When Will Ferrell is in full Will Ferrell mode, where he’s sacrificing his body and dignity for a laugh, being loud on purpose, and trying to get as absurd as possible, it’s usually an all or nothing situation; either you’re busting a gut laughing or you watch his antics without even cracking a smile. Ferrell is definitely in full Ferrell mode in his new Netflix series The Hawk, but we barely even laughed during the first episode.
THE HAWK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A closeup of sprinklers going off on a golf course. Then an announcer welcomes the crowd to a tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour, the developmental tour that feeds the main PGA tour with up-and-comers or former PGAers hoping to get back in.
The Gist: Lonnie Hawkins (Will Ferrell), aka “The Hawk,” is playing in that tournament, but he’s not there yet. We then see him in his tour bus, prodding along his longtime caddy, Old Henry (Keith David) to defy traffic and the laws of physics to get to the course where the tournament is. They do eventually make it there, but not without causing a lot of collisions.
The Hawk was a top golfer on the PGA Tour in the ’00s, and is trying to make his way back to the tour to finally win the U.S. Open and achieve an elusive career grand slam. But he hasn’t even made the cut in any tourney on the Korn Ferry tour in years. He talks to his balls like they’re potential lovers, and he and Old Henry make for quite the spectacle when The Hawk is going well.
But as he’s about to putt late on the first day of the tournament, Old Henry literally drops dead. As shocked and saddened as Lonnie is, though, he still wants to finish the round. He’s told to withdraw. Lonnie then takes Old Henry’s watch as he rides with his dead buddy in the ambulance.
One of the first people he calls about Old Henry is his son Lance (Jimmy Tatro), who is the PGA Tour’s new rising star. He also is in incredible shape, especially since he got together with his fiancée Natalie (Katelyn Tarver).
Lonnie and Lance’s relationship has been rocky for years, mainly because Lonnie always chose golf over anything else. In fact, Old Henry is the one who taught Lance the finer points of the sport. Lonnie’s relationship with his wife Stacy (Molly Shannon) isn’t great either. She wants him to finally sign the divorce papers, but still seems to need him to finance her business ideas. She also likes to throw around some choice words when talking to him.
The Hawk decides to visit Lance at the Phoenix Open, and he parks the tour bus in a Walmart parking lot where it seems other RVs are parked. There he meets Sam (Fortune Feimster), who is trying to fix a car that’s up on blocks, and offers a pearl of wisdom: “Delicious beats bullshit.”
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Hawk, created by Ferrell, Harper Steele, and Chris Henchy, is essentially Stick crossed with the silliness of one of Ferrell’s sports films like Talladega Nights. Speaking of Stick, both shows have a Wilson brother in them: Here, Luke Wilson plays Golden Fisk, an old rival of Lonnie’s.
Our Take: We’re not even sure why we didn’t find Ferrell’s antics funny this time around. Maybe it’s because we’ve seen this shtick before in his other sports-themed work, or maybe it’s because there really isn’t anything about the character of The Hawk that a viewer can latch onto.
He’s so obsessed with golf that he wants to literally play through his only friend’s death, then he steals the guy’s watch. In the second episode, he plays the first round of a tournament with Sam as his new caddy instead of going to Henry’s funeral. He’s neglected his marriage and his son, to the point where both are thoroughly resentful of him. And, for some reason or another, he still thinks he can get back on the PGA Tour even though he’s pushing 60, an age when most top pros are either retired or playing on the Seniors Tour.
Over the span of a 90-odd minute movie, these glaring character flaws can be forgiven, and in Ferrell’s sports movies he always finds something redeemable about his characters. But there is nothing redeemable about The Hawk, and now we have to see it over 10 half-hour episodes as he tries to make the ultimate comeback.
Is there story potential that might overcome this? Maybe. Shannon is reliably funny as Stacy, especially as she’s using some creatively filthy phrasing to curse out Lonnie. Tatro plays Lance as the unfunny, no-sugar-consuming dolt he probably is, but there might be something in the longtime friendship he has with Henry’s daughter Crystal (Aida Osman), whom he reconnects with at Henry’s funeral. Feimster can be amusing as Sam, but we’ve seen her be funnier in other roles.
Performance Worth Watching: As we said, Molly Shannon is probably the best thing about this show, and we love how she’s embraced being funny and sexy in so many of her roles over the past decade.
Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Lonnie offers Sam a job as his caddy. “Now shake a titty bone! I don’t pay you to stand around!” he yells as he runs towards his bus.
Sleeper Star: We are always behind seeing Keith David on our screens, and we wish that he was more of a presence on this show.
Most Pilot-y Line: After a contentious round of mini-golf, Lance asks Lonnie why he doesn’t join the LIV tour. “The Arab League?” Lonnie asks with disdain. So, Lonnie is kind of a racist, too… that’s great.
Our Call: SKIP IT. The Hawk could have overcome its inherent unfunniness if Ferrell and his collaborators made Lonnie Hawkins a character that actually somewhat resembled a real human being. But they didn’t, and that’s something that’s just going to get tiresome over an entire season.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.