Season Review: Daredevil: Born Again Season 1

Welcome back to the blog readers. As you may or may not know, I never checked out any of the Marvel Netflix series, especially Daredevil (2015-18), which I heard amazing things about. I feel bad that I never got to watch this show, but if I get a chance to do so in the future, I think I definitely will. Charlie Cox has appeared as Matt Murdock in previous Marvel Cinematic Universe projects before, chiefly a cameo in both Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022). Hearing Daredevil would be getting his own MCU show with most of the original gang returning definitely got me excited, but would I be able to keep up not knowing where any of the characters were before? Would I even wind up liking this show at all? Stick around to find out.

Daredevil: Born Again was created for television by Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman, and Chris Ord with Scardapane acting as showrunner, based on Marvel Comics. This first season featured direction from Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, and David Boyd. The season stars Charlie Cox, Vincent D'Onofrio, Margarita Levieva, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Wilson Bethel, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki M. James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, Ayelet Zurer, Kamar de los Reyes, Jon Bernthal, Mohan Kapur, and Tony Dalton. In this season, Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk have decided to put their old lives behind them. But Matt's fight for justice puts him on a collision course with Fisk in a struggle that sees their past selves threaten to come to light and everything they have worked for to fall apart.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the season.

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I guess you could call me a Marvel shill, a fanboy, whatever you want. I will wear that flag proudly because I love Marvel. I admittedly have not overtly loved the Multiverse Saga offerings as much, but there have absolutely been some diamonds in the rough: WandaVision, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home (all 2021), Ms. Marvel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (both 2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), Deadpool & Wolverine, Agatha All Along (both 2024), and Loki (2021-23). I had no real expectation for this series since I never saw Daredevil (2015-18), but I have to say I was very surprised with what I saw this season. I absolutely loved this season of television, and every aspect of this show has fired on all cylinders for me. The performances (especially from Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio) have been brilliant, and the writing was on another level. Also I cannot believe how great the storytelling has been, and I am left salivating over the second season next year.

I want to start by talking about the performance of Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil. I do have to admit that I did not see the original Daredevil series, and that might not be such a good thing, but I may consider after watching him in this season. Therefore, the only material I have seen Cox in as Matt were his cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home and his two-episode cameo in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022). So not really getting to view the thing that made him famous made me absolutely love what he did this season. This version of Matt is obviously seasoned as a lawyer and a vigilante, but the emotional depths that Cox is able to delve into as Matt in this season were some of the best character work I have seen so far this year. One of the moments that really stood out for me this season involved the entire fight with Bullseye in the opening episode where he has to balance rage and anger, and he does it perfectly as he hears his best friend's heart stop beating. The rest of that episode sees Matt wrestling with "Catholic guilt" and you feel bad for him even if you have not had an emotional connection to this character before, again highlighted by brilliant character work by Cox. Another moment that really stood out to me definitely had to be the fourth episode, when he is searching for the killer of Hector Ayala. The beginning of Matt's eroding belief in the justice system and the anger he feels all boil into the best scene of television I have seen so far this year, when he plays off Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle / Punisher. It all comes together and shows that this fucking guy can really act. And finally, in the eighth episode, we get to see that darker side of him again when he has that conversation with Bullseye. That shit is like crack to me because I am addicted to rich characters and great performances, which is what we got from Cox this season, and I hope we get more in the second.

The next performance that I want to talk about is Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin. D'Onofrio is one of the finer actors of his generation, appearing in projects such as Full Metal Jacket (1987), JFK (1991), Escape Plan (2013), Jurassic World (2015), and Dumb Money (2023), and will appear in the upcoming Darren Aronofsky film Caught Stealing (2025). He began playing Fisk in Daredevil and reprised the role for Hawkeye (2021) and Echo (2024). Again, I had no expectation for his portrayal of Fisk but again I was left completely stunned with what I have witnessed from him. When you have someone that understands a character like D'Onofrio understands Fisk, you celebrate that because you know that actor is putting their all into this character. And he absolutely does that in spades. There is a genuine love for Fisk's wife Vanessa (played by Ayelet Zurer) that he shares, and you can feel that. There is violence behind those eyes and you can sense it. And D'Onofrio is able to master these emotions brilliantly. Some of the moments that stand out to me in this season involve the first episode when he gives his victory speech and you feel as if he genuinely cares about the people of New York. It seemed eerily hopeful, but as the season goes on you see the facade fall and his true colors begin to emerge from the ashes. In the sixth episode when he puts fist to Adam's face, you can really see how much being mayor has really weighed on him. Then you take his tirade in the seventh when he learns that Daredevil is back. The rage and the fury is palpable. But the one big moment that shows just what kind of man Wilson Fisk is is in the finale, when he decides to go watermelon squeezing. My hands were literally in my face at that moment, and you see the release in him when Commissioner Gallo's head goes pop. D'Onofrio plays that moment extremely well and I hope we see more of that in the second season because it is absolutely to die for.

Now, I need to talk about the story of this season because I love what Scardapane, Benson, and Moorhead were able to come in and do. This series was one of the victims of the 2023 dual strikes and it started out as mainly a legal procedural with 18 episodes, in which Matt would not have shown up in the suit until the fourth episode. When the strikes happened and Bob Iger got put back in charge, Kevin Feige got his power back and realized the show was not working. What we got was this. This is a deeply human and personal story for each of the two leads, and they can be seen as the protagonist of their own story. But what I really love is the parallel journey that both of these people (Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk) take in this season. They start off as broken characters that have something happen to them. For Murdock, it is the death of his best friend Foggy; for Fisk, it is everything that happened with Maya. We then see them both become different people than they started off as: Murdock becomes enthralled in a judicial system that is wildly broken and Fisk settles into his new job as mayor. But their darker halves begin to burst through the seams until in the sixth episode, we finally get them embracing who they are. Murdock embraces being the Devil of Hell's Kitchen when he puts the suit back on to take on serial killer Muse, and like I previously mentioned, Fisk puts fists to face: Adam's face. And by the season's end, they prove Thanos right: dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same.

In conclusion, Daredevil: Born Again is a worthy addition to the MCU canon: a singularly adult program that features rich characters and worldbuilding in an already established world. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.