Maybe it’s just the fact that Moon Knight is the first new character to get his own show, but it easily feels like the most refreshing of the MCU shows, at least from a character perspective. Firstly, Oscar Isaac does an outstanding job as Marc Spector/Steven Grant, a complicated but tragic man with split personalities that happens to be imbued with the power of the Egyptian moon god, Khonshu. I usually find that it’s fun for the audience to see and an actor to portray two different characters back-to-back as it gives us some variety and let’s the actor flex their muscles in an engaging way. I found Isaac’s performance of the callous but capable Marc against the timid but charming Steven to be very entertaining as it injected intrigue and kept the pace moving with the initial mystery of it all. His chemistry with May Calamawy who plays his wife Layla El-Faouly, imparts a tone of dangerous adventure reminiscent of movies like The Mummy (1999). Calamawy gives a great and natural performance as Layla, providing extra momentum to explore the backstory of the characters while being an equally capable combatant even alongside Marc’s chaotic journey as a magical vigilante.

Moon Knight had a unique visual style all its own with its inverted and angled camerawork along with its emphasis on reflections that gave the show a lot of personality. It was even great to see the directors include some minor horror elements throughout the show, adding some much-needed flare and diversity to the MCU’s familiar atmosphere. The show manages to be perfectly self-contained while expanding the universe even more with Egyptian gods and new planes of existence to be explored. Ethan Hawke’s contribution to the show as Marc and Layla’s opposition is a welcome addition to the series. Hawke plays Arthur Harrow, an avatar for the Egyptian god Ammit, and though his motivation is understandable enough, in typical fashion it goes overboard in a way that doesn’t allow a lot of nuance for our villain. However, I did enjoy the way Harrow played off of Marc’s mental illness, demonstrating his conviction as a character, using that weakness as a tool of manipulation. The characters, narrative, style, and even setting are all well done and even a notch above some of the other shows like Hawkeye and TFATWS that can feel stagnant at times. I’ve always said that a show’s characters and story are the most crucial elements to execute, and in that regard, I feel like Moon Knight delivered on this with a very convincing character exploration at its core with still more to come, which is why these critiques I’m about to present are pretty minor in comparison.

When it came to the combat of the show, I have to say it was kind of disappointing and even a little too sparse for my liking. I understand that maybe that wasn’t the focus of the show with us being new to Moon Knight, but he is a pretty combat heavy hero and I felt that should have been put on display. If the few fight scenes we were given were done with an air of brutality and tighter choreography, I could at least be more forgiving of their scarcity. Funny enough, it’s when Marc and Steven black out and the combat is left to our imagination that the show is more exciting than when we actually see him fight. All of this mediocre action is exacerbated by bad CGI, which isn’t a huge deal, but it definitely takes you out of the scene with how noticeable it is with Khonshu or whenever Marc is in the suit fighting creatures; and it’s especially apparent in the finale. Speaking of the finale, it did seem to be a bit rushed and too overly convenient with how everything plays out so smoothly, which doesn’t break the series but definitely puts a damper on all the momentum this season was building. I did appreciate however, that that sense of ambiguous mystery remained by the end, and on a smaller note, I also noticed there was a little more bloodshed in this show than normally seen in a Marvel property, but I would like to see them take more chances and get grittier with Moon Knight, especially with characters like Blade set to make their debut. So although it didn’t meet some of my personal expectations for what this show could be, it’s still a very entertaining series that has a lot of potential if they decide to pursue it further. I would recommend giving it a watch.