Comedy
Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat
‘Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat’ continues fooling its main subject for laughs—but it also comes with some content to consider.
Wilson Fisk has changed. Or so he says.
He’s no longer that brutally cruel criminal mastermind known as Kingpin. “A rich man, by his very nature, is self-serving,” he says. “A mayor serves his city.”
He is indeed New York City’s mayor now. And he has promised the voters that he’ll serve them the best that he can. First item on his to-do list? Cleaning up the crime-riddled streets of New York—an ironic promise, to be sure, but a promise that he’s kept. At least according to Fisk’s powerful propaganda machine.
But the city’s still riddled with a whole bunch of costumed vigilantes, and Fisk doesn’t like them one bit. That Daredevil guy has got to go.
Matt Murdock thought he’d changed, too.
After a psycho killed one of his best friends, the blind vigilante dropped his pointed cowl, set aside his billy club and stopped being Daredevil.
“A line was crossed,” Matt, who’s also a crusading attorney, tells someone. “I felt like I lost the privilege. And despite the good that I was doing, I was causing damage.”
But with archnemesis Fisk growing ever-more powerful (and is, as of Season 2, not the least bit reformed), Matt knows that someone’s got to stand up to the guy. So he and a brave batch of would-be do-gooders are attempting to bring Kingpin to justice, one way or another.
Thing is, Matt and his cohorts are playing against a deck stacked and shuffled by Fisk himself—and Kingpin holds all the aces. Psychologist Heather Glenn, Matt’s former ally and lover, is now in the employ of Fisk, and she’s willing to adjust her findings to fit Fisk’s wishes. Fisk is able to manipulate the legal system almost at will. And if anyone dares to check his authority, well, he’s got friends in D.C. who can end any legal meddling.
But Fisk’s favorite new tool is the Anti-Vigilante Task Force—an extra-special agency that operates with sweeping powers, a questionable legal mandate, and excessive force whenever possible. And while they’re happy to drag in any vigilante or vigilante-associate whenever possible (real or imagined), they all know that Fisk’s most sought-for prize would be double D himself.
Around the time that the Avengers were tangling with the AI monstrosity Ultron and Ant-Man was fighting Yellowjacket on a toy train, a different sort of Marvel superhero started stalking the mean streets of Hell’s Kitchen—and the boulevards of Netflix.
Netflix’s Daredevil was grim, gritty and rated TV-MA—the equivalent of an R-rating in the world of movies. Blood was spattered. Curse words were hurled. Was the show good? Aesthetically, yes, and it brought in a welcome element of faith. (Matt Murdock’s Catholicism is a critical part of his character, and a bulwark of his no-kill ethos.) But the three-season story arc was brutal, too, and hardly the stuff that families could watch together.
Netflix closed out the series in 2018, turning over the rights to Disney—the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s corporate overlord. And while Daredevil (played engagingly by Charlie Cox) has showed up in some MCU properties since, Daredevil: Born Again marks his return as a true front-line superhero.
And the show is a return to form—for good and ill.
Born Again feels more like Matt Reeves’ The Batman than the MCU’s Avengers: There are no multiversal or extraterrestrial threats—just a lot of crime, corruption and Kingpin to deal with. The show is aimed at adults who like multilayered storytelling and complex characters.
But it is, of course, more “adult” in other ways, too.
Bad language, including f- and s-words, is strong and pervasive. Despite Matt’s Catholicism (which seems a bit downplayed by Disney), the character has no inhibitions about diving into bed with someone if the opportunity strikes.
And speaking of striking … wow, is this show violent.
Daredevil may not kill. But sometimes he seems to skate by that scruple on a technicality. He’ll break bones, crush skulls and shed an incredible amount of blood in bringing his foes his own painful form of “justice.” And while Wilson Fisk plays nice, he—and his wife—are as brutal as they come. The people who die here might feel like they got off easy.
Wilson Fisk may insist that he’s changed. But Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again? It feels much the same as its Netflix predecessor, if not a bit bloodier and more profane. And for families who trust Disney to give them family friendly fare, that’s hardly a welcome return.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out. )
“New York is back, and better than ever!” someone enthuses in a promotional puff piece backed by new Mayor Wilson Fisk. But the dishonorable mayor is smuggling weapons behind the city’s back. And when Daredevil boards a cargo ship and discovers a massive weapons cache, the boat’s captain—on Fisk’s direction—partially sinks the ship and flees with the first mate, leaving the rest to die.
Now the race is on: Can Fisk find a way to get rid of the weapons before the world learns he’s not quite the changed man he pretends to be? Or will Daredevil’s alter ego, Matt Murdock, be able to expose Kingpin’s crimes? The key will be finding that captain and first mate before Fisk and his Anti-Vigilante Task Force can silence the two permanently.
Daredevil fights with plenty of Fisk’s henchmen. He doesn’t kill any of them, but after the confrontation, some may wish they were dead. Several bones get snapped during these melees, but one broken arm is particularly grotesque: The bone punctures the skin, and we see the bloody, splattery wound. Others get their heads smashed into walls or pieces of furniture, knocking them out. Daredevil’s nifty billy club smashes and baps plenty of evildoers. Many of these henchmen eventually die (though not by Daredevil’s hand), drowning on the cargo ship. Others get skewered by flying knife blades. Daredevil’s beaten quite badly himself, too.
A man gets beaten and tortured for information before getting shot in the head. Another man gets beaten as well, nearly suffering a heart attack from the experience. One man gets pummeled with a baton. A woman gets slugged in the face. Matt flashes back to when his friend, Foggy Nelson, died. A woman recalls a harrowing and bloody experience. An apparent CIA agent encourages Fisk to clear the cargo ship of incriminating evidence—and then kill those involved in the clearing. (Fisk agrees to the plan.)
Matt and his girlfriend, Karen Page, smooch and then fall outside the lens of the camera, suggesting they’re about to embark in more intimate activities. Characters pour, swirl and quaff alcohol, and one dunks his phone in a glass of the stuff. Someone pours herself a glass of straight vodka and drinks it down.
We hear a reference to diapers floating in a river. Several people lie. We hear 15 f-words, about 10 s-words and a few other profanities, including “b–tard,” “d–n” and “h—.” Jesus’ name is abused twice.
We also hear a few biblical references: A Fisk propaganda poster proclaims that New York is “born again.” And the legal crusade that Matt and his legal partner are on is described in “David and Goliath” terms.
Matt and his besties, Foggy and Karen, go out to a bar to hang out with friends for a bit. But the evening is marred when psychopath Dex Poindexter—known to Marvel fans as Bullseye—attacks the establishment and kills several people, including one of Matt’s friends.
A year later, we learn that Matt has set aside his Daredevil persona, apparently for good. “I’m not him anymore, and I won’t let myself be,” he says. But when Wilson Fisk returns from a lengthy absence and decides to run for mayor, Matt meets with his former nemesis—warning him that he doesn’t trust Fisk’s “new man” schtick.
“I was raised to believe in grace,” Matt says. “That we can be touched by the divine and transformed into a better person. So if you say to me that you’re a new man, I say fine. But you should know I was also raised to believe in retribution. So if you step out of line, I will be there.”
That statement is one of a handful of references to faith we see in the opening episode. A bartender offers a toast: “May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you’re dead,” she says. We hear the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds song “Into My Arms,” which includes some spiritual allusions. (“I don’t believe in an interventionist God,” we hear, “But I know, darling, that you do.”)
Bullseye guns down at least three people in quick succession, splashing a bystander in their blood. Other people die during his attack, as well. One victim bleeds out, slowly, and we hear the heartbeat slow to a halt. Daredevil’s own armored suit is peppered with blades during the fight. Each combatant brutalizes the other, and one pushes another from a rooftop—the victim landing on the sidewalk with a thud. (He, however, survives.)
Matt goes on a date, which ends with a kiss. Wilson Fisk expresses his undying love for his wife, Vanessa—though he also knows that she had an affair when he was gone. People drink liberally. We hear the f-word three times, the s-word four and “h—” a half-dozen. Also on tap: six misuses of God’s name (five of which include “d–n”) and two abuses of Jesus’ name.
In the opening scene, two men assault another guy on an empty subway platform. A bystander flies in to protect the victim, leading to a massive fight. One of the original assailants is accidentally shoved into a passing subway train, killing him instantly (and spattering blood). His pal pulls a gun and a badge: The good Samaritan discovers that he interrupted a shakedown perpetrated by a couple of crooked cops—and accidentally killed one. Enter Matt Murdock, who swears to defend the accused killer to the best of his ability, even if it means putting himself in harm’s way.
In another bloody fight, someone’s arm is broken. (We see the bones protrude beneath the man’s clothes. Two people get knocked out (or worse), and all three are left seriously bloodied. Matt’s new client, Hector Ayala, tells Matt that he’s being regularly beaten by both inmates and guards while locked away. Wilson Fisk appears to threaten one of his employees by showing him a picture of his secret, apparently illegitimate, son: Whether Fisk is threatening to reveal the son’s identity or kill him is not entirely clear.
Matt and his new girlfriend, Heather, flirt and talk obliquely about going to bed together. They drink wine, and Heather talks about “double-fisting Mai Tais.” Matt stands in front of a church and listens to a priest say, “Behold Him to takes away the sins of the world.” Fisk and his wife go to marriage counseling. “I’m here because I don’t want to lose my wife,” he tells the counselor.
Characters say the f-word twice and the s-word six times. We also hear “a–,” “b–ch” and “crap.”
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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