Kings, Assassins, and Arrows
I can say it with certainty now--Hawkeye is the best of the Disney+ MCU shows. I give WandaVision a lot of points for audacity but Hawkeye is more consistent in quality. Unevenness is a problem that plagues all the other MCU Disney+ shows, probably because so many novice writers are given filler episodes. Hawkeye benefits from being short and having a simpler premise. The two episodes written by Jonathan Igla, the first episode and the final episode, are by far the strongest and accounting for more than a third of the series' overall runtime, they do a lot of heavy lifting. The finale did a good job balancing so many characters and plot elements. It isn't perfect, but it mostly succeeds where it counts.
Spoilers after the screenshot
The biggest disappointment was Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), although it was kind of inevitable. What made him strong on Daredevil was that he had so much time to develop. On Hawkeye, he basically has one episode, and I can imagine anyone who hasn't seen the Daredevil series is wondering what all the fuss is about this guy. It was a big mistake giving him a showdown with Kate (Hailee Steinfeld) as the whole concept of Kingpin is that he's a guy who doesn't usually get his hands dirty, he has minions doing all that for him. That he randomly walks up to Eleanor (Vera Farmiga) in the street feels really off. Kingpin shouldn't be going anywhere without ten lieutenants flanking him. That said, D'Onofrio still has great presence and does that wonderful jaw-clenching thing. The sound design deepened his voice, too, which is a cheap but often effective trick for villains.
Vera Farmiga continues to be appreciably slimy. It was a bit silly when she hit Kingpin with her car--there's no way she had time to crawl to the front seat, back up the car, and circle it around into position. But she oozed menace when she was trying to bargain with Kate by acting so wide eyed and innocent. Who knows how else she benefited from her partnership with Kingpin?
Speaking of partners, it was effectively sweet when Clint (Jeremy Renner) finally called Kate his partner. The buildup in previous episodes comes to good fruition and Kate's speech about how inspiring Clint was to her as a little girl was also very nice.
It really was a good Christmas show, though it hit the comedy notes a bit too hard sometimes. Clint getting stuck in the tree was dopey and the Larpers went from bad to full cringe. I did love Tony Dalton, though, taking the opportunity to brandish a sword. He's frankly much more enjoyable here than on Better Call Saul, though in most respects I'd say Saul is superior to this and most other shows from the past ten years.
I wanted to like the banter between Florence Pugh and Hailee Steinfeld a lot more and it was nice to be able see that the actresses were indeed in the same location this time. The rapid switches from earnest action to broad comedy, though, only served to diminish the impact of both. When Yelena does the exaggerated "Ow!" after Kate hit her with the bola, it seemed way out of character and downright sloppy for a Black Widow. However, Pugh and Renner fighting on the ice while finally having the emotional confrontation about Natasha's death was very effective due especially to Pugh's and Renner's performances.
I'm warming up to Echo, too, and Alaqua Cox looked very good with her hair down. I do think, though, that the Echo series will really be more of a Wilson Fisk series, if it knows what's good for it.
So overall, a good finale, and a good cap to a solid miniseries. Hawkeye is available on Disney+.