Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Review — The Devil of Hell's Kitchen Has Never Been Better
Jessica Jones is back. Kingpin is mayor. Daredevil is caught between them. Season 2 of Born Again premieres on Disney+ with a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes — and every point is earned.
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The show that wasn't supposed to work is now the best Marvel has
Let me be honest about where I was before watching Daredevil: Born Again. I had written off Marvel television. The Disney+ era had given us a string of shows that felt like homework — content designed to fill in gaps before the next film rather than stories that needed to exist. She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, The Marvels-adjacent spin-offs. Fine. Sometimes bad. Never essential.
Born Again changed that. Not immediately — the first three episodes of Season 1 were uneven — but by the time Season 1 ended, I was genuinely invested in what the show was doing. It understood something the Netflix era understood: that Matt Murdock works best when the stakes are legal and personal and the violence has actual weight.
Season 2 is better.
What Season 2 actually does
The central tension of Season 2 is this: Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) is now Mayor of New York. He got there through the events of Season 1, which we won't spoil fully, but the short version is that he is now the most powerful man in the city with a democratic mandate.
Matt Murdock, who spent Season 1 fighting Fisk in courtrooms and back alleys, now has to figure out how to oppose someone with institutional legitimacy. The show is genuinely interested in this problem. It doesn't shortcut it.
Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) returns, and her presence changes the dynamic of the show significantly. She's not here as a cameo — she's a substantial part of the plot, and her relationship with Matt is complicated in ways that make both characters more interesting.
What works and what doesn't
What works: the legal drama. Born Again is at its best when it's in the courtroom, when the arguments are real and the procedure matters. The show has clearly done its research, and it trusts the audience to follow complicated legal manoeuvring without hand-holding.
What works: Vincent D'Onofrio. He has always been the best thing about this corner of Marvel, and Season 2 gives him material that matches what he can do. Fisk as mayor is a more interesting character than Fisk as crime boss.
What works: Krysten Ritter. The writing gives her genuine agency, and she uses it. Her scenes with Charlie Cox have a tension that comes from actual character history rather than manufactured conflict.
What's more uneven: the action sequences. The corridor fight that made the Netflix Daredevil famous has been cited so many times that the show is now in an awkward relationship with its own legacy. Some of the fights in Season 2 are excellent. Some feel like the show trying to prove it still can.
Is it worth watching?
Yes, without qualification, if you have any interest in street-level superhero drama or in what Marvel television can actually do when it commits to character over spectacle.
The show has figured out what it is. That's rarer than it sounds.
Where to watch: Disney+
Verdict: The best Marvel television since the original Netflix era. Season 2 makes good on everything Season 1 promised.