this first episode is quite weird, I think trying to explain Echo’s whole backstory makes it really rushed. Excited to see DD of course and the fight scene was quite good so I’m optimistic for the rest of the series. Not sure if I’m gonna binge it all tonight or spread it out a bit.
My same thoughts, the first part felt a bit rushed... but at the same time this feels like the Marvel show I've been waiting a long time for. Maybe they could have used a handful more episodes to work with?
Yeah, the first 25 minutes or so we're an extended recap of Hawkeye, minus Hawkeye (mostly).
It's weird because without that show you could tell a fun story about Maya vs Kingpin. Trusted since childhood, grew up with Kingpin, then he betrays you, you find out later, you kill him. It's a great story. I guess they can't tell that one since it's already been speedran.
I hope the story ends with Kingpin and Maya on the same side. I think that would be brutal and make for excellent future stories. They can be highly mistrusting of each other, but forced to work together.
I thought maybe that they don’t want to require people to watch Hawkeye beforehand, but I’m not sure how effective that was. If the viewer didn’t watch Hawkeye, I’m not sure that first episode was clear enough to explain much. Or maybe the intention is actually for people who’s watched Hawkeye, this is just a refresher. Either way it’s a bit confusing for me.
As I mentioned in the predictions thread this show is under the Marvel Spotlight branding which says "our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story"
So doing the Hawkeye recap makes sense, since Maya's journey is directly affected by the events of Hawkeye.
What's interesting is, apart from the subtitles, I don't think Daredevil is mentioned by name. Is the audience expected to know who he is? How about Kingpin? (Also, never mentioned by name? Only as "King")
Also, the reveal of who actually killed Maya's father being Ronin aka Hawkeye. Does the average viewer remember that brief arc from Endgame? Is it clear that Ronin was being used by Kingpin? I know they did the "you were used, like me" scene, taken directly from Hawkeye, but did it land?
I think the idea of "Marvel Spotlight" is interesting, and maybe recaps are fine, but Maya's story feels too intertwined.
I think you’ve got the spotlight idea backwards. I think it’s supposed to be that this is a spotlight on this character and you don’t need to watch it to understand the rest of the MCU.