Age Rating: 16 – Violence
Cast:
Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez/Echo
Chaske Spencer as Henry “Black Crow” Lopez
Tantoo Cardinal as Chula
Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil
Devery Jacobs as Bonnie
Zahn McClarnon as William Lopez
Cody Lightning as Biscuits
Graham Greene as Skully
Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin

I was cautiously optimistic going into this show. Following her appearance and introduction in the Hawkeye show, the character of Maya Lopez/Echo gets her own show. On top of also having Vincent D’Onofrio returning as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in the antagonist role, it would have a TV-MA rating, as it would be delivering the level of violence you would see in the Netflix Marvel shows (mainly Daredevil). However, I managed my expectations. Secret Invasion promised to be a compelling and more mature spy sci-fi thriller and then it ended up being quite possibly the worst of the Disney+ Marvel shows. While I liked Echo overall, I think I was right to be cautious.

Before starting the show, I was hearing one particular criticism: half of the first episode contained lots of flashbacks to the Hawkeye show as a way of giving backstory to Maya before it cuts to the present day setting. That said, as someone who had forgotten a lot of the Hawkeye show, I appreciated it. Thankfully, Echo is refreshingly secluded from the rest of the MCU. The family drama and backstory are decent and genuine enough, and the representation for Native American and deaf communities were good to see. That said, by the end, it didn’t really feel like much had happened, and there wasn’t much character development outside of Maya. The story is only mildly interesting, and it ended up feeling rather rushed in the finale. It seems that there are only a couple of MCU shows where the final episode doesn’t feel underwhelming or rushed. It really could’ve been a 2 hour long movie with how little ground it covered. I’ve seen some people criticize the fact that Disney decided to release the 5 episodes all on one day but I was fine with that, if only because I couldn’t imagine having to wait 5 weeks to complete a show which amounted to very little.

The acting is good and largely carries the show. Alaqua Cox as usual works well in the title role, pulling off both the action and dramatic aspects with ease. The supporting cast are good too, especially Tantoo Cardinal. Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin is always good; as usual he’s effectively menacing and with the darker tone and increased age rating, the show gets to utilise him a lot better here than in the Hawkeye show. The show really picks up immensely whenever he’s on screen, and the scenes between him and Cox are the highlights of the series. I just wished that he got to do a little more. Despite being advertised, don’t expect much of Charlie Cox as Daredevil. He’s good, but you could easily remove him, even though his one scene was a highlight.

Overall, the show’s direction is just fine. The action is entertaining and decent enough, it is captured well and it has good choreography. Fair is fair, they definitely provide the blood promised in the trailers, they go further with the violence than the past MCU shows. However, the CGI blood still felt kind of tame, and it just doesn’t have the impact that the violence in the Netflix Daredevil show had. Not that the show needed to be super violent in the first place, but it’s pretty clear that they are aping Daredevil’s action and violence, so I think it’s justified to criticise it for not doing it as well in comparison.

Echo is a passable and fine MCU show, with the performances and the action being its biggest strengths. Like with many of the movies and shows in the MCU being released nowadays, it’s only worth watching if you haven’t given up on the franchise yet.