Echo

My only regret about this show is that I didn't write about it immediately after watching. Unfortunately for me, that was a few weeks ago, so details are going to be hazy, so I'll speak in broad strokes. 

First off, I liked it. It harkened back to the days of Netflix Marvel, when things were gritty and grimy and self contained. Those shows I felt gave us New York as one of the characters, displaying the different boroughs. Here, we spend most of our time in Oklahoma of all places and the setting also feels like a character. And like those Netflix series, I liked that you get time to breathe within that environment. UNLIKE those Netflix series, they didn't stretch this out into 13 episodes. They kept it a nice and tight five episodes. And most of those episodes weren't even close to an hour. Just another small thing I appreciate. Know your story and be concise. 

I'll ignore how Marvel is trying to do mental gymnastics to back into having Kingpin and all of this tie into their cinematic universe, after going out of their way to make sure the properties never meet. It's good to have Kingpin back, they just need to make sure he stays in his lane. He is a crime lord, but he is not a super villain on the level of Thanos, let's pump our breaks.

Anyways, back to my main point. I thought this show was good. I love that we're finally getting more Native American representation in our media as they have been long overlooked. Admittedly, this also shows Marvel's lack of representation on this front. Outside of Forge, Thunderbird and Warpath from the X-Men and Shaman from Alpha Flight, you would be hard pressed to think of any other Native American characters outside of Echo. 

I also think the character (and outstanding actress Alaqua Cox) fare much better here than in the comics. I ranted at my spouse about how this character is created in the comics. They out out of their way to say that she is deaf, but can read lips to understand people. Then damn near every artist shows her standing off to the side, behind, below, above, etc. and NOT IN EYELINE of everyone she talks to and they have regular conversations. I know it's asking a lot of an artist, but I have seen nary a one try to draw ASL. So the fact in this show they took great pains to be aware of all of these details was refreshing. I hate that my bar was so low. I think it had more to do with the actress as in they just COULDN'T do that. 

Sorry, I got off my main point yet again. I thought it was shot well, it moved with minimal slow down (there was some) and I loved all the supporting characters. I'm going to ignore the powers they gave her because it seems that Marvel can't help itself. You can't just have a regular ass character anymore (outside of Hawkeye). That comes with the territory. The hand to hand action also harkens back to those Daredevil days, which is what I'm sure they were going for. Hell, the action in that Hawkeye series wasn't bad either. So keep that up. My only complaint is that there wasn't more of it.

In the end, I think it is worth a watch. I hope this is a formula that Marvel uses with their other shows from now on (five to six episodes max, concise storytelling).