Daring and Punishing

Last night's finale of Daredevil: Born Again felt largely like a setup for season two. I guess that's not surprising given the troubled production history that saw the show handed from one creative vision to another. There were aspects I liked about the finale but somehow it all added up to something less satisfying than the finales on the original Daredevil series.

I was very happy to see Karen return. I know a lot of people don't like her but I like Deborah Ann Woll and her character's issues with using lethal force, which didn't come up, though maybe it's distantly represented in the love triangle with her, Punisher, and Daredevil. It was nice that her position as a supporting character on both the Daredevil and Punisher shows finally paid off with scenes between the three of them. Jon Bernthal was also very good in the episode though the action scenes tried to make up for a lack of the superb practical fights from the original series by overlaying a lot of cgi violence and editing. There was also a really awkward ADR line of Daredevil saying, "Frank, stop!" I suppose because someone realized Matt had gone too long without complaining about Frank's methods.

Punisher is a tricky character to throw in for a teamup with one of Marvel's more mainstream characters. The episode really revelled in the slaughter he perpetrated. Which, sure, is fun, but I think the show has lost its way from being about a conflict between allowing the rule of law to function and taking action when the law falls short, and where that line lies. It seems more like a show about good dictators versus bad dictators.

It's really a shame the show couldn't have made itself undeniably of a quality high enough to be a part of the Spider-Man storyline. With Fisk locking up all the vigilantes, it's really strange Spider-Man is uninvolved, particularly since Kingpin was originally a Spider-Man villain in the comics. But it was nice watching Vincent D'Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, and Jon Bernthal work. And yeah, Charlie Cox was fine. I am glad they stuck to their guns and have so far not resurrected Foggy and instead used his death as one of the points of turmoil for the living characters. Hopefully some alternate universe Foggy doesn't turn up next season.

Daredevil: Born Again is available on Disney+.