The Hawk (Netflix) Series Review: Flyin’ Low

Will Ferrell’s The Hawk is a mildly amusing comedy that should have been a movie rather than a plodding 10-episode streaming show.

The end result is a series that, while kind of funny (in a “mild chuckle” kind of way, rather than a “laugh-out-loud” one), can’t help but feel a bit too mean-spirited, mainly due to the way most of its main characters are presented. The Hawk isn’t awful, as there are some salvageably entertaining moments, but it certainly should have been much funnier.

Ferrell (Quiz Lady) plays Lonnie Hawkins, a former golf champion whose best days are long gone. Nevertheless, he desperately wants to recapture the magic of the past, an attitude that makes him start playing again in small-to-medium tournaments. Meanwhile, his son Lance (Jimmy Tatro, of Scream 7), who is also a golfer, is trying to escape his father’s shadow by playing bigger and better competitions, with the support of his fiancée, supposed influencer Natalie (Katelyn Tarver). But as Lonnie keeps getting better and better, Lance gets more nervous, worrying that his dad might become a champion again.

In the meantime, Lance’s mother, Stacy (Molly Shannon, of Only Murders in the Building), tries to start a new business as she tries to ignore her ex’s public antics at the golf course. These, of course, call the attention of a variety of characters, including Lonnie’s nemesis, Golden Fisk (Luke Wilson, of Fingernails), and his half-brother Anton (Chris Parnell, of Stop! That! Train!), who is now part of the PGA board and wants to destroy the golfer’s career. For his part, Lonnie literally finds a new caddie in a Walmart parking lot in the form of Sam (stand-up comedian Fortune Feimster), who knows nothing about golf but is very enthusiastic and seems to be running from something. Feeling motivated, Lonnie might just have a shot at taking part in the US Open and finally winning said tournament for the first time.

The idea of a Will Ferrell sports comedy is nothing new. After all, we’ve seen it done well before (in The Ballad of Ricky Bobby), but we’ve also seen it fail (in Semi-Pro). Unfortunately, The Hawk feels more like the latter, but in the form of a ten-episode series, which doesn’t help its case at all. A movie, at least, is shorter and can feel less painful to watch. But as a show, The Hawk feels regrettably stretched out; there’s not enough story here for two hundred minutes of entertainment; thus, many episodes dedicate their running time to superfluous subplots, absurd dream sequences and supposedly funny situations that are anything but.

Take the character of Sam, for instance. Fortune Feimster does a good job of portraying the criminal-turned-caddy, injecting enough sincerity into her characterisation so she doesn’t turn into a walking, talking caricature. Unfortunately, she’s not that interesting either, which makes her subplot involving a mysterious man chasing her and ultimately trying to keep her away from the golfing world feel quite tedious. What’s worse, it’s the kind of subplot that goes nowhere and has no repercussions whatsoever in the story, making it feel more like filler than actual character development.

What about the humour, though? Well, like some of Ferrell’s previous work, The Hawk is quite hit-and-miss. There are some admittedly funny moments, as well as some apparently improvised lines that made me chuckle. Tone-wise, the show is ridiculous and a bit heightened, which works well for Ferrell’s comedic style and the nasty characterisations of the majority of characters. But there’s nothing in The Hawk that made me laugh out loud, and there are as many lame and unfunny jokes as there are good ones. As an example, there’s a shroom-taking scene that feels like something out of the early two thousands, and not in a good way; it’s tired and nothing we haven’t seen before in funnier productions.

Not everything is bad, though. The Hawk has a great cast, and although they don’t necessarily turn the hilarity up to eleven, at least they are left with their dignity intact. Lonnie is the kind of character Ferrell could play in his sleep, and he sorta does that here; at times, he even uses his George W. Bush voice (from his SNL days), for some reason. The great Molly Shannon plays Stacy as a vengeful and spiteful woman; she enjoys threatening people in a variety of colourful and rude ways. Jimmy Tatro is a bit flat as Lance, playing him straight most of the time. And Katelyn Tarver is short-changed as Natalie. At first, she seems to be an important character, but then something shocking happens between her and Lance, and she disappears… never to be seen again. Oh, and there are a couple of standout cameos, the best one being Tony Hawk’s. Of course Tony Hawk had to make an appearance in The Hawk!

The Hawk’s greatest flaw, though, is that it’s about mean and childish characters. This has been sort of a trademark of Ferrell’s work for some time, but in his better movies, he manages to balance this with charismatic performances and hilarious gags. Not so here. Lonnie does go through a character arc, but he’s portrayed as such a selfish, rude and moronic character that rooting for him becomes quite the challenge. The same for Lance, who has a gambling problem, a cheating problem and is as arrogant as his father, if not more. And despite Molly Shannon’s best efforts, it’s hard to care for the aggressive, spiteful and lying Stacy. I don’t mind having flawed protagonists in a show; in fact, I prefer them. But these people aren’t flawed; they’re pretty horrible.

If you like Will Ferrell’s comedic style, you might enjoy parts of The Hawk. He’s not my favourite American comedian of all time, but I have enjoyed many of his movies; nevertheless, I can’t quite recommend The Hawk. This is a story that would have been better served as a ninety-minute film, with all the filler left out, all the unfunny jokes removed, and all the superfluous plotlines deleted. As a ten-episode show, though, this bird doesn’t quite stick the landing. The Hawk isn’t the worst comedy series ever made, but due to its nasty characters and uneven comedy, I doubt it will generate as big a following as many of Ferrel’ls previous efforts. This ain’t no hole-in-one.

The Hawk will be available to stream globally on Netflix