Assassins and Crime Lords

A solid episode of Hawkeye last night despite a lack of impressive action sequences. This one was more about dialogue, which should be the advantage of a TV series over movies. Yet another writer, Jenna Noel Frazier, comes aboard, her only previous writing credit being a staff writer on a series called The Romanoffs for Amazon Prime. I guess you could call that relevant job experience!

That said, I wish the writing had been stronger in that macaroni and cheese scene with Hailee Steinfield and Florence Pugh. I thought, here we have two talented actresses, a premise with a lot of tension, and they just tread water with cliche lines like "collateral damage" and "If I wanted you dead" etc. I also didn't like Bert and Bertie's direction for the scene--it consists almost entirely of over-the-shoulder shots, I don't remember one shot in which we could see the faces of both actresses. We don't actually get to see these two good performers play off of each other. It made me wonder if the actresses filmed their parts separately. I continue to enjoy Pugh, though, and that opening scene where she gets blipped in the middle of an important meeting was nice.

I didn't get a strong sense of Yelena wanting Clint (Jeremy Renner) dead, she seems too smart to really blame him for Natasha's murder. I guess that might be why she was following the line of her employers, finally discovering Eleanor Bishop is the secret villain of this series, though I think most viewers guessed it. Normally I can't stand Vera Farmiga but I think she was good casting here. For once, her smugness is supposed to be unappealing.

And, of course, the big reveal was Kingpin is indeed back, played once again by Vincent D'Onofrio. If you were to ask me to choose the single strongest element of all the Marvel Netflix series, I would've pointed right at him, followed by Jessica Jones. So this was a good idea, though what made him so strong on Daredevil was that the 13 episode first season could take its time fleshing him out, giving him a complex backstory unrivalled by any other villain in the MCU.

Now that it looks like they're bringing over Netflix characters (unless this still ends up being another Boner, which I'm never going to feel safe from), I hope they don't bring in everyone, especially not from Daredevil. Obviously they have to bring over Charlie Cox but I sure as hell hope they avoid Elden Henson. I wouldn't mind seeing Deborah Ann Woll again, though.

Hawkeye is available on Disney+.