Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming, with its first two episodes available on Disney+. Per my insiders—and later confirmed by the trades—the series has been retooled from a goofy She-Hulk-style show into something more in line with the Netflix series. I think it’s fair to say that Daredevil: Born Again feels closer to the Netflix series, though whether it will reach or even exceed that level remains to be seen.
The production feels low-budget and of poor quality. A fight scene is poorly executed, the acting and dialogue fall short, and the story is nothing to write home about. The characters are lackluster. Truth be told, I wasn’t a fan of the Daredevil Netflix series or any of the Marvel Netflix shows, so I came into this with low expectations. Add woke Disney and Kevin Feige to the mix, and Daredevil: Born Again has a lot to prove. So far? The verdict is in—guilty of not being all that good.
The opening Daredevil scene is an absolute embarrassment. This is where you set the bar. This is where you separate yourself from the previous garbage of MCU shows on Disney+. This is where you make a statement that you’re better than the Netflix series. And they completely failed. The special effects—showing Daredevil zipping around NYC, jumping off buildings and walls—look absolutely terrible. Shame on everyone involved.
The bar fight scene wasn’t handled well either. I also didn’t like that they killed off Foggy. His death effectively wrote Karen Page out of the series as well. They replaced Foggy and Karen with two DEI characters—that’s why they killed them off, and why it happened so quickly. The actors and fans deserved better. It was bad storytelling.
So the cops are the bad guys. They got Punisher tattoos. They’re all white guys. This was actually leaked a while ago. Oh, the commissioner is also a “bad guy,” too, because he cheated on his wife. Now he can be blackmailed.
The two Hispanic characters get beat on by cops, corrections officers, and inmates. One is on trial, per the leaks, it’s White Tiger.
Kingpin is a total simp—continuing his awful portrayal from Hawkeye. His wife is the real Kingpin here. She does everything better, realizes she doesn’t need him, and even questions whether she wants to be with him. It’s Kingpin who wanted therapy. He cries. She laughs (basically, LOL). They also rip off The Sopranos. Yawn.
The two episodes did have one bright spot—the very end of the second episode. That fight scene was pretty cool. I’m hoping most of what we saw in these first two episodes came from the original version before the retooling. For comparison, the first three episodes of Andor had a slow start, so I’m hoping Daredevil: Born Again follows a similar pattern and improves from here.
Final Verdict
The first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again come off as very mid. They lag and actually come off boring at times. They reek of having a really low budget, like on par with Echo. Aside from Daredevil himself, the characters are bland, and the story fails to draw you in.
The first two episodes of Daredevil Born Again get a 6/10.
