by Jonathan Keating
Review
DisneyBizJournal.com
January 19, 2024
Echo ultimately proves to be the perfect name for the most recent Marvel Studios’ television project. Beyond the thematic connections the series makes to this term, the title exists as some sort of (unintended) meta-commentary on the show’s existence within the greater scope of previously released Marvel television.
I’m sure that I am not the first to note, but Echo feels like just that: an echo of the Marvel series that have come before it. If you had seen any of the marketing in the lead-up for Echo, it was made abundantly clear where the focus of the show was: the pseudo-familial relationship between Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Also, if you went in having seen the most recent wave of trailers, TV spots, promotional images, and such, you wouldn’t be blamed if you thought that Charlie Cox’s Daredevil/Matt Murdock was going to play a large role within the show. While the latter does make an extended cameo, the focus squarely is on the relationship between Maya and Fisk – both in the episode with Daredevil and across this limited series.
Daredevil, as a show, is second-to-none when it comes to quality for Marvel releases – with D’Onofrio’s Fisk being one of the most nuanced villains Marvel has put on screen both in terms of performance and writing. While there were complaints about how Fisk was treated in Hawkeye, I was pleased to see that Fisk generally remained at the same level of complexity from when I had seen him last in Daredevil season 3.
If you’re reading this review – and likely other reviews – asking why the author is spending so much time talking about a different show, it’s because Echo really does not stand on its own unless viewed in relation to Daredevil. To a certain extent, this makes sense. If we look at the comic books the series is based on, Maya Lopez originally appeared as a Daredevil side character before crossing over into other works such as The New Avengers and Moon Knight. The adaptation of the character from page to screen is generally the same in terms of origin – one just need swap out Maya believing Ronin killed her father for Daredevil. The relationship between Fisk and Maya is also generally the same from the comics: Fisk mentors her from a young age after having her father killed, but all the while lying to her about how her father truly met an untimely demise. I’m touching on all of this because it’s important to understand how intertwined Maya Lopez is with Matt Murdock in the comics. It seems that this is something the filmmakers behind Echo understood. If you were to watch Echo and put it next to the gritty-noir storytelling of the Daredevil series or next to the action-comedy of something like Hawkeye (where the character debuted), the show would be infinitely closer in tone with the former opposed to the latter.
Quite frankly, Echo is treated much more akin to a spin-off of Daredevil than it is of the actual show it is spinning-off from (i.e., Hawkeye). I think even Marvel understands this, as on Disney+ the show is now grouped together with the Defenders Saga – which constitutes all the previous Netflix shows.
All of this lead-up, however, doesn’t answer the question most people ask when reading a review: Is the show any good?
Well, the answer to that depends. Did you like Daredevil? It feels like a horrible sentiment when reviewing a new show to keep talking about one that ended over five years ago, but it really will determine how much enjoyment one gets out of this. If you loved Daredevil – both its characters and the style to which it was brought to the screen – you’ll find plenty to chew on in Echo. In particular, the dynamic between Fisk and Maya makes the show worth watching alone. Beyond this, though, there was a clear visual style that was brought to the various episodes that gave the series additional depth beyond what was on the page.
However, the show never particularly comes close to the quality that Daredevil and even some of the other Defenders shows held. And if you didn’t like any of the Netflix shows or haven’t seen any of them, well, you’ll likely not enjoy this, and/or you just might be completely lost.
The best thing about Echo is that it’s a simple story told well. This will likely have no implications for the Marvel universe going forward. Maya probably won’t show up in the next Avengers film (watch that comment age like milk). But maybe that’s more of what Marvel needs. Just simple stories that are told well. Not everything about Echo works: some of the side characters fall flat; there are some odd editing decisions likely stemming from requests made by higher-ups at Marvel; and it doesn’t always feel like there is enough material here to support an entire limited series. However, the show certainly falls on the better end of MCU television since the transition from Netflix to Disney+. In a time of multiverse-ending superhero stories, it’s so nice to get back to personal problems between people.
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Jonathan Keating is a guest columnist for DisneyBizJournal.
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