I have something shameful to confess: I never got around to watching Netflix's Daredevil. But after watching Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel's soft reboot of the franchise, I know I need to go back and rectify that error immediately.
That's because Daredevil: Born Again checks off the major boxes I want from a superhero show (and that I've been missing from the MCU's recent TV offerings). It leans further into serialized elements, offers up relentless action, and never skimps on character beats when it comes to its central masked vigilante, played to perfection by Charlie Cox. While I certainly have my qualms with Daredevil: Born Again — most having to do with Wilson Fisk's (Vincent D'Onofrio) arc — there's no denying that the show has made me a Daredevil fan.
What's Daredevil: Born Again about?
Daredevil: Born Again is pretty accessible to Daredevil newbies like myself, although it helps if you've absorbed some knowledge of the show through pop cultural osmosis. Knowing anything about Matt Murdock's (Cox) power set and his prior showdowns with Fisk will be a huge help, but Born Again does a solid job of keeping you up to speed on what you need to know.
A lot of that comes down to the fact that Born Again resets pretty hard in its first episode. Matt's friends and law partners Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) are back for just a moment before getting swept from the board in different ways, each heartbreaking in its own right. Their presence helps bridge the gap from the Netflix series to Born Again, but their absence stings throughout the season, especially since Matt's new connections, like firm partner Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James) and love interest Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), get less development than they deserve. And yes, I might not have watched Daredevil, but even I can't deny the chemistry Matt, Karen, and Foggy shared in their few scenes together! All the more incentive for me — and any other Daredevil newbies — to go back and catch up on what I've missed.
Of course, while I grew accustomed to the lack of Foggy and Karen fairly quickly, longtime fans will need more time to process a Daredevil show without them. Daredevil: Born Again seems to know this. In the show's very first scene, Foggy proclaims that his yearning for the Hell's Kitchen of years ago is "not nostalgia." Instead, "it's reverence for the past, yet hope for the future." That mentality seems to be Daredevil: Born Again's ethos going forward. The show aims to respectfully balance the key figures of Matt's old life (aka Netflix's Daredevil) with the big changes ahead.
The biggest change? No more Daredevil. With Karen and Foggy out of the picture, Matt makes a vow to retire his vigilante persona once and for all. His enemy Fisk does something similar, opting to leave his villainous Kingpin days behind and run for New York City mayor. (A famously non-shady position.) For Matt and Fisk alike, their dismissal of their alter egos signals an attempt to achieve their goals through the "right" channels. Yet over the course of Born Again, both men find themselves drawn inexorably back into their past habits. It's only a matter of time until they revert to their old ways, right?
That reversion may take longer than Daredevil fans might expect. Matt doesn't spend a lot of time in his Daredevil suit, for example, but that doesn't mean we don't get scenes of him in action. Still, the tension between his "real" self and the lurking presence of his vigilante persona remains the most fascinating part of Born Again, as Matt reckons with whether he can still do the most good without the help of Daredevil.
Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock is the highlight of Daredevil: Born Again, but Fisk flounders.
This won't come as a surprise to Daredevil viewers, but there's no denying Charlie Cox is perfectly cast as Matt Murdock. Charismatic flirt, tortured hero... He can do it all.
Cox's assuredness in the role is undoubtedly one of the reasons why I acclimated so quickly to Born Again. Even if you don't know or don't remember the ins and outs of Netflix's Daredevil, you've got a great guide in Cox, whose firm grasp on Matt Murdock keeps Daredevil chugging along in a more character-driven fashion.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Fisk or his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer). The pair's gravelly-voiced illegal dealings often feel out of place in Born Again, like a watered-down caricature of The Sopranos. Yes, Born Again is clearly interested in paralleling the chafing between Fisk's new mayoral office and criminal instincts with Matt's own identity crisis. For some scenes, especially intercut montages of the two facing similar turning points, this works wonders. But too often, the Fisks' repetitive discussions of gang payback and bureaucratic red tape bog down an otherwise propulsive show.
No wonder, then, that Born Again's best installment is also the one that doesn't feature any Fisk action at all. Coming halfway through the season, the episode treats us to a tightly-focused hostage situation that puts Cox's star power on full display — and reminds us of the power of serialized TV. Other standout arcs include the trial of Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes), a man falsely accused of killing a cop, as well as the search for the menacing serial killer known as Muse. The Ayala trial grants us the gift of Matt in full attorney mode, while Muse's murder methods are some of the most stomach-churning on the show. Unfortunately, the Muse storyline lacks the development to truly stick its landing, but its truncated beats can't stop Muse from cementing himself as one of the scariest villains in the MCU.
Kingpin lurks at the edges of these storylines, mostly to rasp about how much he hates Matt and vigilantes. But it's toward the end of the season, when his and Matt's paths really begin to intersect, that the show loses more of its way. Daredevil: Born Again was the subject of a major creative overhaul during production, so perhaps its clumsy conclusion is part of that messy process shining through.
Overall, though, Daredevil: Born Again stakes its claim as one of the MCU's strongest TV entries, thanks in no small part to Cox's work and some exceptionally gnarly fights. These elements are strong enough that they made me a Daredevil fan without even having seen the original. Fret not, they've also encouraged me to go back in time and catch up on what I was missing out on. If Daredevil: Born Again is enough to go off of, then I'm in for a treat.
