REVIEW: Echo [2024]

Rating: TV-MA | Episodes: 5 | Runtime: 42 minutes
Release Date: January 9th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Marvel Studios / Disney+
Creator(s): Marion Dayre / David Mack & Joe Quesada (character)

I’m their legacy, not yours.

While I haven’t read any definitive accounts of what happened during the production of Marvel’s “Echo”, the size of the writing credits on each of the five episodes does seem to point to the creative re-structuring rumors have posited. Originally slated as eight episodes, the since debunked talk from Jeff Sneider was that Kevin Feige deemed the show “unreleasable” and looked to re-edit things down before deciding to practically reshoot the entire thing. Well, Disney apparently says they didn’t do that, but that’s exactly what they are doing with “Daredevil: Reborn”. So, who really knows?

All we can do is judge the show that got released regardless of the mounting complications that seem to be plaguing Marvel lately. In my eyes, director Sydney Freeland and team delivered a dark and captivating story even if it may seem as much an example of wasted potential as it does a modest success. Yes, there’s blood and death to force Disney into putting a disclaimer at the front while creating an offshoot “Marvel Spotlight” brand that seems to separate it from the mainstream MCU despite the narrative being very much connected. But there’s also its dual-origin’s clunky trajectory populated by a ton of characters with nothing to do.

Case and point: Devery Jacobs. Cast as the cousin of star Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez, her Bonnie is pretty much a background pawn when not becoming a translator later on. We get a brief moment where the two begin to confront their struggles (Maya cut her and the rest of the family off after her father—Zahn McClarnon—was killed), but it’s pushed aside for present danger. So much of the interesting familial drama is treated that way. It would be okay if we finally got to it, but we don’t. The script washes the pain and suffering of these characters away with quick looks of blanket forgiveness so we can get to the next action sequence instead.

It’s why I wonder if “Echo” would have been better served with those three extra episodes as long as the storytelling could sustain them. Now that every episode pretty much gets its own fight set-piece to revolve around, however, motivations and personality are trumped by violence. It leaves stalwarts Graham Greene and Tantoo Cardinal with little to do as Maya’s grandparents beyond reinforcing the central conflict that doesn’t need reinforcing. They blame Maya’s father for the death of their daughter and they let her grow-up under the care of Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) as a result, turning her into a villain.

I do like the integration of Choctaw history (Maya is Blackfoot in the comics) and the flashbacks to ancestors who eventually imbue Maya with their abilities and strength. I think Cox does a great job carrying the whole too with Chaske Spencer providing her only real narrative complement considering he’s the only other person in Tamaha that knows who Kingpin is. Cody Lightning supplies some fun comic relief as Maya’s cousin Biscuits and D’Onofrio is as menacing as ever. So, while the process of building around its script’s major checkpoints feels unpolished and chaotic, those bones do ultimately prove effective.

In the end, Marvel once again proves it may have over-extended itself too far by putting too many projects onto a fast-track for representative content, setting them up to fail as a result due to thin support. That’s what happens when carefully laid plans become a billion-dollar machine: the desire to profit before the bubble bursts ends up being the catalyst for that very explosion.