TV-MA, 9 Episodes
Showrunner: Dario Scardapane
Starring: Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Margarita Levieva, Nikki M. James, Clark Johnson, Ayelet Zurer, Michael Gandolfini, Genneya Walton, Wilson Bethel, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Jon Bernthal
Disney loves a cash grab. By that I mean it loves to take a previous property and retool it just enough to garner new eyes while appealing to an established fanbase. Almost a decade after Netflix debuted its Daredevil series, Disney+ revives it with Daredevil: Born Again. Its subtitle is a nice tip of the hat to a famous comic book story arc from the 1980s written by Frank Miller (Sin City). Disney+’s revival is a glossier, less gritty facsimile of the Netflix series that breaks our hero down only to rebuild him under the stewardship of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
As someone who has groused over the proliferation of superhero content on big and small screens, it’s been mainly because of the quality overall. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) after Avengers: Endgame has been rocky terrain with few exceptions (Spider-Man: No Way Home and the most recent Deadpool & Wolverine being perfect examples – both carried by nostalgia and not much else). Born Again is not trying to be wistful of what Netflix achieved with the Daredevil character; the season is a refreshing character arc of what happens when our hero falls and a villain rises.
Charlie Cox returns as the blind lawyer Matt Murdock who fights for his clients by day only to fight crime in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen as the masked vigilante Daredevil at night. Vincent D’Onofrio also returns as Wilson Fisk a.k.a. Kingpin, a notorious mobster who grows more powerful in the Big Apple.
The season opens in striking fashion with Matt and his best friends, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), at Josie Bar’s. NYPD detective Cherry (Clark Johnson) has pulled his pin and is celebrating his retirement. The celebration is short-lived with the arrival of Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), one of Daredevil’s greatest adversaries, who sweeps through the establishment dispensing bullets as bodies and pilsner glasses crash to the floor. The sequence by directors Aaron Morehead and Justin Benson (Loki) is a textbook case of camera as character and following the action. Through digital wizardry everything looks seamless. When the cut finally does occur, a primal scream echoes through the night, Matt devastated. The Man Without Fear is now The Man Without Hope.
One year later, Hell’s Kitchen’s watchdog protector is no more. The only late-night work Matt Murdock is doing is going over legal briefs for his clients. He has a new criminal law practice with attorney Kirsten McDuffie (Nikkie M. James). Cherry is the firm’s investigator. Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk has resurfaced and because of a recall election he gets to hold court inside the halls of municipal government as New York City’s new mayor. This development causes Matt’s buried rage to invade his self-imposed passivity. Bad timing with his recent romance with therapist Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), whose beliefs on vigilantism differ greatly from his own.
Matt’s reluctance to fight crime outside a courtroom is a major angle for the season. In contrast, showrunner Dario Scardapane and his team counterbalance Matt’s turmoil with Fisk’s ascension to political office and his queenpin wife, Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), expanding their empire thanks to the mayor eliminating opponents with an anti-vigilante task force.
Much like Matt and Heather’s views on vigilantism, Wilson and Vanessa differ on leadership qualities. The season probes their strained marriage and whether Wilson’s political ambitions is to be taken seriously or be a joke to undermine his adulterous wife.
Maybe it’s because I work in a mayor’s office, and have for different administrations, that I sat back and reveled in the machinations behind the scenes and messaging being disseminated to the public at large. The show also makes good use of interstitials with journalist BB Urich (Genneya Walton) capturing the despondency with New York residents.
Born Again’s nine-episode season might be a few episodes too long, though I never found myself bored in the developing stories of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. The darker tone and meaning behind the blood splatter and punishment doesn’t hurt either. The end of the season fittingly climaxes with a call to action.
A wake-up call for the city that never sleeps.
Grade: A-
