The show is off-putting.
Will Ferrell’s Netflix golf comedy series, “The Hawk,” is a pale imitation of his earlier work. He’s been all over the place doing outrageous antics to promote it. It’s a shame he didn’t seemingly put that effort into making sure the show wasn’t a dud.
Now streaming, “The Hawk” was co-created by Ferrell, Harper Steele (who was in the documentary “Will & Harper” with him), and Chris Henchy.
It follows Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins (Ferrell), a pro golfer trying to launch a late-career comeback, just as his adult son, Lance (Jimmy Tatro), is upstaging him as golf’s latest star.
Since this is a Ferrell character, Lonnie is a narcissistic buffoon who makes his son’s success all about himself.
It’s a story that might have made for an amusing yet forgettable five-minute “Saturday Night Live” sketch. It’s tedious, as a five-hour series.
The cast is rounded out by other “SNL” alums, like Molly Shannon as Lonnie’s ex wife, and Chris Parnell as a golf executive. Both make valiant efforts to salvage the show, but their parts are too small. Luke Wilson also shows up as a rival golfer.
In a grim – and likely unintentional – case of the show getting meta, Lonnie is a character whose best days are behind him. “The Hawk” makes you wonder if the same can be said of Ferrell.
At the very least, it’s obvious that his skills are best for a movie, not stretched across a ten-episode series. “The Hawk” is painfully unfunny, and borders on mean-spirited (such as a sequence where Lonnie is so self-absorbed that he doesn’t care about a friend’s death).
Not every sports show needs to be “Ted Lasso” levels of ooey-gooey sweetness. But, “The Hawk” isn’t sharp enough to be a good mean comedy (like “Derry Girls,” or “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”).
It tries to reach for the goofy humor of Ferrell’s heyday – but it undermines itself with that streak of nastiness, and an undercooked story.
The former “SNL” star peaked in the early ‘oughts, with his hilarious flicks like “Elf,” “Step Brothers,” “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”
At the time, his mostly millennial audience was tweens. Now, they’re adults with marriages and mortgages. “The Hawk” feels like it was made for middle schoolers, twenty years ago.
Ferrell’s shtick hasn’t grown up along with them (unlike Ben Stiller, who evolved from that era’s Ferrell-esque movies like “Dodgeball,” to trendy shows like “Severance,” in recent years).
There would be nothing wrong with Ferrell sticking to familiar territory, if “The Hawk” was a laugh-riot. But, it forgets key ingredients that made his movies work.
His “Anchorman” character, Ron Burgundy, was also a blowhard. It wasn’t too much, because the movie balanced him with a variety of personalities in its ensemble cast. Plus, the jokes were funnier.
In “The Hawk,” there are under-used side characters, and Lonnie’s son, Lance, gets the secondary plot. But he doesn’t hit enough different notes as a character to prevent Lonnie’s narcissism from getting old, fast.
Another glaring issue is that Ferrell’s movie characters had arcs. Even Ron Burgundy experienced a sliver of growth (from being sexist towards female colleagues to respecting them…in his own way).
Lonnie has no arc. He learns nothing, and undergoes no change. He goes in circles for a punishingly long ten episodes, like a teen who stole a golf cart with no plan to where to drive it.
Most of the show consists of Ferrell trotting out his “greatest hits” antics: randomly dancing in a thong, yelling at inappropriate moments, causing a scene at a party. You might enjoy the show if you like watching him do that stuff, and you don’t need connective tissue in the story or character.
Been there, done that. He played similar boorish pro-athletes in “Talladega Nights” and “Blades of Glory.” He doesn’t do anything in “The Hawk” that he didn’t already do better, two decades ago.
Watching “The Hawk” makes you think of all the movies and shows that used similar material in more interesting ways. Ferrell’s own oeuvre is littered with superior sports comedies. “Happy Gilmore” already did the “bad boy of golf” story. This doesn’t add to the concept.
In the recent TV comedy landscape, “Widow’s Bay” was packed with silliness, and it was fresh where “The Hawk” is stale.
Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) in “Hacks” was also self-involved, but it worked because the HBO show had stronger writing.
NBC’s “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” is another recent comedy about a pro-athlete trying to launch a comeback, played by an “SNL” alum (Tracy Morgan). If you’re hungry for this plot, that’s a much funnier watch.
Just like its lead character, “The Hawk” doesn’t seem to realize that it arrived at least a decade too late, performing for an audience that outgrew it.
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