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The new show Hawkeye has finally arrived, and the first episode serves to set up much of the mysteries and adventures for this (so far at least) non-supernatural show. At first we are introduced to a young girl in a swanky NYC penthouse as she overhears her parents arguing about maybe having to sell the place. All fine and good, but the year is 2012 and thus we can anticipate what is coming.
The wall collapses around young Kate, but who does she spot off in the distance? Repurposed and newly constructed from a distance footage of Clint ‘Hawkeye’ Barton kicking ass with his bow and arrow. So that’s one note to set up our heroine, but the next one is that her dad dies off screen — because it’s Marvel and their heroes require Daddy issues, don’t they? Kate informs her mom Eleanor (Vera Farmiga) that she needs to protect them, although mom is quick to counter this — but of course obviously we know what that means.
Cue a cleverly made animated opening credits/montage where we see Kate winning championships in martial arts, archery, fencing, etc as she proceeds from not very good to absolutely legendary. As they said back in Team America: World Police, even Rocky used a montage, so no reason not to use it here in a new way. We return to the nebulous year of ‘now’ (which I think is five years in the future?) where a grown up Kate (a perfectly cast Hailee Steinfeld) is up to hijinks, using her bow and arrows in a ‘trick’ way (which is another clear allusion to Hawkeye’s trick arrows) and accidentally causes extreme damage.
So it’s a set-up that Kate is both talented and also maybe not quite ready for primetime, something that will continue to be hammered home a few times. But first, we check in with Clint and his kids, at the hilarious ‘Rogers: The Musical’, where we watch the actors sing about ‘We got to hear you say, I can do this all day’ — I suppose that tracks. Clint, in the first of a few times this episode, is triggered into traumatic flashbacks by seeing the Natasha actress on stage — and we also find out that Clint wears a hearing aid in one ear due to the extensive damage a normal human would’ve gotten over the years.
While Clint is struggling with his mild (but noticeable) fame and wanting to spend the holidays with his kids, Kate is involved in something far more creepy. She meets her mother’s new beau, Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton), who certainly has an unctuous vibe, and Kate discovers the news that, yes, they are engaged from Jack’s dad Armand (Simon Callow). Both Armand and Jack are characters from the comics, but that is nearly meaningless here, because who knows how they might be interpreted?
But as Kate hides as a waiter and tries to figure out what’s going on with the mysterious father and son, we hear a remix of the ‘Carole of the Bells’ in a particularly creepy way — although a good one. She tries to eavesdrop at an underground auction for the super rich, and is quite taken aback at the reveal of the sword and outfit of the mysterious ‘Ronin’ — whom nobody knows was Clint all along.
After a bunch of Russians break into the place to find some watch (another mystery), Kate dons the Ronin outfit to go after them — and of course, saves a dog from traffic. Although we have seen Kate do quite well in many fights so far, she’s far from perfect, and is ultimately saved by the real Ronin showing up and beating up the bad guys.
At the same time, we see Jack grab the Ronin’s sword and express a love of swords earlier — so there’s something there too. And of course, another dad is dead, this time the mysterious Armand, and Kate is merely in the wrong place in the wrong time — which means it’s time for a classic first episode cliffhanger, if a pretty fun one.
I think the episode worked decently so far, helping us get a better handle on Kate’s capabilities and motivations, while setting up a bunch of mysteries of various sorts. The second episode continues from there, as Kate and Clint finally meet and Clint is highly unimpressed by her moxie.
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At this point, Clint’s motivation is simply to clean up the mess, retrieve the Ronin outfit, and get home in time for Christmas with the game. Why, it’s practically a Hallmark movie! Instead, he gets slightly delayed by a cutesy sequence with ‘NYC Larpers’, as he makes some firefighter’s year by publicly losing to him in a fake duel to the death.
He also continues to help Kate, and she even provides him unwanted feedback, that he has a branding issue — that people want sincerity instead of that cynical too-cool-for-school vibe, which is clearly a meta-commentary on the whole thing. There’s also a cute little mention of someone dressed up as Katniss Everdeen, as that book came out in 2008 and Kate Bishop initially originated in 2005 — so who did it first?
Finally it all ends up with Clint intentionally getting caught and Kate literally falling through the ceiling to ‘save’ him — classic. And we get our final mystery set-up of the season, seeing a mysterious lady boss of the tracksuit mafia bunch, who obviously will be important. It was a more character building, lighter sort of episode than the more action heavy first one, but I think it’s good to get more into Clint’s mindset — even if the show is just going to be Kate making stupid mistakes and not learning from them, it’s going to get pretty repetitive.
Still, I thought both were enjoyable, and I’m certainly happy to get more Hailee Steinfeld on the screen as Dickinson is being taken away for me, so it’s a thumbs up for now.
New episodes of Hawkeye stream Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
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