When a tragedy makes Matt Murdock decide to put away his Daredevil suit and alter-ego, it seems that the more conventional side of the law will take precedence from now on. Wilson Fisk, recovered from the injuries he sustained from his protégé, is also reassessing his priorities, taking the ‘skills’ he learned as the criminal ‘Kingpin’ into the realm of politics.
But each man will find it hard to shake-off their previous identities and to keep a promise to leave each other be. As the tensions on the streets of New York mount and Mayor Fisk announces a clampdown on masked vigilantes, the consequences (intentional or otherwise) start to mount. Will the rise of a serial killer, Muse, the trial of another hero ‘White Tiger’ and the return of Frank Castle (aka The Punisher) threaten the new status-quo or will all the wrong lessons be learned?
And how far will each man go to survive in a city consumed by fear?
*spoilers*
For a while Marvel dominated the big screen with a foundational approach to story-telling, finally culminating in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, a mainstream action movie with consequence and heart that has yet to be bettered. Since then Marvel have had mixed fortunes in both the cinematic and television departments. Some movies have floundered or just about met expectations but there’s been nothing of a home-run. On the smaller screen, there’s been no shortage of shows that Marvel have tried through their collaboration with Disney+ platform – from WandaVision, Hawkeye, Echo, She-Hulk and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier but many have suffered from being either badly-paced or first-draft connective tissue for bigger projects.
It’s been the popular belief – for good reason – that the previous Netflix era (before Marvel put all its eggs in one mouse-shaped basket) produced the least cookie-cutter results and of these Daredevil still stands as shining example of honouring the source material, taking some risks and employing some great talent on both sides of the camera. But that Marvel/Disney deal put an end to that era… or so it seemed. While many thought the three seasons of Daredevil were the charm that wouldn’t return, the decision was made to return to the character and essentially resemble some of its key talent. Charlie Cox would reprise Matt Murdock, the ever-impressive Vincent D’Onofrio (surely one of the best actors working today) would be back as the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk. Fans crossed their fingers hoping it would be a return to glory rather than the tarnishing of something special. Covid and writers strikes played their part in further delays but, in reality, that may actually have been a godsend.
Under writers/producers Matt Corman and Chris Ord, the idea was a more law and disorder styled enterprise with the titular horned vigilante not even turning up for several episodes. The show was well into production when hit with delays and this did allow the powers-that-be to look at what had been filmed and perhaps do some course-correction rarely offered to many shows. This ultimately meant the amicable departure of Corman and Ord and the hiring of Dario Scardapane as showrunner (with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as lead directors) and a deliberate attempt to have links to what had gone before rather than starting all over again. Elden Henson and Deborah Wohl would reprise their supporting roles of Foggy Nelson and Karen Page and if specifics weren’t always spelled out in the script, there was definitely an attempt to join some of the dots and make this feel like an organic continuation rather than a wholesale reboot.
There’s a tremendous amount to like about Born Again. Cox and D’Onofrio obviously revel in the opportunity to be working together once more and they immediately bring their A-game to both the overt and subtle elements of the new, but familiar dynamic. Cox once again channels the physical and emotional burden of his dual-identity and the cost it takes on him and those he cares about. D’Onofrio has long since made Fisk his own and immediately fills the screen, bulking up again and letting that gravel-cadenced voice chill the soul…
In the comics, the ‘Born Again‘ saga is an iconic part of Daredevil‘s history. Industry legend Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli steered through a dark story of an AWOL Karen Page becoming a junkie and in her darkest moment selling out Matt’s secret identity. Fisk, learning the truth, slowly takes apart Matt’s life and soon the lawyer-by-day/hero-by-night finds everything going wrong – finally learning how he has been compromised and what he must now do to get his life back. Some of that territory was covered in the third Netflix season (albeit with a less grim Karen Page story) and so the new Disney+ season of the same title handles some different material, reflecting the Dark Reign storyline in which Fisk decides that he doesn’t want to continue to be a shadowy figure of New York’s underworld, but a controlling factor… and runs (successfully) for mayor. Obviously this puts he and Murdock/Daredevil in an awkward collision course where both have to change the way they approach the new status-quo.
There’s a tremendous amount to like about Born Again. Cox and D’Onofrio obviously revel in the opportunity to be working together once more and they immediately bring their A-game to both the overt and subtle elements of the new, but familiar dynamic. Cox once again channels the physical and emotional burden of his dual-identity and the cost it takes on him and those he cares about. D’Onofrio has long since made Fisk his own and immediately fills the screen, bulking up again and letting that gravel-cadenced voice chill the soul. Fisk is a man who doesn’t like violence but has accepted its uses. He has aspirations to go ‘straight’ and gain the kind of respect his previous position could never quite reach, but he’s ever the snake and the scorpion, unable to shed his skin or defy his nature, forever compromised and never too far away from old habits and aggression. It’s a timely version of a love/hate character for obvious reasons in the current era and one wonders how much of it would have been in the show and quite so on-the-nose without the enforced delay.
The opening episode brings a narrative pivot of the fridging variety that some won’t see coming and which provides the impetus for Matt to reconsider his tactics. It scatters the deck in some ways and refines it in others, quieting one of the ‘heartbeats of the Marvel Universe’ but setting many more things in motion. Matt foreswears the Daredevil suit and concentrates on making a difference as a lawyer. As always the courtroom scenes sing and the strength of the show is that while Daredevil must always be the go-to for some of the action, the characters are interesting and compelling enough for you to be happy enough when the civilian identities are to the fore. There’s a key ‘one’ scene – tracking the action in a single take – as a distraught Daredevil fights his way through tenement storeys to find Bullseye. It’s effective but the notable addition of some CGI makes it less visceral than the Netflix’s first season which felt more organic and smooth. The Born Again tracking-shot comes up just a little short of the signature hallway fight and for a New York minute the audience may be concerned that the Disney+ version is emulating rather than leading. Thankfully it’s a minor gripe and the series ultimately excels.
Powered by an ensemble that also includes Wilson Bethel, Genneya Walton, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini (and Ayelet Zurer returning to the key role of Vanessa Fisk), it’s a powerhouse presentation throughout. There’s certainly a level of violence here that may catch Disney+ viewers off-guard. The series is visceral, honouring the street-level conflict that made their original mark. Some will complain about that ‘R’-level rating, but while some of the scenes are intense and bloody, they are used sparingly so that their impact is as great as it needs to be – never a prop for inferior material. There’s a head-popping scene in the finale that will make audiences go ‘ewwwwww‘ but for the most part the brutality on show is there for a reason, not decoration. It’s equally true that dialogue plays just as important a part of the atmosphere and here – as previously mentioned – D’Onofrio is at his best, menacing with every syllable in such a way that it’s often the calm before the storm that is memorable.
With the kind of lean pacing so often missing from Marvel‘s televisual ventures and the obvious topicality about ambition and the way power can be wielded, the show zips along – even allowing a diversionary episode inside a bank heist to feel like far more than mere filler, alongside some subtle MCU references and easter-eggs. The Netflix era of the show essentially had season-long arcs. Some wider stuff would be carried over, but much of the story-arc was self-contained. Here we don’t resolve a lot as the credits roll on the final episode. With a ‘bad guys win, but our heroes are planning their comeback‘, this is very much the Empire Strikes Back of the Daredevil franchise to date and with filming on the second season well underway, we hopefully won’t have to wait too long for the story to continue.
- Story9
- Acting10
- Direction10
- Action9
