The finale of the first season of “Daredevil: Born Again” could not have come at a better time. What began as a cat-and-mouse game between vigilante Daredevil/Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and drug lord Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) escalates into a full-blown political thriller, as New York City descends into a state of fascism under its criminal mayor—a development that begins miraculously now. The MCU’s New York has sadly begun to show our dark and broken American system, starting with Fisk’s creation of an anti-surveillance group similar to ICE, and the citizens of the workers trying to expose his crimes to the city and its residents, without any hope.
The second season of “Born Again” offers catharsis in a more focused, albeit weak, narrative that shares a close identity with the original Netflix series, both good and bad.
The season opener follows Matt intercepting an illegal arms smuggling ship belonging to Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF), rekindling their rivalry. He and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) rekindle their romance and work with a small team—NYPD officer Cherry (Clark Johnson), reporter BB Urich (Genneya Walton), and Murdock & McDuffie attorney Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James)—to bring down Fisk’s operations.
Meanwhile, an uprising is brewing in the New York underground, sparked by an unknown video gamer wearing a Guy Fawkes-style Fisk mask. Additionally, innocent civilians beyond his disobedience—critics, journalists, people he had little grievances with—were imprisoned in a secret concentration camp. When Dex/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) has a change of heart and sets his sights on Fisk and his people, everyone is thrown out of balance.
As Matt and Karen clash over the moral compass and the situation escalates, even Jessica Jones (played by Krysten Ritter) is drawn back to help restore New York City.
In the first season of “Born Again”, showrunner Dario Scardapane struggled to revive the Man Without Fear in Disney’s newly-made TV-MA MCU while integrating him well into the universe. The lack of connective tissue remains a concern in this first season. Not because of forced Disney synergy, but a lack of awareness of the wider universe. Mayor Fisk’s empire exists almost entirely in the independent world of Daredevil, which feels impossible given its scale, the heroes that inhabit it, and the recent events that have occurred throughout the universe. Fisk’s NYC is too widespread to be shown alone.
That disconnect is hard to ignore, especially after season one’s Yousef Khan-centric (Mohan Kapur) bottle episode and last year’s “Famous” climax set in a supposedly Fisk-run NYC. Heck, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine gets a brief nod, and that’s about the best you get in the New Avengers cast. Add to that the upcoming NYC set of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” featuring the Punisher/Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), who is often mentioned here but not on screen, despite being a major player last season. While beneficial in keeping the narrative focused, this amount of negativity when juxtaposed within its current timeline weakens an already intense progression. But don’t worry, the Punisher TV special will bridge the gap between events because that’s what the MCU always does.
The series perpetuates the sins of the first season of including too many boring players who don’t participate in much of the plot, or of once energetic characters becoming lonely due to weak characters, or favoring new, unnecessary actors. For example, Matthew Lillard’s Bugs Bunny-esque CIA power broker, Mr. Charles, is a fun, intimidating addition to his current “Lillard-issance,” but adds nothing to the overall structure. While the involvement of the sprawling city adds scope, the characters themselves feel stuck, making the high stakes pointless.
There’s a nice promotion for the original series alums: Woll’s Karen takes on a prominent role, commanding a strong, strong romance that wasn’t there last season. Bethel’s Bullseye is the show’s villain, as his facial expressions are as entertaining and entertaining as you can imagine—like seeing the league’s best player you’ve grown to hate join your hometown team. Then. While this season is set to bring back the long-awaited return of Jessica Jones, it comes late, and the writing doesn’t do much to bring her back into the fold, aside from Ritter’s warm return.
The stakes rise in “Birth Again,” season 2, leading to shocking developments, well-choreographed bloody action scenes, and intense surprises. However, much of it lacks luster due to Matt’s lack of new logical challenges. It’s frustrating to see the writers fall back on his no-kill rule against a climate that is shockingly ours, and where it’s at the bottom. While Fisk and his ICE-like regime rack up an undeniable body count—arresting innocent civilians under the guise of truth—Matt still clings to the law as his path to justice. It’s true to his character, but after more than a decade of following these characters on two different streaming services, the Matt-Fisk chess game feels tired, spinning its wheels and tightening that tension.
Even with Cox and D’Onofrio at the top of their game, their ongoing moral debates remain unchanged. Matt continues to express his strong definition of justice to the other vigilantes, or to Karen, who are arguably more effective. Despite his loss—Foggy, the besieged city—he’s still “pretty good,” as Fawkes-Kingpin puts it, which feels out of step with the urgency of the story. The repetition extends to the plot itself, each episode hinges on the same juxtaposition between Fisk’s brutal orders and Matt and Karen’s resistance during high-story twists. Even when the series draws on one of the real-world events of 2020 that defines its fate, it rarely strays from familiar territory.
Ultimately, as season 2’s “Daredevil: Born Again” symbolizes our current fascist moment while heralding victory, its limited character writing and dull, self-contained storytelling result in a middle-of-the-road, slow-build — that feels more promising for what’s on the horizon than it offers now.
The entire season was screened for review. It airs Tuesdays on Disney+.
