Moon Knight Isn’t Brutal but it’s Complex Nonetheless

Graham Steinberg
B-roll
Published in
3 min readMay 5, 2022

I had REALLY high expectations for Moon Knight. Ones that it was unlikely to meet even at the best moments. I was praying to the gods for Disney+ to finally pull the trigger and make something TV-MA (they literally added the option to show mature content on the streamer the day before!!!) so when I realized as I started the first episode that this was TV-14, I knew that Kevin Feige’s promises of the most brutal Marvel series yet may have been a bit exaggerated.

Let’s be clear. Moon Knight is not like anything the MCU has put out before. It may still have the quips and restrained violence of their usual fare but the fact that Marc/Steven barely wore the suit in this six episode run shows that the studio was willing to let this be a true character study rather than scene after scene of action. Good. If any Marvel character deserves that it’s Moon Knight.

Technically, the pendulum of this show swings around like Harrow’s scales. Hesham Nazih‘s score rivals that of Loki for the best in the MCU and the eclectic mix of songs are hitting levels of Guardians (A Man Without Love has been on loop in my head for weeks now). But on the other side of that the CGI in this was absolutely abhorrent. Everything in the afterlife looked so incredibly fake that it almost ruined the series.

Oscar Isaac is one of my favorite working actors and he does not disappoint double timing between the brooding Marc and affable Steven. You can feel how much love and energy he put into developing the character. I will say that I had one issue, and it’s certainly not Isaac’s fault, but Marc Spector’s Judaism is tantamount to his character and I really wanted him to be played by a Jewish actor. At the very least I would have liked the show to focus a bit more on it than just a single scene of sitting shiva. Nothing was more emblematic of this then when Marc threw down his Kippah in anger and DIDN’T KISS IT WHEN HE PICKED IT UP. Doing that is literally Judaism 101 and I couldn’t help but scream a little at the television when this happened. But I’m not here to go in depth about the lack of Jewish representation in film and television and I’m certainly not here to blame Oscar Isaac for it.

May Calamawy is the true dark horse here. I knew I liked her ever since I first saw her in Ramy but holy shit does she deliver. I cannot wait to see her meteoric rise after this one. Ethan Hawke does the best with a somewhat generic villain. I’m not saying Harrow was bad (he was definitely on the more complex side of MCU villains) but a little more backstory into him and his cult would have helped a lot. I will say that his scenes in the psych ward are electric (as is that entire sequence). Honestly just bring him back as an evil therapist and you have a show.

On that note, Moon Knight was really at its best when it was playing with your head and taking advantage of some more creative storytelling. The first episode with its quick flashes and hidden action and the fifth episode in the aforementioned psych ward were far stronger than the Indiana Jones esque chase for the tomb of Macguffin.

As I said, I had high expectations for a show that I’ve been waiting years to finally see. I’m sure over time I will look back on it more fondly and just be grateful that one of my favorite actors brought my favorite characters to life even if I had to sit through a pointless goose chase and a talking Hippo. No matter what, I’m already waiting for Marc and Steven’s (and Jake’s! Next appearance.

The Power of the Dog (2022) ★★★½

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Graham Steinberg
B-roll
Editor for

My college doesn’t have a film major so I write reviews to compensate. Follow me: www.letterboxd.com/gstein and Twitter @gwsteinberg