REVIEW: ‘Echo’ Is Chasing The Past

While the last Marvel Studios television outing featured a trickster god heading through the multiverse and a clock with a crush, Echo brings something absolutely more grounded. The series serves as a beginning to the titular hero, Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox). When she ends up hunted by Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) criminal empire, she has to head back home. There, Maya confronts her family and their legacy, finding who she is in the process.

Echo suffers from similar issues to Disney’s other “mature” offering, Moon Knight. While this series doesn’t pull its violent punches as the latter did, it does suffer from a glacial pacing that doesn’t pay off when the action kicks off. As a genre, action holds a lot of power. When done correctly, pacing, framing, and physical acting can tell entire stories. Last year, we did this with films like John Wick Chapter 4 and Sisu. Action’s power as a genre is perfect for a non-verbal anti-hero, and the series mostly takes advantage of that.

To its credit, Echo and its showrunner understand how to pace a fight. They trust Alaqua as Maya to deliver action that isn’t slowed down or jump cut to hell. In fact, Echo may be the best fight choreography in Disney’s MCU or at least the closest to emulating Charlie Cox’s in his three seasons on Netflix.

But that pacing isn’t carried over to the narrative notes that involve dialogue and evolving relationships. This makes the sharp upticks in pacing feel almost jarring. You can feel who Maya is as she fights, but it’s so disjointed from the story around it rather than baked in, as we saw even in Netflix’s Daredevil. That makes it all edge on feeling hollow.

Next to the pacing, there are some cinematography choices that come off as odd. It feels like it is emulating something else instead of living in its own lane.  Ultimately, Echo is chasing the past. It’s chasing the beautifully violent Netflix Marvel universe. It’s chasing Daredevil‘s ability to use action sequences and bodies to tell stories. It knows what it is trying to be, but instead, it feels gutted by the need to promise and build up something bigger for the MCU on television.

Echo is at its best when it’s focused on being a Maya Lopez origin story. Its thoughtful look at her indigenous heritage is refreshing for a study that has long been known for simply checking boxes. Maya’s indigeniety is central to who she is, the choices she makes, and the path she is on. There is no separating her from her heritage, and that pays off in spades. Echo‘s episodes are directed by Sydney Freeland and Catriona McKenzie, both indigenous directors of Navajo and Gunaikurnai descent, respectively. Their involvement goes a long way to making her identity feel complex.

All of it feels authentic and narratively salient. Maya’s family and community feel lived-in and whole. Thanks to a stellar Native cast that includes Chaske Spencer, Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, Zahn McClarnon, and Cody Lightning, the series is able to broach difficult subjects about legacy and belonging. The intimacy shown between the characters, the hurt feelings, and the care given to the dynamic relationships make the series stand out.

Maya’s journey is one that asks her to remember the past, embrace it, and accept who she is because of her family. In that way, Echo is a better family drama than it is an action story. That isn’t a bad thing. Meanwhile, the marketing for the series pushed the fact that it was mature and seemed to align it with the Netflix universe fans have been asking for. But in doing so, the marketing failed the impact that comes with Echo.

That said, Echo’s largest successes are Alaqua Cox’s to celebrate. She is strong in her role and, more importantly, brings a commanding physicality to her role. But even with that grit and resiliency, her ability to connect with others even as she pushes them away as a lead is unbeatable. As Maya, Cox is allowed to be brash, to be selfish, and to be someone ruthless at the same time. She is fallible, and that’s what makes her endearing.

In the end, Echo is a much-needed refresher for the MCU. It’s grounded and character-forward. It leaves behind abysmal CGI and kitschy jokes that do more to resemble Twitter threads than add actual emotion. While it lives in Daredevil’s shadow, it adds a street-level story and injects the franchise with more intimate stakes that mean more than whatever cosmic big bad we’ve seen continuously.

Echo is streaming now exclusively on Disney+.