Table of Contents
Daredevil’s brutal return delivers sharper stakes, fiercer fights and a Fisk-led New York spiralling into chaos
Following a rather comical end to the first season, Daredevil: Born Again’s second outing is far more confident in its storytelling and more robust in how it expands its tiny corner of Hell’s Kitchen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Now that New York City is under the control of its new mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF), Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) disappear from the public eye as they are hunted by AVTF, as Matt shifts his fights away from the courtroom and the gavel to the streets with his fists as Daredevil.
As the primary target of Wilson, Daredevil works towards corralling the necessary allies to bring down the entire Fisk administration who are using the city’s free port to smuggle contraband into the city and country, including military-grade weapons.
Along the way, old allies such as Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) return, while temporary alliances are forged, even with the likes of Bullseye (Wilson Bethel).
Rage and redemption
Born Again’s second outing is very much a tight-rope production, from start to end. Flourishing under Scardapane’s return as the showrunner, the season takes the concept of “balance” with religious zeal.
It can be seen with how Scardapane balances the development of its leads, the action-to-drama ratio to how this season’s great action filmmaking threads the fine line between believable and comic book-level nonsense.
Matt’s anger shifts from small waves to a roaring tsunami, yet the writing keeps him wedged to the character’s Catholicism as the helplessness of facing Wilson continues to build in the background.
The bald, overweight criminal-turned-mayor screentime moves away from his overt sense of violence towards dirty politicking, before that too explodes from a long-overdue death that results in a final episode where the mayor punches innocents to death in an obvious parallel to the Jan 6 US Capitol attack.
The season also does justice to side characters without keeping the lens of the camera purely focused on Daredevil and Wilson. Bullseye receives plenty of not just amazing action sequences but also an episode almost entirely for him. Ritter’s Jessica gets more than a few scenes and action sequences to tease a meatier role in the third season.
Trapped in creative isolation
The only real issue with the season is the exact problem the previous season and the other seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher and The Defenders had while those now-dead series were at Netflix – Born Again still feels disconnected from the rest of the MCU.
Despite everything that happens in the season, certain more famous street-level superheroes known to live and operate in New York City make zero appearances, again.
On top of that, there is the unexplained disappearance of Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal).
These are minor grievances, of course, but considering it is a problem that has existed since Netflix’s Daredevil debuted back in 2015, it is worth addressing. With the MCU still being in the dire state that it is in, a third season of Born Again that fixes this will be a sight for sore eyes.
READ MORE:
TV Show Review: Maul strikes back in Shadow Lord
Mortal Kombat II review: Kombat hits harder in round two
The Devil Wears Prada 2 review: Is success worth the sacrifice?
Dust Bunny Review – Bold style, uneven story
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen Review – Horror Gamble
