OK, so thanks to an opening episode loaded with shock deaths and tense face/offs, it’s pretty damn clear that Daredevil is back, but he’s seemed to have gotten a boost from taking some time away before finally joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper. However, now that the opening episode nailed the take off, it’s time for the next eight episodes to do it justice with a new supporting cast surrounding the likes of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk – but in response to the headline grabbing twists the previous installment beaned us with like one of Bullseye’s projectiles, Optics proves to be a much more restrained affair.
Before the creative overhaul that steered this revival more towards the original Netflix series, rumours told that Daredevil: Born Again took a more lawyer heavy approach to proceedings and if the second episode is any indication, a good chunk of that original intent still exists. But after such a barnstormer of an opening, can a more sedate episode still bring the thrills?
Like it or not, Wilson Fisk – the former Kingpin of crime – has now been voted in as the Mayor of New York City and while this has split the population of the town right down the middle, this hasn’t stopped the man forging ahead with his new job. However, despite getting some noticable push back from a police commissioner that’s adamant about stepping down to make Fisk’s life harder, we find that even though Wislson has renounced that Kingpin life, he’s still willing to use some of those old, underhanded tricks he once used to bend things to his will during the bad old days. However, something that isn’t bending to his will as much as he’d like is his marriage to Vanessa who is still enjoying running Fisk’s former empire and because of the growing rift between them, they both visit a therapist – who just so happens to be Matt Murdock’s girlfriend, Heather.
Meanwhile, Murdock finds himself biting off more than he can chew when he sticks his nose into a cop killing case involving Hector Ayala who claims he was only trying to stop an assault when the two thugs he tried to thwart turned out to be crooked members of the NYPD. However, the cops don’t take particularly kindly to one of their own falling in front of a subway train in the midst of a scuffle and since the only witness fled the scene, poor Hector is a little stuck.
Matt seems confident that he can sort this all out in court, however, matters get even more twisted when Murdock discovers that the man he’s defending from a cop killing charge is actually a costumed vigilante named White Tiger and now Matt and his firm suddenly find themselves stuck with a near unwinnable case with a Mayor pushing an anti-vigilante agenda. However, when Matt tries to hunt down the witness, he unavoidably gets into a fight with some people sent to silence him and once the former Daredevil gets some blood on his hands, the situation gets a million times more serious.
The biggest test Daredevil: Born Again was always going to face was if it could sustain the drama of this long awaited return once the shocks of the first episode wore off. Regardless what you thought of it, the previous offering gave you the return of Foggy and Karen only to kill one of them off, a grueling fist fight with Bullseye and a taunt coffee shop meeting between Matt and Wilson that crackled with tension as Daredevil’s official welcoming to the MCU came with immeadiate stakes. However, the second episode shifts gears by splitting the hero and villain entirely, including barely any superhero stuff and using its time to further integrate the new characters more fully with lots of talky interludes. To rebuild Daredevil’s shattered world, it’s a necessary tactic, but it’s also unsurprising that it was released along with episode one to provide a two-episode premiere to compensate for its more deliberate pace.
Essentially, Optics gives us two shows in one: one is Matt doing his thing as a lawyer and trying to expose corruption only to uncover a nest of vipers as he digs deeper into a politically charged case – the other is a political drama that follows the freshly minted Mayor of New York as he settles into his office and gets to work on bending the rules to be a elected official that actually gets things done in a way that slightly feels like Tony Soprano has wandered onto the set of The West Wing. Both premises sound like they could actually sustain their own shows without actually needing to contain any heroes at all, but the dedication of Daredevil to try and deliver mature storytelling between the costumed stuff is extraordinarily admirable. In fact, while rumours are abound that this season is something of a patchwork of previously filmed footage from the first pass of the series and the reshoots, it all snaps together nicely as it really does feel like a fresh start for the two main characters.
But while the show is now starting to build upon its new supporting cast, we can see both Murdock and Fisk’s world bleeding into one another once more without the two even trying. Heather being chosen as the Fisk’s therapist can’t be good news for a start and the fact that Ben Ulrich’s niece, BB, wants to interview Wilson brings up genuine questions considering the former Kingpin is the one who throttled her uncle to death years prior. Then there’s Daniel Blade who seems to be part Fisk fan boy, part plant from Vanessa who not only looks up to his new boss like he’s a big bald God, but also has a growing relationship with thr budding reporter.
However, the big news is the introduction of White Tiger, who has inadvertently gotten Murdock entwined in a headache of a case as the emerging factors just keep getting worse. It’s a shame that actor Kama de Los Reyes sadly passed away after finishing the filming of his character, but the plot thread involving his character proves to be fairly intriguing as it gives Matt – an ex-vigilante himself – a cause to fight for that feels uncomfortably close to home. In fact, it gets pretty uncomfortable for our protagonist when the bloodthirsty urges he’s repressed come rushing back to the surface for the first time since he sent Bullseye on a one way trip to sidewalk city a year prior. The result is that Murdock absolutely destroys these guys, cracking bones, ripping tendons and unleashing a primal roar of rage in the aftermath that closes out the episode. However, it’s interesting that the moment isn’t played for heroic vibes and instead feels more like the instant regret of an addict falling violently off the wagon and there’s a good chance that he may have actually killed the cop that survived the altercation with Hector after he crunches the dude’s head and neck into the floorboards.
A strong first episode is followed up by a more deliberate spot of world building that mostly goes light on superheroics and heavy on real world politics. But while the usual bouts of MCU referencing is connecting old horn head to the larger universe are present and correct (hello name drops of Spider-Man and The Punisher), the show is still making sure that the darker aspects are very much front, centre and breaking the faces of wrongdoers everywhere.
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