The following review was made possible by Disney+ providing Popped with advanced screeners for all nine episodes of Daredevil: Born Again. The first two episodes are now streaming on Disney+.
Marvel fans have been yearning for the return of their favourite character, Daredevil, to make his full return in the MCU, and Daredevil: Born Again finally delivers on that promise. Matt Murdock/Daredevil made small appearances in previous films and shows such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Echo, and even the animated Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. There was a lot riding on the back of Dario Scardapane and producers Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum on getting this show right. After Netflix’s generational three-season run, which had been claimed as not only a masterpiece by some people but also one of the best pieces of comic book media, there were high expectations that Disney had to meet.
Disney is notorious for having its Marvel shows follow a certain formula. This formula kept their shows feeling serialised and instead had them feeling like a chopped-up movie. It was reported in 2023 that Marvel Studios would be reshaping how they create television, and the first step was hiring showrunners. While Daredevil: Born Again already had some substantial filming done, they reworked it from the ground up, as a lot of what was written and filmed wasn’t what they had in mind for the show. Daredevil: Born Again got a significant creative reboot, and that’s the show we’ve received today, which has proven to be worth the restart. This is the first show under Marvel Television’s redevelopment plans for their shows, and if it’s any sign of the future, it’s looking bright.
Daredevil: Born Again is set several years after the events of Netflix’s Daredevil Season 3. It follows Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) a year after he’s given up his vigilante activities as Daredevil and decides to focus on fighting against the crime system from within as a lawyer. Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) has dropped his former life as the crime boss known as Kingpin and is instead changing his path as he runs for mayor of New York City, which puts the pair on a collision course.
A Killer Opening for ‘Daredevil: Born Again’
The show has a huge job of continuing the story from where it last left off. It showcases the bustling nightlife of New York City with Matt, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) having a good time and heading down to Josie’s for a drink. This is all immediately shut down as soon as Bullseye enters the scene, causing tragedy for Matt Murdock. This quickly sets in stone the change that we’re to see with Daredevil: Born Again, but also what has remained from the original series. The action is fast-paced and bloody, and thanks to Matt now having more acrobatic movements, the fights feel more entertaining and refreshing to watch. The visuals behind some of the acrobatics can feel slightly off, and the backdrops can become extremely noticeable, but it also works in the show’s favour at times. Daredevil: Born Again feels like a gritty crime noir show for the most part while also feeling like a legal drama.
The first fifteen minutes are a lot to take in as a fan of the original series, but it also paves the way for Matt’s journey and the decisions he makes in this show. Matt being a Catholic is a very integral part of his character, and without it, he isn’t Matt Murdock. Daredevil: Born Again doesn’t portray this visually like the previous show with churches and priests, but it’s still very prevalent in his character and story arc. The first episode fast-forwards a year after tragedy strikes to show the audience how Matt is dealing with these events and how the world moves forward, while also catching us up to speed with where all our characters are at.
Unlike Netflix’s Daredevil, this is a show that has more drama than it does action. It can also be argued that the drama we do get can be considered action. Remnants of Daredevil: Born Again, before it went through the creative overhaul, can be seen in this final product, as episodes 2-7 feel structurally different from episodes 1, 8, and 9. We follow Matt Murdock for the most part, dropping the vigilante life and making an attempt to deal with crime through his day job as a lawyer. This leads to an almost case of the week format, and while it works and we still get Matt showing hints of Daredevil here and there, you begin to understand why the show went through the creative overhaul it needed.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Shows Two Sides of the Same Coin
It’s not a Daredevil show if Wilson Fisk isn’t in the shadows waiting for the right time to pounce and rightfully get what is his. Fisk was always the kingpin of New York City, and he always will be, but now he’s mayor of New York City, and he’s able to control the city from within and put it on the path that he believes is right. Both Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk follow a similar journey in this show as they try to leave behind the lives that were an integral part of who they were. In Episode 1, Murdock and Fisk sit down for a talk in a diner that’s establishing boundaries. If Fisk doesn’t step out of line, Daredevil won’t return, and Fisk won’t have to worry about a vigilante on the street. Everyone wins and is happy. This becomes evidently impossible, and with Fisk already having corrupt police at his fingertips, it causes problems for Murdock as he gets dragged in via clients he’s protecting, such as Hector Ayala/White Tiger.
Foggy Nelson and Karen Page are put on the sidelines in Daredevil: Born Again as we focus on new characters that have stepped into Matt Murdock’s life. He has a new work partner, Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), who was originally a love interest in the comics, but the show has dropped that and instead set up Murdock with Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), another character from the comics who has been restructured for the show. She’s a therapist that isn’t just a part of Murdock’s life, but heavily involved with Fisk’s life as well, as she does marriage counselling for both Wilson and Vanessa, leading to some intense outcomes in the final episodes as their two worlds begin to merge once again. It’s unfortunate because although Kirsten McDuffie feels like the replacement for Foggy and Karen, she doesn’t share the same sentiment as those characters and has her role reduced to merely just a background character when she deserves to have the same screentime.
Wilson Fisk still has the love of his life, Vanessa, by his side, with Ayelet Zurer returning in the role after the creative overhaul, and she’s as important to the season as Fisk’s mayoral campaign is. Also by his side is Daniel Blake, played by Michael Gandolfini, who is the underdog of the season as he takes this role and makes it his own. Blake is a character who very much grows into himself and begins to understand the way Fisk works without really knowing his darkest secrets. From his first appearance to his last appearance in the show, Daniel feels like two completely different characters, and Gandolfini handles this evolution effortlessly.
Daredevil: Born Again runs into an issue of taking characters who have large roles in the comics and giving them smaller roles in the show. Similar to Kirsten McDuffie, Muse feels underutilised. This is a character that is supposed to be as terrifying as Bullseye, but the show never depicts that. Muse’s setup is great, but once we finally get to dealing with the character, all the lead-up we got falls apart, and we conclude with a storyline that feels like a waste of everyone’s time. There were higher expectations for the loss that Muse would supposedly cause, and unfortunately, the show decides to pull the brakes once his story begins to kick off.
In ‘Daredevil: Born Again,’ Hell’s Kitchen Has Never Felt More Alive
There are bound to be some worries as Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk have already appeared in earlier projects in the MCU. The one great thing about the MCU is that a character can be taken from their usual environment and placed in another show that feels different and still works. This was the case for Daredevil’s appearance in both She-Hulk: Attorney At Law and Echo. It unfortunately wasn’t the same for Wilson Fisk, who felt too different of a character in Hawkeye and Echo, but fans don’t have to worry as these characters feel exactly how they would in a Daredevil show. It can feel displaced due to this, but Daredevil: Born Again does a great job of making it feel like these characters are a part of the MCU and this world’s iteration of New York City.
Hell’s Kitchen and the whole city of New York City feel more alive in this show as we get interconnecting shots of the city mixed in with vox pops of BB Urich’s (Genneya Walton) show, which provides updates on how the people of New York feel about the way Wilson Fisk runs the city. It’s an interesting and unique way to provide a different angle on Fisk’s mayoral campaign and the developments that are taking place within the city. The show distinctively looks visually different to its predecessor, and that’s expected when there are new cinematographers on board. At times, the show can look like what you’d expect from a Disney+ MCU show, but other times, it accepts that it’s a Daredevil show and manages to find its style. The use of editing with Matt’s radar sense built into the choreography of the hard-hitting fights and its sharp, gritty cinematography all make for a show that’s 100% worth the watch.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ – Final Thoughts
Daredevil: Born Again is a slow return to form for great Marvel television. It feels like a thrilling continuation of Netflix’s Daredevil as it captures the grittiness and brutality of that show while also holding onto the heart that was poured into the writing, allowing these characters to feel alive in this ever-evolving world. It tells a gripping, emotionally charged story that explores the corrupt crime system and tackles the complexities of faith between what’s right and wrong, even if not diving into it as heavily or visually as its predecessor.
It’s a masterclass in storytelling from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the beginning of a war brewing on the streets of New York. It boasts the return of fan favourties such as Frank Castle/The Punisher with Jon Bernthal absolutely killing it, but it’s Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio who return like they’ve never left and deliver show-stopping performances alongside the series’ bone-shattering, jaw-breaking action that is some of the best we’ve seen yet in the MCU. Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again is already the best MCU series (and overall Disney+ series), but, with Dario Scardapane returning as showrunner, and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead returning to direct more episodes, it perfectly sets the scene for the future of the show and we can expect it to remain the king of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Disney+.
The first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again are now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes arriving weekly. Check out the trailer below:
