I am not here to dispute that the original Netflix series Daredevil is the best version. It is clear that Daredevil: Born Again is Marvel’s way of keeping what worked, and bringing back the Netflix characters we loved. Season 1 was rough. We lost Foggy right up front, and watched the plot meander, before they brought back Karen, and platformed The Punisher. Right at the end, the show also got more violent, with Wilson Fisk crushing a man’s head with his bare hands.

Season 2 builds on that, taking what started to work at the end, and continuing to balance a new direction, a fresh story, and nostalgia bait. it wasn’t as successful as it could be, but it did have fleeting moments of greatness. The season is largely pitting Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) against Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) for a cataclysmic battle for the streets of New York. No longer does Matt just protect Hell’s Kitchen, he’s the savior of the whole city. I do wonder, now that these characters are in the MCU, every time shit is going down in New York, where is everyone else? These are not the only characters who reside here, and Wilson and his task force throw the city into continued and pervasive chaos, in episodes shot long before ICE ever set foot in Minnesota.

The highly publicized return of Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) doesn’t happen right away, you have to earn it. Instead, we meet a shady Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard), who is so shady, the series never clearly defines just how, or where from. He’s ambiguously dangerous, with Fisk giving him credence at first, pushing him away when no longer convenient. The season ends with him still a giant enigma.

Returning cast members like Karen (Deborah Ann Woll), Vanessa Fisk Ayelit Zurier), Daniel (Michael Gandolfini), Heather (Margarita Leyviva), Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), Cashman (Arty Froushan), Kristen (Nikki M. James), and Bebe (Gennia Walton) all bring more life to their characters. While Matt and Wilson are trapped in an eternal struggle, Akren is shown training so she’ll never be a victim. Vanessa continues to be the brains and heart of the Fisk operation, something we realize holds him together a lot more than we give her credit for. Heather has turned her encounter with Muse into an opportunity to team with Fisk on punishing all the vigilantes, but as the finale reveals, Heather might have a deeper layer of revenge she needs to get to. Bebe becomes the force or journalistic will, even finding the goofy Daniel endearing at times. Cashman proves his loyalty, and Bullseye becomes a deeply complicated and haunted character.

I think Bullseye got the best scene of the series, with an opening set to New York State Of Mind that was creative, stylish, and expertly directed. Even his semi-reconciliation with Matt, in the enemy of my enemy way, helps to bring this one note assassin another layer.

What didn’t work for me, the finale. There’s a choice made, to push a narrative of “just walk away” for a character, who doesn’t, creates more damage, killing people, yet still gets the same offer. So the end is deeply unsatisfying, considering who is behind bars, and who is not. Had I been in the room, I would have pushed a stronger choice that the deal was off the table, and now it is time to pay. Then, instead of the final shot being on one inmate, it could have shown two, next to each other.

I also think the finale lost track of a few regulars, and when we leap forward a bit, it doesn’t show us what happened to them. It does, however, throw a major cameo at you, so be ready for that.

It is so hard to watch this and not see the political lines being drawn to our current culture, comparing Fisk to Trump, misguided choices, putting citizens on the defense, and going for an extreme overreach of power. Yet, based on when this show had to shoot, it had very little overlap with the second term, benefitting only as a byproduct of a happy accident. Still, I wonder if the declining ratings are because they see this as a referendum on Trump. If you see it, it will come. This would be what it is, regardless of who the President is. Daredevil follows a long comic book storyline, and a Netflix series, that has had Kingpin and Daredevil headed for each others throats forever. It is what it is.

Deluxe and Jedidiah Barton did some strong work, especially in the action sequences, the aforementioned Bullseye scene, a jailbreak, and a courtroom brawl all done well, along with capturing the towering performance of Vincent D’Onofrio. Even the first Jessica Jones scene is well described, and the cameo in the season finale teases us with a description before revealing fully who it is.

I’ll be back for Season 3, and this was an improvement, but the Netflix shows were better, and even Marvel has made better material for Disney Plus. WandaVision, Loki, and the recent Wonder Man all stand out.

I suppose as a blind film critic, I should speak to the authenticity of a blind character. In my time in the blind community, as I was not born blind, it is a real thing for people to have conversations with you about Daredevil, like we all must be fans, or that someone’s entire world view of blindness is through a comic book hero. A lot of this has to do with the popularity of the character against a lack of anything else as popular. The youth of the country learns ASL for fun, even if they aren’t hearing impaired, or know anyone who is, whereas Braille isn’t given the same credence. We also lack a star to do authentic casting here, and at best would get someone like Jake Gyllenhaal, who identifies as legally blind, after being born with a lazy eye and needing to wear corrective lenses. I suppose being visually impaired at all would put him closer than Charlie Cox, but let’s be honest and say he was too big, and never going to star in the Netflix series. The lack of authentic casting here is less of a Marvel or Daredevil problem, and more indicative of a lack of imagination across Hollywood. While there are some notable deaf actors and actresses, including two Oscar winners, the same isn’t true for the blind community. Even after her strong debut in All The Light We Cannot See, Ari Maya Loverty hasn’t starred in anything since. Her resume just includes guest appearances on Grey’s Anatomy and the short-lived Spiderwick Chronicles. Ben Mehl, who played Dante in the third season of You, went on to appear in a Hallmark Christmas film. It is hard to cultivate blind talent, if when they land, their casting is treated as a gimmick. But, in a period where companies are running as fast as they can from DEI, I don’t expect this to change. I was a fan of Daredevil before being blind, not just as a stand alone oddity, but because I’m a Marvel nerd. I still am. No, we didn’t all get super hearing. in fact, many blind people also experience hearing loss, with about half the population experiencing some form of dual sensory loss. We’re actually more likely to reverse Daredevil, than we are to have super sonic hearing. So, while the scene where Matt hears Wilson talking to him from another room was super cool, we can’t do that. Not unless the walls are paper thin so anyone can, then everyone would be able to. Should a blind actor be Daredevil? Sure. But it is not a direct failing of this series, or Charlie Cox, and I don’t lose sleep over it. I’d much rather start to see more and more blind actors and actresses get offered more roles, so they don’t just feel like a one off. For example, I can’t find an upcoming project featuring last year’s Bring Her Back star Sora Wongg. She was terrific in that, and Hollywood once again seemingly has no place for her. So, there’s your blind perspective. It’s hard to be mad about not being Daredevil, when just simply trying to get blind actors cast at the rate of regular actors, in anything, feels like the actual first step in correcting the issue of why Daredevil is played by a sighted actor. If you build it, he will come? They ain’t building shit for us.

Daredevil was born again in the first season, but now he’s going from a toddler crawl to marathon sprinter, as the series looks to regain its former prestige. Vincent D’Onofrio’s demanding performance does the most to help the series, while other heroes are often wasted.

Fresh: 7.7./10