Eye Spy

The now incongruously named Marvel Cinematic Universe has spawned a lot of television series on Disney+. I haven't regularly blogged about them; Loki was the first time I felt compelled to post about one of the shows, and I used that opportunity to talk a bit about how Loki was clearly better to me than the shows that came before: WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Since then, we've gotten What If...? -- a show I didn't end up liking nearly as much as I'd expected. (Some episodes were solid and some weren't, often depending on how compelling the "gimmick of the week" felt.) But now we have the new Best MCU Disney+ Show, stealing the crown from Loki.

On paper, Hawkeye might not have seemed like it would be the best of the new crop of Marvel TV series. Well, on the "drawing board" paper, at least. If you'd had the scripts, you might have begun to suspect. I complained of the earlier shows that each was obliged to forego meaningful character change, leaving everything in position for the next billion dollar movie. But the character of Hawkeye has never had his own movie, and probably never will. Most of the characters in this six-episode story are brand new creations. So there was more freedom here to actually take them on a meaningful arc. Simply, I found this to be the most interesting story told so far in a Disney+ Marvel series.

Then you start to add the intangibles that wouldn't have been visible on the page. Hailee Steinfeld is simply great as Kate Bishop, funny and powerful and charismatic and self-deprecating. Hollywood seems to have realized all at once, "why doesn't she have a TV show?," responding by giving her three (this, Dickinson, and a voice role in Arcane). What's more, her rapport with Jeremy Renner makes the show better still. Hawkeye was a character who had limited sparks with Natasha Romanov... and kind of no one else. Now suddenly, Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld are one of the best odd couple pairings on television. The push-and-pull nature of their relationship works at every stage of the journey, outshining even the considerable charm Tom Hiddleston brought to bear on Loki.

Add to that a great supporting cast. Vera Farmiga gets more to do than the average MCU side character, and makes the most of that. Tony Dalton has broad, swashbuckling fun. Fra Fee and Alaqua Cox make a compelling pair of their own, more nuanced villains than the MCU usually finds room for. (And the Powers That Be noticed, giving Cox a future series of her own). The series also keeps Linda Cardellini in the mix as Clint Barton's unwaveringly supportive wife Laura -- not the most impressive role, but one that's very much an important part of who Hawkeye is as a character.

And if you'll allow me this one paragraph for SPOILERS... bringing back Florence Pugh as Yelena was wonderful. She was hands-down the best part of Black Widow, and Hailee Steinfeld's scenes with her were even better than her scenes with Jeremy Renner. (I was less keen on the other big reveal: Vincent D'Onofrio's return as Wilson Fisk. This Kingpin may have been authentic-to-the-comics, but to me felt too super-powered compared to his Daredevil incarnation. Plus, I thought that bringing him back here undermined what closure could be mined from the unplanned-for ending of that show after three seasons. And his ending here was too simple if taken at face value, and too pointless if taken as the fake-out it surely was.)

Aside from that gripe, though, Hawkeye felt like pretty much the ideal limited-run series to me, a lovely Christmas-themed stocking stuffer. I give it an A-. I'd love to get another season of it at some point. At a minimum, I hope it serves up some lessons that can be applied to future MCU TV series.