Light spoilers follow for all eight episodes of Daredevil: Born Again season 2.
Daredevil: Born Again season 2 represents another opportunity for the Marvel TV show to be, well, reborn.
With its predecessor having been subjected to a creative overhaul midway through production, Born Again's debut season was the embodiment of the saying "too many cooks spoil the soup". This time, though, the show's cast and crew are all singing from the same hymn sheet — and Marvel fans won't accept any excuses if its new chapter similarly turns out to be a Frankenstein's Monster of a season.
Having watched all eight episodes, it gives me great pleasure to say that Born Again season 2 is devilishly great — but, haunted by the ghosts of its past, it's not the knock-out masterpiece that some might be hoping for.
Hell on Earth
Six months on from Daredevil: Born Again's season 1 finale, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and his allies are engaged in a guerrilla war against Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio), the dictatorial Mayor of New York City and Murdock's long-time nemesis.
Born Again season 2 is as bone-crunchingly brilliant as its forebear and Netflix's Daredevil TV series
Fisk's calculated crackdown on vigilantes like Daredevil has not only continued apace, but has also been used a smokescreen to Fisk's other criminal activities. However, when our eponymous hero and right-hand Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) learn of — and disrupt — a multi-million dollar arms shipment on the Hudson River, the stakes of this cat-and-mouse game grow in dramatic and violent fashion.
A show renowned for its brutality, season 2 is as bone-crunchingly brilliant as its both forebear and Netflix's Daredevil TV series that Born Again is a continuation of.
From the moment our titular hero storms the arms-ferrying freighter in the season premiere's opening sequence, to this season's incredibly intense, blood-soaked finale, Born Again 2 doesn't hold back in the action-spectacle department.
Equipped with numerous in-your-face, chaotic, and smile-inducing set-pieces, I'd argue it even gives the original show's innovative action a run for its money.
Indeed, episode 3's final 15 minutes include some of my favorite fight scenes since Daredevil's infamous season 1 hallway, season 2 stairwell, and season 3 prison-escape sequences — no small feat when you remember how utterly absorbing those are. And, don't worry; Born Again 2 includes the requisite seasonal duel between Murdock's alter-ego and Fisk, albeit we're made to wait for the latest in a series of bruising, must-see showdowns between them. Enjoy it while it lasts, too, because scenes shared by the show's main characters are once again kept to a minimum.
Gruesomely entertaining as these action-packed episodes are, this season's fifth chapter is all but devoid of set-pieces — and yet, it's my favorite episode of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) project's latest season.
Episode 5's dual narratives are equal-parts sanguine, deeply intimate, poignant, and soul-crushing
An entry that splits its time between the past and present, its dual narratives are equal parts sanguine, deeply intimate, poignant, and soul-crushing. Through flashbacks, episode 5 cleverly fills in narrative gaps from the Netflix show, and serves as a timely reminder of how excellent Daredevil was.
That's particular true of the much-missed dynamic between Matt and Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson (Elden Henson), the latter of whom died in last season's premiere. With Henson's return confirmed in Born Again season 2's trailer, though, said relationship is resurrected in pleasing albeit bittersweet fashion.
On the present-day story front, it's the mark of great writing when audiences find themselves empathizing with a movie or show's villain(s). Episode 5 nails this with its current-day Fisk-led plot, with the events that transpire turning him into an even more of a terrifyingly loose-cannon of an antagonist in the season's final three chapters.
The same is true of episode 5's primary present-day subplot involving Murdock and the sociopathic Benjamin Pointdexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), the latter of whom continues to be one of the most fascinating characters in this show and the wider MCU.
An individual with a superiority complex and newfound moral ambiguity who, like all great villains, views himself as the hero of his own story, Bullseye reinforces the case that Marvel should permanently adopt a returning nemesis policy. Multi-layered individuals like Bullseye and Fisk have proven it works so, if there's more than enough character-development fuel in the tank, there's no reason for Marvel not to put it into practice in future projects.
Vive la Résistance
With Daredevil: Born Again's first season severely underutilizing the Murdock-Page dynamic, it's great to see this pairing share much more screentime this time around, too. It's a bond that initially seems to be watertight, but cracks soon appear. Indeed, their opposing ideals become a breeding ground for lots of mandatory melodrama that, while mostly engaging, isn't explored to its full potential.
Murdock and Page's opposing ideals become a breeding ground for lots of mandatory melodrama
Regardless, it's extremely gratifying to see Woll's Page have a more substantial role in season 2, and put her extensive investigative and combat skills to use. Similarly, it's satisfying to see Murdock fully embrace his rage-filled, acrobatic vigilante persona — in his new Shadowland comic book-inspired black suit, which symbolizes this season's sobering mood, no less — after trying to avoid it for large portions of last season.
The pair aren't the only members of this cadre. Returning allies in Murdock's law-firm partner Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki James), retired NYPD cop Cherry (Clark Johnson), on-the-beat reporter B.B. Urich (Genneya Walton), and Angela del Toro/White Tiger 2.0 (Camila Rodriguez) have roles to play in fighting the good fight.
It's the return of Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones in Born Again season 2 that's the real headline-grabber, though. It's a homecoming previously teased by Marvel Head of TV Brad Winderbaum as being "filled with very cool surprises", although the hard-drinking private investigator disappointingly doesn't show up until this season's latter half. Nevertheless, it's terrific to not only see her back in action and at her wisecracking best, but also teaming up with Daredevil again to cause some chaos and re-forge the fun-filled dynamic they had in Netflix's The Defenders crossover miniseries.
It's terrific to see Jessica Jones back in action and at her wisecracking best
Other new characters — ones who operate in Wilson and Vanessa Fisk's (Ayelut Zurer) orbit, much to the former's annoyance — also inject fresh energy into proceedings.
The mysterious Mister Charles (Matthew Lillard), an amusingly abrasive and delightfully detestable individual brimming with chaotic energy, is a highly entertaining foil to the Fisks. Meanwhile, New York Governor Marge McCaffrey (Lili Taylor) is a serious political adversary whose administrative roadblocks regularly threaten to detail the criminal couple's activities. The Fisks, though, routinely find ways to spin the narrative in their favor, which often puts them one step ahead of everyone else in the fantastically fraught chess game that plays out in the Marvel Phase 6 project.
To reiterate what I teased in my introduction, Born Again 2 isn't without fault — and, irritatingly, a lot of the issues that afflicted Daredevil: Born Again season 1 haven't been resolved, especially in episodes 1 through 4.
For starters, the oft-used harsh cuts between scenes and jarring addition of The B.B. Report, aka Urich's filmed vox pops, remain. Okay, it can be argued that the latter's inclusion is necessary from a worldbuilding viewpoint, but each installment eats up valuable time that would've been better used elsewhere.
And, hoo boy, are some side-stories and character arcs in dire need of being expanded on. From the predictable and ponderous nature of Heather Glenn's (Margarita Leveiva) journey, to the lack of discernible pay-off in Daniel Blake's (Michael Gandolfini) individual tale due to the inconsistent manner in which it's approached and told, Born Again 2 doesn't devote the necessary time to these subplots to give them the emotional weight they deserve.
My verdict
Daredevil: Born Again season 2's good aspects easily compensate for the bad, but it's arguable that the latter hold it back from being its best self.
Nonetheless, it's a higher-stakes, drama-fueled continuation of the Mayor Fisk story arc that further aligns the show with its Netflix predecessor. And, thanks to its emotionally impactful and much more cohesive back half, it builds towards an incredibly intense crescendo that's set to take the series in an intriguing new direction ahead of its already in-development third season.
Some of you might question why Born Again 2 scored lower than its forebear, which I gave four and a half stars out of five in my Daredevil: Born Again season 1 review. Simply put, that evaluation didn't cover the full season — if it had, I'd have dropped its rating by a whole star.
In that sense, then, Born Again's latest installment is an improvement on what came before — and if it can raise its game next season it might finally banish its story- and production-based demons for good.
Daredevil: Born Again season 2 episode 1 is out now on Disney+. Before you watch it, find out everything there is to know about Born Again season 2.
