Distributor: Disney+
Episodes: 6
Duration: approx. 50 min per episode (ep 1 & 2)
Hawkeye: Season 1, Episode 1 & 2 (Disney+) – Series Review
The MCU keeps expanding at a rapid rate, and for the most part, we enjoy the new entries. Disney+ has treated us to WandaVision, Loki and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. While we arguably loved WandaVision the most, all of these series brought something new to the table and made the impressive roster of Marvel characters even larger. The live-action series were further supported by What If…?, a CG-animated Marvel series that cracked the multiverse wide open. Now, it’s time for the more ‘vanilla’ Avenger of them all, Hawkeye, to have his own series, albeit to pass on the torch to a younger Hawkeye instead.
Like we did in our Loki review, we won’t be digging too much into spoiler territory, as we believe series (and movies) such as these should be experienced with all the surprises they have in store for the viewers. This time, the series starts off with a flashback of Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who was a survivor of the Chitauri attack on New York. She was only a young child at that time, and she lost her dad in the attack. The only thing she clearly recalls is that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) saved her life that day by preventing an assault on her building. We then fast-forward to the present day, where Kate has clearly mastered the art of archery herself. We do have to mention that mere moments after the usage of her impressive skills we immediately start to dislike Kate, as she literally commits a crime where other people would pay for for the rest of their lives, only to get away scoff-free and even joke about it. It soon becomes clear that Kate is in fact a ‘rich kid’ and doesn’t really have to care about the normal human world all too much.
At the same time, we see Clint Barton (a.k.a. Hawkeye) suffer through a musical based on The Avengers, while trying to spend time with his kids. We have to commend this Avenger for trying his best to keep his family life stable and support his kids wherever (and whenever) he can. Sadly, his family outing is soon ruined when Kate comes into possession of an item that is connected to Clint’s dark past. Due to this, Clint has to rescue Kate from a nasty situation, even though he simply wants to go home and enjoy Christmas with his loved ones. As expected, things don’t go according to plan, and Clint finds himself in New York, trying to assist Kate. Kate, on top of having to deal with violent pursuers, also has to deal with her stepdad-to-be, who is also hiding something nefarious.
Truth be told, the story itself isn’t exactly bad. The problem that we encountered with Hawkeye was its pacing, as it moves terribly slow, and barely anything happens in the first two episodes. The series seemingly crawls along and a heavy focus is put on Kate’s home situation, which actually becomes a drag, and even shows that her family doesn’t live in the ‘real world’ as they seemingly have a bottomless pit of money at their disposal. The poor pacing is then further enhanced by the poor choreography of the fight scenes and the overall quality of acting. At times it felt like we were watching a Marvel-ised version of 3 Ninjas. It’s okay that the series doesn’t take itself too seriously, but at times it was just downright ridiculous.
In terms of acting performances, we can see Hailee Steinfeld become a likable face in the MCU and we do hope her character gets fleshed out properly, and that she doesn’t remain an overprivileged rich kid with a sobby background story. Jeremy Renner does a formidable job as Hawkeye and we actually love the focus on his family life, as his character is seemingly the only one that truly puts up a fight to spend time with his loved ones. Tony Dalton puts up a mediocre performance and also feels ripe to play a villain in a ’90s movie, rather than a modern-day production. We also see Vera Farmiga, of who we are uncertain to like or dislike as Kate Bishop’s mother.
Conclusion
On paper, Hawkeye is a fun lighthearted series about one of the most down-to-earth Avengers and we actually see a lot of potential in a series such as this. Sadly, as it stands now, the pacing feels totally off, Kate Bishop’s character is presented in a somewhat unlikeable way, and the series feels too much like a mockery at times. We do hope the next episodes turn things around, as we saw a side of Clint Barton we truly appreciated here.
Hawkeye: Season 1, Episode 1 & 2 (Disney+) – Series Review,
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