costumed protector of Hell’s Kitchen after an overly long absence and does a mostly solid job of capturing what made the original 2015-2018 Daredevil series on Netflix so good. Essentially acting as a fourth season of that show, Born Again has the same excellent lead actors, gritty drama, and hardcore fight scenes that the series made its name on, and all of that works as well as ever when it’s firing on all cylinders. However, there are times during its nine-episode run when it’s clear that this revival is missing a few of the key ingredients that made those first three seasons such standout superhero TV. Much like the Man Without Fear swinging from New York City rooftops, Born Again has its ups and downs, but thankfully in the end it manages to land on its feet.
Reprising their roles as hero and villain are Charlie Cox’s charming and guilt-ridden Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, who speaks with an imposing voice as coarse as a limestone boulder and stands just as tall as one. Born Again offers a fresh spin on their classic rivalry that supercharges the story with an endless supply of juicy drama. The shocking assassination of Murdock’s best friend Foggy Nelson causes him to give up being Daredevil and fully dedicate himself to doling out justice with his lawyering skills instead of his fists, but hanging up the horns for good proves impossible when Wilson Fisk makes a surprise return and becomes the new mayor of New York City. (There was a time when a convicted felon winning a major political office might’ve seemed unrealistic, but today it’s maybe a tad on-the-nose.)
An early scene between the pair has them taking stock of the other’s new status quo and delivering veiled threats about what might happen should they slip back into their old ways. Though they’re just sitting in a cafe, it may as well be an active battlefield. Born Again is at its best when it pits these bitter enemies against one another as lawyer and mayor with the vigilante and villain just under the surface, forcing them to pursue their ambitions in new ways, all while struggling with their true selves starting to bubble up. Even during a rough patch of mid-season episodesthis marvelous core remains rock solid.
There are several other highlights of the early episodes worth mentioning: Clips from BB Urich’s people-on-the-street social media news show, The BB Report, give us a rare glimpse at how the common people of the Marvel Cinematic Universe feel about all the crazy superhero happenings in their city. That adds a much-needed personal texture to a world where bystanders are usually little more than collateral damage. A standalone episode in the middle of the season about Murdock cleverly foiling a bank robbery (without becoming Daredevil) is a pure delight from start to finish, even if it occupies a precious slot in a short season without moving the main plot forward. And as Murdock’s new love interest, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), becomes dangerously entwined in his life, her therapist skills ensure she’s always ready with a piercing commentary on his masked persona (without even knowing she’s doing it). Meanwhile, Fisk reuniting with his beloved wife Vanessa and contending with the crime lords he left behind to enter politics leads to some of the season’s most vicious moments that feel ripped from your favorite mob movie.
It’s a good thing Born Again has such a sturdy foundation, because it allows the overarching story being told across the entire season to remain strong even while it frustrates with how reluctant it is to give starved fans the full-blown return we’d waited so long for. Murdock spends almost half of the season without actually suiting up, and when he finally does there are a few action scenes where Daredevil is briefly rendered in unconvincing, Gumby-like CGI. That’s a worrying error to make on a show that originally earned acclaim for its impressive, mostly practical fight sequences, but fortunately it’s not too pervasive; most of the fight scenes are appropriately intense, crunchy, and extra violent compared to what Disney+ has served up in its Marvel TV era. In fact, the season starts with a jaw-dropping brawl between Daredevil and Bullseye that should by all rights go down as one of the best superhero/supervillain fights the MCU has to offer.
Fans of the Netflix Daredevil series will definitely be feeling the absence of Murdock’s two closest allies, Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. With Foggy dead and Karen’s grief causing her to move away, a new cast of supporting characters are introduced, but they’re a hit and miss bunch that can’t fill the hole left by two thirds of Nelson, Murdock & Page. The aforementioned Glenn and BB (Genneya Walton) are great, as is the blunt Commissioner Gallo (Michael Gaston), who stands as the sole example of a law enforcement officer with integrity by standing up to Fisk and his detestable boot-licker Danny Blake (Michael Gandolfini). Then we have Murdock’s detective ally Cherry and Fisk’s right-hand man Buck, who are so forgettable that you may not know who I’m referring to even if you’ve seen the show. And while there was plenty of potential in the murderous mural painter Muse, who was the threat of a two-episode arche wound up being as developed as a rough pencil sketch.
Looking at the season as a whole, it sticks out that the first and last two episodes are a cut above the rest in quality. They’re shot with more style and creativity, and they’re scripted and executed so well that it almost feels like they’re from a different show. Turns out there’s a good reason for that: Born Again was given a massive creative overhaul midway through production that resulted in new episodes being shot. That may explain the uneven nature of the season, where it starts with a banger, meanders through the White Tiger- and Muse-centric episodes, and then springs back to life for a big finish. It’s impossible to know how it would’ve gone without that reworking, but from where we’re sitting on the outside looking in, the final result got the job done despite a bit of a patchwork feel.
A big part of that is that, for all its flaws, it at least ends on a very, very high note that inspires confidence season two will be more consistent in that regard. In particular, a return appearance from Jon Bernthal’s Punisher in the finale injects the story with an extra big dose of adrenaline and chaos, treating us to another polarized team-up with “Red” and showcasing the chemistry between Bernthal and Cox. Even when Frank Castle is not on screen throughout the season, his presence is felt thanks to Fisk’s anti-vigilante squad of brazenly corrupt cops appropriating his skull symbol—a commentary on a misguided real-world practice that the show tackles head-on.
You know things are bad when the Punisher shows up, and, indeed, the last episode leaves Daredevil on what may as well be his own personal Hell on Earth, all thanks to Mayor Fisk enacting his master plan. It’s a doomsday scenario so uniquely tailored to Matt Murdock’s character with its mix of legal maneuvering and criminal masterminding that it’s a little less preposterous that a super-powered Avenger doesn’t swoop (or swing) in to save the day than it might’ve been.