Stream the full season of Hawkeye now via Disney+ and catch new episodes streaming Wednesdays.
Synopsis
Marvel Studios’ “Hawkeye” stars Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, who teams up with another well-known archer from the Marvel comics, Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld. The cast also includes Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d’Arcy James and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez. “Hawkeye” is helmed by Rhys Thomas and directing duo Bert and Bertie.
Review
Hawkeye certainly has been one of those shows that has gradually gotten better week-by-week. It started off fairly solidly and has won me over even more with each subsequent episode – episode three titled ‘Echoes’ being a highlight for sure. However, with Kingpin being revealed in the penultimate episode of the show, you would expect the finale to be amazing, right? Because yikes, that was disappointing.
Episode six of the show tries to wrap up all the plot threads that had been set up throughout the mini-series whilst trying to set up what is to come with our latest Avenger, Kate Bishop (aka Hawkeye). Let’s start off with what genuinely works; basically ninety per cent of the episode. This show really has acted as a swan song for the Clint Barton character and setting up Hailee Steinfeld’s character to become the new archer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It brings the origin story of Kate to a close and leaves us with a craving to see where her character will go next. The whole action sequence in New York between Kingpin’s tracksuit mafia, Yelena (played by Florence Pugh) and Kate & Clint is great but after the huge fight, that is where this episode takes a huge tumble.
After this huge build up to see the Kingpin (the same one from the Daredevil Netflix TV show – Vincent D’Onofrio) finally in action, it felt really underwhelming. If you have seen the Daredevil show, you’ll know what I’m talking about because he is a terrifying character that is perfectly played by D’Onofrio. In just one episode of Hawkeye, he feels like a completely different character, lacking what made him so menacing. He gets beaten up really easily and is presumably shot and killed off-screen in the closing ten minutes. The way they handled Kingpin in this episode was, honestly, downright awful and has made me bitter ever since I watched it.
Verdict
Hawkeye, overall, is a great show – maybe even the best MCU Disney+ series yet. However, this finale was, if I’m being honest, naff. The action is splendid and the wrap up of Clint Barton’s arc is handled perfectly but the stuff with Kingpin has me tearing my hair out due to it being so awfully handled. Maybe when we see where this story goes next in the Echo TV series, I will look back at this review and go, “wow, I treated this too harshly”, but, as of right now, I am a little disappointed.
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