This is a mostly spoiler-free review of Season 1 of Marvel’s Hawkeye, which is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+. Some themes and characters are alluded to, but no main plot points are discussed in detail. For a deep dive into the show, you can read our spoiler-filled individual episode reviews.
- Hawkeye: Season 1, Episode 1 & 2 Review
- Hawkeye: Season 1, Episode 3 Review
- Hawkeye: Season 1, Episode 4 Review
- Hawkeye: Season 1, Episode 5 Review
- Hawkeye: Season 1, Episode 6 Review
Among the slate of Disney+ Marvel shows in 2021, Hawkeye is the most unusual. It’s the outlier not because it’s weird or cosmic, but because it's precisely the opposite. This is the most grounded Marvel Cinematic Universe fare of the year. And yet, despite its lack of seismic shifts for the multiverse, Hawkeye is the most successful of all these shows, thanks to its narrower focus and confident balancing of familiar elements. Hawkeye is Marvel giving us what first it did to make us fall in love with the MCU; a fun tale of superheroes just saving the day, with some interpersonal depth hiding not too far beneath the surface.
Most of that depth comes courtesy of Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton. Surprise! The dullest Avenger is finally given a personality, and it comes via a much more interesting journey than you may expect. Rather than simply grafting the Clint personality from Matt Fraction and David Aja’s popular Hawkeye comic run, from which this show draws much of its visual iconography and broad ideas, Renner’s new depths are discovered by digging into events he’s endured during his on-screen career. No longer pushed to the sidelines by bolder Avengers, we find that Barton is a surprisingly downbeat man struggling to deal with his past traumas. He is, afterall, someone who watched his family turn to ash. And how did he deal with that? He dressed up as a ninja and hacked apart gangsters with a sword. Clint is a severely damaged man trying his best to overcome the tragedy of losing his best friend, Natasha Romanov, and Hawkeye deals with this using a gentle, understanding hand. Renner carries this admirably, often hiding the weight of Clint’s issues behind his eyes while being a little more stoic with the rest of his body. I’d stop short of saying Renner makes Clint an essential Avenger in Hawkeye, but here he has the space to be notably more complex than he’s ever been.
Unlike in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, this heavier side never becomes the focal issue of Hawkeye, which ensures the six-episode run doesn't feel like an extended therapy session. The darkness is always there, but only in the shadows. Instead, Hawkeye’s main interests lie broadly in being a fun superhero detective show. Clint’s mission is to deal with the Tracksuit Mafia, a gang of eastern european gangsters with a shadowy boss only ever referred to as “the big guy.” This framework means Hawkeye is always digging for the next clue or link, which results in fun reveals each episode (although surprisingly few agonising cliffhangers, considering the tropes of the genre).
The investigation angle also means Hawkeye is a little lighter on action, but when Clint does draw his bow it’s frequently exciting and energetically directed. His reliance on trick arrows works for impressive spectacle and a little childlike wonder; missiles that spray goo or electrocute baddies feel like cool Christmas toys, and those are just the most pedestrian examples. That “box of toys” tone is matched by the condition in which Clint walks away from his fights. While battles see him more beaten and bruised than most other Avengers, it’s always played for fun. The cuts and scrapes emphasise that Clint is only human and not a Super Soldier or Asgardian God, but little montages of him patching himself up and strapping ice packs to his aching bones is always done with a smile.
Detective stories do, of course, frequently pair a rough-and-tumble investigator with a fresh-faced, eager partner. Enter Kate Bishop, played to goofy perfection by Hailee Steinfeld. She effortlessly embodies the good-natured, thrill-seeking character of the comics, and so feels the most “pulled from the page” of any of Hawkeye’s elements. Having idolised Hawkeye since childhood, Kate has grown up to become an incredible archer and wannabe superhero, although her skills in the former vastly outweigh the latter, at least to begin with. Kate’s rookie nature means she’s constantly getting into trouble, embroiling herself in sinister plots far above her level in the name of trying to do a little good for the world. This naivety forces Clint to reluctantly take Kate on as a student, which gives birth to one of the most enjoyable double acts in the entire MCU.
This is a different form of partnership compared to most in the MCU, though. Where usually Marvel puts together big, contrasting personalities that grind each other's gears to produce quip-laden sparks, Clint and Kate have a far more naturalistic relationship. They couldn’t be more different, but Hawkeye’s writing team never forces them into loud confrontations or over-inflates any of their personality quirks. And so while there is a surrogate father/daughter dynamic going on (Clint is definitely a grumpy dad dealing with an excitable kid), they mostly come across more like a couple of friends. This makes the pair genuinely enjoyable to watch, particularly when they’re just hanging out and learning to appreciate each other’s company.
As for what they bring out in each other, it’s not what I initially expected. The usual teacher/student setup involves the mentor also learning plenty from their prodigy, but Kate doesn’t impart all that much wisdom to Clint; she’s too busy telling him to brighten up his brand and embody the superhero ideal. And while this does aid in Clint gradually taking some pride in work he’s become jaded about, much of his self repair comes from his own convictions. Hawkeye’s introspective layer is very much about learning to cope with and heal from your own personal trauma. Clint’s relationships with Kate and his own family work as supporting structures for this, but his journey is very much one of his own making. As a story of the power of self-healing and reframing your view of yourself, it’s surprisingly successful, even if it always feels as if it's going on in the corners rather than centre stage.
Also kept to the corners are the Christmas vibes. Despite being advertised as a holiday show, Hawkeye doesn’t actually lean into all that many festive tropes. While this does mean that it feels a little more “timeless,” quite honestly, I’d have liked it to have embraced the cheese of the period. More lights, Santas, and snow would have granted Hawkeye a unique feel that would have perfectly complemented Kate’s energetic, goofy nature and emphasised the fun of the duo’s escapades. Instead, Christmas time is more of a backdrop and framing device. Clint is stuck in New York City fighting against the Tracksuit Mafia when he’d really rather be home with his children and wife, Laura (Linda Cardellini). This adds a certain amount of tension to the whole season -- will our exasperated dad make it home in time for the main event? -- but it never feels like an important part of Hawkeye’s identity. It does, however, mean we get plenty of festive needle drops, and that’s nothing to grumble about.
Threatening to cancel Christmas is Maya, a senior member of the Tracksuit Mafia who has a very particular vendetta to settle with Clint. Played by Alaqua Cox, both character and actor are deaf, which provides a little common ground between Maya and Clint, who is shown to now require a hearing aid thanks to his literally explosive career. Wisely, Hawkeye makes deafness an aspect of their personalities but not defining elements. Maya is instead characterised by her anger, which fuels some memorably violent run-ins with Clint, and her relationship with fellow Mafia member, Kazi (Fra Fee). As with Kate and Clint, Maya and Kazi’s relationship is remarkably understated for a Marvel show. While I appreciate that Hawkeye’s villains don’t feel like spandex-clad inmates leaping out of the pages of a comic book, the downplaying of any tropes is perhaps a little too much, and so we’re left with characters who -- as far as personality goes -- don’t leave a strong impression. I really like that Hawkeye takes cues from the Netflix MCU shows to make for a more grounded experience, but characters like David Tennant’s Kilgrave demonstrated that a more earthy texture doesn’t have to forgo an impactful screen presence. In fact, Maya’s journey is so slight that I’m also left wondering what exactly is there to further explore in her solo spin-off series, Echo.
Similarly, the Tracksuit Mafia goons themselves, which are some of Marvel comics’ most fun street-level thugs, are sadly underutilised. Hawkeye is very much a show about Kate and Clint more than it is the villains they face, but a better use of the Tracksuits would have complemented the goofy charm of that central dynamic. They also feel an appropriate match for the tone being struck by that Christmassy backdrop (they are effectively an army of Harrys and Marvs from Home Alone). We still get a nice handful of moments (the finale in particular makes good use of them) but I’m left wanting more from these red-uniformed idiots.
But while Hawkeye lacks a little oomph in its villain department (not including a particular reveal in the final act, which is genuinely exciting), its simplified approach ensures it is not overburdened. Unlike WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye does not attempt to balance a dozen plates laden with grand ideas. Instead it plays straight and focused, much like the arrows in Clint’s quiver. And by not overreaching, Hawkeye remains remarkably consistent where its peers wobble, particularly in the final act when deep-seeded plot threads begin to pay off. It makes for a highly satisfying finale that, while not having the grand impact on the MCU, provides a fitting conclusion for its characters. Hawkeye isn’t about big ideas around the multiverse and breaking the next piece of ground for Marvel; it’s about doing good by its characters. And it definitely lands a bullseye on that target.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3Fl2bXm
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