Daredevil: Born Again Brings Michael Gandolfini Out of His Father’s Acting Shadow
This post contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 2.
Midway through “The Scales & The Sword,” the third episode of Daredevil: Born Again‘s second season, Daniel Blake scores a minor victory. Blake, a rising star in the administration of New York City mayor Wilson Fisk gets accosted by the mayor’s scary right-hand man Buck Cashman for eating a sandwich just an hour before a political dinner. Undeterred, Blake explains his rationale for the pre-dinner meal, arguing that a full stomach will prevent him from getting queazy around the governor. “Plus,” he says, offering Cashman an extra sandwich to close the argument, “They’re dope as fuck.”
Were Blake’s actor Michael Gandolfini to do that scene in any of his previous works, including the first season of Born Again, it would have felt like an echo of something his father James would have done. But as Born Again second season puts Blake on a tragic arc, Gandolfini gets to play a character unlike anything in his dad’s impressive oeuvre, finally allowing the younger actor to stand on his own.
His Father’s Son
Any actor with a famous father would draw comparisons to their predecessor, but they’re especially apt in Gandolfini’s case. He made his debut with a small part in the 2011 James Gandolfini movie Down the Shore and then, after several supporting parts—including a reoccurring role in the David Simon HBO series The Deuce—Michael got his first big role by following in his dad’s footsteps when played a young Tony Soprano in the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.
It’s easy to see why Michael would get to play his dad’s character, beyond just the physical similarities. Tony Soprano is a television great because he looked every bit like the scary mobster he wanted to be, but could not hide his wounded inner-self. The elder Gandolfini always conveyed the sweetness and sadness in Tony, even when at his most monstrous. As a man just now in his mid-20s, the younger Gandolfini, of course, reads as more vulnerable. But his take on Tony, just like his parts in Warfare and as a large adult son in Beau Is Afraid, suggest imminent violence, the ability to do harm to anyone who gets on his bad side.
As an employee of Mayor Wilson Fisk, the former Kingpin of Crime, Daniel Blake can certainly cause more than his share of destruction. But Gandolfini plays Blake like someone who would never willingly harm another person directly, even if he approves of his boss’s aggressive policies.
Dealing With the Devil
Blake is part of Born Again‘s mission to reflect our current political moment through the lens of Marvel Comics. Even more so than the Mayor Fisk storyline from the comics, Born Again examines the way right wing populism has influenced mainstream politics. The series shows how a loud subset of voters puts a brutal and overly-sensitive criminal into office and gives him wide executive powers, even cheering as he unleashes militarized police against the populace.
Blake stands in for the young men who find themselves attracted to the rhetoric of power embraced by these demagogues. Awe dawns across Blake’s face as he watches Fisk ignore bureaucracy to enforce his will, or sees Fisk bully those who cross him. The excitement that Gandolfini plays in the character expresses a young man’s desire to see someone who gets what they want, and doesn’t have to bow to society’s rules.
But in season 2, Born Again adds a new wrinkle by emphasizing Blake’s friendship with BB Urich, the young reporter played by Genneya Walton. Even though BB has been reduced to producing stories sympathetic to Fisk, the man who murdered her beloved Uncle Ben in the Netflix series, she still remains friendly with Blake.
The scenes shared between the two allow Gandolfini to play Blake as giddy, boyish, and kind. He wants so badly for BB to accept him, as demonstrated by the way he swaggers up to her during a party in his fancy apartment. When BB points out that Fisk violated the ethics of his office by keeping real estate holdings, Blake gets defensive, but not in a mean or angry way. He wants BB to accept his weak explanation for the behavior not because he wants to win the argument, but because he just wants BB to be happy for him.
Those conflicting feelings have come to the fore in the most recent episodes of Born Again, in which Cashman (Arty Froushan) and other Fisk administrators search for a leak within the team. Someone is getting footage of Fisk’s illegal actions to City Without Fear, a pirate satire program hosted by someone in a cheap Fisk mask. Even before episode 3 reveals that she’s wearing the Fisk mask, viewers already knew that BB has been taking footage from Blake’s computer and using it to make City Without Fear.
As Cashman and others bear down on him, and he suspects his best friend even more, Blake feels a torrent of emotions, giving Gandolfini interesting notes to play. At turns, Blake is angry, hurt, and scared, but not in the same way that his father played Tony Soprano, a weak man who was powerless against his own strength. Rather, Gandolfini finds true vulnerability in Blake, an inability to get what he wants, no matter how much he capitulates to people with power.
Born Again
We’re only three episodes into Born Again‘s second season, and things are already going badly for Blake. Daredevil may exist in the world of Marvel superheroes and anything can happen in a reality not bound by normal laws, but Blake’s days in Fisk’s employ may be numbered. Even if Blake ceases to be a going concern on Born Again, he’s already done enough to enrich the tapestry of the series.
Moreover, he’s done enough to establish Michael Gandolfini as an exciting young actor. No longer just young Tony Soprano, Michael Gandolfini is clearly ready to build his own career, bringing to life his own set of compelling characters in the MCU and beyond.
Daredevil: Born Again season streams new episodes every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET on Disney+.





































































































































