When Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 begins, New York City citizens are dealing with a new world order courtesy of their humble mayor, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). The streets have never been safer, Mayor Fisk says, because his anti-vigilante task force is out there hunting for Daredevil (Charlie Cox), ally Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), and any other sympathizers to their cause.
Fisk’s anti-vigilante task force wears military gear emblazoned with the Punisher’s familiar skull. They operate outside established police procedure, rounding up citizens for the smallest infractions and disappearing them to secret camps. It’s real ripped-from-the-headlines stuff, ensuring that the Disney+ series’ second season feels almost too timely, even as it continues the adventures of Matt Murdock as he tries to save New York City from itself.
The first season of Born Again, relaunching Cox’s Daredevil on Disney+ after his original three-season run on Netflix, took on a lot of different tones (perhaps attributable to a change in showrunners during production). Though the MCU series ultimately culminated in a singular narrative, there were a few one-off episodes which (as I wrote then) allowed the series to have almost a procedural vibe, a fresh choice that unfortunately isn’t echoed here. Instead, Season 2 stays focused on Matt and his allies as they build up a resistance movement against Fisk, his thuggish tactics, and shameless corruption.
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Season 2 finds many of the players from Season 1 returning, so many it’s hard to list them all. But the ensemble does include Genneya Walton as video journalist BB Urich, continuing the good work of her late Uncle Ben, and Michael Gandolfini as one of Fisk’s most loyal underlings. Arty Froushan’s also back as quietly terrifying fixer Buck, and Ayelet Zurer continues to serve stunning looks and quiet menace as Fisk’s beloved wife/accomplice Vanessa.
Plus, livening up the proceedings is Matthew Lillard as the mysterious Mr. Charles, who does bad things for very powerful people and seems to really love his work. Lillard is on a real tear lately, popping up and having an evil good time in recent projects including Cross Season 2, the Five Nights at Freddy’s films, and Scream 7. It seems like he’s found a great niche as a character actor, and honestly, good for him. His limited presence adds a lot to the season without distracting from the general grim tone.
Matt, living in hiding this season, has gotten closer than ever to Karen, and the two of them present a united front as they try to expose Fisk as the criminal Kingpin he is. Ths means that Born Again continues to glory in its TV-MA rating, as Daredevil kick-punches his way through countless goons with a particular emphasis on bone-breaking. (Matt may be a good Catholic boy, but as a preacher once said, the Bible is anti-killing but “somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.”)
Of course, no one breaks kneecaps on their own. Season 2, as promised, does also feature the return of Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, though you’ll have to be patient for her appearances and the season doesn’t lean on her quite as much as fans of the character might hope. The biggest disappointment there is that certain changes to her status quo end up being woefully underexplored — still, she’s in multiple episodes, and some Jessica Jones is better than none at all.
Additionally, the season has a lot more fun with Wilson Bethel’s Bullseye, giving the assassin with perfect aim a few standout sequences — including one diner fight, set to the dulcet tones of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” that had me chortling. The series perhaps dwells a little too long on the question of whether or not Bullseye deserves forgiveness or grace from Daredevil, especially after the murder of Foggy Nelson in Season 1, but as mentioned, Matt’s Catholic, and it wouldn’t be Daredevil if he wasn’t spending at least a little time moping in a church.
Speaking of Foggy, the season does deviate from its serialized nature for a flashback episode that brings back Elden Henson and a few other surprises; it’s not quite the penultimate episode, but it does feel a little inessential. Still, it does give the viewer a bit of a break in terms of tone, and there’s charm in remembering the early days of Nelson & Murdock, Attorneys at Law.
The stakes for the season are immense and the danger is very real, a fact underlined by more than a few shocking twists. And, as mentioned above, there’s power in the way it feels a lot more directly connected to today than many other recent stories in this genre. However, the fact that the real world parallels are as obvious as they are ends up being the reason why its swings at relevancy feel like they fall a little short. It ultimately feels like the show’s not saying much beyond “Hey, maybe it’s bad to have overarmed thugs roaming the streets assaulting civilians while a corrupt political leader abuses his office.”
It’s still proper grown-up storytelling, though, a little blunt and grim in tone but still effective. Born Again ultimately plays like less like the second season of an ongoing show and more like the second half of a complete story. However, there are plenty of directions for a third, already confirmed, season to go by the end. However that season might reflect today’s world, at least we can be sure that Matt Murdock will be doing whatever he can to try to make things better.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 premieres March 24th on Disney+. New episodes will be released weekly on Tuesdays.
