Daredevil: Born Again

Essential within its own thread, and the best live-action Marvel television since the original Netflix run it continues. Watch the three Netflix Daredevil seasons first if you can; the series reintroduces its leads but the weight of the first episode depends entirely on knowing who is in the bar.

The production was publicly restarted. A large amount had been shot before the project was halted and reconceived with new writers and directors, and the version released is visibly a repair job that mostly works: the first two episodes and the last three are strong, and the middle has a procedural structure imported from the earlier version that sits awkwardly.

Where it is best is the premise it eventually commits to. Both men have tried to retire into legitimacy, one as a lawyer who has stopped, one as a mayoral candidate, and the series is about two people performing restraint while everybody around them suffers for it. Vincent D'Onofrio is extraordinary, and the scene in a diner where both men drop the pretence for ninety seconds is the best writing here.

Charlie Cox is as good as he has ever been in the part, and the show is willing to be slow. The violence is at the Netflix level. It leads directly into a second season.