There’s a lot of pressure on Daredevil to be the superhero show that will be something more. Unlike the many plucky adventures of past Disney+ Marvel projects, laced with canon additions and PG-13 pluck, Born Again established itself as being far more grounded and poignant. Season one found the hero hanging up his cowl after tragedy, then putting it back on for street justice amid the corrupt rise of Kingpin to the mayor of New York City. It was a thrilling season, but the finale had an off tone that signaled the show was reaching its limits of tapping into flaws of the justice system and the hate that allows evil men to have a place in politics. In this regard, season two is more of the same.

There’s an essence of Daredevil in going back to basics, as Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) returns to lawyering by day and beating down criminals by night. The difference is that not only is Matt trying to stop the murdering villains, but Kingpin’s special unit of enforcers, who run the streets and make people disappear. The connections to the recent ramp-up of ICE agents across America couldn’t be clearer; even the showrunners made educated guesses in the writing that turned out to be more prophetic than hyperbolic. William “Kingpin” Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) struggles to maintain that control by manipulating key political figures and stirring up propaganda about how he’s a good mayor cleaning up the city streets. Of course, keeping up that lie is not easy, and it’s cathartic watching his political grip loosen amid the toxic byproducts of the police state he has created.

The show’s strengths remain, with the intense street violence and sizzling drama amid Kingpin’s New York. Those hoping for more scenes of Matt Murdock engaging in combat more physical than legal won’t be disappointed. Thankfully, there’s still a part of Matt that wants to play by the rules and find the most satisfying win that follows the easily broken ones, making him a more compelling hero who hasn’t entirely hung up his court suit. Fisk is also compelling for his frailties, which are kept at bay from the public but become more pronounced as his campaign of terror brings his personal life into the crosshairs. The duality of this battle is unique, especially for an intercut scene where the comfy bed of Fisk is plagued by uncertainty, while the lesser bed of Murdock has hope for the future. Scrappy rebellion becomes something worth rooting for over the course of the season’s eight episodes.

Unfortunately, Born Again suffers mildly from a problem that has plagued many Marvel TV shows: deciding where this is all going. The best episodes are in the middle, where all the relatable details keep stirring up frustration and fury. Everything from the fears circulating among Fisk’s staff to the viral propaganda revealing the truth about his regime makes for a tantalizing political thriller that doesn’t feel like genre dress-up for this Marvel production. While there is some satisfaction in watching Matt wage this war against chaos, there’s still an unresolved sense that the show handles authoritarianism in a manner more depressing than inspiring. Matt makes some big sacrifices in this season, but his methods of preserving justice are sometimes stubborn in how he plays up being Batman with a law degree to the bitter end. Rather than finding something more cerebral in this highly relatable scenario, the show seems to fall back on stewing in the rhetoric we’ve engaged with, rather than on how to challenge it further, despite some satisfying moments of Matt beating back the most oppressive forces.

Daredevil: Born Again still makes for some great superhero television, even if its reflective political narrative never quite reaches a satisfying boil. The story itself is engaging enough, and a handful of episodes stand out for being more about the ambitions of its characters than about which Marvel crossover will happen next. It was exciting to watch Matt grapple with this new war being waged against elected officials, and Fisk struggling to keep his mayoral mafia afloat. While there is a conclusion to this season, there is a level of unrealized catharsis that I couldn’t help but spot amid all the bone-crushing action and dire drama. There does seem to be a third season in the works, and I’m curious to see if the finale can deliver a final blow better than the good-but-not-great resolve of season two. Born Again may be the best TV show to come out of Marvel Studios, but it could use more political muscle beyond the relatable strife to punch as hard as its brutally intoxicating fight scenes do. That might be a tall order for a Marvel TV series, but Daredevil has proven those narrative desires might not be too far out of reach.