Hawkeye

In the spirit of the holidays, Marvel Studios released a Christmas-themed show at the end of the year. Jeremy Renner resumes his role as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, the archer who never misses, as Clint struggles to navigate the superhero world without his partner-in-crime, Natasha Romanoff. The series also explores the period of his past in between the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

In all honesty, I didn’t expect too much of this show because of all the current Marvel characters, Hawkeye wasn’t a particularly appealing character to me. However, as per Marvel’s trend of exploring their minor characters’ stories (like in WandaVision or Falcon and the Winter Soldier), this series gave me a new appreciation of Clint, and turned out to be quite enjoyable.

The only major bone that I have to pick with this series is that the pacing felt odd. It felt like nothing was happening for about two-thirds of the episodes, and then everything happened all at once. The final episode, for example, felt like its content could have spanned at least one more episode.

The series is still entertaining nonetheless, and I did enjoy Clint’s interaction with Kate Bishop. It wasn’t anything ground-breaking or particularly special, but there were a few notable moments that could be game changers for Marvel’s future. A small detail I appreciated was the inclusion of Clint’s hearing disability in the show, which was something that I had hoped would be included ever since the first Avengers came out.

Hawkeye hit the target, but missed the mark.