Just got through Hawkeye. This is the show I knew the least about going in and cared the least about.
And its far and away my absolute favorite Marvel show. Probably my favorite MCU thing period in a long time. This is the first one I feel like I might actually want to rewatch in full. That I'd want to share with my dad because I think he'd like it. (if only there wasn't so much continuity in it. He's not going to deal with the black widow movie and the avengers movies to get all the context)
The lead characters, the side characters, how the two leads played off each other, the comedy, the action, the plot twists, the sentimentality, how toned down and street level it was instead of over the top magic maguffins with time or space travel or ancient chinese dragons... the choice use of christmas music for dramatic or emotional effect, the Steve Rogers musical number, pizza dog, THAT guy showing up in the final episode, Everything just hit exactly right.
I complained just the other day how with Shang Chi I was seeing the kinks in the same action team doing ALL the choreography for all the stuff because it felt very samey and repetitive no matter where it was set, but here it worked. The editing, flow, ongoing surprises (especially with the trick arrows) all just worked.
I've enjoyed a lot of the shows and movies and had fun with them and will revisit moments, but I haven't loved any since probably Guardians 2 or Black Panther and those were six and seven years ago. That was nice and refreshing, and even my wife said after it was done "We should just stop there, nothing is going to top that one."
Moon Knight, Secret Invasion, and Quantumania to go... And then we'll finally be done with our MCU homework and caught up until Deadpool in the summer.
