Review: Daredevil: Born Again, "Optics" | Season 1, Episode 2
Matt Murdock takes on a new client as Born Again starts to find its feet
Daredevil may be best remembered for its dark, gritty tone and violent fight scenes, but at its best the show could be really charming and funny too. In fact, one of the reasons I’m less high on season three than a lot of fans is because it lost the wry sense of humor that was so key to the show’s tone for me. Thankfully, that wry confidence is back in the second episode of Born Again, particularly in the Fisk-as-mayor side of the show. And while that lighter touch doesn’t really make sense for a series that opened with Foggy Nelson bleeding out in Karen Page’s arms, it is a nice fit for a season looking to carve out its own identity.
As I laid out in my review of the premiere, we’re now in the run of six episodes that were written and shot during the pre-creative-overhaul portion of production. (In addition to the pilot, new showrunner Dario Scardapane also wrote the final two episodes of this nine-episode season.) This script is by original head writers Matt Corman and Chris Ord, and you can easily imagine at least parts of it serving as their intro to the Born Again universe. And, I have to say, this more standalone entry point works way better for me than Scardapane scrambling to connect to the past in the previous hour.
Tonally and visually, this episode doesn’t entirely feel like the original Netflix run. But there’s something about Fisk stopping his car to order a bunch of construction workers to cut through the red tape and fill a big sinkhole that felt right to the spirit of the original. Fisk is a man who wants what he wants when he wants it—and wants to be publicly celebrated for doing it. And the idea of how that philosophy manifests now that he’s the most powerful politician in New York City is a fascinating one.