Marvel Studios' Hawkeye TV Review

Plot: An original new series set in post-blip New York City where former Avenger Clint Barton aka Hawkeye has a seemingly simple mission: get back to his family for Christmas. But when a threat from his past shows up, Hawkeye reluctantly teams up with Kate Bishop, a 22-year-old skilled archer and his biggest fan, to unravel a criminal conspiracy.

Review: 2021 has turned out to be a heck of a year for Marvel Studios. Aside from the big-screen success of Black Widow, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Eternals, this year saw the debut of multiple acclaimed Disney+ series including WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and What If? Wrapping up this run, and just in time for Christmas, is the long-awaited solo outing for Jeremy Renner’s Avengers character in Hawkeye. The six-episode series debuts Thanksgiving week and we were given a first look at the two episodes that open the show. Bringing together plot threads from throughout the four phases of the MCU and introducing multiple new elements, Hawkeye is a blend of light-hearted holiday fare with the most cinematic elements of any Marvel Disney+ series to date, resulting in an unexpected treat for fans of all ages.

Similar to the opening of Spider-man: Homecoming, Hawkeye begins with a flashback to the events of 2012’s The Avengers and sets the table for Kate Bishop’s idolization of Clint Barton. Moving into the present day, Hailee Steinfeld plays Kate as a confident 22-year-old troublemaker with trophies and championship skills in martial arts, archery, and sword-fighting. Accompanying her mother Eleanor (Vera Farmiga) and her boyfriend Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) to a gala dinner, Kate stumbles across Barton’s Ronin suit. When the wrong crowd mistakes Kate for the vigilante, she crosses paths with Clint who is in town to celebrate Christmas with his kids. Knowing he needs to protect Kate and rectify his actions when he was Ronin, Clint begins a mentorship with Kate. This affords the chance for two parallel storylines that connect and diverge over this series.

Over the first two episodes of Hawkeye, the action is limited to one significant action sequence. The rest is spent showcasing some more of the humorous elements of the series. From a musical number from the Broadway show based on Steve Rogers and The Avengers to Clint interacting with fans in New York City to the antics of the Tracksuit Mafia, these first two episodes feature minimal scenes from the trailers for the series. That means we have a lot in store over the course of this show than what has been teased so far. What we do see in the opening hours of Hawkeye is a great use of New York City as a setting that we have not seen in the MCU since Joss Whedon’s 2012 team-up movie. These episodes also work as a showcase for Jeremy Renner’s lighter side and Hailee Steinfeld’s impeccable comedic timing.

Steinfeld is a great successor to the mantle of Hawkeye, something not officially expressed in the episodes made available for this review but, come on, we know it is coming. While many of the new characters introduced in Phase Four are significantly younger than the actors who played the original Avengers, Steinfeld carries herself as a very experienced performer. She wisecracks as well as Robert Downey Jr and makes archery and swordplay more fun than the stoic performance from Renner. Renner has loosened up quite a bit and pokes some fun at himself here while still balancing the fallout of Clint’s actions from Infinity War and Endgame. There is a nice father-daughter repartee between Renner and Steinfeld that makes these two Hawkeyes very fun to watch.

The other nice additions to the MCU introduced in these episodes are Vera Farmiga and Tony Dalton. While Farmiga’s role as Kate’s mother helps explain the resources their family has at their disposal, Dalton as Jack Duquesne has the more significant history to explore. Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, Jack Duquesne is also known by his alter ego The Swordsman, a significant early foe for The Avengers. Tony Dalton is best known for his role as Lalo Salamanca on Better Call Saul. His suave charm belies a more dastardly presence in both series, something that Kate Bishop senses immediately. Just how significant Jack is to the overall plot of this series remains to be seen, but the antagonists are piling up early. Between the Tracksuit Mafia and Jack Duquense, Kate and Clint have a lot to handle, but we know we will also see appearances by Alaqua Cox as Echo (who will be getting her own spin-off based on this series) and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, reprising her role from Black Widow.

Hawkeye is directed equally by Bert and Bertie, the duo known for Prime Video comedy Troop Zero and Rhys Thomas who helmed the first two episodes. Thomas segues from his work on Saturday Night Live and Chad to deliver a surprisingly big screen-worthy outing for Hawkeye. Based on the script by Jonathan Igla, a veteran of Mad Men and Masters of Sex, Hawkeye is clearly the most family-centric of the Disney+ Marvel series to date. There is action, but there is more humor. At least over these first two episodes, the focus seems to be on making us care for both of these archers as we spend more time with them apart than together. The time they do share the screen showcases a lot of chemistry between Renner and Steinfeld as well as the welcome introduction of Lucky the Pizza Dog. I cannot say for certain if Hawkeye will end up being the best MCU series to air on Disney+ but it definitely succeeds in feeling like a feature film but one with smaller stakes than we have come to expect from Marvel offerings. If you are getting tired of all the multiverse attention from the MCU as of late, Hawkeye is a refreshing if not nearly as vital entry that gives Renner the long-overdue solo outing he deserves.

Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye premieres weekly episodes beginning on November 24th on Disney+.