Spoilers

 

Hawkeye has his Christmas ruined…

I should start here by saying I enjoyed these two episodes a lot – they were fun, kinetic and made me laugh. However. Hawkeye is far from perfect, and the problems seem me to be in its DNA.

Hawkeye takes place in a post-blip world. Set quite some time after the blip, after Thanos is dealt with, possibly even after The Eternals takes place. Clint Barton is busy being with his family, the ages of his three children necessarily passed over as they don’t make a fig of sense but, fortunately, the actors playing them are really good.

He is, if not retired, certainly taking a break from being a super hero even if it’s not quite clear what he does for a living. Whatever it is, he doesn’t suffer from the same lack of cashflow as the new Captain America, Sam Wilson, even if he’s evidently awkward about receiving stuff for free because he saved the world.

Clint takes quite a lot of time to tell anyone who’ll listen that he’s uncomfortable with being recognised, that he’s spent years being a shadow and having ‘no brand’, except everyone does seem to know who he is as frequent call outs by passers-by show.

All in all he’s struggling a little to be just Clint Barton. The show does some work to make him feel like an ‘ordinary’ guy. He’s not a fan of a musical he’s taken to see, he’s interested in seeing Christmas lights, in having unfussy food. All in all, he’s pretty much portrayed with stereotypical dad energy.

Where it does work is that Jeremy Renner gives us a sense that Clint likes this life and isn’t in a hurry to get on with anything else. I felt like Clint was satisfied being with his family, was enjoying being someone with obligations of the mundane variety.

The chemistry between him and his kids is golden.

What I found strange then was the juxtaposition of these relationships with Kate Bishop. Quintessential spoiled WASP used to getting her own way because she’s had all the advantages (and because her mother can literally pay to pick up the pieces when she decides to break other people’s things because she can). Sure there’s a tragic backstory but I find it really irritating that we have yet another hero whose background is ‘rich, white, privileged’. It’s all the more annoying when we consider that one of the things for Clint Barton is that he’s about as everyman as you get on the hero side of the MCU right now. Aside from the departed Steve Rogers we have billionaires, geniuses, gods and kings on the roster and barely a hero with any kind of actual background where they need to work to live. You could point out Ant-Man but that’s a confusing one what with him being adopted by genius millionaires and not ever needing to work again.

Clint’s nearest comparator is Sam Wilson.

Additionally, having Kate rock up and essentially immediately take over the role his daughter was handling a moment before was jarring. I wanted to shout ‘your daughter’s right there! The one you did archery with in Infinity War!’

Anyway. That’s not the biggest issue for me. We follow Kate as she refuses to apologise and laments that her mother’s cut off her credit cards as she ends up going to a high society charity do and as so frequently happens at these dos (seriously there’s a lot of charities out there probably wishing they could raise money other ways), she ends up stumbling upon a secret auction of stolen rarities and antiquities. In a brilliantly realised action sequence she protects people in danger and, somehow, finds a suit to hide her identity.

Unfortunately both for Kate and Clint, it’s a suit she really shouldn’t have put on as from it flows much of the show’s plot.

This for me is the big issue.

All the establishing shots for this show until this point are about Clint being a good father and hero and Kate being a spoilt but talented WASP. However, for anyone watching we probably remember that Clint was also Ronin, a mass murdering vigilante for whom due process was nothing more than an answer on the quick crossword. There were real issues with the MCU portrayal of Ronin in Infinity War, not least that he was shown killing PoC and then immediately forgiven by his friends who were, supposedly, the moral compass of the saga. Like Scarlet Witch after him and Tony Stark before, his appalling abuse of power, his murders and other crimes were simply forgotten for the sake of plot.

This show wants its cake and it wants to eat it too. It wants to use Ronin as a motivating factor for nearly all the different characters and it also wants the moral consequences of Clint’s actions to be ignored.

Sure the bad guys are unhappy with Ronin but the show describes that as being because he acted against them. Murdering them is deemed as OK because they’re criminal and somehow fair game. The criminals in episodes 1 and 2 are not cross that he was a merciless psychopath carving his way through their friends and loved ones without consequence, they’re cross because he interfered with their activities.

And so the moral centre of the show is entirely two faced and conflicted.

Clint is portrayed, at worst, as a man who is trying to live his life and really regrets that anyone remembers Ronin. Ronin is presented as a motivating factor precisely because he was so impactful across lots of people’s lives.

Of course, it’s possible that in episode 3 they’ll make Clint face the true facts of what his actions have done to people, to strangers, but right now at the end of episode 2 it’s far from doing anything with such a morally repugnant character. That Clint wants to be a good father? Perhaps he needs to follow after the Winter Soldier and make amends to his victims and admit his guilt. A good dose of therapy would probably help him face his crimes more than it ever did Bucky. We knew Bucky felt guilt for the murders he committed, but Clint appears to have entirely forgotten that he actually was Ronin and that those crimes are on his ledger.

For me it doesn’t work. And it’s a long way from addressing the elephant in the room and talking about the nature of those who engage willingly in the kinds of acts Clint is shown as having done. If I was being unkind I’d give this show the following strapline: Hawkeye, a murderer has his Christmas ruined. So, you know, it’s got problems.

Kate Bishop, played by the fantastic Hailee Steinfeld, is actually a brilliant character. She’s smart, independent, strong willed, curious and fierce. The exact kind of role model I want my daughter (and my son) to have. It’s just that we’ve seen so much of her baggage before. Having said that, she brings a grace and real sense of authenticity to Kate Bishop and I can’t see how anyone else could have brought her to life in the same way.

There are some wonderful set pieces – from a fight in an alleyway, the first episode’s wine cellar set-to and one of the better presentations of LARP I’ve seen on screen. There’s love in the material on presentation here, a sense of frivolity that is greatly appreciated and lends a comforting glow to the whole thing.

Verdict: There is much to love in the pieces of the puzzle but, because of the problems right at the heart of the show, it’s really a classic case of being less than the sum of its parts.

Rating? 6 odd couples out of 10

Stewart Hotston