Happy Monday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with a review/reaction to Daredevil: Born Again, Season Two’s premiere, “The Northern Star.” Daredevil: Born Again’s second season begins well, but one issue persists: the show feels off-balance. I’ll get to the good stuff soon (and there is a lot to like about “The Northern Star”), but I can see Daredevil: Born Again’s showrunners’ original vision of making seasons one and two of Daredevil: Born Again a single season. I don’t yet know if this show could’ve worked better with these first two seasons squeezed into a single season, but I’ve been on the record stating that Daredevil: Born Again Season One did a better job developing Kingpin’s side of the narrative, while shortchanging Daredevil’s. Yeah. This season, or at least during this season’s premiere, the roles reversed.
Daredevil: Born Again has a balancing issue. Both “seasons” could’ve benefited from evenly spreading the love for Daredevil and Kingpin’s story. Granted, “The Northern Star” is season two’s premiere, and I didn’t rewatch Daredevil: Born Again’s first season. But I shouldn’t have to rewatch a show’s previous season. Again, this is the first episode of the new season. All may be revealed in future episodes. But that’s also my point. We had to wait a full calendar year for Foggy Nelson’s death to find meaning. Sure, Karen Page left Hell’s Kitchen for most of last season, but the first season spent too much time trying to develop new characters. Matt Murdock seldom grieved the loss of his friend.
He does in “The Northern Star,” though. What a difference twelve real-world months can make. Matt’s story glossing over Foggy’s death may have sparked a lot of last season’s doubts. It wasn’t that the showrunners couldn’t kill Foggy. It was that no one seemed to care he died. I’m glad that we finally see Matt and Karen grieving the loss. And that makes me wonder what this story could’ve looked like where this episode part of the first season. We would’ve seen this catharsis sooner, and I wouldn’t be playing catch-up, trying to remember who everyone is, with Kingpin’s characters. Were there always this many characters? Yikes! I may have mentioned the volume of new characters in the previous season, but returning to Daredevil: Born Again after a year requires flashcards. Who are these people?
And we’re not done introducing more characters like Mr. Charles, Matthew Lillard’s character, who works for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. That’s a mouthful. Try saying that name three times fast. Mr. Charles is on Kingpin’s side of the narrative. We also get introduced to Ariana, who owns the Aegean Gardens, and aids in witness protection. Didn’t know that was a thing. That’s cool. BB Urich has more time to develop. I still don’t like the BB Report segments (the people on the street interviews with a shaky cam), but it’s clear, through a scene between Urich and Page, that she’s also the one behind the gorilla news stories defaming Mayor Fisk. This story angle has legs.
But that’s another minor issue. Many of these story angles have interesting ways they could go, but will Daredevil: Born Again season two have enough runtime to explore all of them? It’ll have to cut certain threads. I haven’t even mentioned Heather Glenn’s full heel turn. We got a whiff of Glenn (Murdock’s therapist girlfriend from last year) changing sides by the end of Daredevil: Born Again season one, but it was nice to see the show explore plenty of gray areas. Glenn may do the wrong things, but she believes she’s in the right. She suffers from PTSD after the attack by Muse. While I didn’t like how quickly Daredevil: Born Again dispatched Muse, I love how he continues to haunt the series.
And then there’s Murdock’s new law firm partner, Kirsten McDuffie (pictured above), who has an interesting interaction with one of Fisk’s lawyers, Benjamin Hochberg. And there’s also Cherry, the retired cop turned Murock’s personal investigator, who gets more to do in this episode. And Bullseye’s return gets teased. And the antivigilante task force continues its insane mission. And did I mention that the poignant Page-Urich scene is available because of a lead Page gets from Jessica Jones? Well, it is. And Krysten Ritter will return as Jessica Jones in Daredevil: Born Again season two. There’s a lot to unpack in “The Northern Star.” I watched this episode four or five times; that’s why this reaction got postponed from Saturday to Monday. I needed the weekend to digest.
Most of these are great developments. I’d love to see Ritter return as Jones. The Bullseye tease has me hyped. So many of these character developments are fun: McDuffie’s, Cherry’s, Page’s, the AVTF, most of Fisk’s entourage, and Glenn’s PTSD and struggling with remaining objective. I don’t know how Daredevil: Born Again season two plans to tie up some of these loose ends. Thankfully, Daredevil: Born Again will receive a third season; they’re already filming the third season. But I don’t want another Lost situation. For those who don’t know, the television show Lost presented numerous great ideas and seldom finished any of them.
Daredevil: Born Again should make good on many of its premises, but Matt did get shot (by Bullseye) at the end of last season, and we didn’t see the shot’s effects in the second season’s first episode. Something tells me we’ll get flashbacks and flash sideways and flash forwards to fill us in with Matt recovering from his gunshot. I’ll just leave this here: Lost used a lot of flashbacks and flash sideways and flash forwards, too. Uh oh. Let’s hope we don’t get too many flash somewheres.
That’s all I have for “The Northern Star.” Oddly enough, this episode could’ve used more guidance from something like a northern star. Daredevil: Born Again’s Season Two premiere was a solid beginning. I just hope the season can stick the landing. But what did you think? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
jkgeekly.com 