Hawkeye - Episodes 1&2 - Review

Three of the original six Avengers had solo movies before they came together, weird licencing deals are keeping Hulk from having their own solo movie and Black Widow just had hers, so the question remained, what about Hawkeye. With Marvel Studios branching out to tv shows, the quietest member of the team now gets a chance to score a bullseye of his own, but is it a dead centre, or is there room for improvement?

Just a note, there will be a very slight spoiler ahead, but only a minor one

The show actually kicks off during the Battle of New York, where a young Kate Bishop and her family are attempting to live out their lives, before the invasion begins, here we get to learn a little about her family. Once the invasion is happening, parts of her families townhouse are ruined and when the Chitauri see her, they aim to attack, but are destroyed by Hawkeye, who is standing on the roof that Iron Man dropped him off onto. While Kate is impressed, her mother drags her out and then we get a cut away to a funeral and with the promise that Kate can do anything, she requests a bow and arrow. The opening credits of the show give us a good look at just what Kate is up to as she grows up and then cutting forward to a few years later, we get the shot from the trailer with the clock tower.

While all that is happening, Clint and kids are in New York, taking in a Broadway show, Rogers: The Musical, which Clint is not listening too, partly as he turned his hearing aid off and partly because of memories. While returning back to the hotel, a new bulletin comes on, showing off Ronin, his alter-ego from Avengers Endgame, all the while speculating on just who the person behind the mask is. How the outfit gets on the news I will not spoil, but it does prompt Clint into tracking down this mysterious person and eventually running into Kate.

The story that we get drip feed across the two episodes is intriguing, a lot of it has to do with Clint’s mysterious time as Ronin, but some of it has to do with Kate and her family drama. The problem that I faced was that Kate as a character, didn’t interest me, or at least she hasn’t right now, that is not because of the job of Hailee Steinfeld, who does a wonderful job, but her character, life and issues feel fake. This may change as the series goes on, but when you pair it up next to Clint and the issues he is clearly going through, all the while attempting to solve this new problem, they just come up way short. Clint’s issues seem to come from two places, the first is his need to bond with the kids and his failure at saving Natasha, with everything he has been through over the years, it seems that time has caught up with him, because not only does he need a hearing aid, which makes him more comic accurate, but he just lacks energy on most things.

If you told me I had to pick something to compare this show too, I would say Lethal Weapon, the original movie, it is set at Christmas, features a duo of crime fighters, one half is a little over eager and willing to do whatever they have to, while the other one has seen and done a lot, is tired and maybe a little to old for this… stuff. The dynamic between them takes a while to get going, but eventually they do start to warm up, if only a little, but just as soon as they do, they split, which causes Clint to head to the park, while Kate goes to work. How this dynamic plays out across the remaining episodes is going to be crucial, while Falcon and the Winter Soldier had a strong dynamic in the movies, the tv show had it paired back, until it was needed, so this is really the first time we are seeing two characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe team up, without any additional support or history.

Jeremy Renner steps back into the shoes of Hawkeye, with ease, the character still makes the odd joke here and there, something that Joss Whedon injected into his character, but the toll that the recent movies have taken, emotionally, are also present within the performance. On the flip side, Hailee Steinfeld shows almost limitless enthusiasm when her character meets Clint, but general apathy and distain when she is interacting with most other characters, while it isn’t black and white, there is very little grey between the two and I hope that the character grows as the show progresses, to make that transition more natural. The rest of the main cast are interesting, Tony Dalton’s Jack comes across as cheesy villain at times, the moustache likely not helping that, where as Vera Farmiga’s Eleanor Bishop is warm to begin with, but then after the time jump changes and while there is still a warmth of motherly affection being shown, it seems to be hidden beneath some additional layers. Newcomer Alaqua Cox only shows up in the final moments of the second episode and doesn’t do much, but given Marvel have announced a standalone series, they have high expectations for the character.

Hawkeye, the Marvel Studios production - not the 1994 show, isn’t a bullseye out of the gate, simply because it is attempting to build a new world around a character we know, but it spends a little too much time with the new cast first. Solid performances from the two leads do help connect you to what is going on, but Kate Bishop is a little unbalanced right now, making it hard to connect to her directly, it is only when she is with Clint that she becomes interesting. My Lethal Weapon comparison may seem like a weird choice, but I feel it is the most apropos, given the split in the ages of the mains, the energy of one and exhaustion of the other, but like that movie series, there is so much room for things to go up, I am really excited to see what they do with it. Hawkeye may not have been your favourite Avenger, but now that he is getting a chance to re-brand, that could change.

The Score

8.0

Review access provided by Disney

The Pros

+Jeremy and Hailee have strong chemistry when they finally get on screen together

+There is a much deeper mystery happening, for both characters…

The Cons

-…though like other Marvel tv shows, appears to be dragged out

-Kate’s story, at least for now, is not that interesting and drags things down