Daredevil: Born Again review

    DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN is a fascinating story both in-universe and out. Out of universe, it is an attempt to regain a lot of lost Marvel fandom that got themselves abandoned as the television shows were declared non-canon only for Disney to pivot to Disney+ after Endgame. In-universe, it is the story of a demagogue seizing power via imagined problems and destroying democracy in the process.

    Daredevil: Born Again had a massive crazy behind-the-scenes story that can basically be summarized as them making a reboot with the same actors for Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Kingpin (Vincent d’onofrio) before Ms. Marvel Co-Creator Sana Amanat saw the results then decided they could do much better. They took the show away from Matt Corman and Chris Ord before giving it to Dario Scardapane who wrote the Netflix Punisher series. Then they trieed to edit/modify the already filmed six episodes to make it closer to what Ms. Amanat wanted.

    The result? Daredevil: Born Again is pretty good. The problem is “pretty good” is also not absolutely great and while people have the selective memory about the original Netflix Daredevil, forgetting Season 2’s second half was gawdawful and pretending The Defenders wasn’t part of its overall narrative, it isn’t quite up there. However, it is miles above most of the Disney+ shows out there and the fact that it managed to be this good despite all the duct tape and screws keeping it together is incredibly impressive. I am now imagining Sana Amanat as the Night Nurse of Disney executives.

    The funny thing is I don’t think the original work on Daredevil: Born Again was bad either. Episodes 2-7 are perfectly cromulent episodes of superhero television with Episode 5 being absolutely fantastic (and only needed a few less Ms. Marvel references to be perfect). However, they would have driven Netflix fans insane as the focus would have been on episodic crime fighting versus season-long prestige storytelling. “The Trial of the Century” and “Muse” arcs of the comics are reduced to two episodes when both could have been season long storylines. Muse more than White Tiger feels wasted. Generally, though, I give these episodes a 7-8 on average on the basis of Charlie and Vincent’s fantastic acting that occupies much of the screentime.

    Still, it’s very clear what Night Nurse…I mean Sana Amanat saw as the flaws of Daredevil: Born Again and tried to fix with her duct tape. Episodes 1, 8, and 9 are all about creating an overarching season plot that ties everything together. They provide oodles of fanservice like The Punisher, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Bullseye, as well as other ties to the original series. Vanessa Fisk had been recast but they got the original actress back to refilm all of her scenes.

    The new showrunners also try to add emotional stakes via edits to the original episodes with one example being a random New Yorker was kidnapped by Muse in “Art for Art’s Sake” being being changed into the White Tiger’s niece in the reshoots. Characters who were very bland get very big changes like Heather Glenn going from Matt’s vanilla girlfriend to someone hateable but who at least has a personality.

    I’d be remiss if I didn’t come on the fact that there’s a Foggy Nelson sized hole in the story that isn’t much of a spoiler if you’ve seen the first episode. Karen Page shows up in the first and last episodes as well but her absence is keenly felt. Amusingly, comic Daredevil hasn’t had Karen Page as a supporting cast member since Guardian Devil but the show one feels incomplete with her in a way like Superman without Lois Lane. They couldn’t simply add them in to the show as so much is about Matt moping about Foggy’s death and her absence. Still, I have high hopes for Season 2 because of this. The show was overall a 7.5 without the new episodes but with them, I’d say they raise it to an 8.5. Not perfect but a significant improvement. I’d say the final two episodes are 9s by themselves and bode well for the future.

    I have complaints, don’t get me wrong. Kirsten McDuffie is nothing like her comic book portrayal of the flirty magpie that loves teasing Matt as well as serves as one of the best love interests in the comic. The character of Cherry feels like they wanted to use Mahoney but couldn’t but never really develops a personality. Cole North is also another character in name only. The Swordsman and Muse are also completely wasted. Still, they’re minor complaints in the grand scheme of things and I feel like the show is in good hands now. Short of scrapping the show entirely (and wasting the last work of Kamar de los Reyes, RIP), this was probably the best they could do.

    A short mention of Daredevil: Born Again‘s politics: Disney goes a lot farther than I expected them to go while also feeling like they didn’t go hard enough. The Fisk-Trump parallels are superficial for a variety of reasons but I liked the handling of police brutality. The toxic fandom of the Punisher among law enforcement gets handled much better than in the comics. Frank Castle is a man of action not words and it’s much more satisfying to see how he deals with Punisher wannabes than lecturing them on Captain America.

    Nuff said.