'Daredevil: Born Again' Episodes 5 & 6 Review
Image Source: Bluesky
Daredevil: Born Again continues to do great viewership on Disney+, and with good reason. The show captures the essence of its characters, new and old alike, and puts them into great stories that let them grow, revert, or evolve for understandable reasons. This week’s pair of episodes, entitled “With Interest” and “Excessive Force”, provide an interesting blend of story elements. In one case, we depart from the ongoing plots for a zoom-in on a guest character struggling alongside Matthew Murdoch, while the other episode dives deep into the ongoing story with notable developments.
WARNING: This review will contain MINOR spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again.
“With Interest”
Image Source: YouTube
The season’s fifth episode changes the formula from the last few episodes, into a scenario that might easily be called a bottle episode, detached from the wider seasonal story. To spoil the premise, it's a classic “the hero is trapped in an important place with the bad guys” scenario, with the added superhero twist of Matthew Murdoch lacking his superhero costume, and the villains having taken around 20 hostages. Along with Matt for this tense ride is a surprising guest character that helps to further firmly place this show as part of the wider MCU. Acted well, and was a great foil to Matthew’s calm demeanor, we won’t spoil who this guest character is but suffice it to say, they set up the possibility of fascinating storylines in the future.
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Alongside this guest character are a villainous gang, whose leader shows his smarts but also a roguish charisma and likeability with some of his commentary. At several points, he mocks story tropes, dismantling them but then reinforcing them to create a villain who this reviewer hopes we see again. Other characters in this episode include well-acted hostages from the bank’s staff and guests, some of whom get time in the spotlight to showcase their dramatic abilities, but also for the story.
Rating: 9/10
“Excessive Force”
Image Source: YouTube
This episode will likely be well-remembered for its prominent introduction of Muse, teased in previous episodes, but making a chilling splash here as his crimes are discovered, and forces are rallied for his defeat. But, turning to the character arcs of this season, we continue to see strong parallels between Fisk and Matt, showing their discomfort in situations and encounters related to their jobs, yet also their hard effort to adapt to their new lives. Matt was already a lawyer and his day job has changed little, but his unwillingness to be Daredevil again has him struggling, especially as events grow more serious. Fisk, on the other hand, is in a completely new arena, and a prominent cameo in a scene full of rich people shows how these few command a great deal of power. Their frankness is chilling since Fisk has come to them looking to improve the city, yet some are stubborn and unmoved by his arguments. Fisk struggles to handle this, and like Matt, ends up snapping later in the episode.
There are a few flaws in Episode 6 though, and one of the more prominent is the clunky way Matt learns about the existence of Muse. His investigator Cherry turns up, hands him a drink, and tells him about Muse with a casual plea to leave it to the police before departing the room as quickly as he’d entered it. There was a far better way to show Matt coming to learn about Muse, that could still involve Cherry, than having this awkward scene. Another awkward element of the show is the CGI, whose return here is thankfully brief, but leaves a great deal of confusion in this reviewer. The budget for this show was probably heavily skewed on asking past actors to return to their previous roles, but that has been true of many MCU shows. Such shows often handle their CGI considerably better than what we see here in Born Again, leaving one to wonder how little time the post-production team had at times if this continues to be the result.
Rating: 8/10
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Source(s): Daredevil: Born Again
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