Echo
Year: 2024
Created by: Marion Dayre
Starring: Alaqua Cox & Vincent D'Onofrio
Episodes: 5
BBFC: 15
Published: 22/01/24
Created by: Marion Dayre
Starring: Alaqua Cox & Vincent D'Onofrio
Episodes: 5
BBFC: 15
Published: 22/01/24
Hawkeye didn’t get the best reception upon its release in 2021, with many criticising its more humorous approach to the character. I personally quite enjoyed what is likely to be Clint Barton’s final MCU appearance, and it was one of the first MCU projects to acknowledge the existence of the Netflix Defenders saga that ran adjacent to the MCU but was never truly ‘official canon’. There were rumours rumbling around that there would be a spin-off to Hawkeye that would further explore this connection, effectively tying in the Netflix shows with the MCU proper. So, when Disney announced Echo, a mature rated miniseries centred around a character introduced in Hawkeye audiences were definitely left a little perplexed at what the project would become. Now it’s here, and the Defenders saga has been made canon as a result. So, is Echo any good, and does it use its mature content to good effect?
Five months after Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) killed Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), she is still fleeing his organisation who wants her head. She returns to her hometown in Olklahoma in an attempt to reconnect with her Native American roots, but when Fisk’s men find her, and the Kingpin himself is revealed to have survived a bullet to the head, Maya’s family and community are all put at risk.
My initial thought after finishing Echo was questioning why the series wasn’t just a film. At five episodes in length, once you discount the opening titles and the horrendously long end credits that MCU Disney+ shows always have, you end up with around three hours’ worth of actual footage. I think twenty to thirty minutes could easily have been trimmed away and it be released as a film, and I actually would have preferred that.
But the main takeaway I had from Echo was that it was better than I was expecting it to be, and whilst I don’t feel it needed to be mature rated either, it’s certainly a nice departure from the normal MCU content to have something that’s considerably more grounded, character driven, and just generally different to the usual MCU content.
Five months after Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) killed Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), she is still fleeing his organisation who wants her head. She returns to her hometown in Olklahoma in an attempt to reconnect with her Native American roots, but when Fisk’s men find her, and the Kingpin himself is revealed to have survived a bullet to the head, Maya’s family and community are all put at risk.
My initial thought after finishing Echo was questioning why the series wasn’t just a film. At five episodes in length, once you discount the opening titles and the horrendously long end credits that MCU Disney+ shows always have, you end up with around three hours’ worth of actual footage. I think twenty to thirty minutes could easily have been trimmed away and it be released as a film, and I actually would have preferred that.
But the main takeaway I had from Echo was that it was better than I was expecting it to be, and whilst I don’t feel it needed to be mature rated either, it’s certainly a nice departure from the normal MCU content to have something that’s considerably more grounded, character driven, and just generally different to the usual MCU content.
The first episode mostly acts as a recap for people who haven’t seen Hawkeye as to who Maya is, and why she shot Fisk in the head at the end of that show. From there the show introduces us to her former family, the people she grew up with and grew apart from as she became increasingly more involved with Fisk's criminal business. I don’t really feel like anything happened in the second episode, but episode three is where the show really finds its feet and it continues in a positive stride from there on.
The personal dilemma at the centre of the show is Maya trying to work out whether she should kill Fisk, which is one I find a little odd because she thought she’d already succeeded in that before the show starts. It’s a surprise to her, and to the audience when Fisk is revealed to have survived at the end of episode one; so why then does she find it so hard to decide whether to kill him again?
Even so, Maya is a great character and I love the way the show weaves in various aspects of Native American culture, and Maya’s hearing impairment and physical disability in a meaningful way. None of it feels like it’s just there for the sake of it, every element plays a significant role in the story and to how characters interact with each other. Whenever Maya is in a scene the majority of the dialogue is done through the use of American Sign Language because she is completely deaf. Maya is also missing a leg, so action sequences are often choreographed in different ways to highlight this.
I am going to quickly talk about how much I love D’Onofrio as Fisk. He was great in Hawkeye and whilst I’ve not yet seen Daredevil I am sure he was equally as good in that. He presents a version of the Kingpin that is emotionally vulnerable and feels like an actual human being. That’s something I often feel is missing in depictions of Kingpin, he’s just this hulking mass of a man who punches things in a lot of Marvel content, but D’Onofrio really makes him someone you love to see on screen. He may be a villain, but he’s just so charismatic and charming until he loses his temper. More of this please!
Whilst Echo certainly doesn’t match up to the kind of quality of MCU shows like WandaVision and Ms. Marvel, it’s certainly refreshing to see Marvel and Disney trying something new and letting the franchise spread its wings into new territories. I can’t say I’d be overly bothered to see Echo return for a second season, but I’d definitely like to see more Marvel content like this. If we do see Echo come back then I’d like to see it justify itself more as a series (and not just by pumping it full of filler content), and potentially expand the mature content beyond just having a bit of blood in the action scenes. I want to see it get gritty and dirty with some heavier subject matter. As it stands, Echo is a nice departure for the franchise, but nothing to go crazy for.
The personal dilemma at the centre of the show is Maya trying to work out whether she should kill Fisk, which is one I find a little odd because she thought she’d already succeeded in that before the show starts. It’s a surprise to her, and to the audience when Fisk is revealed to have survived at the end of episode one; so why then does she find it so hard to decide whether to kill him again?
Even so, Maya is a great character and I love the way the show weaves in various aspects of Native American culture, and Maya’s hearing impairment and physical disability in a meaningful way. None of it feels like it’s just there for the sake of it, every element plays a significant role in the story and to how characters interact with each other. Whenever Maya is in a scene the majority of the dialogue is done through the use of American Sign Language because she is completely deaf. Maya is also missing a leg, so action sequences are often choreographed in different ways to highlight this.
I am going to quickly talk about how much I love D’Onofrio as Fisk. He was great in Hawkeye and whilst I’ve not yet seen Daredevil I am sure he was equally as good in that. He presents a version of the Kingpin that is emotionally vulnerable and feels like an actual human being. That’s something I often feel is missing in depictions of Kingpin, he’s just this hulking mass of a man who punches things in a lot of Marvel content, but D’Onofrio really makes him someone you love to see on screen. He may be a villain, but he’s just so charismatic and charming until he loses his temper. More of this please!
Whilst Echo certainly doesn’t match up to the kind of quality of MCU shows like WandaVision and Ms. Marvel, it’s certainly refreshing to see Marvel and Disney trying something new and letting the franchise spread its wings into new territories. I can’t say I’d be overly bothered to see Echo return for a second season, but I’d definitely like to see more Marvel content like this. If we do see Echo come back then I’d like to see it justify itself more as a series (and not just by pumping it full of filler content), and potentially expand the mature content beyond just having a bit of blood in the action scenes. I want to see it get gritty and dirty with some heavier subject matter. As it stands, Echo is a nice departure for the franchise, but nothing to go crazy for.