I’ve got sympathy for the devil in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ S2
I’ve got sympathy for the devil in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ S2
The series is one of the best TV seasons from the MCU in years, and it was my favorite stream of the week.
I can’t say what the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe holds; something tells me that simply reassembling the gang for a new “Avengers” movie isn’t going to be the simple cure-all Disney hopes it will be. But Charlie Cox’s incarnation of the Daredevil character has been a dark bright spot for Marvel television for over 10 years, even as its other TV shows and movies have fluctuated in quality.
After the show’s beloved Netflix run, the idea of a Disney+ revival — “Daredevil: Born Again” — was met with trepidation by many of the character’s diehard fans, including myself. Then, the series’ troubled first season production gave apprehensive viewers even more reason to worry, but fortunately, upon release, most of those fears proved groundless, as the show delivered on many of the beats fans had been expecting. While the first season was far from perfect, Season 2 builds on that somewhat surprising success and ended up being my favorite thing that I streamed this week as a result.
“Daredevil: Born Again” picks up in the aftermath of Season 1. New York City has been swallowed up by Mayor Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) anti-vigilante efforts, convinced that the extralegal methods he uses to round up masked heroes are justified. Even characters who have previously shown integrity in the series are slowly turned to Fisk’s brutal way of thinking, such as Margarita Levieva’s Heather Glenn, who barely survived an encounter with a masked psychopath in the show’s first season.
Meanwhile, Matt Murdock (Cox) and Karen Page (Deborah Anne Woll) have gone underground, mounting a resistance to Fisk’s draconian methods and doing their best to save as many vigilantes as they can from Fisk’s roving task forces. The parallels to modern political issues are difficult to ignore, and the show makes that quite purposeful.
The plot of “Daredevil: Born Again” feels more cohesive after one episode than it did in Season 1, hardly a surprise considering showrunner Dario Scardapane is in charge of the whole thing this time around. It’s especially fascinating to watch the dynamics surrounding Fisk’s inner circle, as he welcomes a new, mysterious operator from Langley known simply as Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard) into the fold. Mr. Charles is an intriguing foil for Fisk — someone he can’t bully or intimidate, but someone he’s forced to work alongside, even if he clearly resents it.
The fight scenes in the series are as gritty and brutal as ever, but some “Daredevil” seasons have indulged a little too far in the belief that shaking a camera during a fight is more immersive to the viewer. I’ve always found it to be more jarring and unpleasant than anything, and I’m pleased to report “Daredevil: Born Again” has well-choreographed combat — though perhaps nothing as ambitious as the infamous “hallway shot” from the first season of the Netflix version of the series.
I’m excited to see if “Daredevil: Born Again” will subvert the expectations I have of seeing the season end with Murdock on top. The on-screen interplay of his character and D’Onofrio’s Fisk is one of the best hero/villain dynamics I’ve seen on screen in the past decade, and I’m thrilled to see them both return to form in a show that’s well worth any Marvel fan’s time.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”