The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20240110034312/https://www.metacritic.com/tv/echo/
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2023
TV-MA
HULU
2023
TV-MA
HULU
SummaryDeaf Native American martial artist Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) leaves New York City for her hometown in Oklahoma, but she is being hounded by associates of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio).
[Airs on both Disney+ and Hulu]
SummaryDeaf Native American martial artist Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) leaves New York City for her hometown in Oklahoma, but she is being hounded by associates of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio).
[Airs on both Disney+ and Hulu]
It’s impressive just how good Cox is here. She carries the show completely with her body language, facial expressions, and signing, and it genuinely feels special that Marvel is introducing a hero here who is a deaf Native American woman who uses a prosthetic leg played by a deaf Native American woman who uses a prosthetic leg.
Echo is a refreshingly gritty, grounded, and unflinchingly violent superhero story – though its connections to the larger MCU continuity may run deeper than advertised. Amid nods to vintage Westerns and premium crime dramas, Alacqua Cox delivers a culturally authentic and captivating antihero worth rooting for.
In the midst of Marvel fatigue, the franchise desperately needed to do something different. Is Echo the perfect solution? No, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
It’s a series of moments that alternately had me thinking, “Huh, that feels different and right” and “Huh, I can’t believe somebody was able to do that in a Marvel show.” At the same time, there were far fewer moments that I found exciting and almost no moments that rose to the level of scale and spectacle that viewers have come to expect from Marvel’s films and at least hope for from Marvel’s recent Disney+-affiliated TV shows.
Well-intentioned about the people, communities, and narratives it’s telling, and a tip of the cap can be given to the diverse lead and characters who drive the show. But honestly, these characters are mostly let down by lackluster energy, flat pacing, and early draft writing that’s never particularly involving.
Instead of fleshing out its setting, Echo just dithers, haphazardly introducing plot points and then seeming to forget them for long stretches of time. With as many as seven writers credited on some episodes, Echo feels both overworked and unfinished, as if pieces were hacked out and rearranged at random.
