Hawkeye

8.5/10

In this new MCU show on Disney+, the retired-from-superheroing Clint Barton/Hawkeye (played by Jeremy Renner), on a trip to New York, has to go back into action when a shadow from his past resurfaces and ends up having to work with wannabe superhero Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who's his biggest fan.

Of all the the MCU shows, this is the one that's just trying the most to just have fun (not to say there aren't serious parts, especially with Clint). This is a bit of a madcap program as Clint and Kate run into one big personality or out-of-control situation after the next as they keep sinking deeper and deeper into trouble. This takes place on Christmas, and the festive feel adds to the show.  Also, action's pretty good with some occasional memorable moments, though expect more street level hand-to-hand style combat than the other shows.

Admittedly Hawkeye is no one's favorite Avenger, but I'm glad he finally got a solo project. Clint's more of an every guy. What's interesting about him is he didn't go through a major life-changing event to cause him to want to become a hero. He's a soldier who sort of fell into it. Unlike a lot of the other Marvel superheroes, you really don't go into his back story and have to fill in the gaps, which I like. A lot is said about guy through actions and attitude alone. Renner does a great playing a job playing a man who's burned out and just tired of the costs of supeheroing. Plus, he's shouldering his own guilt not in a brooding Batman way, but in a more realistic manner.

The core of this show is definitely the relationship between the jaded, grumpy Clint and the optimistic, but unprepared Kate. Hailee does a great job selling the character. Though there have been plenty of Marvel superheroes who have to learn to be a hero really quickly, Kate feels a little different as she's clearly always wanted to be a hero and already has her skill set, she's just a bit vague on the details on how to do it. Also, I love the explanation of why out of all the Avengers, Hawkeye's her favorite. Excellent exposition scene.

Thing is, they do spend a little too much time on Clint and Kate. There are a lot of interesting characters in this, but most of them don't feel like they were fleshed out or given enough to do. The show suffers the same kind of issue Loki did in that it feels like they posed most of the mysteries early on and just dropped all the answers on us in the last couple episodes. What made Wandavision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier work was that they doled out plot points carefully throughout the shows. Here we get a LOT of Kate and Clint shenanigans that start to run together, and there could've been more variety in the plotting.

Overall, highly recommended. I'd say this is the weakest of the four live-action Marvel shows, but that's just compared to the others. This is definitely a fun romp with some good Clint beats and more entertaining than a lot of other shows out there.