Born Again Season 1 Review

All 9 episodes of Daredevil: Born Again season 1 watched for review. This is a spoiler-free review.

The hype for Daredevil: Born Again has been building for months, and pretty much outweighs the excitement for any other Marvel television projects. That’s likely due to the legacy of the original Netflix run for Daredevil, which ended all the way back in 2018, but still remained at the front of Marvel fans’ minds for years to come. Marvel certainly did its part to keep Matt Murdock alive, peppering him into She-Hulk and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Along with Daredevil’s return came news of a big behind-the-scenes shuffle: as the WGA went on strike, Marvel executives looked at what Daredevil: Born Again was becoming and decided they didn’t like it. They fired the original head writers and brought in Punisher showrunner Dario Scardapane to clean things up. Marvel TV heavyhitters Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead were also tapped to direct, after their impressive work on Moon Knight and a spectacular run on Loki season 2. After all of this reshuffling, after all of the promises of a return to form, after trailers hyping the bone-shattering action and rough-around-the-edges storytelling, does Daredevil: Born Again deliver on its promise? Other than being the closest thing to an actual episodic television show Marvel has done yet, the answer is a disappointing “no.”

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Daredevil: Born Again season 1 Never Lives Up to its Predecessor

As has been shown in promotional materials, Daredevil: Born Again revolves mainly around the mayoral victory of Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). Meanwhile, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) has abandoned his role as a vigilante following a personal tragedy that plays out in the show’s opening scene. This opening salvo (which includes a pretty impressive one-shot fight scene directed by Benson and Moorhead) unfortunately sets the show up for failure, as nothing reaches these action-packed heights for the next six episodes. In an 18-episode season (as was originally planned) this might be forgivable, but with the episode count cut down to nine, there needed to be a better economy of storytelling. As it is, too much of Daredevil: Born Again‘s first season focuses on table-setting and individual stories rather than building a satisfying arc. And for all the talk of more brutal action that measures up to the original Netflix run, the fights are few and far between (and often over too fast).

What works well, as is to be expected, are the performances. Charlie Cox hasn’t lost a beat in the time gap, and still imbues Matt Murdock with a quiet intensity that perfectly contrasts with his charming sense of humor. On the flipside, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is as menacing as ever, even moreso after being given the power of the Mayor’s office. D’Onofrio has always been able to make Wilson Fisk an imposing figure through even the smallest gestures: a twitch in his eye, or the erratic movement of his fingers.

The supporting cast is also uniformly impressive, including newcomers Margarita Levieva as Murdock’s new love interest (and a therapist who takes on some unexpected clients), and Michael Gandolfini as Fisk’s most enthusiastic new employee. Other returning castmembers also make an impression, most notably Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, but Ayelet Zurer’s turn as Vanessa Fisk is also as nuanced and impactful as ever.

It’s really just a shame that the rest of the show, at least this opening season, doesn’t entirely live up the efforts of the cast. Despite all of the talk of a “creative overhaul,” Daredevil: Born Again still feels like the thing that Marvel said it was trying to fix. For how much of Daredevil is seen in the first two-thirds of the story, the show might as well just be called Matt Murdock. Much of the early episodes are spent focusing more on the work of Fisk and how he navigates typical mayoral duties (including a very funny scene involving children singing one of the worst songs of the ’80s) and rebuilding his criminal enterprise using his office.

On the flipside, Matt Murdock’s story is mostly just about working in the often unfair and imbalanced justice system of the United States. There’s some thematic resonance there about how following the rules doesn’t achieve a satisfying conclusion, but because the actual superhero stuff is packed mostly in the back half, there’s no real contrast, save for a brief storyline involving White Tiger (played by Kamar de los Reyes, who passed away from cancer in December 2023). There is also a police corruption throughline that overlaps with the Punisher’s story that might just be the most effective thing the show pulls off.

Daredevil: Born Again’s Patchwork Storytelling and Lack of Style

The big problem with Daredevil: Born Again‘s first season is one that also plagued Captain America: Brave New World. Despite the work that went into changing what wasn’t working, the entire thing still feels patched together. Punisher’s first interaction with Matt Murdock reeks of something that was shot later and inserted into an episode to add some thematic resonance. Even the Muse storyline is rushed through and perfunctory, and feels like it’s missing a big chunk right in the middle. Of course, the biggest change to the initial work was shooting two entirely new episodes to end the season. These are, admittedly, the best the season has to offer, but it takes a painfully long time to arrive at the show’s most impressive material, and by then, there should have been way more happening.

Stylistically, the show definitely delivers on its promise of being a more mature project from Marvel, at least in terms of throwing in a few f-bombs and letting the blood fly (especially in one particularly gruesome moment that recalls the very first Netflix season). However, the show’s aesthetic often ends up feeling flat and kind of lifeless, never living up to the grittiness or contrast of its predecessor. This also extends to the shots of New York that act as transitions between scenes. These are ostensibly there to add some flavor to the show, but they just look like inserted stock footage.

Most of that New York flavor comes from BB Urich’s reporting interstitials, which are presented in a grainy, boxed-in aspect ratio, and feature interviews with New Yorkers sharing their perspective on everything happening. They are reminiscent of the scenes in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man that also helped to establish the setting and the mood of the city. However, these just can’t quite carry the load needed to elevate Daredevil: Born Again to a higher level.

With a second season already in the works, fans might just be left hoping that Daredevil: Born Again‘s first season is an anomaly- a patchwork of old and new material that was meant to salvage a project that, potentially, could have been much worse than this. As it is, there is likely to be some disappointment week to week as viewers desperately wait for something, anything, to happen. By the final third, they’ll get their wish, but will it be too late to win them back by then? There are hints of a better show here, but they are obscured by the storytelling weaknesses that have plagued Marvel for the last few years. The show might just have fans jumping over to a different streaming service to visit the past.

Daredevil: Born Again is streaming now on Disney+, with new episodes dropping Tuesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern.

Daredevil: Born Again

Release Date

March 4, 2025

Showrunner

Chris Ord

Directors

Michael Cuesta, Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Writers

Chris Ord

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  Charlie Cox

  Matt Murdock / Daredevil

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  Vincent D’Onofrio

  Wilson Fisk / Kingpin

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  Deborah Ann Woll

  Karen Page

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  Elden Henson

  Foggy Nelson