Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 on Disney+, where Matt Murdock tries to stop Wilson Fisk’s reign of terror as New York’s mayor

We don’t know about you, but when we sit down to watch a Marvel series or film, we want to believe that this is a fantasy version of our world. But the action in the second season of Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+ feels a bit too familiar to us, especially with what’s going on in the world right now.

Opening Shot: We see scenes from “The BB Report”, hosted by BB Urich (Genneya Walton), with New Yorkers saying how great everything is under Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio).

The Gist:  As a container ship plods its way under a bridge on its way out of New York Harbor, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), disguised as Daredevil, jumps aboard the ship and starts pounding the snot out of the crew. He knows that all of the containers in the ship are filled with armaments, being shipped to a crony of Fisk’s. The captain and first officer, under orders, sink the ship and escape. It doesn’t fully go under, and it sticks up out of the East River. Daredevil manages to escape.

Murdock is in hiding, given Fisk’s crusade against vigilantes, with his Anti-Vigilante Task Force maurauding the city without much in the way of oversight. He and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), who are now back together, are holed up in a hidden room over the restaurant where their friend Franklin Nelson (Elden Henson) was shot and killed. Karen is also in hiding, as she’s wanted for aiding and abetting a vigilante.

Murdock is convinced that if he can link Fisk to the smuggled arms, he can bring down the man once known as Kingpin. But it seems that Fisk is untouchable, given the propaganda he puts out via BB and other media members. Even New York State’s governor and attorney general seem to be intimidated into compliance. One person who isn’t cowed is Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard), an operative Fisk works with that claims to be “from Langley” but isn’t CIA.

Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), Murdock’s former law partner, wants to know where Murdock is, but her investigator, Cherry (Clark Johnson) a retired NYPD detective, assures her he’s fine. He knows because he meets with Murdock on the down low, as the hero-in-hiding looks to Cherry to get more information on the captain and first officer of the ship. But so is Fisk, and he sends his task force to a restaurant where the captain is hiding. In the meantime, one of Kirsten’s vigilante clients, Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton), is interviewed by Fisk’s chief psychologist, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), much to the delight of the city’s DA, Ben Hochberg (John Benjamin Hickey).

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Daredevil: Born Again is a continuation of the 2010s Netflix series Daredevil, but the events in this series are more connected to the MCU than the Netflix series was.

Our Take: Dario Scardapane, the showrunner of Daredevil: Born Again, seems to have Murdock and Fisk on a collision course as the second season starts, as Murdock does his thing in a way that keeps him from getting snagged by Fisk’s anti-vigilante goons. For his part, Fisk is fully out of the shadows, seemingly being able to do what he pleases, and treat the citizens of New York any way he wants, and he comes out smelling like a rose.

Sound familiar to anyone? We have to say, the way Fisk rules New York as this second season begins was a disquieting reminder of what we’re going through in real life. In the scene where Murdock bemoans to Karen how Fisk seems to be getting away with the most blatant abuses of power sounds just like what people might see on their social media feeds if they lean in a particular ideological direction. It’s all too familiar, and it’s chilling as hell.

And, you know what? We don’t want our Marvel shows looking like real life. If this were more of a fantasy, we’d have confidence that Murdock will win in the end, with Fisk sent into hiding again to figure out his next move. But, because of how the real world is now, we get the uneasy feeling that Murdock’s idealism and determination to show New York who their mayor really is feels like a futile exercise.

Even if Murdock prevails, we’ll likely just snort and wish that happened in the real world. In other words, nothing that Marvel’s writers can come up with in this case makes us forget about the world outside our windows, and that just ain’t right.

Performance Worth Watching: Vince D’Onofrio is always layered while being menacing as Fisk. And we’re happy to see Matthew Lillard on board as the scarily off-the-wall Mr. Charles.

Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After the anti-vigilante goons unmask Murdock, all of a sudden shots come in through the window and take all of them out. Then a knife saying “You’re Welcome” comes flying in and lands in front of Murdock, which is interesting because he can’t see what’s written on that knife.

Sleeper Star: Nikki M. James’s character, Kirsten McDuffie, is one of those characters that is constantly tough but caring, and doesn’t seem to need anyone to protect her.

Most Pilot-y Line: Mr. Charles bounds into Fisk’s office carrying a gyro. “Look at this, it’s like a pound of food,” he says.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While Daredevil: Born Again continues to be a watchable Marvel series with good performances, your enjoyment of the show may depend on how close you feel Fisk’s New York is to what is going on in real life.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.