Disney+ - Hawkeye: A very promising start to the series

By Mulder, 24 november 2021

Marvel Studios' Hawkeye is a new original series set in a post-blip New York where former Avenger Clint Barton aka Hawkeye has a seemingly simple mission: to find 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. Hawkeye is the fifth Marvel Studios series to launch on Disney+, following WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki and the animated anthology What If...? WandaVision won three Emmys (Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-fi Costumes, Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Program), while The Falcon and The Winter Soldier received five nominations 

Hawkeye is also the first MCU series to take place during the vacations and stars Jeremy Renner reprising his role as Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop. Also cast in supporting roles are Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez. Directed by Rhys Thomas and the directing duo Bert and Bertie, Hawkeye is produced by Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Trinh Tran, Brad Winderbaum, Rhys Thomas and Jonathan Igla. Created for television by Igla, the six-episode event series launches exclusively on Disney+ today with two episodes; subsequent episodes will appear every Wednesday thereafter.

It is important to note that we were not allowed to discover its first two episodes while a premiere was organized in Los Angeles on November 17 at the El Capitan cinema (part of our team is there) and that we publish today our review after a very busy day of work (the constraints of a blog imply to do the same work as the professional press by doing it voluntarily but with a real shared pleasure) Once again, the new series of Marvel Studios imposes itself by the great care given to the scenario as well as to the psychology of the characters. Far from being a succession of action scenes, Hawkeye takes its time to set the scene and introduce the two main characters played by Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld,

From the first introductory scene set in 2012, which introduces us to Kate Bishop's past and the heavy consequences of the Avengers' confrontation with the Chitauri on her well-to-do family living in New York, the stage is set. Clint Barton's influence on Kate Bishop and the absence of her deceased father (collateral damage of the Avengers' confrontation) has made this young teenager an outstanding fighter, both in combat sports and archery (the scene on her college campus shows how she has nothing to envy to Clint Barton except a lack of maturity and responsibility). When Hawkeye and Kate Bishop's paths cross, they are forced to work together and oppose a massive plot while dealing with Hawkeye's many enemies.

The Hawkeye series is also different and unlike the Hulk, Captain America, Thor and other Ant-man, Clint Barton is a simple human without superpowers. His great shooting ability allows him to have a place in the Avengers team but he only wants to be with his wife and children and forget the dark side that made him a real killer. Not wearing armor or costumes, he is recognized in every place he goes as one of the saviors of the earth against alien forces. The fact that he is one of the Avengers also means that he has to deal with the many spin-offs that are adored by the public as well as musicals like Rogers: the Musical, a Broadway show where he takes his children and looks royally appalled.  Yet when Kate Bishop is in trouble, he doesn't hesitate to help her and face a gang of killers after her.

Once again, Marvel Studios offers us a very successful series with the same budget as a Hollywood blockbuster. It is like discovering a movie of almost five hours and cut into six episodes. The writers of this series have thus taken the best of the comic book series by David Aja and Matt Fraction published between 2012 and 2015 and darkly titled Hawkeye and which showed the life of this man outside his time in the Avengers team. That comic book series already alluded to Kate Bishop as Hawkeye's teammate and as his student. This series takes up this concept and offers us a story that keeps us on the edge of our seats and whose main role seems to be Kate Bishop's. In these first two episodes, the character of Hawkeye does not appear from the first scenes and seems to be there to support Kate Bishop in her mission to clear the charges of a murder of a person she knew but also as she took the old suit of Clint Barton from his past actions. It is easy to see that Hawekeye has not always gotten over the death of Black Widow nor has it been impossible for him to save her life. 

We will also appreciate the length of the episodes which is no longer thirty minutes like some recent Marvel series but about fifty minutes. To say that we are now waiting for next Wednesday is an understatement.

Synopsis:
Marvel Studios' "Hawkeye" is an original new series set in post-blip New York City where former Avenger Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) 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 (Hailee Steinfeld), a 22-year-old skilled archer and his biggest fan, to unravel a criminal conspiracy. 

Hawkeye
Created by Jonathan Igla
Based on Marvel Comics
Starring Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Tony Dalton, Fra Fee, Brian d'Arcy James, Aleks Paunovic, Piotr Adamczyk, Linda Cardellini, Simon Callow, Vera Farmiga, Alaqua Cox
Music by Christophe Beck, Michael Paraskevas
Executive producers : Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas, Brad Winderbaum, Trinh Tran, Victoria Alonso, Louis D'Esposito, Kevin Feige
Production locations : New York City, Atlanta, Georgia
Cinematography : Eric Steelberg, James Whitaker
Editor : Terel Gibson
Production company : Marvel Studios
Distributor : Disney Platform Distribution
Original network : Disney+
Original release November 24, 2021 - present

Photos : Copyright Walt Disney / Marvel

Rating : 5/5