Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 brings back Matt Murdoch, Wilson Fisk, and Hell’s Kitchen. This pseudo sophomore season (and technically the series’ fifth season) picks up immediately after the events of the previous season, with Fisk consolidating his power as the mayor of New York City.
As is the hallmark of this series as a whole, this season features brutal action and a heavy focus on the city of New York, as not just the backdrop of the story, but as a character in and of itself. This time, many of the supporting characters around Murdoch and Fisk get to enjoy expanded storylines and their own arcs, as various characters are more fleshed out around the two primary arch enemies. Alliances are being built, strengthened, and sometimes destroyed, leading up to what will undoubtedly be a full-blown war between the two sides.
Those who enjoyed the Marvel Cinematic Universe infusion of the Daredevil series will appreciate this season’s continuation and expansion. It does very much feel like the middle part of a larger, ongoing story, instead of a self contained storyline. What’s clear is that the Daredevil corner of the MCU remains strong with much more to come in the future.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, releases March 24th on Disney+.
Official Synopsis
Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil. But, beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.
Murdock and Fisk’s War Continues to Rage
Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again feels very much like the second half of the last season, which makes sense considering the original concept had a longer first season of 18 episodes. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Studios made the difficult decision to revamp the series, bringing on the current creative team, led by Dario Scardapane. Judging by the results, it was a good decision, as the first season of Born Again felt like a genuine successor to the popular Netflix series.
This season continues that trend, but some of the seams from the season 1 split are visible. The first episode of season 2 does not kick off with a big bang like most season premieres. It doesn’t really set the stage or the overall story for the season to come. Instead, viewers are dropped right back into the Hell’s Kitchen world, except Daredevil now has a stunningly gorgeous black suit. The highly anticipated introduction of the black suit is almost anti-climactic in that there is no set up to introduce the new look; it just appears. But the lack of hype is forgivable because the suit itself looks incredible. Of course, Daredevil’s stark red look is iconic and be fitting of his mantle, but there’s something about a black suit with red accents that never fails to deliver. What’s interesting too is that the suit itself tells its own story throughout the season, as Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox) takes numerous beatings and much of the black is eventually rubbed off as a consequence. It’s interesting to see the visual storytelling in the evolution of the suit, which is never specifically referenced, but distinctly noticeable.
The first three episodes of season 2 are collectively a little slow, filled with dialogue, exposition, and an inescapable feeling of rehashing events of the prior season. Again, it would make sense as the middle part of a more complete longer season, but it doesn’t quite work as the start of a new one. Especially when comparing the shocking and jaw dropping opening sequence of the last season, it’s difficult not to feel some disappointment.
Bullseye Steals the Spotlight
Thankfully, once you get through those first three episodes, the action, drama, and intensity all pick up starting with episode 4, which features Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), whom we last saw in a foiled assassination attempt of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Dex is easily the standout character of the season, as he fully embraces his murderous madness and looks like he’s having the most fun of his life. In prior seasons, I’ve found Dex to be disturbing and scary, but I can’t say that I’ve particularly enjoyed him as a villain. His journey as a weapon manipulated by Fisk is well worth the payoff that we get this season with Dex fully embracing his villainous Bullseye persona. There is a horrifyingly joyful diner scene that stands as the highlight of the entire season.
Beyond Dex, most of the action this season, while brutal, can be repetitive, as we continually see Daredevil fight off groups of Fisk’s ICE wanna be goons. Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force just isn’t interesting enough or adequately established as a genuine threat to feel like the fights ever have real tension. Instead, they inevitably feel like NPC video game characters who simply appear whenever Daredevil needs to beat someone down (or get beat down). Although every season of Daredevil has tried to recapture the gritty magic of the hallway scene from the very first Netflix season, this season of Born Again probably falls the most short of any such glory.
Supporting Characters Take Center Stage
Well, Murdoch‘s Daredevil and Fisk’s Kingpin have their typical stand out moments that we’ve come to expect, this season is much more about those around the two primary characters. Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and her relationship with Matt get much more of the spotlight, especially in the first half of the season. We see Page‘s own struggle and evolution, as she tries to balance the grief from Foggy’s (Elden Henson) murder and her happiness from her rekindled romance with Matt. We also get to see her in action more, including some impressive hand-to-hand combat, training sequences with Matt, and even a turn on a Wing Chun dummy. Hilariously, that scene with the Wing Chun dummy feels like an intentional misdirect from what some viewers might have thought was the return of Danny Rand as the Iron Fist.
In addition to Karen, we see more of journalist BB Urich (Genneya Walton), Matt’s former law partner Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James) and an intriguing development of the White Tiger storyline. Of course, Matt’s allies this season include the return of fan favorite Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter). Jones’ return is a welcome one (after all, who doesn’t love a good reunion?), but ultimately unsatisfying. The story doesn’t really necessitate her return, and it feels more like she was inserted because they were allowed to use her. Frustratingly, Jones is unclear during the season whether she intends to stay or disappear again, seemingly waffling back-and-forth. It feels as if Scardapane and the creative team weren’t quite sure if they would be allowed to use the character going forward. Still, as Matt‘s allies continue to grow and develop, the prospect of Jones and other heroes joining the fight is what makes the idea of a shared universe so scintillating.
On Fisk’s side, the loyalties of his inner circle, Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), Buck (Arty Froushan), Daniel (Michael Gandolfini) and Sheila (Zabryna Guevara), are tested and sometimes broken. With Dex going freelance however, the dark side isn’t nearly as interesting this time around. There are efforts to make some of Fisk’s loyalists more empathetic, but ultimately less interesting. Buck makes a reasonable effort of replacing Dex and James Wesley (Toby Leonard Moore), as Fisk’s right-hand muscle, and there’s some genuine potential there for the future. Probably the most interesting is what we see from Heather Glenn (Toby Leonard Moore), as she tries to deal with the trauma of being one of the victims of Muse last season.
There are storylines on Fisk’s side that I particularly did not enjoy, but are difficult to delve into without spoilers. All that can be safely said is that it’s disappointing that some of the relationship dynamics didn’t seem to quite work from the start of Born Again.
Resetting the Table for the Future
Ultimately, this season involves a lot of setting and re-setting the table and growing and expanding supporting characters, but primarily setting them up for future stories. Unsurprisingly, nothing really changes between Matt and Fisk, but even their conflict starts to feel repetitive after all these seasons. I found myself wishing for more evolution in each of them as characters, and in their dynamic as arch enemies.
Last season, we finally got to see Daredevil with some MCU flare. Hopefully, in the near future, we will see more connective tissue between Daredevil and the rest of the MCU more directly. Two seasons in, it still feels like a separate world, away from the rest of the MCU. And while I understand and value having a corner of the universe that is distinctly street level, there is more potential for Daredevil to exist in the larger world, which we’ve only seen so far in brief appearances in She-Hulk, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’s no wonder that fans have been rampantly speculating that the recently released Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer might be intentionally hiding Daredevil‘s appearance in the film.
Rating – 3/5 Pocky
Ron is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of POC Culture. He is a big believer in the power and impact of pop culture and the importance of representation in media.
