Echo: Chafa

January 10, 2024 3:57 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Young Maya Lopez leaves her hometown of Tamaha, Oklahoma following her mother's death and moves to New York City, where Wilson Fisk raises her to be a ruthless assassin.
posted by ellieBOA (11 comments total)

This started out with the quite the backstory dump. Maybe some of it will come back in an interesting way, but as much as I enjoyed Graham Greene it felt like a lot to kick off with.

That said, the fight between Maya and Daredevil was maybe one of the best I've seen in the MCU. Alaqua Cox is great, and Vincent D'Onofrio is magnetic as Kingpin.
posted by synecdoche at 4:48 PM on January 10

(Also, the Choctaw Nation has an informative website talking about the series' representation of Choctaw traditions and culture. The whole show has been dubbed in Choctaw—very cool!)
posted by synecdoche at 4:51 PM on January 10 [6 favorites]

Thanks for that link, I think with the What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World? episode (which can be watched without the rest of the series for pretext to this show) and this, Marvel seem to be putting in the work to properly represent a culture.
posted by ellieBOA at 6:21 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]

Kingpin tells Maya his father was killed when he was 12. Am I remembering correctly that he was the one that killed his father ?
posted by wabbittwax at 8:33 PM on January 10

Killed by Ronin, acting on a tip from Kingpin, as I recall.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:11 PM on January 10

Yes wabbitwax, he was.
posted by ursus_comiter at 10:31 PM on January 10

Gotta say I loved the choice of music for the roller rink. A+, no notes. It was like I was 11 again.
posted by ursus_comiter at 10:33 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]

I’ve linked the soundtrack Spotify playlist in episode 5 but here it is as well.

Just wanted to add I’m thrilled they cast a Deaf amputee/person with a limb difference to play Maya [unsure of her preferred description]. Disability representation is so important.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:56 PM on January 10 [3 favorites]

Tremendous start. Though the introductory piece had me wondering if I had selected the wrong show to watch. I felt the weight of the burden of the weight of her anger at the world deeply. A fine follow up to the best aspects of the Netflix Marvel shows which when they were good were very good and hefty.
posted by artlung at 6:06 AM on January 12 [1 favorite]

According to the Choctaw site, Alaqua Cox‘s prior acting experience was a high school play. Wow! Also seconding the recommendation for the What If episode (and Prey) if you’re looking for more quality indigenous representation in your media.

The backstory didn’t feel to me like an exposition dump at all and had a good pace to introduce Maya, her father and their relationship to Kingpin. Unlike many comic book origin stories, hers feels very organic and real.

I recognised the scenes from Hawkeye but didn’t watch Daredevil so didn’t know to expect him to show up. If they meet again, would she be able to defeat him if they fought upstairs with the loud club music?
posted by autopilot at 2:53 PM on January 14

Marvel continuity is getting to be so overwhelming that one series has to include a summary of a different series so the first episode makes sense. That's unwieldy, to say the least. If I hadn't seen Hawkeye and been familiar with the character from the comics, I might have tapped out after the end of this episode. But overall liking it, and the fight with Daredevil was nooice. Not sure I'm still so onboard with VD's portrayal of Kingpin. I feel like he's forcing the voice and his rage. Maybe that's just me though.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:56 AM on April 20