Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 Review
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review ✦
Seven years after Daredevil’s Netflix run ended, Daredevil: Born Again swings back onto Disney+ with Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, joined by Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page, and Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson.
Throughout this nine-episode season, the series aimed to revive the gritty mix of legal drama, brutal action, and Catholic angst that made the original a fan favorite. While it’s exciting to see these characters return, Born Again grapples with a chaotic narrative and jarring creative shifts, making it a passable but underwhelming start to this particular MCU event.
Daredevil: Born Again (2025) | Marvel Studios and Disney+
A Bold Setup Undone by Disarray
The season opens with a devastating tragedy that rocks Matt Murdock, setting him against Fisk, now a mayoral candidate with a veneer of legitimacy. The premiere’s raw, one-shot bar fight featuring Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) is a heart-pounding return to form, showcasing Matt’s acrobatic fury. Early episodes explore Matt’s vow to abandon Daredevil for lawyering, while Fisk’s political schemes add fresh stakes. The dynamic between Matt and Fisk crackles, especially in tense verbal sparring over Hell’s Kitchen’s soul. It’s a familiar dose of Nostalgia that longtime fans will appreciate.
However, the story itself quickly frays. The season feels like two visions clashing—likely due to Marvel’s mid-production overhaul, which shifted from a lighter, legal-focused series to a darker tone mimicking Netflix’s grit. Episodes lurch from somber crime drama to odd detours, like a cartoonish St. Patrick’s Day heist in Episode 5 that feels tonally adrift.
The pacing also lags, with Matt barely suiting up as Daredevil until Episode 6, and subplots—like a serial killer named Muse or Vanessa Fisk’s side drama—pile up without enough room to breathe. Unlike WandaVision’s inventive structure or The Penguin’s focused crime saga, Born Again struggles to weave its ambitious threads into a cohesive whole.
Performances That Anchor the Chaos
The cast is the season’s saving grace. Cox remains magnetic as Matt, his face conveying both lawyerly charm and tortured guilt, especially in scenes grappling with loss. His sensory powers—depicted through sharp sound design, like hearing a heartbeat during a chase—are a visual treat. D’Onofrio’s Fisk is chilling, his calm demeanor masking a volcanic rage that erupts in the finale.
Woll and Henson bring warmth as Karen and Foggy, though their roles shrink after the premiere, leaving their arcs underdeveloped. Newcomers shine too: Margarita Levieva’s Heather Glenn, a therapist caught between Matt and Fisk, adds a new layer of complexity, while Jon Bernthal’s Punisher steals Episode 4 and Episode 9 with gritty intensity.
Yet, the crowded narrative dilutes these strengths. Muse, a blood-obsessed villain, arrives too late to feel threatening, and characters like Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James) get lost in the shuffle. The White Tiger subplot also offers compelling courtroom tension but fizzles out with a brief promise for more in Season 2, lacking the emotional payoff of Loki’s character-driven twists. The performances keep you hooked, but the script doesn’t give them enough to work with.
Creative Action, Mixed CGI, and Tonal IMBALANCE
When Born Again leans into action, it delivers. The Bullseye fight and Episode 6’s Muse showdown are visceral, with choreography that captures Daredevil’s fluid brutality. However, the action is too sparse—Daredevil barely appears in the first half—and some CGI, like rooftop leaps (or even graffiti on buildings), looks clunky. And, dare we say—let’s cool it on the hallway fights for a season?
Tonally, the season feels like a tug-of-war. Matt’s “no Daredevil” arc rehashes Season 3’s themes without adding much new, and the show lacks the bold experimentation needed to make this a story with greater stakes. It’s also very heavy-handed in its approach to telling community-based stories, which is becoming a formulaic crutch in the MCU (think Captain America, Agatha, etc.). Fortunately, Episodes 8 and 9 briefly pick up steam, but the uneven buildup makes the payoff less satisfying.
Score: 6/10
Compared to other superhero-centric series, Daredevil: Born Again is just passable without living up to its true potential. Highs include dynamic cast performances, while lows reveal some prominent cracks in the foundation.
