Hawkeye season 1 review: Not even Jeremy Renner’s brilliance can save this cringe-fest

2.5/5

Story:

Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) aka Hawkeye finds himself in the crosshairs of the ‘tracksuit mafia’, and he also becomes responsible for the safety of a young woman named Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) who coincidentally aspires to become the next Hawkeye. They eventually partner up to go against the mobsters, during which they encounter Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) aka Echo, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), and a mysterious mob boss.

Review:

The new Disney+ Original series didn’t have the best of starts with its two opening episodes, which were underwhelming. However, episodes three and four showed plenty of promise with great performances from Jeremy Renner. These episodes also offered great narrative structure and explored themes such as loss and trauma. While Hailee Steinfeld’s performance cannot be faulted, her character was poorly written and ended up being a cliché. Despite these minor flaws, Renner and Steinfeld have great chemistry throughout Season 1.

Unfortunately, the show’s inability to break free from the much-debated ‘Marvel formula’ has constrained it from offering a compelling story. The jokes and the humour fall flat and are unnecessarily shoehorned into the screenplay. In fact, it dilutes any modicum of quality each scene has. The few scenes where Renner’s character excels are made redundant soon after with cringeworthy humour. This is disappointing considering the wealth of talent that was at the disposal of the showrunners. Their decision to incorporate a holiday-themed narrative is partly justifiable to an extent, but the overindulgence in the unoriginal sound design and visuals made for a rather uninspired viewing.

Episodes three and four (as mentioned earlier) were the series’ strongest entries. These episodes focused primarily on Clint’s traumatic past and Renner’s effortless performance elevates these scenes. His brief stint as the vigilante Ronin during ‘The Blip’ is carefully integrated into the storyline, exploring Clint’s arc with great balance. Some heartwarming moments explore his loss and grief — the loss being the death of his best friend, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow and the loss of his family during the Blip. Unfortunately, such riveting scenes are few and far between as the creators have put more emphasis on cheesy one-liners and tasteless comedy. The scenes involving Hailee Steinfeld and the tracksuit mafia epitomises tackiness and devalue the overarching narrative.

Vera Farmiga essays an intriguing character through Eleanor Bishop, as does Tony Dalton through Jack Duquesne. While Eleanor Bishop is integral to the narrative, Tony Dalton’s character’s relevance fades towards the end of the season, which is surprising considering Jack Duquesne is a very important character from the Hawkeye lore. His arc is a waste of potential as Duquesne aka the Swordsman could’ve elevated the script to a higher standard. However, the ending seems to suggest that Duquesne will have a major role in a potential second season. There are a few other standout performances as well, which includes Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova.

However, the show’s greatest failure is in how the character of Wilson Fisk, played by the excellent Vincent D'Onofrio, was butchered by the script. Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, was widely regarded as one of the greatest villains ever written for film and television after Vincent D’Onofrio’s riveting portrayal of the character in the Netflix original series Daredevil. Vincent D’Onofrio’s return as Fisk was highly anticipated but the finale damaged the character’s convincing arc that was built up over three seasons of Daredevil. The noticeable difference in how the character is written lies in the fact that in Daredevil, Fisk is a complex character who induces fear through his words, while his immense physical strength is used as a last resort, whereas in Hawkeye, Fisk’s near super-human strength is featured as his primary characteristic.

Verdict:

The character, Hawkeye is one that could’ve offered plenty of engrossing and compelling storylines and Marvel Studios could’ve easily given it the Wandavision, Loki and What If…? treatment, but instead the creators, including Jonathan Igla have gone down the same path as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and offers very little in terms of original plotlines and themes. The series embodies the Marvel formula and may have easily worked better as a fast-paced action film. The portrayal of Wilson Fisk could even be considered sacrilegious, and it fans the flames of theories that Disney would be unwilling to produce gritty and grounded narratives as seen in Marvel’s Netflix shows.