Hawkeye 1x02
Dec. 29th, 2021 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsHawkeye 1x02
I’m not even sure I have much to say about this one, it was mostly kind of bland. On one hand I’m glad I wasn’t in a rush to watch this show; on the other, I think maybe I should have waited until it was over and watched it as one thing instead of episodically.
It's fine, the acting is good, the story is still doing alright, it’s just mellow. I actually think this may be the biggest problem with these short form TV stories. It’s probably too much material for a movie, but it’s allowed to bloat beyond what it would be if they were writing a movie version. On the flip side it’s not enough material for a TV show and the writers don’t know what to add in the extra time. A TV series would have rising and falling action within episodes and is meant to have things happen in each one.
I continue to think they’re doing a better job with Clint than they are with Kate, but maybe that’s just inevitable; and I’d probably be complaining if it was going the other way, because Clint should be getting a lot to do in this story. But in among that thought I had one that kept coming to me: I miss Agents of SHIELD. Clint the solo spy is decent to watch (although I do have some concerns that the whole larp stuff was inserted just to have something that approached an action scene in this ep), and AoS wasn’t the most spy oriented show, but that was still the direction my thoughts went.
And I think it’s because my brain was drawing a connection between Hawkeye and SHIELD that I was…underwhelmed by what we were getting here. Because like I said, AoS was not the most spy focused spy show around, because even when they were doing spy stuff a lot of the focus was still on the character interactions, and I think that’s missing here. Both because Clint is going as a solo act for a lot of it, and because I feel like what we are getting is much more mission-focused than character driven. I get him taking this very seriously, but then they put him in heightened or ridiculous situations and so his seriousness leaves some detachment there. Which I guess was kind of what Kate was saying, but I had lot more feeling for Clint last episode because he was with people that he was connected to and so I mostly got his behavior choices (with questions like why Laura didn’t go on the trip with them).
If I was writing, I would have used the larp session to do something more with his character, instead of leaving it ambiguous whether any of these potential thoughts were supposed to be on his mind. Like that he can’t turn off his combat instincts; or that it’s kind of fun for him to do something he’s good at without hurting people; or that he’s kind of getting into it; or that he finds it all just silly, and these are knights of summer while he is very much not that. I think part of why it feels thrown in to get a playful action-ish scene is because we’re not in his head very much. It’s just a kind of weird thing that’s happening in the course of his investigation.
I’ll keep going with this show, it hasn’t put me off yet, and maybe it won’t, but I’m not exactly engrossed either. I think that’s another problem with these shows (and why I think I will probably tip over and do them as minseries marathons in the future, and should have already switched over), when watching them week to week or even spread out over a few days, it’s not the same as sitting down and getting sucked into a movie for a couple hours. Which is weird for me to say as I usually prefer TV storytelling, but these shows are trying to be movies told in chapters and that might be the better way to watch them.
I’m not even sure I have much to say about this one, it was mostly kind of bland. On one hand I’m glad I wasn’t in a rush to watch this show; on the other, I think maybe I should have waited until it was over and watched it as one thing instead of episodically.
It's fine, the acting is good, the story is still doing alright, it’s just mellow. I actually think this may be the biggest problem with these short form TV stories. It’s probably too much material for a movie, but it’s allowed to bloat beyond what it would be if they were writing a movie version. On the flip side it’s not enough material for a TV show and the writers don’t know what to add in the extra time. A TV series would have rising and falling action within episodes and is meant to have things happen in each one.
I continue to think they’re doing a better job with Clint than they are with Kate, but maybe that’s just inevitable; and I’d probably be complaining if it was going the other way, because Clint should be getting a lot to do in this story. But in among that thought I had one that kept coming to me: I miss Agents of SHIELD. Clint the solo spy is decent to watch (although I do have some concerns that the whole larp stuff was inserted just to have something that approached an action scene in this ep), and AoS wasn’t the most spy oriented show, but that was still the direction my thoughts went.
And I think it’s because my brain was drawing a connection between Hawkeye and SHIELD that I was…underwhelmed by what we were getting here. Because like I said, AoS was not the most spy focused spy show around, because even when they were doing spy stuff a lot of the focus was still on the character interactions, and I think that’s missing here. Both because Clint is going as a solo act for a lot of it, and because I feel like what we are getting is much more mission-focused than character driven. I get him taking this very seriously, but then they put him in heightened or ridiculous situations and so his seriousness leaves some detachment there. Which I guess was kind of what Kate was saying, but I had lot more feeling for Clint last episode because he was with people that he was connected to and so I mostly got his behavior choices (with questions like why Laura didn’t go on the trip with them).
If I was writing, I would have used the larp session to do something more with his character, instead of leaving it ambiguous whether any of these potential thoughts were supposed to be on his mind. Like that he can’t turn off his combat instincts; or that it’s kind of fun for him to do something he’s good at without hurting people; or that he’s kind of getting into it; or that he finds it all just silly, and these are knights of summer while he is very much not that. I think part of why it feels thrown in to get a playful action-ish scene is because we’re not in his head very much. It’s just a kind of weird thing that’s happening in the course of his investigation.
I’ll keep going with this show, it hasn’t put me off yet, and maybe it won’t, but I’m not exactly engrossed either. I think that’s another problem with these shows (and why I think I will probably tip over and do them as minseries marathons in the future, and should have already switched over), when watching them week to week or even spread out over a few days, it’s not the same as sitting down and getting sucked into a movie for a couple hours. Which is weird for me to say as I usually prefer TV storytelling, but these shows are trying to be movies told in chapters and that might be the better way to watch them.
