Daredevil: Born Again - Season 2
Fixing many of the issues of the first season of Daredevil: Born Again, primarily resulting from the writer replacement and re-configuration the first season went through partway into filming, Born Again season 2 benefits greatly from a more concrete vision and focused storytelling from beginning to end, even as its reach often exceeds its grasp. Whatever the original, or even second plan had been, Daredevil has been retrofitted into a commentary on modern times, and the authoritarian measures the federal government has been increasingly using on top of the never-ending superhero battle between the Kingpin of Crime (D’Onofrio) and the masked vigilante Daredevil (Cox). It is an ill-fit at best, hampered by its straightforward style and focus on story exposition over subtlety … Andor this is not. Which doesn’t mean it is not frequently a very good Daredevil series.
After gradually, begrudgingly, retaking the Daredevil mantle following the murder of his best friend, Matt Murdock (Cox) finds himself on the run from his old foe Mayor Fisk (D’Onofrio) who has declared marshal law in New York and all vigilantes outlawed, even as he searches for evidence of Fisk’s true plan. It appears in the form of a freighter of illegal weapons Fisk is shipping for a shadowy CIA operator (Lillard), a chink in the armor which Murdock and Karen Page (Woll) race to exploit even as they dodge arrest.
After the gradual, unfocused discussions of the first season the singular idea of Born Again Season 2 is Murdock’s fight against a proxy-ICE in the form of Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force providing the kind of catharsis the real world often cannot which is the original draw of the superhero story in the first place. It’s a welcome change of pace, helped by centering on Murdock and Page’s on-again / off-again relationship within the resistance and pushing therapist Heather Glenn (Levieva) to the side as she grapples with surviving a serial killer’s assault. In the midst of it all there is an unmistakable feeling of returning to old ideas as Murdock still finds himself fighting the Kingpin as well as his eternally returning foe Bullseye (Bethel). At a certain point it is clear to both the characters, the actors and the writers that Matt needs to move on – and by the end there is a welcome feeling of clearing of deck chairs – but uncertainty about exactly what that will look like.
What that results in is a series which sounds better in summation than it is in experience. As good as it can be in its quieter moments, particularly as Matt grapples with his Catholic beliefs around forgiveness in the face of what his enemies have done, the attempts to move to larger political points fall flat primarily in the execution. No one can think of any way to say things except in the most plain manner possible which can work but doesn’t and leaves showrunner Dario Scardapane backed into a corner for a climax which must address these core themes in some way other than a physical confrontation.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is a thoroughly more well thought out show than its predecessor willing to take big swings not seen since the series’ earliest days. The follow-through is frustratingly not always up to the task but with a sense of the series moving on from its oldest tropes and starting a new status quo for season 3 – including the welcome return of several Defenders colleagues – the future looks bright ahead.
7 out of 10.
Starring Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Wilson Bethel, Margarita Levieva, Genneya Walton, Michael Gandolfini, Arty Froushan, Matthew Lillard, Clark Johnson, Ayelet Zurer, Krysten Ritter, Tony Dalton, Camila Rodriguez and Lili Taylor.