Holiday Hawkeye hits the bullseye

Marvel Studios wrapped up a busy year with its newest TV series Hawkeye, streaming on Disney+. Jeremy Renner reprises his role as the world’s most underrated Avenger, Clint Barton, in this funny Christmas adventure that focuses on friendship and family.

Clint, aka Hawkeye, doesn’t have any superpowers—just a bow and arrows—and now that he’s saved the universe with the Avengers, he wants to enjoy a well-deserved retirement. The six-episode series begins with Clint and his three children on a Christmas vacation in New York City, but the fun gets cut short when Clint’s biggest fan, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), accidentally revives a ghost from his past.

Hawkeye is an action comedy—rated TV-14 for moderate language and mild violence—in which the grizzled Clint is reluctantly forced into a partnership with the wide-eyed Kate. Kate is a capable archer and fighter in her own right, but her bubbly optimism annoys Clint. Most of the series’ fun comes from watching their odd-couple bantering as we see the “Hawkeye” mantle passed from Clint to Kate.

It’s a lighthearted show about Christmas in New York, in which neither the world nor the universe is in jeopardy. The biggest danger often seems to be that Clint won’t make it home by Christmas morning. I found the refreshingly low stakes a welcome change.