After spending much of the debut season of “Daredevil: Born Again” searching for purpose and a reason to suit up again, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock got more than he bargained for with the rise of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin — er, make that newly-elected Mayor Wilson Fisk. The rest of us, meanwhile, had to settle for a reshoot-heavy salvage job that never really found its footing. This time around, the Man Without Fear finds himself in the middle chapter of a revival series that would seem to be everything we’ve always wanted from a Marvel production: darker, artist-driven, and more political than ever. Well, as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

In its scramble to set itself apart from the rest of the MCU and provide a more adult, Prestige TV-like experience, “Daredevil: Born Again” season 2 trips over its own feet and misses the mark. That’s not to say showrunner Dario Scardapane and his creative team are lacking in ambition whatsoever. Despite its street-level perspective, this is a sprawling story with genuine stakes as the fate of the city, its people, and its overmatched protectors hang in the balance. It’s a refreshing change of pace from any number of Marvel or DC spectacles that are solely concerned with how cool and flawless their superheroes look. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough to sustain the momentum of a larger narrative practically bursting with great ideas … but a glaring inability to execute them.

What’s maddening is that season 2 should’ve had everything working in its favor to deliver the best “Daredevil” installment since the original Netflix series. There’s the killer new status quo, which puts Murdock and his vigilante friends on the back foot following Mayor Fisk’s takeover of the city. The well-established chemistry and volatile history behind the Murdock/Fisk dynamic has always been Marvel’s secret weapon, long before these characters were folded into the studio’s larger cinematic universe. Add to that the promised return of fan-favorites like Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones and a villainous plot ripped straight from real-world headlines, and this had the makings of the MCU’s easiest and most convincing slam dunk since “Avengers: Endgame.”

But, when it’s all said and done, each of these supposed strengths falls frustratingly short of expectations. Neither the superhero action nor the grounded crime drama elements hit as hard as they should, failing to approach the heights of any of the vaunted hallway fights or the courtroom thrills of the Netflix series. In spite of all the buildup, Murdock and Fisk remain separated in their own corners for the vast majority of the season, barely even crossing paths with one another until it’s too late. And the political commentary, though boldly drawing all sorts of parallels with MAGA rhetoric and ICE activities, either ends up ham-fisted at best or woefully tone-deaf at worst.

Whatever else might be said for it, “Daredevil: Born Again” season 2 feels more complete than last year’s outing — if only because it avoids resembling the stitched-together remnants of a hatchet job. From beginning to end, this is clearly the unadulterated vision of returning showrunner Dario Scardapane (“Punisher”) and his writers. Directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead once again bring an eye for visual storytelling and boundless style, though their presence is restricted to only the first pair of episodes. Where season 1 mostly smacks of budget constraints and eleventh-hour rewrites, this sophomore effort strikes a careful balance between the abstract mood of the Netflix series and the more formal look of this new one. “Born Again” still can’t compete with the stark colors and rich textures of its predecessor show, but the impulse to stand on its own two feet — demonstrated by the return of that evocative opening title sequence, featuring crumbling New York City imagery and the Newton Brothers’ downbeat score — isn’t a wrong one.

The same can’t be said for the overall structure of the season, which forces viewers to slog through a trio of table-setting episodes before finally kicking into gear. Picking up sixth months after the events of the season 1 finale, Matt and his now-girlfriend Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) operate from the shadows to disrupt Wilson Fisk’s operations however they can. A raid on a cargo ship laden with illegal weapons sets the bar high in the early going, but this soon gives way to a plodding storyline more interested in gesturing towards Fisk’s shady dealings rather than actually exploring them. Any urgency or momentum from last year’s cliffhanger ending is gone, replaced by a sense of complacency and wheel-spinning and, in Matt’s case, a stubborn faith in a broken legal system to do the right thing.

For traditional throwbacks like “The Wire” or “The Sopranos” or “Breaking Bad,” all of which “Born Again” frequently and obviously homages, this wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Building a strong foundation at the expense of a slow start is a tradeoff you make 9 times out of 10 … as long as you have a surplus of episodes to work with, that is. Here, wasting nearly half of its runtime in an attempt to move various characters and subplots and setups into place is a fatal misstep that “Born Again” can’t overcome. This becomes impossible to ignore when the relatively short season (eight episodes compared to season 1’s nine, all of which were made available to critics ahead of time) stumbles out of the gate, only picking up steam halfway through as the series builds to a grand finale. Despite previously teasing an army to fight back against Fisk’s empire, it takes an inordinate amount of time for scattered supporting players like private detective Cherry (Clark Johnson), defense attorney Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), or even the superpowered Jessica Jones and wild card assassin Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) to fully join the fray.

By the time the action truly gets going and the full scope of the war against Fisk rounds into shape, viewers stuck watching this on a weekly basis may find their patience wearing painfully thin.

More than anywhere else, however, “Daredevil: Born Again” does itself no favors with its haphazard approach to mixing politics with superheroics. Ordinarily, this would represent a level of courage and self-awareness that far too many MCU products veer away from — last year’s “Captain America: Brave New World” being one of the worst offenders in this regard. In this case, the Disney+ series hides behind its masked vigilante and fails to say anything of actual substance.

Some of it works as intended, such as the return of the “BB Report” framing device. Arguably the most interesting idea from season 1, this gives intrepid young journalist BB Urich (a standout Genneya Walton) a surprising amount of material to work with throughout season 2. In a neat twist, the Wilson Fisk political machine has co-opted her mainstream work into shameless propaganda. It’s now left to a series of jarring (though rather clunkily-realized) underground broadcasts from a mysterious hacker — blatantly cribbing from the likes of “Mr. Robot,” distractingly enough – to expose the truth behind New York City’s entrenched moral rot.

But whenever “Born Again” isn’t examining this juxtaposition between what we’re shown in the deceptive light of day and what’s actually going down in the darkened alleyways and ports, that’s where things get dicey. Much of season 2 revolves around Fisk’s “Safer Streets” initiative, which leverages the mayor’s emergency powers to flood the streets with masked thugs who terrorize civilians, brutalize suspects, and disappear anyone who gets in their way. Of course, it’s one thing to merely reference current events like ICE raids and unjust arrests and a culture of wanton violence among law enforcement. It’s quite another to actually craft a meaningful statement about any of that beyond a shrugging observation that amounts to, “Hey, have you ever noticed Fisk is kind of Trump-y?“

Even setting aside a finale that may go down as one of the most misguided sequences in the entire MCU, season 2 can’t help but feel like a crushing disappointment. It’s a shame, too, because there’s still so much to enjoy. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio will receive most of the headlines, and rightfully so, but don’t sleep on supporting MVPs Wilson Bethel, Michael Gandolfini (who plays Fisk loyalist Daniel Blake), and especially newcomer Matthew Lillard as the hilariously unnerving Mr. Charles. Despite it all, there’s an undeniable pleasure to be found in Matt Murdock raging against the world, bristling against his own Catholic beliefs, and beating bad guys to a pulp. If only “Daredevil: Born Again” — or perhaps the MCU at large — didn’t force him to keep pulling his punches.

/Film Rating: 5 out of 10

“Daredevil: Born Again” season 2 premieres on Disney+ on March 24, 2026.