A Geeky Guy's Guide to Daredevil: Born Again

As always, I promise to try to write this without any spoilers. But I warn you now, there will be one later. It should only be a problem if you haven't seen any previews, commercials or articles about the show.

To give you an idea where I am coming from. I LOVED the original Daredevil show that aired on Netflix back in 2015. It was dark and action packed. It had some of the best close combat scenes I have ever seen in a television show. Between all of the swearing and violence it definitely earned its R rating. Although I liked the 2nd and 3rd seasons, they were nothing compared to the first one. It wasn't just mindless action either. The show featured one of the greatest performances of a superhero villain ever. Vincent D'Onofrio role as Kingpin is hands down the best villain I have seen since Heath Ledger's Joker.

This is why I was so pumped for Daredevil: Born Again to air. As soon as I saw that Kingpin would be back, I was in. I did worry that it might lose some of its grit... and its R rating because it was airing on Disney+. I was completely wrong. It had everything that I loved from the first season: action, great acting, fantastic characters, and excellent writing.

Although the balance of those ingredients was different, the sum total was the same for me... pure awesomeness. Because there was far less action in this season, they needed to make up for it in other ways. To tip the scales (no pun intended) they included far more Kingpin. Instead of him being a supporting villain, Vincent D'Onofrio was truly the co-star or perhaps even star of the show. Watching him portray Wilson Fisk's desire to save the city he loves by destroying it is a thing of beauty.

Although there were enough battles to keep me interested, the internal struggles of both Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and Fisk (Kingpin) are what kept me eagerly anticipating each episode.

Warning, here's the semi-spoiler...

John Bernthal is back as The Punisher. And he is even better than before. Although I enjoyed most of the R rated Netflix Marvel shows (Iron Fist was simply unwatchable) I was very disappointed with The Punisher. The Punisher is all about action, but it seemed the writers had a goal of Punisher talking people to death. Although he is not in it until the last couple of episodes, Bernthal makes sure his presence is known. Not only did they right many of the wrongs of the previous show, it gave me hope that we will get to see Bernthal get to do Punisher justice in the future.

TLDR; Daredevil Bron again is a high quality police/political drama with some action sprinkled in. It seems like the start of a new chapter and I hope it acts as a springboard for the incredibly exciting 2nd act I am sure is to come. So check it out but just set your exceptions a little lower when it comes to the action portion of the recipe. Less action or not, Hell's Kitchen is still serving up a very satisfying dish.