Hawkeye: The Complete First Season (Steelbook) (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
Review Date: Dec 09, 2024
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Rhys Thomas/Bert & Bertie

Release Date(s)

2021 (December 3, 2024)

Studio(s)

Marvel Studios/Disney+ (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

Film/Program Grade: B+
Video Grade: A
Audio Grade: A
Extras Grade: B+

Review

[Editor’s Note: Blu-ray versions are not yet available in the States, but the UK Ultra HD package is a 4K + Blu-ray Combo and the BDs are all region.]

For Those Who Came in Late...

Despite being a founding member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of The Avengers, Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, has remained at the margins for much of the franchise—quite literally so during his introduction in the first Thor film, where he was given little more than a blink-and-you’ll miss it cameo. Along with Black Widow, Hawkeye was the only one of the original Avengers who never had a solo film in order to establish his character (and while Natasha Romanoff eventually received her own solo feature Black Widow, that was only after she had already been written out of the franchise). He even suffered from the ignominy of being completely omitted from the universe-altering events of Avengers: Infinity War, and he received little more than a passing reference in the film in order to explain his absence: he was home with his family while under house arrest after violating the Sokovia Accords.

Avengers: Endgame further explained that his entire family had disappeared after The Snap and so he suffered something of an emotional breakdown, rebranding himself as the murderous Ronin while enacting lethal vengeance against evildoers far and wide. Eventually, he was brought back into the Avengers fold as Hawkeye again, only to find himself pitted against his closest friend Natasha when it became apparent that one of them would have to die in order to obtain the Soul Stone. In the battle over who would be sacrificed so that the other might live, Natasha won, and so Barton had to live with the guilt over his failure to prevent her death. Worse, in the post-credit sequence of Black Widow, it was revealed that the head of the CIA, Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, had offered Yelena Belova the opportunity to avenge the death of her sister, with Clint Barton as her target.

That’s a lot of baggage for a marginalized character to carry, so this is one case where the greater breathing room afforded to a streaming series on Disney+ is beneficial. Clint Barton may have been denied a solo feature film, but he got an extended consolation prize in the form of Hawkeye. As the series opens, Barton (Jeremy Renner) is still reconnecting with his lost family after they returned to existence post-Blip, and he’s trying to have a simple, normal family Christmas. Yet he finds himself dragged back into action in aid of Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who has inadvertently discovered his old Ronin costume and uncovered a conspiracy in the process. Bishop has long been obsessed with Hawkeye after she watched him fighting to save New York City during the Chitauri invasion, so she’s become a champion archer and martial artist of her own. Yet she’s in way over her head, especially since the costume draws the attention of Yelena (Florence Pugh) as well as that of Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), whose father had seemingly died at the hand of Ronin. With multiple targets on both of their heads, Clint reluctantly teams up with Kate while still trying to make it home for Christmas. Hawkeye also stars Vera Farmiga, Tony Dalton, Fra Fee, Linda Cardellini, Clayton English, and Simon Callow.

Frankly, that’s a lot of baggage for a six-episode series to carry: tying up all the loose ends surrounding Clint Barton while simultaneously establishing Kate Bishop as a new Hawkeye and also setting up Maya Lopez for her turn as Echo (that, plus laying the groundwork for the criminal mastermind who’s really behind everything). The good news is that showrunner Jonathan Igla put together a team that managed to pull all of that off with aplomb. While Hawkeye does assume familiarity with the aforementioned events that led up to it, and it has implications for various installments of the MCU that followed, it still operates well enough on its own as a relatively self-contained story. It doesn’t hurt that all of the narrative threads are small-scale and personal this time around, with no earth-shattering stakes. That helps to keep the focus on the implications that the story has for everyone involved in it—the fate of the universe may not be at risk, but everything that happens still has deep meaning for the people affected by it.

That’s the most true of Clint Barton himself, who is still dealing with the guilt that he feels about his time as Ronin, as well as his failure to keep Natasha alive. He may have helped to save the universe, but it was at the cost of someone whom he loved deeply. In terms of baggage, Clint Barton is the walking representation of it. He has to deal with the consequences of his past actions, which includes the toll that it has taken on his body and on his family life as well. His natural reticence means that he’s not really capable of working out that kind of emotional burden, so pairing him with the uninhibited Kate Bishop was the ideal choice. Renner and Steinfeld have genuine chemistry together, and the believable nature of their relationship helps to transcend the otherwise typical older curmudgeon/younger upstart trope. They end up teaching each other some valuable lessons about life, and they both grow as the result of their experiences together.

Still, it’s the little touches that make Hawkeye so enjoyable. Despite the large quantities of personal guilt and deep desires for revenge that are on display, there’s plenty of humor as well, and it manages to nail the balance between the two without ever tipping too far one way or the other. There are plenty of delightfully quirky details throughout the series, like the opening Broadway musical, the Tracksuit Mafia, and Hawkeye’s adventures in Live Action Roleplaying. Oh, and full props for featuring a fight involving wine bottles where they don’t break over people’s heads (since the force necessary to do so would also break their skulls as well). Hawkeye also features one of the most enjoyable credits sequences in the entire MCU, and while you’ll have to discover it for yourself at the end of the final episode, let’s just say that I can watch it all day.

Better yet, Hawkeye makes a point to remind audiences that Clint’s wife Laura (Cardellini) isn’t a shrinking violet who just minds the homestead, but rather a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who actively supports his work as Hawkeye. For all of the nice little touches throughout Hawkeye, it’s the personal ones like this that are the most enjoyable. Those who reflexively criticize superhero cinema as being about spectacle over character have missed the fact that the MCU was established not by spectacle alone, but rather by assembling a group of characters that audiences found appealing. Clint Barton may have been at the margins for much of that, but he’s no less likable, and Hawkeye provides a satisfying way of finally granting him a little bit of closure. Plus, it introduces a no less likable Young Avenger in the form of Kate Bishop. That’s a win-win for Marvel fans (and the fact that it offers more Florence Pugh is just the icing on an already tasty cake).

Cinematographers Eric Steelberg and James Whitaker captured Hawkeye digitally at 4.5K resolution in ARRIRAW format using ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF cameras with Panavision T-series anamorphic lenses. Post-production work was completed as a 4K Digital Intermediate, framed at 2.39:1. In keeping with the welcome new trend for Disney 4K releases, High Dynamic Range is offered in Dolby Vision as well as the basic HDR10 layer that their first few Disney+ streaming series were limited to. (Baby steps, but in the right direction.) Hawkeye is a relatively grounded series that lacks the fantastic settings of other Marvel series like WandaVision, Loki, and even Ms. Marvel, but it also eschews the intentionally gritty aesthetic of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. As a result, the image is finely detailed, razor sharp, and crystal-clear. There’s still plenty of CGI on hand, but while it’s not completely seamless, it manages to integrate into the surrounding material without being too distracting. The colors aren’t as dazzling as they are on shows like Loki, but there’s still plenty of depth to the shades on display. The contrast range is outstanding, and that really helps everything “pop” (as much as I hate that buzzword, it’s applicable in this case). It’s a beautiful 4K presentation.

Primary audio is offered in English Dolby Atmos. Hawkeye wastes no time announcing that it’s going to feature an aggressive object-based mix during the prologue of the first episode, when it flashes back to the Chitauri attack on New York City during the finale of The Avengers. Most of the scene remains confined in the apartment where a young Kate Bishop reacts to the chaos, so the Chitauri can be heard flying all around the room and even overhead at one point. That sets the tone for the rest of the series, which is consistently immersive from beginning to end. Unlike some older Disney Atmos mixes on physical media, the bass hasn’t been crippled, and it offers some real thump during appropriate moments. The whole track is still mastered at a relatively low level, but notching up the volume doesn’t impede the dynamics in any way—quite the opposite, because the overall sound levels can go from whisper quiet to nearly deafening almost instantaneously, so choose your volume level carefully. It’s a first-rate Atmos mix.

Additional audio options include French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, plus English 2.0 Descriptive Audio. Subtitle options include English SDH, French, and Spanish.

Disney’s 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release of Hawkeye: The Complete First Season is a two-disc set that includes a set of three different art cards. There’s no Blu-ray version currently available, and none of these sets offer any Digital Codes, either. (They’re undoubtedly being withheld in order to protect the value of the show on Disney+.) The six episodes are spread across the two discs, with the extras split between them:

DISC ONE (EPISODES 1-3)

Never Meet Your Heroes (UHD – 47:24)
Hide and Seek (UHD – 49:17)
Echoes (UHD – 41:45)

Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye (HD – 58:27)

DISC TWO (EPISODES 4-6)

Partners, Am I Right? (UHD – 38:42)
Ronin (UHD – 42:54)
So This Is Christmas? (UHD – 59:15)

A Tale of Two Hawkeyes (HD – 8:28)
Gag Reel (HD – 2:02)
Deleted Scenes:
- Follow the Trail (HD – 3:05)
- At the Stake (HD – :45)
- Burning of the Suit (HD – 1:29)
- Kate’s First Day at Work (HD – 8:19)
- Ice Cream (HD – :32)
- Detour (HD – 1:42)
- Friends? (HD – :56)
- You Never Miss (HD – 5:30)
- Moira Comes Home (HD – :55)
- Old Friend (HD – 1:51)
- Sorry (HD – 1:03)
- Until It’s Done (HD – 2:04)
- Boomerang (HD – 1:07)

Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye is a comprehensive look at the production of the show featuring interviews with cast members Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Tony Dalton, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee, Alaqua Cox, Clayton English, Jolt, and (potential spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the show) Vincent D’Onofrio. It also includes interviews with crew members like executive producer Trinh Tran, directors Bert & Bertie, director/executive producer Rhys Thomas, executive producer Brad Winderbaum, production designer Maya Shimoguchi, costume designer Michael Crow, songwriter Marc Shaiman, and more. It covers the making of Hawkeye from conception to production, and yes, that includes a substantial amount of time devoted to the musical number. While Christophe Beck and Michael Paraskevas handled the score for the series, composer Marc Shaiman was brought in to write just the one song for that number—he notes that while he was familiar with the MCU thanks to the fact that his husband is a fan, he never expected that he would ever have to figure out a rhyme for the word “tesseract.”

There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes footage on display as well, including an interesting section on the camera and automotive rig that was used to create the 360° shot during the car chase. (In an era where everyone brags about doing things practically even when it isn’t true, in this case, it really was shot practically with the actors in the car on a real street.) I’ve always maintained that one good making-of documentary is worth its weight in static talking head interviews, and the quality of Marvel’s Assembled series proves that point.

On the other hand, A Tale of Two Hawkeyes is pretty standard EPK fare, offering a brief overview of the series that’s redundant with most of the content in Assembled. As far as the Gag Reel goes, pro tip: if you feel the need to add a funny song in the background, then your gag reel wasn’t all that funny in the first place. Fortunately, the various Deleted Scenes are much more interesting. While none of them are essential (and a few would have bogged down the narrative flow), they still offer a little more insight into the characters. You Never Miss even provides some backstory about Clint Barton, showing how his mother was an influence on his life (for good and for ill). There’s also a nice moment between Barton and Maya in Sorry. Burning of the Suit was deleted because the event that it shows ended up being handled elsewhere, and Ice Cream was definitely best left on the cutting room floor, since it reveals the real villain far too early. Still, they’re all pretty interesting.

A decent slate of extras led by a very good documentary, uncompressed Atmos audio that hasn’t been crippled, and finally, Dolby Vision as well; in other words, Disney’s Steelbook releases of their MCU Disney+ series have definitely come of age. The lack of Blu-ray copies in the set may be an issue for some people, especially since Disney isn’t releasing separate Blu-ray versions at this point in time. Yet for everyone who is 4K capable, this is the best version Hawkeye: The Complete First Season to add to your physical media library. It’s expensive, so keep your eyes peeled for sales in the next few weeks before Christmas.

- Stephen Bjork

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