Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+)

[Silver Nemesis]

I finally did it. After years of resisting, I finally signed up for a one month subscription to Disney+. I feel so unclean. But I couldn't miss a new Daredevil show, and I didn't want to resort to piracy, so there it is. I've now binge watched the first eight episodes of Born Again. The ninth and final episode of season one is scheduled for release on Friday. In the unlikely event that anyone's interested in my opinion, here's my lengthy review of the first eight episodes. I'll avoid major spoilers.

The first episode starts with an impressive prologue. It's dark, stylised and successfully captures the feel of the Netflix show. This scene takes place at Josie's Bar in Hell's Kitchen and features Daredevil, Foggy, Karen and Bullseye. It also contains a great fight scene courtesy of Philip J Silvera, who choreographed the fights in the Netflix show and the Batman Arkham games. Something dramatic happens during this prologue. If you saw the location pics last year, you can probably guess what it is. It's a terrific opening sequence, with my only criticism being the obvious use of CG stunt doubles. But other than that, the first ten minutes of episode one are top notch. Here's the fight between Daredevil and Bullseye (this clip contains a major spoiler from the first scene of episode one).

After that, things go downhill. In reviewing Born Again, I feel like I'm reviewing two different shows. It's no secret that it was originally meant to be a lighter series inspired by Mark Waid's run, but that the backlash to She-Hulk prompted Marvel to halt production and begin extensive reshoots aiming for a darker tone more in line with the Netflix series. The seams where the two different productions have been stitched together are often painfully clear. The reshoot scenes are better photographed, better edited, better written, have better fight scenes, and are generally more stylised in a way that's consistent with the Netflix series. The scenes from the original shoot are distinguished by their visual blandness and lack of dramatic intensity, at times sinking dangerously close to CW quality. In short, the scenes from the second production are superior to those from the first.

The first half of the season, unfortunately, seems to be built around material salvaged from the original shoot. This comprises a rather limp adaptation of the Mayor Fisk storyline from the comics. New characters are introduced, including Kirsten McDuffie (an obvious hangover from when the show was centred on Waid's run) and Heather Glenn. Heather's personality here is the complete opposite of her namesake's in the comics. The comic book Heather was a wild impetuous rich girl who was emotionally chaotic and eventually committed suicide. In the TV show she's a level-headed therapist who presents a stabilising presence in Matt's life. There's also a new cop character named Cherry. But none of these characters have the same chemistry with Matt that Foggy and Karen had in the Netflix show. That trio's friendship was the heart of the old series, and it's sorely missed here. Matt also lacks a spiritual mentor in BA to replace Father Lantom and Sister Maggie. He mentions his mother at one point, but she doesn't appear in the first eight episodes.

Karen and Foggy do briefly appear, as does Frank Castle. But these scenes are clearly among those filmed during the reshoots. You can tell because they're much better than the scenes from the original production. They're darker, more emotional, better written, etc. There's a great conversation between Matt and Fisk early in the season that's also clearly a product of the reshoots. There are also several short scenes involving Muse early in the season that lead up to a more substantial plot in episodes six and seven. But once again, you can tell all the Muse scenes were filmed during the reshoots and then inserted into the earlier episodes to spice them up.

The best thing about Born Again is seeing the old characters return. Cox's performance is excellent as always, and unlike She-Hulk, where it felt like he was playing a different version of Daredevil from a parallel universe, I have no trouble accepting the BA version as the same character from the Netflix show. Seeing Matt, Foggy and Karen together again, however briefly, is like being reunited with old friends. It really feels like Daredevil is back for the first time since 2018. Not as a cameo, or an ill-judged reimagining (a la She-Hulk), but as a continuation of the saga that began on Netflix ten years ago.

That's not to say that Daredevil's return is entirely triumphant. A major problem with Born Again is that it repeats a character arc we've already seen Matt go through in the Netflix series. Remember when he quit being Daredevil after Elektra's death in the season 2? Well he does the same thing here. We had to wait until halfway through The Defenders to see him put the suit back on, and in Born Again the wait is even longer and more tortuous. Aside from the aforementioned prologue in episode one, Matt doesn't finally don the Daredevil suit until the end of episode six! Throughout most of episodes one to six, there's no Daredevil. Only Matt Murdock. Consequently there are fewer fight scenes than in the Netflix show, and the action scenes we do get tend to be brief.

The Mayor Fisk plot is surprisingly weak. Despite a great performance by D'Onofrio (who's clearly lost a lot of weight since the Netflix days), the Kingpin storyline lacks intensity and only really become interesting towards the end of the season when the violence ramps up. Fisk announces he's running for mayor in the first episode and gets elected later that same episode. It happens too quickly. The only explanation we're given for his popularity in the polls is that he 'gets things done', but we're not really shown how he gets things done or what it is he's doing or why his political opponents are so unpopular. Maybe these issues were covered in another Disney+ show that I haven't seen. But going from the end of Daredevil season 3, where he's being arrested for numerous murders, to seeing him get elected mayor in the first episode of BA, feels too abrupt.

The episode which I suspect best typifies what the original show was meant to be like is episode five. This takes place entirely in a bank during a robbery, which is a cool concept. But the execution lacks suspense and proceedings are mired by misplaced MCU humour (the Ms. Marvel Funko toy), shoehorned references to other Disney+ 'content', and too many unanswered questions. The storyline also has no bearing on anything else that happens in the rest of the season. You could literally delete it and it would have no impact on the other eight episodes (though that could change if they revisit the bank plot in the season finale). The tone of episode five also feels lighter and more family friendly than the rest of the season. And that's despite the profusion of f-bombs, which I suspect were added in post-production to try and make it feel more adult. Ultimately episode five adds nothing to the season except a bid to get Daredevil fans to watch the Ms. Marvel show. It must have been made before The Marvels bombed, back when the studio was hoping to position Kamala Khan as the new Peter Parker unifying the MCU. If episode five embodies what the original Daredevil: Born Again would have been like, then we dodged a bullet.

Things pick up in episode six. From that point onwards, we're clearly watching new material from the second production phase. The tone darkens and the show veers closer to the urban gothic grittiness of its Netflix predecessor. A grittiness that is largely absent from the first five episodes, excepting the prologue to episode one. The action scenes also improve in the later part of the season and the storyline shifts gear to focus on Muse and Bullseye. This is where BA comes to life and most closely resembles the Netflix series, in tone if not in quality.

As far as comic influences go, there's conspicuously little Frank Miller on display. The opening scene of episode one in indebted to Miller's DD V1 #181, but aside from that the Disney+ series takes little to nothing from his tenure on the comics. This contrasts strongly with the Netflix series, where Miller's stories were the main source of inspiration. Since Marvel already did a great job adapting his work in the old show, I'm happy for them to focus on adapting stories by other writers from now on.

But what about the title? Isn't this show based on Miller's classic Born Again arc? No. Season three of the Netflix show was an adaptation of Born Again. The Disney+ series borrows the title, but nothing else. Instead the main source material for the first half of the season is the Mayor Fisk arc and the trial of White Tiger storyline from Brian Michael Bendis's 'The Trial of the Century' (DD V2 #38-40). The second half of the season draws from Charles Soule's 'Dark Art' (DD V5 #10-14) story that introduced Muse. Then in episode eight the show finally returns to the Bullseye storyline. Unsurprisingly, I found the Muse and Bullseye storylines most compelling.

So those are my immediate thoughts on episodes one to eight. The show definitely falls short of the Netflix series, but it's not the unmitigated disaster that Daredevil's appearance in She-Hulk was. It's a decent effort and a step in the right direction for the franchise. The first half of the season is a bit of a slog, but the quality picks up in later episodes, and hopefully that improvement will continue into the finale. Season two should hit the ground running without any of the complications and missteps that mired season one. The first season of BA is flawed, uneven and disjointed, but season two has a better shot at matching the glory days of the Netflix show. I'm feeling optimistic about it.

The bad news is that season two will likely mark the end of Daredevil's TV solo adventures. The viewership data for BA suggests it's a massive flop. No one's watching it. Marvel was overconfident about its success and precipitously commissioned a second season before the first was released. If they'd known how it was going to perform, I doubt they'd have done that. But they're filming season two even as I write this, so we're definitely getting at least one more season. Unless there's a miraculous spike in viewership, I can't see there being a season three.

The latest set pics from season two show Daredevil wearing his black suit from Charles Soule's run. And he's finally got the red 'DD' emblem on his chest! This could be the best live action Daredevil costume yet.

Meanwhile Bullseye's wearing his current comic book costume, complete with the target emblem on his mask.

So BA season two should be a big improvement over season one and might reach the quality of the Netflix series. I'm finally starting to feel hyped for a new comic book adaptation. In the meantime, we have the season one finale coming later this week. I'll post my thoughts on that, and my final verdict on the season as a whole, on Friday. For anyone out there who hasn't watched it yet, there's still time to binge the first eight episodes before the finale.

[thecolorsblend]

It's a terrific opening sequence, with my only criticism being the obvious use of CG stunt doubles. But other than that, the first ten minutes of episode one are top notch. Here's the fight between Daredevil and Bullseye (this clip contains a major spoiler from the first scene of episode one).

This is literally the only part of BA that I've seen.

And... I guess I don't see what you see in it. For me, it's an amazingly frustrating scene. The only clear parts of the scene feature stuff irrelevant to the fight that's supposed to be going on.

During the actual fight, a smoke bomb goes off. Then the lights go out. Then later, the lights start strobing.

Apparently, the crew were determined to find every possible way to obscure the fight between Daredevil and Bullseye.

Hollywood's boner for "dirtying up the frame" seriously needs to end already. It's not creative, clever, visually interesting or any other cope. It's just annoying. Period. Showing action onscreen while obscuring said action as much as possible is a stupid idea. But I'd be totally okay with people doing it... if they lost a finger every time they did.

If that's some hackjob director's best idea for a fight scene, then he should quit and turn the directing duties over to Wes Anderson so that the characters can act quirky and politely disagree with each other using a high level vocabulary while baroque classical music plays in the background.

...

Boy, that really turned into a rant.

Anyway, based on your post, I can't imagine subscribing to Disney+ just for the sake of watching this show. I'm sure it has its good points. But I don't think it's worth the effort.

We'll always be left wondering what the fourth season of the Netflix show could've been, of course. But maybe that's for the best.

[Silver Nemesis]

The best fight scene of the season so far is definitely Daredevil vs. Muse in episode six. It's intercut with a Kingpin fight that's happening simultaneously in a different location.

This is the one fight scene from Born Again that I'd say is on a par with the Netflix show's action scenes. The rest of the action in BA has been underwhelming for the most part. Hopefully the finale will deliver something equal to or better than this.

[Travesty]

I'm sure it has its good points. But I don't think it's worth the effort.

The only good point I can think of, is if you suffer from insomnia, then this show may be a good prescription for that. I can't recommend DD: Bored Again to anybody. Disney really knows how to mess up a good thing.

They butchered my boy!

[Silver Nemesis]

I got the dates wrong. The BA season finale is coming out today, April 15th, not Friday! It's not presently available here in the UK, but it should be in the next twenty-four hours.

In the meantime, I tried watching one of the Daredevil episodes of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man. That show is definitely not for me. Judging by all the man buns, male ear-piercings and brightly coloured female hair, I think it's safe to safe that it's aimed at the 'modern audience'. As someone who grew up on the nineties Spider-Man cartoon, and still has the Daredevil vs. Spider-Man DVD collecting their crossover episodes, YFNSM just isn't my cup of tea.

I got about ten minutes into one episode before I lost patience and skipped ahead to the Daredevil scene. It's not the Daredevil from the MCU, yet is clearly influenced by him. His costume looks like the vigilante suit from season one of the Netflix show, only with a mask added. He's voiced by Charlie Cox, and they even use the theme music from the Netflix show. Aside from that, there's not much to say about it. Daredevil basically pwns and humiliates Spider-Man. You can watch the fight here.

Daredevil appears in another episode, but I'm not sure I can be bothered watching it. The tone of YFNSM is nearer to She-Hulk than the Netflix DD. I don't recommend it.