Disney+’s Echo Is Poorly Paced and Messy, but Not Totally Devoid of Heart

Out of every MCU project to hit our screens within the past three years since the advent of Disney+ and the seeming downfall of the spotless reputation this expanded universe once held, Echo might be the most disappointing. Spinning out from 2021’s Hawkeye and being the first project to kickoff Marvel’s Spotlight series (which aims to highlight character-driven stories and ignores the larger MCU continuity), Echo doesn’t quite hold up against Disney+’s better television offerings, but like most MCU projects, there is undeniable good amongst the mess. 

After the off-screen “death” of Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) in the Hawkeye finale, Echo follows Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) as she runs from the city she once called home in order to escape the consequences of her believed-deadly actions. However, once she returns to her hometown, she is brought face-to-face with the messy and painful familial ties that were severed when she was whisked to New York at a young age. Now, Maya must reconcile with her past while looking towards the future, all while attempting to keep those she cares about safe (and at arms’ length). 

Where Echo falls apart is in its pacing, which is nothing new when considering the MCU’s TV track record. Like its peers, this really doesn’t feel like a TV show—instead, it’s wandering aimlessly through a plot that feels too thin to stretch across five episodes, while simultaneously pulling back seemingly out of fear of packing too much into such a short time frame. The first episode features nearly 30 minutes of Hawkeye flashback intercut with new footage, but it all feels completely and totally unnecessary. From Hawkeye, we know Maya to be ruthless, revenge-driven, and cold, and the additional scenes don’t really do much to expand on her character beyond those points. The only flashback moments that truly work are those in Oklahoma before she was forced to leave; building out the family and support system that Maya lost along the way is instrumental to understanding her character in the present, and those early scenes painfully portray her heartbreak and grief at being ripped away from her home. 

And in that same vein, Maya is a character that is cold and closed off, completely disconnected from those around her, and unfortunately, that leaves her cold to the audience as well. It’s difficult to connect to Maya when she’s keeping the viewers at the same arms’ length she is keeping her family, and even with Cox’s strong performance (she’s a true star; she makes this series work more often than it should), she’s not given enough depth on the page to properly bring to the screen. Because of that, the series lacks a clear identity. We know that Maya wants to get revenge on Kingpin and his army, but why? At the beginning of Echo, she truly believes he’s dead, so there’s no more vengeance to be gained for her father’s murder. She wants to send a message to Kingpin’s goons, she wants to take over his empire, but again, for what reason? Because she enjoys it? Because she’s good at it? Because she wants to honor her father’s legacy? I’m not really sure, and that fact alone cripples this series and the story it’s trying to tell, at least in the first three episodes made available for critics. 

But even amidst the messy execution and lackluster pacing and plotting, it’s hard to hate this show. It has more heart and cultural importance than most of its MCU TV peers, and there is something undeniably magnificent about seeing the Choctaw people and culture presented so beautifully and respectfully. Every episode begins with a flashback to one of Maya’s ancestors, each giving a hint to her new powers, which have been changed from her abilities in the comics. Episode 3’s opener is even presented like a silent film—dialogue cards, old-timey flickering, and all. If one thing can be said about this series, it’s that it is both ambitious and strikingly different from the MCU series that have come before, and for that, it does excel. 

Beyond just the representation, when Maya even slightly opens up, she’s witty and blunt, and Cox commands the screen with her sheer presence alone. The supporting cast is also a delight, especially cousins Biscuit (Cody Lightning) and Bonnie (Devery Jacobs), alongside Maya’s grandfather (played by Graham Greene); their ability to pierce through Maya’s walls bit by bit is when the series shines the brightest. And even with long stretches featuring very little audible dialogue, this entire cast holds their own, proving that moving, angry, and expressive performances don’t need to be paired with over-the-top screaming matches. Watching Chaske Spencer (who plays Maya’s uncle Henry) go back and forth with Cox is captivating as they each throw their entire bodies into their signed barbs, all while speaking in nothing more than a whisper, if at all. 

And in the series’ portrayal of signing, Echo improves on Hawkeye’s penchant for awkwardly shooting sign language-speaking folks in ways that cut their hands out of frame. Series directors Sydney Freeland and Catriona McKenzie understand the importance of seeing the movement from these characters as they’re communicating, even if we have subtitles on screen. Even beyond signing, the physicality within this series is stunning; the fight sequences are bloody and brutal (befitting its shiny TV-MA rating), and an extended train sequence in Episode 2 is truly heart-pounding. After multiple years of space, light, and magic powers dominating the MCU’s storytelling and action, it’s a welcome change of pace to just watch regular people whale on each other—especially when those fight scenes are done at this caliber. 

More than anything, Echo still feels like the product of a broken MCU TV system (and in some ways, it feels a little bit like just another stepping stone to rope Daredevil and Kingpin into this universe), but the risks it does take and the connections Maya does make ultimately elevate this series. It’s clear that a lot of love went into making Echo, but its ties to this deeply broken system never really gave it a chance, and that is beyond disappointing. Here’s hoping that future MCU characters will no longer have to suffer this same fate now that Marvel is allegedly (finally!) implementing proper showrunners and TV pipelines into their Disney+ machine—it’s just a damn shame that Maya and her story came just a little too early to reap those benefits.

All episodes of Echo premiere Tuesday, January 9th on Disney+. 

Anna Govert is the TV Editor of Paste Magazine. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and her unshakable love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you can follow her @annagovert.

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