Marvel’s latest new show, Hawkeye, has had its first two episodes debut on Disney plus, but unfortunately, they do not give the show a strong start.
Hawkeye is undoubtedly a smaller show than Marvel’s previous affairs. With the first two episodes taking place within the confines of New York, the show aims to keep Hawkeye grounded fighting smaller villains.
His presence is not felt too much in the first episode, with it serving as more of an introduction to Hailee Steinfield’s Kate Bishop. This resulted in the episode being quite slow and the second episode did not pick up the pace. This is a shame, as the show only has six episodes.
Episode One keeps its focus on Kate Bishop, and her navigating the fact that her mum is getting remarried to a creepy suiter, Jacques. It shows off her incredible archery skills, and her to be a huge fan of Hawkeye after he saves her in the Battle of New York.
Hawkeye on the other hand is busy spending time with his kids, and keeping a low profile. It does importantly highlight his hearing problems, which helps first to improve the representation of disability on screen, but also shows the toll of the numerous battles he has been in.
This episode introduces the Duquesne’s, Jacques and his uncle Armand. Armand does little to hide his dislike of Jacques’ choice of fiancee, and the pair argue about the bidding of the Ronin sword at a clandestine auction. Surprisingly, the episode doesn’t explain anything about this auction, nor much about Armand, before it abruptly kills him off.
This is a shame as Armand could be heard threatening Bishop’s mum earlier in the show, playing him up to be a bigger villain, but this is not the route the show goes down. Instead, the audience gets no explanation as to why he’s threatening Bishop’s mum, something that is needed.
It does introduce what appears to be the main villains of the show, the Tracksuit Mafia, a bunch of tracksuit wearing Eastern Europeans who are very underwhelming and unthreatening. Their goals are quite vague at the moment, however the show is bound to reveal this information in due course.
Moving on to the next episode, Hawkeye and Kate Bishop are bought together, which improves their relationship upon the first. The pace is still unbearably slow, and does nothing to explain who the Tracksuit Mafia are or their goals.
It does introduce their boss, Echo, but Marvel introducing her own spin off show earlier in the year means that she will likely not stay in this role for long, and that she will likely be a hero by the end of her tenure. This removes any tension that her presence might have created, and Marvel should have held off on announcing her own show.
Hawkeye’s dialogue with Bishop is sweet, it’s clear he cares about her, from making sure that she is safe and helping her with her wound. The show hints at Clint’s arc across the show, as Bishop points out that he is closed off, and has a poor image with the public.
Overall, so far this series is shaping up to be the weakest that Marvel has released so far. There is no sense of urgency (even though Hawkeye now has a ticking clock imposed on him) and so far the show fails to provide a compelling case as to why the Tracksuit Mafia should be taken seriously at all.
So far, the pace of the show is unnecessarily slow, with the two episodes dragging things out that could quite easily have taken place within one episode. This would create a greater sense of pace, and give the show momentum. We’ll have to wait and see if this improves throughout the series.
By Kieran Burt
Feature image: Disney