By Dan Skip Allen

“Daredevil: Born Again” Season 1 was the first half of the overall Daredevil: Born Again story. Even though the Netflix series did a version of this story, this is meant to be a reimagining of that story and a redo for Marvel Studios, who now owns the rights once to the characters in this series. Continuing arcs from Season 1 make up the majority of this season. Closing the proverbial window on the rivalry between Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin, aka the Mayor of New York City, and Matthew Murdock/ Daredevil. Some other characters get moments to shine and also get revenge and own up to mistakes they make. And there are some cameos from the Netflix shows as well. If you are a fan of the previous season and the Netflix series, you’ll probably like this season of Daredevil: Born Again. I found it lacking compared to the previous season, though.

When this season kicks off, there is a boat in the Red Hook Harbor now run by the Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). It has a bunch of weapons meant for use for his new initiative to clean up New York from vigilantes. He forms the Anti-Vigilante Task Force or (AVTF). These are basically his versions of ICE. You’ll see some parallels to the current American presidential administration and the country’s landscape in this season quite a bit, only smaller in scope. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. That’s what you get from Wilson Fisk as the mayor of New York City. Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Karen Page (Deborah Anne Woll) try to prevent the guns from being used by this task force in the wrong way, but it’s inevitable. These men are running rampart over the city. The only thing that Fisk can’t control is BB Urick (Janneya Walton), who exposes his secrets in her blog. Also, Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), who has a vendetta of his own against Fisk and his regime. 

With a new season comes a new uniform for Daredevil.  The new costume is black with red highlights and the famous interlocking D’s are also in red. This new costume is better to fight crime at night. At this point, Daredevil is public enemy number one, and Matthew Murdock is thought to be dead. He finds it hard to break through what Fisk has programmed the city with. That he is a bad guy. Sometimes, uneasy alliances are essential when trying to bring down a corrupt regime similar to the one in this show. As mentioned, there are a lot of parallels to the current presidential regime. This is why this season of the show is so important. It’s meant to show that unchecked public government politicians can be very dangerous for everyone under their control. In this case, New York City. Matthew Murdock/Daredevil and his allies have an uphill battle trying to fight against this man and his glorified army.

The supporting cast of season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again is very extensive. Starting with a few of the characters who are allies to Wilson Fisk. Dr Heather Glenn (Margarita Lavieva) who provides psychological evidence in some courtroom sequences regarding the sanity of other characters. She’s a smaller part of season 2. Buck Cashman/Bullet  (Arty Froushan) is Fisk’s right-hand man. He does some of the dirty work for Fisk. This means he gets rid of some people who get in Fisk’s way. Froushan did a good job with this sinister character. Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini) is another sidekick of Fisk’s. He handles the spin if you will. How the mayor is perceived by the people of New York City. His uneasy relationship with BB Urick may be his undoing. And Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard) is a new character, but he has his hands in some bad stuff that helps Fisk out as long as it’s convenient for him. Lillard is funny as always in this show as this character. A character with little screen time in season 1 was Jack Duquesne/The Swordsman, (Tony Dalton) but has more of a character arc in season 2 as the example of what Fisk and his regime are trying to accomplish.  He’s put on trial for his crimes, if you will, as a vigilante. Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) is always good as the wife of Wilson Fisk. DA Benjamin Hochberg (John Benjamin Hickey) is a sleazy lawyer who works for Fisk and his agenda and (Lilli Taylor) the governor of New York who is at odds with Fisk and his ways of doing things specifically. This is a terrific supporting cast in season 2. They all bring a lot to the table regarding the overall story.

One of the signifying things about previous seasons of Daredevil and The Punisher, if you will, are the fight sequences and action scenes. This season of Daredevil: Born Again is no different than other seasons in that regard. There is one sequence in particular where Wilson Fisk fights through a bunch of men and women dressed up as Daredevil wannabes and Daredevil fights through a bunch of AVTF guards each going through hallways and various other obstacles in their ways to inevitably end up facing off one on one themselves. They have a classic encounter with each other straight from the comic books that fans of the comics have been waiting for. A couple of other action sequences involving Bullseye were also pretty cool. His ability to not miss his target is always cool. It’s interesting to see how the directors and writers create ways for his abilities to come to the forefront in episodes. 

Speaking of Wilson Bethel, he has made this character his own. The journey of Dex/Bullseye in the show has been a fascinating one. His alliance with Daredevil was one I was glad to see in the series, considering what Dex did to Foggy in season 1. That was something Daredevil would never forget. I’m sure these two temporary allies will once again be enemies, but they had to join forces in a way to fight Wilson Fisk and his AVTF. Neither of them wanted to see a fascist regime running the city. Bethel, as the character has grown on me. His journey is starting to be one I’m very interested in going forward. His tragic past is starting to come to the forefront. I’m wondering if he’ll appear in other Disney + shows in the future. He’s too good to let go of if I’m the writer writing Hawkeye Season 2 or other ground level Marvel characters. 

The key element of this series is the rivalry between Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin and Matthew Murdock/Daredevil. One of the aspects of these characters is the law and order in a sense. So, a courtroom setting for a major encounter between them on an intellectual level makes sense in the context of this show. A cat and mouse game with Murdock as the lawyer and Fisk on the stand is very delicious to consume in a tribute to Rob Reiner, “A Few Good Men”. Murdock as the Tom Cruise Character and Fisk as the Jack Nicholson character from that great film. I think fans of the show will like the courtroom drama as much as I did. I’m glad to see these elements kept in the series.

“Daredevil: Born Again” Season 2 has been a mixed bag for me, though. On one hand there were a handful of great fight scenes and or action sequences especially involving Daredevil, The Kingpin and Bullseye but one particular character I thought was going to be in this season who wasn’t was a disappointment.  Even though there were a few cameos of other characters from the Netflix shows. The season as a whole was pretty derivative of itself. It kept rehashing things from past episodes in new ways. Once the main plot was revealed, the story never really progressed as much as I’d liked it to. The show became stale in the middle episodes. The last episode was fantastic, and the first few were good, but overall, this season was slower paced, and because of that, it was as exciting or interesting as the previous season. That happened with the Netflix version of the show as well. I feel creative plans for Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthall) for his own stand-alone Marvel Presentation and appearance in Spider-man Brand New Day derailed him being in this season of this series. That cost the show an added element I think it needed desperately. Alas, it’s still Daredevil on television, so that is an added bonus. All in all, this season wasn’t as good as last season.

3 stars