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Jul 16, 2009 · Rating: 4 out of 5. Jamie salutes Frank Miller's Daredevil: Born Again, which remains billed as the ultimate Daredevil story...
- Look who discovered showrunners!
- Netflix Killed the Pilot, Streaming Buried it
- The Return of the Showrunner
- Are you still invested in Marvel’s Disney+ output?
Streaming Wars
By Amelia Emberwing
Updated: Oct 18, 2023 5:25 pm
Posted: Oct 17, 2023 7:38 pm
Last week, The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit put out a report on Daredevil: Born Again. While I recommend reading the full piece, here’s the gist for our purposes today: The way Disney is making TV isn’t working. And, unfortunately, Daredevil: Born Again just so happened to be the moment where Kevin Fiege and other Marvel executives realized it. This realization seems to have cost head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and the existing series directors their jobs despite the level of oversight that happens on these MCU projects before they even hit production (read: the scripts they were producing were very approved).
It’s unacceptable that this epiphany came at the cost of a team of folks’ jobs. But it also signals a very good shift in the future of MCU (and hopefully Star Wars) television.
When Netflix started creating streaming originals, it changed the way that television shows were made — at least for the purposes of streaming. Because Netflix’s model is to drop the entire series all at once (regardless of what the show needs based on tone and tempo), they had no need for pilot episodes. Or at least they thought they didn’t.
A pilot episode has two jobs. First, it’s to sell executives so they can decide whether or not to give the pilot a series order. Then it has to sell the audience. A pilot is meant to be a show’s thesis statement. It's there to set the bedrock of the series to come, introducing the audience to key themes, characters, and narratives in a way that is exciting enough to keep folks tuning in from week to week.
Netflix was half right in its idea that pilots didn’t matter for them. In the traditional television purchase model, the aforementioned executives review the pilot and decide if they want the rest of the series to be made. But Netflix didn’t have the constraints of timeslots, and its sole function was to keep people watching around the clock, so it wasn’t always about quality. It was also about volume. Because of this, the streamer’s purchase model is to buy an entire season (or sometimes multiple seasons, which can happen in linear television as well) and produce it upfront.
Netflix does have a recent strong exception to this rule to help prove the necessity of pilots and, to a lesser extent, premieres. Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher’s first episode sets up all of the intrigue and mystery necessary while still telling you exactly who the players are and what kind of ride you’re about to get on. You’ll also notice how strong the reception has been for the series. While that’s only partially thanks to having a killer first episode, you can’t get strong positive responses if people aren’t sticking around throughout your season, and “A Midnight Dreary” very clearly gave folks a reason to continue to click “I’m still watching.”
Exceptions aside, what Netflix forgot in the case of the murdered pilot episode is that they still have to sell the audience. Everywhere you turn you hear people talking about the quality of Netflix series, and it’s very rarely in a positive light. A lack of pilot episodes most certainly isn’t solely responsible for Netflix’s problems, but they do play a part in them, particularly as the streamer struggles to get audiences to connect with whatever their next big thing may be with Stranger Things coming to an end and The Witcher very clearly in its death throes. (The aforementioned The Fall of the House of Usher is a limited series, and Mike Flanagan is taking his talents to Prime Video moving forward.)
But Netflix only killed the pilot, all of the other streaming platforms threw the dirt on top of the proverbial coffin.
Now that we’ve gotten all of that pilot business out of the way, let’s talk about a uniquely Disney problem: They just… don’t use showrunners for the MCU. Sometimes it has worked out for them — I am a strong defender of many of their series — but not using a showrunner is madness. It’s a decision made in hubris, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to hear that the streamer has suddenly realized how television is meant to be made. Bummer that it took dwindling engagement with all of their series across the board to come to said realization, but hey, we made it!
For those who don’t spend way too much time dealing with the inner workings of TV, a showrunner is exactly what it sounds like. They’re responsible for all of the creative decisions on a show but, most importantly for the purposes of our conversation, they oversee the writers room.
Yes, I’m a die-hard Phase Completist
Yes, I’m still enjoying the quality of the shows
Kind of; I mostly read fan wikis to keep up
No, they all feel secondary to the movies
No, the overall quality from show to show is too chaotic
Other. Tell us in the comments.
Mar 21, 2023 · Daredevil: Born Again is Considered One of Marvel's Greatest Stories - For Good Reason. By Devon Lord-Moncrief. Published Mar 21, 2023. A tale of love and indescribable loss, Daredevil: Born Again is a Marvel masterpiece, a perfect blend of gritty action and heartfelt compassion. Daredevil exists within the darker, grittier side of the Marvel ...
- Freelance Writer
May 14, 2024 · Almost two years after an official announcement, Disney has finally shared when to expect the release of Daredevil: Born Again. The anticipated show featuring Charlie Cox will be out in March...
- Kat Bailey
Apr 14, 2024 · 1. The new show is currently still in the works, but all of the details haven’t been released yet. As of right now, we know the series will be exclusively streaming on Disney+, as with all the...
- Ethan Arbuckle
IGN Rating. Images & Screenshots. 28 Images. Summary. Daredevil: Born Again is a new series (starring Charlie Cox, star of the 2015 Daredevil show) featuring Matt Murdock, a blind man who...
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Trivia. FAQ. IMDbPro. All topics. Daredevil: Born Again. TV Series. 2024–. POPULARITY. 334. 147. Action Adventure Crime. Plot kept under wraps. Stars. Charlie Cox. Margarita Levieva. Wilson Bethel. See production info at IMDbPro. Series premiere. March 2025. Add to Watchlist. Added by 31.6K users. Episodes 18. Series premiere. S1.E1. Episode #1.1.
