The new Disney+ series ‘Hawkeye’ kicked off on November 24th with the first two episodes aptly titled “Never Meet Your Heroes” and “Hide and Seek.” The new MCU series finds it’s footing in it’s storytelling and introduction of the new character Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld. Hailee does a wonderful job portraying the young archer here and it front and center of the story that kicks off a chain of events leading to her crossing paths with Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. The first two episodes show a strong start to the series that makes me really look forward to how the rest of the story will unfold from here. Spoilers from here on out.
Right at the start of the series, we are shown a flashback of the New York attack that took place in 2012 during Avengers one. This time, we are shown the attacks from a different perspective. A young Kate is scared and confused as she witnesses the Chituari attacking the city from outside her home. She calls for her father who had just left the house, and fearfully looks out a gaping hole that was left on the side of her home from an attack. It’s in this moment, we see Hawkeye taking on the Chituari from a rooftop far away as he fires off an arrow that directly hits a Chituari who was heading towards Kate, just in time, saving Kate’s life. Kate looks in awe, as her mother grabs her and wisks her away to safety. We find out her father is found dead during this destruction, and we see Kate and her mother attending his funeral. The show cuts to it’s opening credits. The opening credits is a beautiful montage showing Kate working hard to become a better archer, fighter, gymnast and all around achiever. She was not born with these gifts, but she strives towards becoming the best. In just a short amount of time, we know and understand Kate’s character.
The first episode primarily focuses on Kate, who’s dealing with finding out about her mother (played by Vera Farmiga) getting engaged to her boyfriend who seems to be involved in some shady business with his family. Kate comes from wealth and riches so they go to a high class party in which other people of wealth are attending. Kate has a bit of a stand off moment with her mom because she wasn’t honest about her engagement, since Kate found out about it through another member of her mothers’ fiancée’s family. Meanwhile, we learn that Clint is in town with his family, spending as much time as he can with his three kids. This involves watching a Broadway musical called “Rogers the musical.” Yes, you heard that right! How can a scene with so much fun end up becoming so emotional? We see that Clint is torn up about having lost Natasha(Black Widow) as he is reminded of their battle in New York that was shown to us at the start of the series. It’s also in this moment, that we see that Clint now wears a hearing aid and is suffering from hearing loss. Kate gets wrapped up in the crossfires of an underground criminal organization that is auctioning off valuable items. In here, she obtains Clint’s prior “Ronan” outfit, and from here on, the story ensues and they cross paths. Kate’s got people after her, and Clint must protect her since she was seen wearing the suit, thus putting a target on her back from the Tracksuit mafia (yes that is their actual name).
I’m absolutely loving these first two episodes so far! Hawkeye isn’t one of my favorite characters in the MCU, but I love how this series is treating him and showing a more fleshed out and complicated character. He’s put himself through so much and we can see that. I think the highlight is easily Hailee and Jeremy Renner’s chemistry. They play so well off of each other which makes their scenes work! Their father daughter duo is great, and I appreciate the grounded take for these characters who are otherwise just normal regular human beings who aren’t super powered, just determined and talented and willing to do what’s right to protect people. I’m excited to see how the story will continue, and will no doubt be catching up with this series as they continue to release weekly new episodes. Also, you can’t deny how adorable Lucky the pizza dog is!
Hawkeye episodes 1 & 2 are now streaming on Disney+ with new episodes every Wednesday.
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