Plot: Lonnie Hawkins, 2004’s number one golfer, struggles on the back nine of his career to recapture his magic. His body says retire, but his heart says he’s not done yet. His ex-wife and his son Lance, golf’s new golden boy, know he’s through. But with one more major to win to complete golf’s Grand Slam, Lonnie refuses to believe he’s anything other than one stroke away from the greatest comeback in golf history.
Review: Different actors have different goals in their careers. Tom Cruise needs to perform extreme stunts, while Christian Bale must physically transform himself. Will Ferrell seems to desire turning every professional sport into comedy. From car racing and soccer to basketball and figure skating, Ferrell has mined his particular brand of humor into multiple movie hits. Now, in his first lead role in a half-hour comedy series, Will Ferrell tackles golf. Blending the tone of Happy Gilmore crossed with Anchorman, The Hawk would have been a huge hit twenty years ago, but instead feels overlong and not nearly as funny as it should have been, despite a great supporting cast that includes Molly Shannon, Luke Wilson, and Jimmy Tatro.
The Hawk features Will Ferrell, adding to his repertoire of dumb yet successful protagonists like Ricky Bobby and Ron Burgundy. Lonnie Hawkins is an over-the-hill golfer striving to win the career grand slam that eluded him decades earlier as he drives around with his caddy, Old Henry (Keith David). At the same time, Lonnie’s son, Lance (Jimmy Tatro), is a top-ranked golfer who is about to eclipse his father’s success on the PGA Tour. With his soon-to-be ex-wife, Stacy (Molly Shannon), trying to make a new business for herself, Lonnie doubles down on trying to get back into pro-caliber competition as he travels with a new caddie, Sam (Fortune Feimster). Along the way, Lonnie encounters his golf rival Golden Fisk (Luke Wilson) and golf official Anton (Chris Parnell), with whom Lonnie shares a history.
The ten-episode first season of The Hawk hits the same type of humor as Anchorman and Talladega Nights. Will Ferrell has mastered playing these characters, and Lonnie is a sunburned, visor-wearing variation on the formula. Lonnie is overconfident and not afraid to get naked as he spews nuggets of profane wisdom as much as he takes dumps with the door of his RV bathroom wide open. The Hawk is crass, stupid, and ridiculous in true Will Ferrell fashion, something that has worked in his favor for decades. The problem comes from this Netflix series, clocking in at over five hours. Anchorman had so much extra material that Adam McKay was able to edit it into a makeshift sequel. The Hawk feels like it also had a lot of extra footage, consisting mostly of tangential alternate takes and subplots, that could have been edited out, leaving this project as a movie rather than a series.
What works well in The Hawk is the cast’s willingness to do anything for a laugh. Alongside Ferrell, the actor works well with long-time Saturday Night Live co-stars Molly Shannon and Chris Parnell, as well as his Old School colleague Luke Wilson. The Hawk is also much more willing to push the envelope than the PG-13 big-screen comedies Ferrell has made, with an early episode featuring some very creative profanity. Fortune Feimster and Jimmy Tatro hold their own opposite Ferrell, and The Hawk brings in multiple cameos, reminiscent of last year’s Happy Gilmore 2. Katelyn Tarver, David Horsnby, Aida Osman, and Patty Guggenheim are also solid in supporting roles, but no one is able to rise above the mediocre scripts that emphasize dumb comedy over anything else. Yes, you will laugh through the first episodes, but after a couple of hours, the schtick begins to wear thin.
Created by Will Ferrell alongside Chris Henchy and his longtime friend Harper Steele, The Hawk gave me hope with David Gordon Green helming four episodes. Green’s work on the small screen with Danny McBride’s Eastbound & Down (which featured Ferrell), Vice Principals, and The Righteous Gemstones had me anticipating that The Hawk would echo those excellent HBO shows. Instead, Green and directors Chris Henchy, Shiri Appleby, and Jonathan Watson give The Hawk a muted, sterile look that keeps the visuals flat and hampers the jokes, which often linger a little too long. Ferrell only co-wrote the opening episode, one of the strongest of the series, with a writing staff that tag-teamed the rest of the series. If improvisation was encouraged on set, the jokes don’t feel like they elicited as much as they could have, with a lot of the episodes dragging despite clocking in close to thirty minutes.
Will Ferrell is a national treasure and always makes me laugh, but as he gets older, I find I can only handle his brand of comedy in smaller doses. I enjoyed Happy Gilmore 2 for what it was, while the AppleTV series Stick felt like it fit the subject matter a bit better. Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon remain charismatic scene partners, and their moments in The Hawk almost save the series, but it is just too long and too repetitive for its own good. There are moments in each episode that stand out as memorable jokes, but each episode is forgettable. If you aim to binge The Hawk, you may find yourself taking a break halfway through, as fatigue from seeing the same formula repeated over and over will make it hard to finish the whole series in one sitting. The Hawk is funny at times, but overall, this series is a big swing and a miss.
The Hawk is now streaming on Netflix.
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