Main cast: Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil), Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk/Kingpin), Tony Dalton (Jack Duquesne), Margarita Levieva (Heather Glenn), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), Zabryna Guevara (Sheila Rivera), Nikki M James (Kirsten Mcduffie), Genneya Walton (BB Urich), Arty Froushan (Buck Cashman), Clark Johnson (Cherry), Michael Gandolfini (Daniel Blake), and Ayelet Zurer (Vanessa Fisk)
Director: David Boyd
It’s amazing how much Daredevil: Born Again perks up when Vincent D’Onofrio shows up again, casually reminding everyone that charisma is a real thing and not just something you write into a script and hope happens. His absence last episode was like taking espresso away from your Monday morning. You drag through it wondering why everything feels so lifeless—oh right, no Fisk.
Excessive Force is all about our two main boys—Matt “Catholic Guilt in Human Form” Murdock and Wilson “Emotional Volcano in a Three-Piece Suit” Fisk—finally leaning into their inner darkness like it’s prom night and they’ve decided to dance with the date that brought them. Enough pretending. It’s time to put the red mask and murder gloves back on.
Meanwhile, in Plot Convenience Land, the serial killer, whose name escapes everyone including the writers (Muse? Mews? Meh?), is still out and about doing the show’s favorite thing: targeting POC victims so the white male leads can swoop in and display righteous indignation. If there were an Emmy for Most Politically Performative Storytelling, this show would be in the front row blowing kisses to the judges.
Fisk decides it’s time to go full Trump-with-a-tantrum and launches a media blitz like a man who just discovered X again. He also assembles a task force made up of every bad cop stereotype imaginable. It’s a team of people so sketchy, even The Boys would be like, “Whoa, dial it back!”
Still, for all the ridiculousness, Fisk gets one cathartic win: he finally snaps and beats his wife’s lover to a pulp. It’s framed like a climactic, violent ballet—but make it therapeutic. You could practically hear the audience cheering, “Thank you! We were waiting for SOMEONE to lose it!” Let’s face it: we’re all Fisk in that moment—bored, tired, and just really sick of pretending to be nice.
And then there’s Matt, sweet, sulky Matt. After episodes of agonizing self-reflection that could power an entire therapy retreat, he finally suits up as Daredevil again and proceeds to demolish normies like he’s making up for lost gym time. It’s impressive. Also, deeply questionable. Like, is anyone keeping track of the body count? Between Matt’s hyper-hearing, ninja powers, and zero patience, most of these fights feel less like justice and more like recreational mugging.
At this point, the show has gone full Zack Snyder-lite: moody lighting, ultraviolence, moral ambiguity, and a deep belief that rage = character development. And you know what? It’s kind of entertaining, if you shut your brain off and let the gritty nonsense wash over you like a badly lit noir bath.
In conclusion, Excessive Force is marginally better than what came before—less filler, more killer. The runtime is mercifully short, the plot actually moves, and Fisk is once again the best thing on screen by a country mile. The show’s still a mess, but now it’s an angry mess—and frankly, I’ll take that over moping any day of the week.
