Marvel's first live-action TV show of the new year starts very disappointingly but here’s why.
(© Disney)
Echo is based on another show, Hawkeye with her backstory only briefly mentioned, this show shows her backstory and her story following on from the Hawkeye series where she shoots The Kingpin in the finale of Hawkeye.
Due to Echo (AKA Maya Lopez) being deaf actress Alaque Cox has to really sell her performance because her character can’t speak, and unfortunately, she has the same bland expression on her face and acts awfully in most scenes.
The plot of the film starts after the trained Assassin Maya shoots the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) in the face which only gives the Kingpin a missing eye, how this didn’t kill him is quite extreme but only his eye is damaged after being shot in the face from point blank range.
It then continues with Maya trying to stop Kingpin's operation by planting a bomb on a train however this does stop his operation, at the cost of innocent people’s lives.
However, if this isn’t bad enough, Kingpin tracks down Maya Lopez but she gets her own family nearly killed by having them help her only to be held up at gunpoint at an ice rink.
(Photo by Courtesy of Disney - © Disney)
Maya Lopez is a bad person however the show tries to project her as a good person, which fails awfully if you watch what Maya does, but this isn’t the biggest problem, which is the Kingpin.
Vincent D’Onofrio known for his amazing work in Daredevil comes back in Echo to resume his role as the kingpin, a tall, masculine, strong, and powerful figure in the Marvel Universe. However, this isn’t the kingpin from Daredevil as this installment of the Kingpin is weak, small, a coward, and sentimental. If we see the Kingpin crying then something very bad has gone wrong.
After being shot in the face, Kingpin wants to find Maya so they can reconnect and make Maya join his side as an ally. This is very out of character for him, Kingpin would find and kill Maya. But wouldn’t you be slightly annoyed if someone shot you in the face?
The ending and the way Maya defeats Kingpin is by going inside his mind and making him relieve his childhood trauma of his abusive father beating his mother.
This show had real potential that is what is annoying, the show was originally supposed to have 8 episodes, but now cut down to 5 and 4 hours of TV, and it is so boring the characters are out of tune and aren’t likely, don’t show any emotion or care, no character growth or development, no character changes naturally throughout the show, Maya gets away with treated people awfully, getting them in danger, getting people killed, there’s no realisation that Maya is a bad person and no cause and effect is seen.
With a character who is deaf, this show could have been done from Maya's perspective hearing what she hears which is done occasionally. This would have made the show different and unique. But it’s the same old problem for Marvel, trying to force you to like the new female characters who are unlikable and emotionless.
It will be very hard for Marvel to do worse than this, but this may already be one of the worst shows of the year.
/Kieron Loughran
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