Hawkeye Season 1 (Mini-Review)

Hawkeye Season 1 sees Clint "Hawkeye" Barton still wrecked with guilt over Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff sacrificing herself to save the universe. When his Ronin suit resurfaces, he is forced to team up with Kate Bishop. Kate has admired him since a young age and is more than excited to be fighting by his side. Hawkeye was released on Disney+ in 2021. It was created by Jonathan Igla. It stars Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Tony Dalton, and Fra Fee.

It really feels like Disney is milking the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) because it knows interest in Marvel properties will wane soon. So they've decided to release a bunch of shows to make sure that they can make their money before the MCU isn't as profitable. I mean...a lot of shows are being released on Disney+ with short seasons. Then each show can be used to launch even more shows. Like Hawkeye is the launching platform for the Echo series. At least with the Netflix Marvel shows it felt like there was an expansion of a universe whenever a character got their own show. Which didn't happen often. When characters like Luke Cage and Frank "The Punisher" Castle got their own shows it felt more natural. Luke Cage was both a love interest to Jessica Jones and connected to her backstory. Frank Castle showed Matt "Daredevil" Murdock a side of himself he was afraid of. But we don't have time for that particular character analysis in this review.

Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk is back in the MCU. I am both glad and mad about this. I'm glad that Vincent D'Onofrio is back in the role as he owns it. He gives the character both a sense of villainy and charisma. So no matter the weakness of the script, I was still glad to see him. The reason I'm mad is that when Disney decided to launch Disney+ they cancelled all the Marvel shows on Netflix. There was a number of years Disney had to wait to use any characters from the shows and now they can integrate those characters into the MCU.

I was excited to see Hailee Steinfeld having a part in the MCU. She made Kate Bishop a very enjoyable character to watch. Kate began the series with both a sense of childish innocence and hero worship of Clint Barton. It was Clint who had inspired her to take up archery. Through the series Kate is faced with reality and changes in good ways.

Clint Barton took on the mantle of Ronin after Thanos snapped half of all life out of existence. It was a dark time for him and he found some purpose in killing people. He put the mantle of Ronin aside after Natasha said there was a way to bring everyone back. Yet no matter how much he tried to move on, he finds Ronin's shadow still haunting him once Kate Bishop puts on the Ronin suit to escape from a bad situation. So the show covers both him dealing with Natasha's death as well as a dark time in his past. It is compelling to watch.

Clint and Kate make quite the duo. He's the reluctant mentor and she's the eager student. He teaches her a cool trick to switch off the tv that is, of course, important by the end of the season. It's how fun it is to see them work off of each other that makes me hope that there will be a second season of the show.

Finally, this show is centered around Christmas. Besides having Christmas trees and decorations, there is music to reflect the season. Sometimes the music works but other times...it just seems odd and out of place. Such as the credit music to one episode is "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch". I get the reason for the music choices even when they don't work.

I would recommend Hawkeye to fans of the MCU. I would also recommend Hawkeye to fans of the character. I would also recommend Hawkeye to those who like superhero shows.