Thieves. Murderers. Corruption. A bad guy around every corner. A crime-ridden city in turmoil. Who can save them? Everyone’s favorite costumed, nighttime-vigilante hero who looks down on us from the rooftops (no, the other one) has returned. Matt Murdock is back in the long delayed new Disney+ series, Daredevil: Born Again. Picking up where the original Netflix series left off, this continuation goes with what fans know, but flips the script in a quest to give the Murdock/Daredevil story something more layered and intricate than the previous three seasons. Adjusting the character once more and sending him on a new path, this latest series is basically an origin tale redux.
This one gets gritty and harsh as the story weaves in a hefty dose of wanton criminality, trauma, and brutality. Daredevil: Born Again is loaded with crushing tragedy, brutal explosions of violence, and deep soul-searching. The new season is very dark (as are most comic adaptations these days) and quite serious, infusing certain plot threads with the vibe of The Sopranos by way of today’s modern political upheaval. Wait, isn’t this a superhero show? Didn’t they used to be fun?
After three seasons on Netflix, Disney+ does an unnecessary reset for Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and all friends and foes in his orbit. The new plot threads both connect and disconnect from the earlier series, but everything in the script feels clumsily put together while the third season already mined a good deal of the Born Again storylines from the comics.
In 2023, Marvel shut down the production and original writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman were replaced with Dario Scardapane, who did a fantastic job on the company’s best series to date, The Punisher. Mixing some of the work from Ord and Corman with showrunner Scardapane’s team of writers proves to be a clunky combination, leaving the series with no real creative vision. A few episodes are legal dramas. Another has a serial killer arc. Another vigilante shows up and is then quickly discarded. There is romance (Murdoch returns to dating) and politics and… marriage counseling? Nothing comes together in a cohesive manner. The show’s 9 episodes feel patched together in an attempt to service fans and kick start yet another phase of Marvel television.
The series finds Murdock regrouping after a tragic event. He has hung up his leather suit and is no longer a vigilante. His tightest circle of friends, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), has been broken. Now focusing on using the law to fight crime and do good for the people, Murdoch has started a new firm with former district attorney Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James).
Wilson Fisk returns and wants to rule the city through power and strength, planning to launch an aggressive campaign for Mayor of New York City. Vincent D’Onofrio does well here, but is hampered by overly-serious, gravel-voiced, line deliveries and boring character situations (get ready for those nail-biting marriage counselor moments). With the exception of one scene, D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Fisk in Daredevil: Born Again has no real spark.
Charlie Cox does well as Murdock/Daredevil. The actor was never truly convincing as the character, but somehow does better in this inferior series than he did in the superior first three seasons. Cox handles Murdoch’s unstable balance of personable persona and inner rage with skill, only occasionally overdoing the drama.
Hero and villain meet face to face in a coffee shop to size each other up. The dichotomy between Murdoch and Fisk has potential. These are two men reborn by their recent pasts who meet face to face. Each man declares a new future; both sternly warning the other of their capabilities if things go sour. These are both violent, primal, men and their first scene together packs the type of dramatic punch that should have led to a fiery path for both characters. This is a great moment and the two actors seize the possibilities. Alas, the strength of that scene is not to be found in the rest of the season.
As side characters come and go without reason, Michael Gandolfini is a highlight as a Fisk mayoral staffer/fanboy who is a perfect blend of pathetic ass-kisser and potentially dangerous devotee. His character has dramatic weight and the performance is a welcome reprieve from the underwritten characters who populate this undercooked story.
To those seeking action, it is safe to say that Murdoch returning to his Daredevil alter ego is far from a spoiler. Those wishing for ass-kicking scenes of Daredevil will not be disappointed, as long as they don’t mind being treated to only a few. For a series that carries the title, Daredevil: Born Again, there is little Daredevil to be found. In superhero adaptations, it is fun to watch the hero/antihero out of costume and dealing with the real world. It gives good balance to such tales. If a script spends too much time sidelining their main draw, it can bog down the story until it comes to a dead halt. This is one of those times.
This latest series is dreadfully dull. The life has been drained out of such an exciting character. In the acting, the cinematography, and especially the direction, every moment is executed in such a drab manner that makes it near impossible to drum up much interest. By the end of the first episode, it becomes alarmingly clear that viewers are in for a long haul.
The series’ biggest issue can be found in the writing. Most of the plots are completely uninteresting while the connections to past storylines are clumsily handled. Attempts to connect the villainous goings on to today’s authoritarian America are simplistic and uncomfortable while Murdoch’s inner turmoil becomes overly self-aware and superficial. With too dark a visual tone and hamfisted personal and social drama, the series becomes an occasionally incoherent collage of spiritless imagery and unintended camp.
I am not sure when comic book films and television felt the need to be so dramatically heavy. Sometimes, a darker tone can work; the Christopher Nolan Batman films, James Mangold’s Logan, Matt Reeves’ The Batman. More times than not, heavy-handed drama can sink a superhero movie; X-Men, Man of Steel, both cuts of Justice League.
There are characters who warrant a more serious design. After all, Batman IS “The Dark Knight” and The Punisher is on a violent mission of vengeance after his family is slaughtered. There is validation to the heaviness of their design. To add overly-serious drama to certain comic characters sullies the fun vibe that colored the reason for their creation. The escapism of seeing a big screen comic book come to life becomes diminished when the filmmakers try to connect their works to the ugliness of real life.
To quote Heath Ledger’s Joker, “Why so serious?”
Daredevil: Born Again might please devoted fans. Inside the 9 episodes there are a great deal of callbacks to other storylines and characters, but will fans have fun getting there? There are very few moments of excitement and even less of a dramatic pull. The characters are there and the stage is set, but everything is as contrived as it is uninteresting.
As we move onto the next season, perhaps this recharge could use a recharge.
Episodes 1 and 2 are now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes releasing every week.
Daredevil: Born Again
Showrunner/Writer Dario Scardapane
Episodes directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, and David Boyd
Executive Producers Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Sana Amanat, Chris Gary, Dario Scardapane, Chris Ord & Matt Corman, and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead.
Starring Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Margarita Levieva, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini
TV-MA, Marvel Studios, 20th Television, Corman & Ord
