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Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 Review
Image Credit: Giovanni Rufino/Marvel
Loading...Author’s Note: This is a non-spoiler review for Daredevil: Born Again based on screeners provided to us by Disney+.
Marvel’s Daredevil saga makes its long-awaited return to television with Daredevil: Born Again. Over six years since the show ended with its third and final season on Netflix, actors Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio return in their respective roles as ace attorney Matt Murdock and the crime boss Wilson Fisk. After some time away, both Murdock and Fisk, once again, find themselves pitted against one another, with the fate of New York City hanging in the balance. Despite delays and a significant overhaul during production, Born Again emerges as a triumphant return for Marvel’s Man Without Fear.
Born Again kicks off with an epic showdown with massive consequences that reverberate throughout Murdock’s life. Murdock’s world is shattered by a tragic event, and his double life as the masked vigilante Daredevil comes to a shocking end. Much like the title suggests, Born Again sees Murdock undergoing a rebuilding process as he seeks to rebuild the pieces in his life and rectify his trauma. Matt believes his vigilante days are over, but fate has other plans for the masked superhero.
Picking up after the events in his last appearance in the Marvel limited series Echo, Fisk is back in New York. However, rather than taking back the reins of New York’s criminal underworld, overseen by his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) in his absence, the former mob boss, aka Kingpin, has a higher office in mind. Fisk embarks on a mayoral campaign to take control of New York City. Murdock initially offers a begrudging peace to his longtime foe, but Fisk takes a position of zero tolerance for vigilante activity shortly after taking office. Fisk’s ruthless, draconian ways quickly resurface after he takes office. With New York City on the precipice, Matt must overcome his identity crisis and take up his horn-headed visage. The Devil’s work is never done, or rather Daredevil’s work, as Murdock and Fisk find themselves on yet another collision course.
What’s most impressive about Born Again is how new series showrunner Dario Scardapane exceptionally rebuilds the look and style of the previous Netflix series, creating a seamless continuation of the Netflix show. Reports of Born Again‘s production woes caused fear that the show would not match the tone and style of the original series or that the final product would become sanitized for the new Disney+ platform. Thankfully, that is not the case. Born Again acts as a direct continuation or revival of the original series rather than a comprehensive reboot. Additionally, Born Again takes exceptional care in lining up with its Netflix predecessor in its writing, look, style, and characters. Born Again essentially acts as the fourth season fans have patiently waited over six years to see.
Dario Scardapane and executive producers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who also serve as the directors for the first two episodes, exceptionally capture the dark, gritty, urban, street-level style of the modern Daredevil comics. It imbues Born Again with a unique grim ‘n gritty style that works as a nice palette cleanser from typical MCU fare. Audiences appear to be growing fed up with the MCU’s arguably routine, repetitive style. As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life. Daredevil: Born Again, making full use of its TV-MA rating, offers something completely different from the norm. It unfolds as a brutal trek through New York City through Daredevil’s darkened red lenses…or radar sense, but it’s incredibly blood-soaked.
Considering Born Again underwent a massive production overhaul and a significant revamping, the series makes changes for the better. Scardapane weaves a largely cohesive narrative in which Murdock and Fisk act as relatively equal protagonists. Murdock believes his time as a superhero is over, but destiny constantly draws him back to the suit. Fisk claims that he’s not the brutal monster he used to be and repeatedly pledges to help New York City, but his actions clearly say otherwise. Fortunately, the production overhaul saw multiple actors from the previous series return to reprise their roles.
Zurer makes a welcome return as Vanessa Fisk, picking up nicely where things left off for her character in Season 3. Before the production reset, the role of Vanessa Fisk was recast with actress Sandrine Holt due to scheduling issues. No disrespect is meant to Holt because Zurer utterly owns this role. When watching Born Again, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else playing against D’Onofrio in their dramatically delectable exchanges throughout the season. Born Again features a fascinating exploration of her twisted, love-hate relationship with her husband. Vanessa and Fisk appear to engage in a tantalizing chess match throughout the series, and it takes some surprising turns throughout the season. The production reset allowed Zurer to reprise her role. It would have been incredibly disappointing if Zurer had permanently left the role she brought to the screen over scheduling issues. It’s encouraging that cooler heads prevailed and Zurer returns for the series revival.
The gaps between series do not hurt the show’s cohesion. The best way to enjoy Daredevil: Born Again is by watching the first three seasons. Additional MCU homework and viewing the other shows where the characters appeared in between are not necessary. The writers dive right back into the Daredevil saga without stressing too much about what’s been happening in the MCU over the last several years. Don’t worry too much about the Blip, Sokovia Accords, etc. It’s not that type of show. This is a blood-soaked New York City crime drama with an enhanced urban Marvel flair.
While some references and characters allow the show to exist within the wider MCU, Born Again operates as a relatively self-contained story. Series music composers, the Newton Brothers, also maintain John Paesano’s amazing theme music from the Netflix show, and many familiar motifs return for Born Again‘s musical score.
The main drawbacks with Born Again result in the first nine episodes acting as a rebuilding. Similar to the new series’ opening title sequence, Murdock finds his world shattered and in pieces. Murdock must rebuild from the ground up and regain his footing with his identity as Daredevil. The season starts very strong with its first two episodes. However, a couple of the middle stories suffer from a meandering pacing. The first season significantly focuses on set up and table setting. There are times when the show creates a sense of “Get on with it already!” The first season is not devoid of impressive feats of superhero action, with a suitably graphic, bone-crunching style. However, the story sometimes suffers with some meandering subplots, uneventful moments, and scenes. Fortunately, those issues don’t last too long, and the first season significantly picks up about midway through when Daredevil faces the deadly masked serial killer Muse.
Muse is one of the more interesting adversaries presented in the first season. In a city where vigilante activity has become more prevalent, Muse acts as the inverse. He’s a serial killer who wears a mask and uses his victims’ blood to create his unique graffiti art, which becomes his calling card throughout New York City. The Muse storyline finally pits Daredevil against a masked supervillain, and it would have been nice to have seen more of that.
Born Again‘s grounded, gritty, and realistic style is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing in that the show’s look and presentation invoke an immersive style that feels real and palpable. It would be satisfying if Born Again embraced its comic book roots a bit more. With vigilante activity rising in New York City, it would make sense that the criminal underworld also escalates with its own class of elite, enhanced mobsters. Hopefully, bringing in more comic book supervillains is something Season 2 will explore further.
While Born Again builds to a huge, game-changing finale, the first season ends on a somewhat ambivalent note. The good news is that Season 2 of Born Again is already underway. Season 1 essentially acts as the first part of a larger story. Once the whole saga is complete, the ending of the first season might work better. That said, it definitely raises the stakes and sets the table well for Season 2 coming later in 2026.
The Daredevil saga took a long, rough, and arduous journey to its Born Again revival. Stars Cox and D’Onofrio thankfully haven’t lost a step and easily step back into their iconic roles in the most triumphant Marvel Television installment yet. Born Again provides Marvel Studios with its own form of prestige television viewing.
The first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again debut on Tuesday, March 4 on Disney+. New episodes from the first season will then debut on Tuesdays on the streamer.
