The first time archnemeses Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) come face to face in Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again, each is swearing he’s no longer the man he used to be. Matt, still reeling from unthinkable tragedy, insists his vigilante days are over. Wilson, now running for New York City mayor, claims to have given up his mob boss career.
Neither believes the other for a second, and for that matter, neither do we. This show’s very existence hinges on the inevitability of these characters backsliding; if they were ever to truly evolve past their well-worn roles as superhero and supervillain, there would be nothing to see here.
Daredevil: Born Again
The Bottom Line
A familiar path elevated by two still-great performances.
Airdate: Tuesday, March 4 (Disney+)
Cast: Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Margarita Levieva, Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll, Wilson Bethel, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki M. James, Gennaya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, Ayelet Zurer, Jon Bernthal
Creator: Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman, Chris Ord
But that familiarity can be a double-edged sword. The same adherence to formula that makes Born Again so satisfying at its best is also what ultimately keeps it feeling trapped in amber.
Despite its slightly altered title and new creative leads — The Punisher‘s Dario Scardapane serves as showrunner, and Matt Corman and Chris Ord are additionally listed as creators — Daredevil: Born Again is not a spinoff of the Netflix series Daredevil, but a straightforward continuation. And though Daredevil ended its three-season run in 2018, neither Cox’s Daredevil nor D’Onofrio’s Kingpin have really gone away since, popping up in the Disney+ shows Echo, Hawkeye, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and even the big-screen outing Spider-Man: No Way Home between them.
But though much has happened to both since their last headlining series, it’s a small relief to find that not much has fundamentally changed about their whole deal. (In practical terms: No, you don’t have to rewatch the original Daredevil before diving into this one.) Particularly at first, Born Again is gratifying the way that returning to a neighborhood you once lived in is gratifying. Sure, that ancient diner might be a SoulCycle now, and yeah, you’ve probably missed some of the local gossip. But how sweet to see that many of the same people are still out on the same streets, doing the same things they always have.
For Fisk, that means ruling with an iron fist (not to be confused with Iron Fist, who is blessedly nowhere to be seen) while making gravel-voiced proclamations about “the city” and gazing longingly at his wife (Ayelet Zurer’s Vanessa). For Matt, that means defending the little guy in court, now at his own shingle with besties Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll). And, of course, it will eventually mean putting the mask back on to patrol the streets once more, all the while feeling deeply conflicted about his own predilection for violence.
When he does, it’s hard to deny the lizard-brain pleasure of watching the Man Without Fear pummel anonymous henchmen as John Paesano’s now-classic theme swells around him. (The Newton Brothers serve as composers for Born Again.) What this round of backlit hallway fights lacks in novelty, it mostly makes up for in nostalgia. Now as then, the thoughtful choreography by Philip Silvera betrays both his exhaustion — the blind Daredevil might have enhanced senses, but he’s no invulnerable Wolverine — and his primal anguish.
If those battles sometimes involve characters from other Marvel properties, all the better. In its giddiest moments, Born Again harkens back to a time when the shared-continuity project still felt fun. In early episodes, the relatively focused storytelling means that a small-scale crossover like Matt’s one-off adventure with a minor Ms. Marvel character lands as a reminder of how expansive this cinematic universe can be, not how oppressively interconnected it’s become.
As with so many titles throughout this two-decade mega-franchise, however, Born Again proves to be better at suggesting vast potential than paying it off. It’s not simply that — since these nine episodes are just the first half of a planned 18-part series — the season is literally incomplete. It’s that even for a show whose appeal lies in its familiarity, it’s nevertheless a bit of a letdown to notice how few surprises, and how many missed opportunities, there are along the way.
There are characters, including Matt’s therapist love interest Heather (Margarita Levieva) and Gen Z journalist BB “niece of Ben” Urich (Genneya Walton), who make strong impressions right off the bat and then grow somehow less fleshed-out as the plot reduces them to props in Matt and Fisk’s endless chess game. Touches like BB’s man-on-the-street interviews with concerned citizens, or storylines involving corrupt elites and police brutality, come off more like self-conscious affectations meant to give Born Again a grown-and-gritty sheen rather than serious attempts to engage with larger themes. And as fervently as both Matt and Fisk might deny their true natures, their bluntly paralleled journeys hardly represent new territory for either.
What saves Born Again from drudgery, though, are the same things that made Daredevil so beloved to begin with. One is D’Onofrio, who has not missed a step as Fisk. His brute-aesthete act may not be dramatically different than it was ten years ago, but it’s still reliably magnetic; in his hands, a gesture as ordinary as digging into a plate of sole meunière can seem freighted with latent power.
The other is Cox. His performance, and the writing that helps bring out the best of it, is the foundation for the entire series, and Cox shoulders that burden as deftly as his character arcs across the city skyline. Like a million superheroes before him, his Daredevil is angsty and angry. But Cox also brings to him a charisma, even a lightness, that’s all the more magnetic for seeming so unassuming: You feel special for having noticed how special this seemingly ordinary guy is, as if everyone else hasn’t noticed exactly the same thing.
Particularly impressive is the actor’s ability to conjure instant chemistry with just about anyone, whether Matt is casually joking around with a favorite colleague (Nikki M. James’ Kirsten), exploding at his frenemy/foil Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) or flirtatiously negotiating with a law clerk we meet for five minutes and then never see again. His interactions with his costars spark with the potential to grow into something unexpected — maybe, even, to lead Matt toward the steadier, happier, less violent version of himself he’s always claimed to want to be.
He won’t get there, of course. He can’t, because if he did, there would be no show. But that’s the devil’s bargain of a hit. To love Daredevil the series and want it to continue is to condemn its stalwart hero to an eternity of fighting his demons again and again, year after year, with no end in sight.
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