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.

[Silver Nemesis]

I've seen the season one finale. Here are my thoughts. Some minor spoilers, but nothing major.

It was a solid episode, but a weak season finale. In fact it felt more like a mid-season finale. The Netflix season finales always built to an agonisingly intense crescendo that would have me on the edge of my seat, desperate to know what would happen next. To know who would live and who would die. This episode didn't grip me in the same way and nothing major was resolved. The story just meanders on open-endedly with a promise that 'Daredevil will return in season 2'. I found that anticlimactic.

There wasn't even a big showdown. There's a sequence early in the episode where Daredevil and Punisher battle Fisk's anti-vigilante task force, which was quite entertaining. And there's another scene where Punisher walks straight into one of the task force's bases and tries taking them on singlehanded. That was a dumb scene that made Frank look like an idiot. The action choreography, which has been wildly inconsistent throughout the season, wasn't particularly good there either. There are lots of cops standing around with riot shields and shotguns just waiting for their turn while Frank clumsily attacks them. I don't understand why they didn't just kill Punisher after they subdued him. The mid-credit scene was equally dumb and unnecessary.

The best thing about the finale, by far, was the return of Karen. Deborah Ann Woll is great and immediately reignites her chemistry with both Cox and Bernthal. Seeing her back on screen, you realise how badly the show needs her as a main character. She needs to be a regular cast member in season 2. Charlie also gives a good performance, though Daredevil is given little to do in this episode. Having him get seriously wounded in the previous episode effectively neutralised him for the finale. And while we're on that subject, why didn't Bullseye just shoot Fisk after shooting Matt? Did he only have one bullet?

Fisk was largely defanged throughout the first half of the season, and they try to compensate for this in the later episodes by making him more menacing. Yet somehow he's still not as intimidating or interesting as the Kingpin from the Netflix show. Back then I was on edge whenever he appeared on screen, never knowing if he was going to suddenly beat someone to death just for looking at him the wrong way. His screen presence in Born Again doesn't evoke the same discomfort. I think this speaks to a broader problem with the series, which is that it's failed to recapture the gritty, grounded feel of the Netflix show. There was a lot of hype about the level of violence in BA before the series launched, but none of the gory scenes really packed a punch with me. There's a scene in the finale where Kingpin literally rips someone's skull apart. It's by far the goriest and most graphic kill we've seen him perform, and yet it wasn't nearly as disturbing as the scene where he killed Anatoly in the Netflix show. The gore in BA feels more like the cartoonish violence in a Zack Snyder or John Wick movie. The violence in the Netflix show had more gravity and felt more meaningful.

Ultimately it takes more than gore and profanity to make a series feel mature. The maturity of the Netflix show stemmed from the intelligently-written scripts and deliberately-paced well-acted scenes in which characters revealed their inner workings in a naturalistic manner. The writing in BA isn't on that level, and there are far too many characters cluttering up the cast. They badly need to streamline things in season 2. Pick five or six of the most interesting characters and focus on developing and exploring them properly. The rest of the cast should be killed off or sidelined. There's a montage at the end of the season one finale where it shows you all the major players, and there are far too many of them.

Another issue I have with the last two episodes is the repetition of things we've already seen done better in the Netflix show. In episode eight there's a party where Fisk and Vanessa dance, then Bullseye shows up and tries to kill Kingpin, only for Matt to save him. The exact same thing happened in the Netflix season three finale. In the BA finale Punisher shows up and helps Daredevil battle Fisk's task force, just like when he showed up in the Netflix season two finale to help Matt battle the Hand. Now I'm worried that BA season two is just going to repeat Matt's character arc from Netflix season three, where he gives up being Matt Murdock and becomes Daredevil full time. If they do this, and then have him end up back in the church with Maggie like in season three, then his entire character arc in BA will have been a colossal waste of time.

Those are my thoughts on the finale. It's decent and would have made a solid mid-season episode. But as the big finale we've been building up to, I found it anticlimactic.

Now here are some more general thoughts I have about the season as a whole.

The Catholic themes of faith and moral conflict that were so prominent in the Netflix series are seriously downplayed in Born Again, as many predicted they would be. Modern Disney was never going to promote a positive portrayal of a Christian hero, and Matt's faith is conspicuously absent from those scenes most obviously attributable to the earlier production phase. It seems they were going for a more secular depiction of the character in the original show. We do get some scenes of Matt praying in the later episodes of BA, as well as a scene of him hovering contemplatively outside his church in Hell's Kitchen, but these strike me as an afterthought and are obviously reshoots from the second production phase.

It's particularly odd that they downplay/sideline Matt's faith in this show, given the spiritual connotations of the title Born Again. Indeed, Miller's 1986 story was one of the first Daredevil comics to place religious and spiritual themes front and centre. But the Born Again TV show has nothing to do with that comic besides the title, which begs the question why is it even called Born Again? That would be like if Christopher Nolan made a fourth Batman movie adapted from the New 52 comics but decided to call it Knightfall; even though he'd already adapted Knightfall in his third movie and his fourth film had nothing to do with that storyline. Marvel could have got away with calling this show Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, or perhaps even Daredevil: Guardian Devil. It has nothing to do with either of those comic stories either, but those titles are at least more generic and would've worked better than Born Again. The only scene remotely resembling anything from the Born Again saga was when Matt's apartment was blown up in the finale, but even then the context was different.

Regarding Muse, I love how he's depicted prior to episode seven. His appearance is faithful to the comics, he's very creepy and that whole sequence in his lair, ending with the fight against Daredevil, is tonally spot on.

That said, they dropped the ball in episode seven when they demystified him, revealed his true identity and showed a wimpier, emotional side that undermined the cold, inhuman persona he'd hitherto presented. The actor was unintimidating when unmasked and that whole storyline was wrapped up too quickly. This goes back to a point I made earlier about Fisk's election being too abrupt. Maybe it's because these Disney+ seasons are shorter than the Netflix seasons, but several things happen too quickly in this show. Like how Matt and Heather go on a couple of dates and are then suddenly cohabiting. Was there a time jump in their relationship? Possibly. But the resolution of the Muse storyline is one plot point that definitely feels rushed, and not on account of any time jumps.

Of all the therapists Muse might seek out in New York, he just happens to choose the one Daredevil is dating. She figures out his true identity, he decides to kill her, and Matt just happens to correctly identify Heather as his next victim based on some pictures (were the pictures really so lifelike that Matt could identify their subject as Heather based purely on touch?) and then rushes to her office in time to stop him. Most of these events happen in a single extended scene and felt rushed. In season two they need to give him back his mystique, perhaps introducing a new tougher and more mysterious version of the character, and make him scarier.

I'm wondering if Muse will seek revenge against Heather in season two. If instead of having her commit suicide like she did in the comics, the show's writers might have Muse kill her. That would leave an opening for Karen to become Matt's main love interest again. While I'm making predictions about season two, I think Daniel Blake could be revealed to be either Fisk's illegitimate son Butch from the comics, or else Lee, the son of Leland Owlsey that was mentioned briefly in season one of the Netflix series. Either way, Blake is one of the few interesting new characters in Born Again and Michael Gandolfini's good in the role.

One last criticism I have of BA is that there were several scenes where Matt's radar sense failed to detect threats until they were far too close.

If I was to rank the first season of Daredevil: Born Again on a scale of one to ten – ten being the Netflix show, one being She-Hulk – I'd probably rate it a six. I'm not as frustrated by it as some fans seem to be, probably because I went in with low expectations knowing it was going to be a bit of a mess. It's more or less exactly what I was expecting. And yet, despite all the criticisms I have, I still enjoyed it and don't regret watching it. I liked seeing Charlie back as Daredevil and Deb back as Karen. It's still a Daredevil show, it has flashes of potential, and the quality does pick up in the second half of the season. However, I remember watching each of the Netflix seasons for the first time and feeling an immediate desire to go back and re-watch them. I don't feel that same desire for BA. Ten years ago I watched season one of the Netflix Daredevil three times in April 2015, but with BA I feel one viewing is enough. I'm optimistic that season two will be better though and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

My wish list for season two:

•   Better writing, with a more compelling and cohesive central plot connecting everything. It also needs a greater sense of dramatic impetus, so the viewers feel like they're being propelled towards an exciting conclusion rather than just trundling along with no idea of where they're going. The season one finale suggests they're heading in this direction, with Daredevil building an army (The Defenders?) to take down Kingpin's vigilante task force and liberate New York from martial law.

•   Make Karen a regular cast member.

•   Streamline the rest of the cast.

•   Strike a better balance between Matt and Daredevil, making sure both feature prominently in every episode and not favouring one too much at the expense of the other.

•   More action and of a higher standard. The first Muse fight in episode six shows what the stunt team is capable of.

•   Less CGI. Make it grittier and more grounded, yet visually more gothic. Also return the focus to Hell's Kitchen and bring back the Catholic themes and moral complexity.

•   Bring back Maggie and continue that unresolved storyline from Netflix season three.

•   More Bullseye. Bethel was one of the best things about BA and I enjoyed all of his scenes, but his appearances throughout the season were frustratingly brief and sporadic.

•   More comic villains. The only new comic villain to appear in season one was Muse. They need to redeem Muse and make him scarier and more mysterious, but also tap into the rest of Daredevil's rogues gallery.

•   Stop repeating character arcs and plot points that were already explored in the Netflix show.

If they address most or all of these points, then season two will be a major improvement.

[Silver Nemesis]

Showrunner Dario Scardapane has announced BA season two will premiere in March 2026. So less than a year to wait.

It's all led up to this... Such a mix of emotions as we close out S1. So grateful for the cast, crew and studio for their confidence and indulgence. Biggest of thanks to Sana, Brad, Kevin, Lou, Aaron, Justin, Charlie, Vincent, Deb, Jon and the whole mad circus. And yeah, Season 2 March 2026.

https://www.instagram.com/dariojscardapane/reel/DIfRN7jRShY/

Netflix DD season two premiered in March 2016. BA s2 will mark its tenth anniversary.

The Red Hook plot has prompted online speculation that season two might reference Shadowland. They already did a very loose adaptation of Shadowland in The Defenders (2017), but I suppose it's possible they could revisit aspects of that arc in BA. Matt's new suit strongly resembles his Shadowland costume.

The primary basis of season two will most likely be Chip Zdarsky's Devil's Reign (2021-22). That was the climax of the Mayor Fisk arc in the comics, and BA season one perfectly positions characters and events for an adaptation of it. There have been strong hints that the rest of the Netflix Defenders are set to return, which further suggests the Devil's Reign storyline.

What about Muse? It's been confirmed he's returning in the next season. In the comics the original Muse was an Inhuman, but they obviously went in a different direction in the TV show. The alter ego they gave him in BA was not based on any comic character. In the comics a second human Muse was inspired by the Inhuman original, and I imagine we'll get a similar copycat killer in BA s2. Muse was present for the Mayor Fisk arc, and season two pics show anti-Fisk graffiti scrawled across the sets.

The story about Kingpin outlawing heroes offers a good opportunity to bring in some mercenary villains from the comics. Characters like Bullet and the Enforcers could be re-imagined as mercs hired to aid the anti-vigilante taskforce.

Most fans, myself included, seem convinced that Foggy's still alive. There were two separate storylines in the comics where Foggy was shot and believed dead, only to then show up alive later. As I posted in this thread last year:

If the bullet hit him in the chest, he could still be alive. But if it's a clean headshot...

https://www.batman-online.com/forum/index.php?topic=4212.msg70231#msg70231

We now know Dex shot him in the chest. So I reckon Elden will return.

[Silver Nemesis]