We do now live in a world where the Daredevil show on Netflix was fully revived into a new show that’s just as good. The world is not such a dark and horrible place…no wait, it definitely still is. But we can now cling to our little pop culture shows and movies had games to find some joy to be had in all the darkness — and finding joy in darkness is maybe one of the themes of Daredevil: Born Again? I dunno.

TV Show Rating: 9/10 – Great

So yeah, season two of Daredevil: Born Again has arrived only a year after the first season, which is a miracle in this day and age. And they’re already working on season three. I watched the episodes week-by-week because I wanted to be part of the zeitgeist, and now I’m doing my roundup review. Am I late to the party? Probably. But I’m not famous enough to get screeners in advance. It’s just little old me, plugging away on this blog still.

Regardless, join me after the jump for my review and thoughts on the second season of Daredevil: Born Again! Expect FULL SPOILERS for the whole season. And feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments below.

6. Much better than season one

As we all know, the first season was a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster. The original showrunners wanted a complete reboot into a legal procedural, and Marvel put a stop to that to bring in new people, who still had to work with the existing footage. This second season was created from scratch by the new showrunners, and it’s an obvious improvement. Everything flows better, the characters have better arcs, the drama is just better and I had an overall better and more enjoyable time. Really goes to show you what can be accomplished when the showrunners actually work on something for the whole time.

I thought this season was an excellent continuation of season. I thought the whole thing worked nicely as one long story, with the risk of Fisk and fascism in New York City and then Daredevil and his plucky allies pulling it down for the world to see. Makes for a nice reflection of the world today, while sticking true to classic Daredevil vs. Kingpin stories. Throw in Bullseye as a wild card and then a bunch of other characters and emotional beats and you’ve got a TV show brewing!

5. Really good Daredevil action

I like that they seemed to include at least one action scene in every episode, and all of them were fun and exciting. Obviously we didn’t have any of Daredevil out on patrol or fighting random crime. He was pretty focused on what he needed to do and who he needed to take down. But all of it was pretty darn good. I can still remember the really wonky CGI from the first episode of season one, and I’m glad we didn’t have a repeat of that nonsense. Keep the Daredevil action to grounded punches and cool fights and you’ve got some good action for your superhero show. I also really enjoyed that Daredevil and Kingpin came to blows before the climax, to get that out of the way. Because Mayor Fisk needed to be taken down where it counted, in the courts.

4. Could have used a bit more room in the end

One nitpick/complaint that I have is that I think the overall impact of the city could have used more time to be fleshed out in the second half. I feel like the city turned on Fisk rather quickly in terms of ordinary citizens created makeshift Daredevil masks and holding huge protests/riots. Was Daredevil even doing anything public at that point for people to rally around? BB didn’t even get her report out about the people rescued from the secret prison. How was this protest so quickly organized that we had a huge army of people storming the courtroom at the end of the finale? I just would have liked more time spent explaining the bigger picture of the city turning against Fisk — especially after Vanessa’s death. I don’t think we ever actually saw him turn the city upside down and shake it, like Matt feared.

Also, time moved weird in the end. It seems like Vanessa’s funeral was organized and held the same day she died. BB Urich went from the boxing match to Daniel’s birthday party without ever getting that SD card out of her pocket, and then being held by Daniel in his mom’s home while a bunch of other things progressed quickly in the rest of the story. Just something that bugged me.

Speaking of things that bug me…

3. The courtroom scenes were ridiculous, but I’ll give them a pass

So I have a thing with courtroom scenes in television and movies. I don’t work in a courtroom, but I spend enough time in them for my day job that I have a generally understanding of how the actual system works. And, as we all probably know, television and movies get courtrooms completely wrong. It’s done for dramatic effect, and that’s fine. But sometimes it’s so egregious that it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me — and the Daredevil courtroom scenes have always been really bad. And they were especially bad this season.

Nobody has to lay any foundation to get their testimony or evidence admitted. The tribunals happen quickly, with the defense getting next to zero time to work with their clients. Everybody ignoring habeus corpus. Honestly, the corrupt prosecutor’s objections were probably all legitimate because Matt and Kirsten just say out loud all sorts of random stuff all the time, but I never got the sense that the writers knew the legal reasons why the corrupt prosecutor might object. Or when the attorney asks the witness questions and stops after getting in their soundbite instead of really pressing the witness and getting meaningful testimony.

But I’m willing to give all of that a pass because, as Matt argues in the finale, these tribunals were designed to be kangaroo courts anyway. Like, these aren’t normal courtroom proceedings, they’re legal circuses built into the Safer Streets Initiative. They’re designed to not be legally legitimate, and then Matt successfully tears them down in the end. So while they dig bug me a lot of the time…the show won me over about it in the end.

They also specifically mentioned that they were performing in front of the TV cameras, so I’ll allow that explanation as well.

2. I’m totally cool with Fisk’s fate

There’s a lot of hubbub online about Fisk’s fate at the end of the season, and I’m personally fine with it. He gets to cause all that trouble and kill all those people and his punishment is a vacation on the beach? That’s not a vacation. He’s still in custody. The dude has been exiled from the United States, forced to renounced his citizenship, had his assets frozen and has been sent to a place he hates. Fisk hates the beach. He’s staring at the wide open ocean like he stairs at that wide open painting. He’s lost. He’s powerless. He no longer has the love of his life. He has no power, no prestige, no followers, is probably trapped in that location and is miserable. It’s a better fate for him than sending him back to prison where he’ll just amass power again and get out.

As an addendum, I’m fully on board with not killing villains. I enjoy the Punisher as much as the next person, but killing your opponents just because you feel like you can is not the best solution to a functioning society. Daredevil isn’t wrong for not killing Kingpin, nor is he wrong for stopping other people from killing him.

Though on the subject of killing, a lot of Task Force members are straight up murdered in this show. Like, what’s the life expectancy of a Task Force member and is the pay and power trip really worth it for these ordinary citizens? Also, speaking of the show needing more time for things, do none of these dedicated officers get full funerals? Municipalities usually go all-out when a police officer is killed in the line of duty, but do these guys just get buried and we everybody moves on? Vanessa had a funeral arranged and held within the space of an afternoon.

1. Bring on the Devil in Cell Block D!

We know Born Again is getting a third season, which is already being filmed. We don’t know what the plot is going to be, other than I think the showrunners have said it won’t be a retread of more Kingpin stuff. And with Matt Murdock in prison, perhaps we’ll get an adaptation of The Devil in Cell Block D! This is a Daredevil story by legendary comic book writer Ed Brubaker, which finds Murdock in prison, with the whole prison knowing he’s Daredevil. It’s an engaging story in which Matt fights to survive, while also tries to figure a way out, while also trying to maintain his secret identity, because Matt’s answer to being outed was to deny, deny, deny.

Granted, he can’t do that in the show, because he outed himself as Daredevil. And both Kingpin and Bullseye play big roles in the comic, with both of them getting placed in the same prison. And the fake out death of Foggy Nelson is a big part of that story. But the show could still pull from the comic, could use the themes and the attitude and the energy. Also the Punisher has a cool role, and that could be repeated.

Also, since we’re talking season three, how about Stilt-Man, huh? I know Born Again doesn’t do so well with the big CGI acrobatics…but c’mon! Make it work! Give us Stilt-Man in season 3!

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