Join Jim Phoenix on What’s Kraken as he delves into the fascinating career of award-winning writer, producer, and voice actor Wren Valentino. Discover Wren’s evolution from penning short stories to crafting compelling screenplays and movies. Learn about his breakthrough projects, the impact of industry icon Felissa Rose, and Wren’s transition into voice acting. This episode offers a captivating look at the creative process and career development in the entertainment industry. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation with one of the most versatile talents in the business! #WrenValentinoCareer #ScreenwritingAndVoiceActing
Marvelâs favorite one-man wrecking crew is back, but letâs be realâthis isnât just a Daredevil reboot, itâs a goddamn resurrection. The Netflix show was peak Marvel TV, a brutal, blood-soaked opera of fists and Catholic guilt. And now? Now we see if the Mouse has the stomach for it.
Back at Josieâs â A Familiar Start, No Training Wheels
We open in Josieâs Bar, and thank God for that. None of that âWhere has Matt been?â slow-burn nonsenseâjust straight into the good stuff. Itâs him, Foggy, and Jessica..err..Karen, knocking back drinks in the same dive weâve come to love.
UK DVD Region 2 by Erectogen
Idealistic lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), along with his long-time friend Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), uses his newly established firm to tackle the rising levels of criminal activity in New York City
By night however, Murdock – who was blinded by a chemical spill as a young boy – uses his heightened senses to fight crime on the streets as vigilante Daredevil
With the influence of underworld kingpin Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) continuing to grow, Murdock faces a fight on two fronts to keep the city safe
Last update on 2025-03-09 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
This is Daredevil as it should be: dark, dirty, and two drinks away from a bar fight. No need for a reintroduction, no awkward exposition dumpsâjust throw us in and let us swim.
Personal Take: This was the right way to start. No fluff, just boom, back in Hellâs Kitchen. That down-to-earth, street-level grime we loved is still here. But thenâ
Bullseyeâs Ambush â AKA Who the Hell is This Guy?!
Enter Bullseyeâexcept if you donât already know him, you wouldnât even know itâs him. In fact, ol’ Jimbo had to Google Reverse Image with ‘who the hell is this guy?’ Maybe I missed the ‘last season recap’ button.
One second, Foggyâs making lawyer jokes. The next? Heâs got a bullet where his personality used to be.
And hereâs the problem: If you never watched Daredevil Season 3 which was what? 30 years ago? Or kept up with Marvelâs deep cuts, this fight has zero emotional weight. Itâs just some guy attacking some other guy, and a character we liked gets smoked in the process. I honestly didn’t know who the guy was, so I thought it was just some schmuck low level dude. After googling it…I have a VAGUE recollection of who he was.
Personal Take: This shouldâve been a gut punch, but it lands like a lukewarm slap. If you know Bullseye, itâs huge. If you donât? Itâs just another action scene with no setup. Also, this dude has more knives than a goddamn Hibachi chef. Where is he even keeping them all?
The Rooftop Fight â Matt, My Guy, What Are You Doing?!
Now, the fight? Brutal. Perfect. This is what we came for. Matt vs. Bullseye, rooftops, fists flying, bodies slamming into brick wallsâitâs exactly the kind of fight that made the original series legendary.
But then⊠Matt takes off his helmet.Maybe the 3897239428374237842397432 knives sticking out of Matt made him a bit woozie. But wouldn’t he keep that on? I mean not like there’s a copy sneaking up on a guy who can hear a heartbeat of a poodle farting 300 miles away.
What in the name of blind Catholic guilt is happening here?! He just lets a cop sneak up on him? This is Daredevil, the guy who can hear a heartbeat through a concrete wall, and he doesnât notice an entire cop creeping up behind him?
Meanwhile, Bullseye? Still pulling knives out of nowhere like heâs a goddamn magician.
Personal Take: The fightâs phenomenal, but Matt taking his helmet off is some straight-up horror movie logic. Dude, why?!
Wilson Fisk for Mayor â Did We Miss a Memo?
The Kingpin is backâbut wait. Didnât he get shot in the face in Hawkeye? Like RIGHT in the fucking face!??
No scars. No limping. No âHey, that bullet wound sure suckedâ speech. Just fully intact Fisk, now running for mayor like he didnât just eat a bullet last time we saw him.
Personal Take: This feels like they wanted you to watch Echo for answers, but who actually watched Echo? Also, Fisk running for mayor makes sense, but itâs been done before. If theyâre going to keep him as the villain, they need to give him something new.
Mattâs New Love Interest â Who? Why?
Now, Heather Glenn enters the chat.
And listenânobody cares. Karen worked because she wasnât just a love interest. We saw her character grow, we invested in her. Heather? Sheâs just here because Karen isnât.
Personal Take: Itâs forced. No build-up, no intrigueâjust, âHereâs a new love interest, enjoy.â
Final Verdict â A Strong Start, But Not Magic Yet
This episode does a lot rightâ â The fights are still phenomenal. â Charlie Cox is still the perfect Matt Murdock. â Hellâs Kitchen still feels real.
But⊠â Bullseye is a mystery if you didnât watch Season 3 YESTERDAY or have a memory like a steel trap. â Foggyâs death feels more like actor scheduling than good storytelling. â Fisk just appears back like nothing happened, and thatâs weird.
Final Rating: 4 out of 5 CthulhusâGood. Not perfect. Cautiously optimistic.
(4 / 5)
Your Turn â What Did You Think?
Did Born Again Episode 1 hit for you? Or did you have that same something-feels-off reaction? Drop your thoughts below, letâs talk Daredevil.
Here’s another view of Heaven in this twisted little afterlife story from Jennifer Weigel, titled All That Remains. Trigger warning: religious themes, suggestions of rape & murder.
Aspiring digitally manipulated photo from Jennifer Weigel’s Reversals series
I didnât remember dying. I only vaguely remembered the thread of my life being weighed at the pearly gates. And now, here I was, in awe of the splendor of it all. I looked at the Heaven all around me. Everything was light and love. The sunlight sparkled off of the hills and valleys of the clouds, casting everything in a gossamer glow. Angelic faces shone with mirth and merriment from their depths. It was the most beautiful visage I had ever seen.
Until he showed up.
âHey there, glad to see you made it,â Sebastian said. His words slithered off his tongue, just as they had during the trial. âIâm here to serve as your guide, to show you around Eternity.â
âButâŠâ I stammered, looking at my feet. I still felt repulsed by him, couldnât stand to look him in the eye. I wanted to strangle him, but I managed to tamp that feeling down by averting his gaze. âHow did you get here?â
âI accepted Christ into my heart, just as you did. Isnât it beautiful?â He grinned. His red hair bobbed up and down as he nodded. âForgiveness is a blessing.â
âOne you didnât deserve,â I muttered under my breath, unsure of the proper etiquette or protocol for engaging with others in this place, or just how and why he would ever have been forgiven for his sins. âWhere is my daughter?â
Sebastian frowned. âIâm sorry to say she never accepted Christ into her heart, and so she isnât here,â he answered.
âWhat?â I seethed, anger bubbling from where it had roiled just below the surface. âHow can this be?â
âLook, I donât make the rules,â Sebastian spoke.
âBut youâre here. And sheâs not. No thanks to you!â My voice trembled as it rose.
âI understand your frustration. But it is what it is,â he replied.
âYouâre the one who killed her!â I yelled, no longer able to contain my fury. No one else seemed to notice, too wrapped up in their own afterlives to care.
âYes, but that was before. And I paid for that with my own life. In the electric chair. Your justice was served,â Sebastian said.
âI know, butâŠâ I sighed. âWhy isnât Julianne here?â
âLike I said, she didnât accept Christ into her heart as we did. Itâs that simple,â Sebastian reiterated. âWe just went through this.â
âDonât you regret that?â I asked.
âRegret what? That she hadnât accepted Christ? How would I have known? And it wouldnât have mattered at that time, anyway â I was a different person then. Regret is an interesting concept; I never really did get it.â Sebastian pondered aloud. âEven after I became a Christian. I suppose I knew Iâd done wrong as far as anyone else was concerned, that I acted from a place of selfishness when I raped and killed those girls⊠Inner turmoil. Letâs call it inner turmoil. But that was in the past.â
I began to hyperventilate. This just couldnât be happening. My beautiful daughter, her golden blonde hair and blue eyes forever etched into my memory. My baby girl, so sweet and innocent and naĂŻve. She never should have hitchhiked that ride. If only Iâd known what she was up to⊠She hadnât even seen her sweet sixteen, she was only fifteen and a half at the time of the assault.
âIt doesnât matter now. Had Julianne accepted Christ into her heart, sheâd be here with us now. She did nothing else wrong,â he continued, interrupting my reverie. âI suppose then Iâd have done her a favor.â
âWait. What?!â I asked, obviously fuming.
âI know now that she hadnât. But I would have had no way of knowing that then. And it was before I converted,â he went on. âIf I regret anything, itâs the two that came after.â
âAfter what?â I harped at him. âAfter my daughter! You killed four more girls since then.â
âNo,â he whispered. âAfter I accepted Christ. I slipped up. I tried; I really did. But my needs werenât being met and I found ways to justify it at the time.â
âYou disgust me,â I spat. âHow can you even consider yourself a Christian?â
âI am no less so than you at this point, considering where we are,â he replied. âWe are both here now, are we not?â
âI suppose, but stillâŠâ I answered, taking inventory of my surroundings. I was sure Iâd been granted admittance into Heaven, that I passed the test. I vaguely remembered having done so, and walking through the pearly gates. Was this all an illusion?
âI am a true Christian, as you are,â Sebastian continued. âJust as Iâm still a Scotsman no matter how I take my tea. Shall we begin our tour?â
He reached out to me, palm extended in a gesture of grace. I wasnât wholly sure of where I was, which version of Eternity Iâd landed in. Everything about this place was still so glorious, peaceful and serene. And yetâŠ
Hallowed Ground digitally manipulated photo from Jennifer Weigel’s Reversals series
Imagine this. Youâre home alone, waiting for your partner to return, when you hear a knock on your door. You answer it to see a family of five, bundled up against the cold. The father, a kindly older gentleman, explains that he used to live in this house as a boy. And he would love to show it to his family.
Do not let them in.
The story
Released in June 2024, We Used To Live Here is author Marcus Kliewer’s debut novel. It tells the story of Eve, who just purchased a beautiful house with her partner, Charlie. Their plan is to flip the house and sell it.
One night, while waiting for Charlie to come home, Eve is surprised by a knock at the door. Itâs a man named Thomas Faust and his family.
Thomas explains that he grew up in the house and hasnât been in the area in years. Would Eve let them in so that he can show the home to his children?
Against her better judgment, Eve lets them in. She regrets this almost at once when Thomas’s daughter vanishes somewhere into the house.
What worked
I always appreciate a book that allows you to play along with the mystery. And this book does that better than just about any other I’ve seen.
Pay close attention to the chapters, to the words that aren’t there. To everything about this novel.
This is mostly down to Kliewer. This is ultimately his work of art. But the production value is also fantastic. I don’t want to ruin the multiple mysteries, so I’ll just say this. There are clues in this book that require some specific artistic choices in the page layouts in this book. And I loved that.
We Used To Live Here is also the kind of story that makes you question everything right along with the main character, Eve. Eve is a great main character. But she might be an unreliable narrator. She might be experiencing every single horror described, exactly as it’s described. Or, she might be having a psychotic breakdown. Through most of the book, we can’t be sure. And that is so much fun.
Finally, the weather plays a large part in this story. There are several stories in which the weather or the land itself could be considered a character. Even an antagonist. This is certainly one. The winter storm is the thing that traps the family in the house with Eve. It also makes escaping the home difficult. Reading this book during the winter was especially impactful. Most of us know what it feels like to be shut in by a storm. I’ve personally lived through some of those storms that are just referred to by their year, as though they were impactful enough to claim the whole 365 days for themself. And that was with people I liked. Imagine what it would feel like with strangers. It’s a staggering thought and one that we explore in depth in this book.
Get Out meets Parasite in this eerily haunting debut and Reddit hitâsoon to be a Netflix original movie starring Blake Livelyâabout two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the houseâs previous residents unexpectedly visit
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve canât believe the killer deal theyâve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood
As theyâre working in the house one day, thereâs a knock on the door
Last update on 2025-03-08 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
In the end, We Used To Live Here is a fantastic book. Itâs the sort of story that sneaks into your brain and puts down roots. And if this is just the first book weâre getting from Kliewer, I canât wait to see what else he comes up with.