Maxance Vincent
Warning: the following article contains major spoilers for episodes one and two of Daredevil: Born Again.
The day is finally here – a new season of Marvel’s Daredevil, with the same characters we know and love from the Netflix series, has premiered on Disney+. Well, at least for the first fifteen minutes. In the Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead-directed episode, Heaven’s Half Hour, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), and Foggy Nelson’s (Elden Henson) happy life as lawyers of Nelson, Murdock, and Page get violently – and permanently – damaged, with the return of Benjamin Poindexter (Wilson Bethel) exacting his revenge for what Murdock did to him in the third season of the Netflix series.
Showrunner Dario Scardapane, who took over the reins from Matt Corman and Chris Ord after they were let go by Marvel Studios due to a creative overhaul during the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike (they are still credited, however), makes a bold move right at the top of Daredevil: Born Again that’s bound to divide fans who were eagerly anticipating the return of their favorite characters. Right out of the gate, Dex shoots Foggy in the heart, completely defenseless, with his blood pouring down on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, as Karen desperately tries to save him. She knows it’s a futile effort. All hope is already lost. Matt, as Daredevil, attempts to neutralize Bullseye before Foggy’s fast heartbeat is no longer perceptible. He violently snaps and almost breaks his “no-kill” rule by throwing Poindexter off the roof of Josie’s after a long (and well-choreographed) one-take brawl in the bar, on the stairway, and, finally, on the rooftops, as Bullseye smiles maniacally once Foggy’s heartbeat stops.
It’s a gutsy move to do something that no one in their right mind would ever want to do, especially considering the public outcry from fans since the Netflix show’s cancellation in 2018. They want to see their favorite characters and experience more stories with them, out of danger, but still doing everything they can to uphold the law in Hell’s Kitchen. Credit where credit is due: Foggy’s time at Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz is mentioned, which is our first genuinely proper reference to the Netflix series. And Born Again does feel completely consistent with how we left the characters seven years ago, even going so far as to bring back Susan Varon as Josie and Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk (Sandrine Holt replaced the latter before the creative overhaul), barring a more “cinematic” aesthetic.
But was killing Foggy at the top of your show such a necessary decision, especially because there’s very little time to sit with the characters? It opens with weird insert shots of the streets of New York that feel more in line with Uwe Boll’s First Shift than a Marvel production (and whaddaya know? The star of that film, Gino Anthony Pesi, has a bit part in the first episode). We get a small scene at Josie’s to reminisce about the time that was, and five minutes later, Foggy is shot. There could’ve been a scenario where he survives the bullet, yet that’s resolved right after its (incredible) opening credits sequence, with Benson and Moorhead cutting to one year later and showing a card with the mention: “In loving memory of Franklin “Foggy” Nelson.” Damn. It stings even harder because, in the comics, Foggy never dies. The FBI faked his death to protect him. That’s the closest he’ll get to the Grim Reaper. On the other hand, Karen bites the dust (truth be told, we were expecting her to get killed in her titular episode in Daredevil – Season 3). However, Marvel’s Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum mentioned that Deborah and Elden are returning for Born Again’s second season, so is there a chance he survived?
I doubt it, and this gutsy decision may not sit well with hardcore fans (myself included). Still, I’d rather not judge the show too harshly so far, as the bravura action setpiece that’s caused by Foggy’s shooting nails the aesthetic, intricate camerawork, and tone of the original show that I completely ignored the dumbass decision to do something so unsatisfying for the people who have been waiting seven years to see their favorite avocados at law return. Of course, stories sometimes do not give us the satisfaction we want, and we’re going to have to accept that. However, I’m not sure that supporting players like Matt’s new lawyer partner, Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), and private investigator Cherry (Clark Johnson) are worthy replacements to the dynamic that Matt had with both Karen and Foggy, the heart and soul of what made the first three seasons of Daredevil so great.
James does a decent job as McDuffie, but Cherry seems like the weakest link in the whole affair. His dialogues continuously spoonfeed uninteresting exposition to the audience as he is tasked to find evidence to help Matt in the cases he is currently undertaking. The fact that the show started in media res with little context as to who these new characters are does feel perplexing. However, Scardapane still manages to tie in pre-existing footage shot by director Michael Cuesta in the second episode quite nicely after the brand-new first episode done by Benson & Moorhead, who were brought on post-overhaul, so it’s not a complete disaster, unlike many productions that had a new creative brought on when they had already shot a sizeable amount of footage.
That said, it does feel like a tale of two contrasting aesthetics. With cinematographer Hillary Fyfe Spera, Benson & Moorhead shift aspect ratios to represent Matt’s hearing powers in a pivotal moment, expanding and then shrinking the frame, while Cuesta does nothing particularly interesting with the same ability. But it also doesn’t feel Frankensteined, like Captain America: Brave New World. We could tell the opening scene feels like a reshoot, but everything else that Benson & Moorhead worked on (so far) doesn’t. It helps that they are such gifted filmmakers who know how to work with the limited means that they had to turn what could’ve been a disastrous show into a more than salvageable one. Scardapane isn’t my favorite of the Netflix showrunners (he worked on The Punisher, a disappointing two-season entry in the MCU), but he knows what worked and what didn’t in the Netflix series. His decision to make Matt’s Catholic guilt an integral part of his raison d’être as Daredevil is barely touched upon in the first two episodes of Born Again, but it has time to meaningfully develop before the show reaches its finale.
For now, however, we must acclimate ourselves to Born Again’s grander setting, with Matt having given up the mantle of The Man Without Fear after the death of his best friend. The return of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) to New York, first as a political candidate, then as mayor of the city, may prove challenging for him to stay away from his mantle for good, despite the Kingpin’s desire to put away all vigilantes (including Spider-Man, a significant reference for MCU die-hards). Cox and D’Onofrio have not lost their touch, and it feels as if no time has passed when the two are almost immediately paired on screen for a reunion of the ages. It was especially thrilling to see them go toe-to-toe in the first episode during a dinner table conversation reminiscent of Michael Mann’s Heat (though without the verve that made that scene so great).
It’s a testament to how great these actors are that, despite limitations that prevented the scene from being visually exciting, they completely eat up the screen and make us excited for the eventual rivalry that’s going to occur (hopefully) later down the line. Matt also has a new love interest, as Karen moved to San Francisco following Foggy’s death: Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), a therapist who slowly becomes attracted to Murdock’s personality. Their chemistry is exceptionally palpable and could make for a fun pairing in the episodes to come, especially because she is revealed to be Fisk and Vanessa’s therapist! That’s a development I didn’t see coming, but it’s an interesting one.
Another intriguing arc that’s bound to spark interest is the introduction of BB Urich (Genneya Walton), the niece of the late Ben Urich (Vondie Curtis-Hall), killed with Fisk’s own bare hands in the first season of Daredevil (one of the original run’s best scenes). BB, an independent investigative journalist, does not know this fact yet, but it’s definitely going to happen. The question that excites me the most in the coming episodes is, how will she find out? And what will happen when she does? Fisk is already making moves to control the police force and pressures the city’s commissioner (Michael Gaston) to stay on, despite his wanting to resign, by threatening to reveal sensitive information he does not want to be public. None of this is looking good one bit for a city that has, somehow, fallen for an egomaniac’s plan of fixing New York by…voting for a convicted felon as Mayor. Gee, what does this remind me of? Something currently ongoing in the world we live in today? I can’t quite put my finger on it…
Since Matt is, at this moment, straying clear on Fisk’s mayoral activities, he is currently trying to prove the innocence of Hector Ayala (played by Kamar de Los Reyes, who sadly passed away in December 2023, so everything involving him was shot pre-overhaul), accused of having killed a police officer on duty. Murdock believes in his innocence but is stunned to discover that Ayala is a vigilante of his own and masquerades at night as the White Tiger. While the incident in which he is implicated did not involve his alter ego, this dramatically complicates his chances of freedom. Even worse, corrupt cops brandishing the Punisher symbol are looking for the man whose life was saved by Ayala during his altercation with the NYPD to kill him. When Matt finds out they are on their way to murder what could be the key witness to save Ayala in court, he disposes of them in a shockingly violent scene and lets out one hell of a primal scream. He didn’t want to get his hands dirty and still doesn’t want to. But one way or another, Daredevil will return. The city needs him despite his personal feelings. Will he take the leap or stay on the sidelines? We know what happens next. It’s just a matter of time before he puts that suit back on and unleashes Hell…
The first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again are now available to stream on Disney+.
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