Is the MCU tonal reset really underway? After seemingly forgetting everything that made them great in the first phases, the wheels publicly came off. Noises were made by the senior execs that they knew they needed to reset, to re-tone. At the very vanguard of this was Daredevil: Born Again.
Out went… well, the entire show, and they started from scratch again, reaching back (so they said) to everything that made the Netflix show so loved by fans.
Have they pulled it off? Well, according to the reviews, it would seem so. Outposters who have already seen Daredevil: Born Again say it is very good, and it goes hard.
What about the professionals? What do they say about it?
“‘Born Again’ is smart, well-crafted TV and ends perfectly.”
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
“Born Again’s most important achievement is the canny way it continues everything that worked about the original Daredevil series, with some notable improvements across the board elsewhere.”
Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
“While Matt’s psychic turmoil is different and a little less masochistic this time around, Cox keeps it at close access to counterbalance the hero’s self-righteousness, clever attorney’s cockiness and both of their fighting prowess.”
Bob Strauss, The Wrap
“…the series is a breathtaking example of what it means to revisit a known hero while offering him new reasons to fight for justice.”
Aramide Tinubu, Variety
“Cox remains a magnetic lead, although perhaps less so than D’Onofrio who, for all the points discussed here, is the main reason to watch.”
Melanie McFarland, Salon
They are not all completely glowing. Here are a couple of more negative reviews:
“What saves Born Again from drudgery, though, are the same things that made Daredevil so beloved to begin with. One is D’Onofrio, who has not missed a step as Fisk.”
Angie Han, THR
“As a whole, it’s a Frankenstein monster of a season, with various parts stitched together in ungainly fashion.”
Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone
As usual, there is always one reviewer who thinks he is being negative who accidentally makes it sound even more awesome:
“The lack of narrative shaping takes away any force the themes of vigilantism might have had, reducing them to limp excuses for the sometimes stomach-turning violence.”
Mike Hale, The New York Times
The first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again are out now on Disney+.