Helmed by Marion Dayre and Sydney Freeland, Echo follows Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), who is being pursued by Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his organization, leading her to return to her hometown in Oklahoma, where she must come to terms with her past, reconnect with her Native American roots, and embrace her family and community.
This series has been a long time coming, having been first announced alongside its predecessor Hawkeye (2021) but its release was delayed for various reasons. Despite this, I had pretty high hopes for this series even before its first trailer dropped as I really liked the character’s introduction and loved Alaqua’s performance in Hawkeye, as well as the great crew they had assembled to make this mini-series. After watching all five episodes I can say that I was satisfied with Echo and it is a solid start for the MCU in 2024.
It is a very character-driven story that goes down the gritty and violent path of the former Marvel Netflix shows in brilliant ways, while also delivering its very own compelling story full of great heart, engaging action, and beautiful indigenous representation that makes it stand out amongst other MCU entries. This is a very grounded and isolated small story from the larger MCU that clearly had great passion put into it. There are certainly several aspects that hold it back from being perfect and while it could have majorly benefited from having more episodes it does manage to deliver some awesome stuff even within five episodes. Easily the strongest element of this miniseries is the cast and the characters who are all given great amount of development and depth through both writing and acting.
Spearheading it all is Alaqua Cox as Maya who is once again phenomenal as both an absolute badass but also a very emotionally complex character that you feel invested in from start to finish. We see her on a special journey that has her split between two sides of herself that are constantly clashing with each other throughout the series. One side is her complex love and anger towards her family and her ancestors, while the other side is the vengeful violent influence of Wilson Fisk, the man who she once saw as her hero and father figure.
She is an individual full of raw emotion that Alaqua brings in full force even without saying a single word, truly making for a stunning and inspiring performance for many communities. The fact she performed her own stunts despite her disabilities is truly remarkable and hugely praiseworthy. The development Maya gets in this series was extremely well crafted and felt like it was treated with great care as it all comes full circle by the end yet also opens the door for her story to be continued further.
The miniseries takes its time to build Maya’s story while also celebrating deafness and honoring the Choctaw with pride. This was her show and she is the main focus, as I was hoping it would be, and it was done beautifully, especially within the fitting mature tone her story got to flourish in. Also, I love the story of how she gets her name Echo way more in this series compared to the comic version.
She is surrounded by an absolutely lovable and compelling supporting cast, mostly indigenous actors who all impact Maya in various ways. They feel like a necessary part of her journey and are also given their own individual depth.
In a story where family and community are the plot’s main focus, Indigeneity is a vital backbone of the miniseries as a whole and it is beautifully brought to life by numerous wonderful faces including Chaske Spencer, Devery Jacobs, Tantoo Cardinal, Cody Lightning, and Graham Greene, who all get their chance to shine. They bring the proper amount of heart and levity without going too overboard to the point where the series would lose its mature tone. I also love how ASL is used with all the characters in such fantastic ways that made me appreciate the passionate dedication they all gave to learn it and do it well.
But the other true powerhouse of this miniseries is none other than Vincent D’Onofrio who makes a glorious return as Wilson Fisk. While I did like his inclusion in Hawkeye this felt like a more proper return to the truly ferocious and yet compelling villain we all remember and love from the previous seasons of Daredevil. He is a powerful presence in this miniseries even without extensive superpowers, and his words and manipulation carry such great weight and act as his true weapon much like in his previous appearances. We get to see the relationship between him and Maya get explored in great detail which is handled extremely well, making for a compelling conflict that almost rivals his conflict with Daredevil. Vincent is the true embodiment of this character and you can tell he truly loved returning to this role in full force and is ready for much more, especially for where his story is set to go next.
And for those who are wondering about Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, he serves primarily as a cameo in this miniseries but is absolutely awesome in his short appearance, with a damn good fight between him and Echo ripped straight from the pages of comics mixed in with the perfect fight choreography of the previous Daredevil seasons.
With it being five episodes this miniseries does suffer from some pacing issues and would have hugely benefited from having more episodes yet it does mostly manage to tell a complete and compelling story that is rich in character depth, emotional heart, and ruthless action that kept me engaged the whole time.
Easily my favorite element of the story besides Maya’s journey was the cultural integration of the Choctaw nation in a mystical yet still very grounded way. Like Black Panther, Shang-Chi, and Ms. Marvel before it, the series weaves its culture into the fiction of the MCU in interesting and respectful ways that fit in with the story of the characters and also opens up viewers to experience firsthand what the Choctaw Nation is like, which not many have been able to witness before on screen. A lot of care was put into this aspect of the show by the showmakers and they did such a
Strong themes get explored and truly awe-inspiring and emotional moments are given to us that all felt very earned, though some could definitely want a lot more from the small pocket of the larger MCU. It does manage to land itself on a mostly satisfying conclusion that has lots of great emotional moments and surprising outcomes related to Maya’s growth, but I was left wanting more and that’s how I knew that this series definitely needed to be longer than five episodes. However, it’s clear that Maya’s story is not a full-on one-and-done, especially when the mid-credit scene establishes a majorly important plot point that could set the stage for something massive involving all street-level characters including Maya.
When it comes to action this series easily delivers some of the best we have had yet in terms of absolutely brutal and bloody violence that goes back to Netflix Marvel levels of intensity. A lot of it is shot and choreographed extremely well, going as practical as they could, leading to very satisfying sequences that were thrilling to see onscreen. There’s also some excellent use of sound design, giving the viewers a sense of what Maya feels during her fights due to her deafness, with a creative flair similar to what Daredevil has.
When it comes to cinematography this series looks gorgeous in nearly every frame and really establishes the grounded tone of the series as a whole, while occasionally diving into some mystical elements that I felt were handled extremely well. Mostly practical work and costumes were used in this series with only occasional uses of CGI that are used only when necessary and do look good for the most part.
One major thing that I had a rather significant issue with was some of the editing in the miniseries. While there are a lot of parts that look extremely good there were several times where things got a bit choppy or would experience sudden jumps that felt haphazardly placed. This isn’t a constant issue throughout all scenes in all episodes but only a select few where it feels like things were either cut out or needed a bit more time in the editing room.
Aside from that though I think the miniseries was handled mostly well on a technical level especially when it came to the music. Dave Porter’s music was absolutely awesome in this series, delivering fantastic scores that were fitting of the characters and themes of the series as well as truly elevating it all. The Choctaw themes in particular were my absolute favorites. I would honestly love to see him do music for Daredevil: Born Again if given the chance.
Echo has opened back up the doors for the darker street-level MCU that many have probably missed for years, but also offers plenty more that I think lots of people could enjoy if they just simply give the show a chance. While it certainly has flaws that hold it back, it was a series that I feel had so much to love in it. It makes me look forward to more of this kind of new and grounded stories in the future of the MCU. I am going to give Echo an A- = 93.
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