Daredevil is back and it’s good to have him. The “Street-Level” shows Marvel produced for Netflix in the 2010s gave us some of the best superhero TV of all time, particularly “Jessica Jones” and The Man Without Fear’s brutal first run.
This Disney+ sequel, appropriately titled “Daredevil: Born Again,” seems a smidge less dark and violent. That could just be because what is essentially the series’ fourth season is nine episodes long instead of earlier incarnations’ 13, which leaves less time for Charlie Cox’s blind Defender with the heightened other senses to break limbs and suffer the lacerations his Catholic guilt drives him to seek out.
But fear not. There are extended beatdowns and gory murders in each new chapter. The real punishment this time around, however, is meted out to the rule of law and political decency in New York City. With endless parallels to what’s going on in Washington D.C. virtually as we watch, that stuff is as disturbing as any point-blank execution or real-time skull crushing.
Showrunner Dario Scardapane, who was a writer/producer on “The Punisher” spinoff series, is likely responsible for keeping “Born Again” more in line with the Netflix show and as current events-adjacent as it could conceivably be (earlier plans to make this “Daredevil” lighter and more “fun” apparently took a 180 when Scardapane came on board). Bringing back Vincent D’Onofrio’s crime Kingpin Wilson Fisk as one big Donald Trump analog is certainly a no-brainer, but it’s worked out in brilliant, prescient detail on this showrunner’s watch.
Cox and D’Onofrio started popping up in MCU productions as soon as the Netflix agreement permitted. Timeline-wise, “Born Again” starts with an extended preamble.
Crusading lawyer Matt Murdock dons the bloodwine Daredevil suit in the first episode, then refuses to for most of what comes later. That’s due to a horrible personal tragedy resulting from an attack on Josie’s, his Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood bar. That blazing action sequence is perhaps the most impressive of the single shot “oners” that quality TV shows are going for these days (Seth Rogen’s upcoming “The Studio” is full of ‘em). Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who’ve done “Moon Knight” and “Loki” episodes, directed the pilot and several other “Born Again” hours.
A year later, Matt is still grappling with grief and struggling to suppress his violent impulses when Fisk, back from whatever imprisonment Daredevil sent him to, runs for mayor of NYC — on, naturally, a law-and-order platform, with a vengeful additional plank outlawing “vigilantes in silly costumes.” Of course, he wins. Man-on-the-street interviews interspersed throughout the season echo familiar MAGA, as well as more thoughtful but not necessarily accurate, attitudes. It’s modern politics in what could ironically be called easy-to-read comic book form.
Fisk wastes little time blackmailing, firing or otherwise neutralizing anyone in city government who could block his agenda. That includes creating a personally led task force of the crookedest NYPD cops (many of whom, as in real life, are Punisher fanboys, much to the disgust of Jon Bernthal’s occasionally glimpsed Frank Castle). He also wants to revitalize Brooklyn’s decrepit Red Hook harbor, an initiative initially derided by rich Manhattan power brokers who insult him at their oblivious peril.
And Wilson is still in love with his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer returns to the role, making her more sphynx-like and ruthless than ever). She rarely appears with the mayor in public — sound familiar? — and is not so sure about her feelings for him after running Kingpin’s underworld coalition more successfully in his absence than he ever did. They wind up in marriage counseling, implicitly humorous scenes that could have gone for more levity than they do.
With the people he’s closest to, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), pretty much written out after the pilot, Matt opens a new law practice with a nurturing former D.A., Kristen McDuffie (Tony-winner Nikki M. James, last seen on “Severance”). She sets him up with a new love interest, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva, late of “The Acolyte”), an ambitious Downtown therapist. She’s writing a book about the pathology of masked supertypes, yet somehow doesn’t catch on that her increasingly bruised new boyfriend has a secret, even though half the show’s characters know that Matt is Daredevil.
Other new faces this season include Michael Gandolfini as Fisk sycophant Daniel Blake, who nicely represents the naivete, enthusiasm and careerism we might associate with young Republicans. British actor Arty Froushan plays Fisk’s debonair, more deadly operative Buck Cashman, who’s known in the comic books as Bullet. The late, great Kamar de los Reyes has a moving, motivating arc as Hector Ayala; those who know, know.
There are many other new characters, all well-defined, along with plenty of cameos and references to other Marvel folks. But although they only have one extended scene together, Cox and D’Onofrio once again dominate the narrative.
While Matt’s psychic turmoil is different and a little less masochistic this time around, Cox keeps it at close access to counterbalance the hero’s self-righteousness, clever attorney’s cockiness and both’s fighting prowess. He sometimes comes dangerously close to forgetting that Matt ought to gaze and move like a regular blind man; then again, his lithe physicality has a persuasive, intuitive quality. That’s especially true in several terrifically staged sequences, such as a wordless one when Matt applies his super senses to finding the missing casing of an assassin’s bullet.
Somewhat slimmed-down — he eats lots of egg white omelets — and insisting he’s changed, D’Onofrio’s crime boss doesn’t come off quite as vulnerable as Kingpin did in the most interesting Netflix moments. But he’s still physically terrifying, easy to enrage and a master at weaponizing delicate body language and hoarse, whispered dialog.
Some episodes are almost standalones, heist and horror entries quirked-up with St. Patrick’s Day or graffiti art specifics. And despite having fewer chapters than earlier seasons, it could be said that “Daredevil: Born Again” feels padded at times. Some, however, might just call that building atmosphere; the new show is redolent with a sense of nigh-unstoppable corruption.
This batch concludes with a setup (that — are you listening Marvel? — leaves the door ajar for Jessica Jones). A second nine-episode run is on the way. Let’s hope we can enjoy it after another year of the real thing.
“Daredevil: Born Again” is now streaming on Disney+.