Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1
Review by Mark Woodring
In an incredible turn of events, Disney/Marvel allowed critics to view all 9 episodes of Daredevil: Born Again prior to its premiere on Disney+.
So let’s talk about the first Netflix show to experience a rebirth (see what I did there) on Marvel’s home outlet.
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s thoughts on Season 1, then listen/watch as he and Ryan. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
9 Episodes, Rated TV-MA (they mean it)
Showrunner: Dario Scardapane
Directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, David Boyd
Synopsis:
Matt Murdock finds himself on a collision course with Wilson Fisk when their past identities begin to emerge.
Much concern has been bandied about since the announcement of the return of the Man Without Fear to our TV screens, despite what its two major players (Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio) have continued to stress: it’s not watered down.
Without going in to spoilers, I can say that the series does acknowledge (and thus canonize) both the Hawkeye and Echo Disney+ series, so if you were looking for some sort of ret-con, you aren’t going to find it here.
That said, it does so subtly. If you watched those two shows, you will hear them referenced at a couple points. They are not front and center or pertinent to the overarching plot of this season at all.
Second, the action is as good as you remember from the Netflix seasons. This is TV-MA for violence. Extreme, often gruesome, violence.
There are to-be-expected long-take fight sequences that will not disappoint, and there is sure to be some wailing from the audience as the story plays out.
From the jump, the show establishes that no punches will be pulled… for anyone.
We meet some old characters, both good and bad guys, and are introduced some new ones, including an homage to a character from the previous seasons.
The cinematography is excellent, and both Cox and D’Onofrio are clearly reveling in the chance to reinhabit these two characters once more.
I assert (both in this review and to Ryan) that Daredevil: Born Again is better than all the other Disney+ marvel shows by an order of magnitude (that’s A LOT, if you’re keeping track at home), and I stand by that assessment. I enjoyed many of the other series (not all, but many), but Daredevil: Born Again is simply so well written, constructed, acted, and shot that there’s no comparison.
It may, in the pantheon of Disney’s streaming IP series, rival Season 1 of The Mandalorian in terms of its quality.
I said what I said.
Fans of the Netflix show will find little (if anything) to complain about, and while it’s not 100% necessary to have watched those 3 great Netflix seasons, I would absolutely suggest you do so at some point.
You want quality television? This is it.
Daredevil: Born Again will stream weekly, exclusively on Disney+, and stars Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Margarita Levieva, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, with Ayelet Zurer and Jon Bernthal.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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