This review covers the first two episodes of Hawkeye. Thank you for sending it over, Disney+!
I approached Hawkeye with some trepidation because if I’m to be honest, Hawkeye is a street-level hero – he’s got no super powers beyond his archery and training. He’s also the last of the first six Avengers we saw to get his own series (the other five have had solo movies already). The MCU Netflix shows have been all gritty and angsty (but predictable to an extent, with a near-fatal injury halfway through the series), and I was bracing myself for another one. Fortunately, this isn’t like that. It’s more similar in tone to the MCU films, and I actually get to see why Hawkeye is awesome in his own way.
Hawkeye is a superhero drama revolving around the eponymous archer from the Avengers. It sees the title character stumbling across a young girl who has unearthed his former costume and taken on his former identity as Ronin. Unfortunately, this means that a whole bevy of enemies are after the pair, and Hawkeye must find a way to evade them all – and get home to his farmhouse in time for Christmas.
So, I loved the Netflix MCU shows because they were set in New York City, and Hawkeye is the same – his abilities make him more suited to be a street-level hero. But as I mentioned, it isn’t as dark and painful as those shows – which makes this the perfect bridge between the pair. That’s not to say that there’s no action in this series – on the contrary, there’s plenty of it. It’s just that this is clearly more upbeat, a little more larger-than-life, and generally more colourful than the other street-level MCU shows.
Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld have fun interactions as Clint Barton and Kate Bishop. Their exchanges, grounded in mild irritation at being stuck with each other, are one of the highlights of the show. It’s a fairly interesting father-daughter take that their relationship has, without leaning in too much on the mentoring aspect of such a relationship (so far). Of course, their repartee extends to fights as well, which serves to make it more lively.
And this series is where we exactly how formidable Hawkeye is as a human. In a world where everyone has superpowers, we sometimes forget just how ordinary a normal person is in the MCU. Hawkeye shows us that yes, his skills are miles above everyone else’s as an ordinary human (although with sufficient numbers, he can be overcome by mere humans). And that’s a subtle reminder that this human, without any technological suit’s assistance, is able to hold his own in battles involving any number of super-powered beings.
However, I miss the costumed heroics (yes, I like colourful costumes), which I don’t think Hawkeye has enough of. Granted, the story is set up in such a way that he doesn’t have a need to suit up, at least not in the first two episodes. But I felt it didn’t pay off the title and the expectations of such a show, and I hope they’ll have him in the suits that we’ve seen in the promo images later.
Kate Bishop’s story is also fairly standard. Perhaps Steinfeld is typecast into playing rebellious teens (I’m reminded of her role in Bumblebee in this series), which by now is pretty average stuff. I don’t really see much of her character beyond that of a slightly entitled girl, but hopefully that evolves as the series unfolds.
Ultimately, I’m keen to see more of Hawkeye after watching the first two episodes. The relationship between the two title characters keep me going, although I’d have liked to see more high octane battles and costumes. It’s much more interesting than I’d expected from a show about Hawkeye, and I’ll probably be tuning in weekly all the way till Christmas.
Rating: 3.5/5
Hawkeye
Main Cast: Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye/Clint Barton), Hailee Steinfeld (Hawkeye/Kate Bishop), Vera Farmiga (Eleanor Bishop), Fra Free (Kazi), Tony Dalton (Jack Duquesne), Zahn McClarnon (William Lopez), Alaqua Cox (Echo/Maya Lopez), Florence an Pugh (Black Widow/Yelena Belova).
Running time: 40 – 5o min
You might also want to read:
- [Movie Review] “Avengers: Age of Ultron” takes an unexpected turn
- [Movie Review] ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ delivers on all its promises — even if you know how it’ll (probably) end
- [Movies] ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is a a beautiful capstone to one of the most ambitious and enjoyable shared movie universes
- [Movie Review] ‘Black Widow’ is a mixed bag of genres
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I’m an independent scriptwriter who’s written for popular shows like Lion Mums, Crimewatch, Police & Thief, and Incredible Tales. I’m also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find me on social media as Optimarcus and on my site.
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