Hawkeye review – Hailee Steinfeld hits the bullseye in Marvel Series

It must be another TV series milled by Disney+ from the seemingly endless supply of grain from the Marvel Cinematic Universe if it's Wednesday – or Monday, or Tuesday, or Thursday, or... It's the turn of the eponymous Hawkeye this time. The new miniseries is a quieter affair, set on a more manageable (or less ambitious) scale than the mindbending, genre-mashing WandaVision and the crazy Loki.

After the celluloid hijinks with which he has exhausted himself over the past few years, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is looking for a calm life. He's in New York with his children, showering them with holiday cheer before returning them to their mother and vowing to see them in six days for Christmas. Alas! He hasn't factored in the genesis tale of Young Avenger Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), which began in 2012 in the aftermath of a certain attack on New York City, during which she marveled at a specific excellent marksman's protective prowess. She asks her mother for a bow and arrow, and by the time we meet her in the present, she is a master arrow shooter (as well as a master of all martial arts), brave, and proto-superheroic. All she needs now is the outfit, and the situation will be solved).

Kate goes to a black-market charity auction in a warren-like wine cellar with Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton), her mother's profoundly frightening new fiancee (her loving father was slain in the 2012 attack). The cellar is invaded as soon as a suit worn by a certain Avenger in his Ronin phase becomes up for sale. Kate swipes the suit then plunges into the melee to save Jack and his equally creepy uncle Armand (a cameo from Simon Callow, who has evidently popped in for the moustachio-twirling time of his life before he goes off for a nice lunch) from the marauding horde, as I write in my notes for the first but not last time.

Outside, however, Kate's costume attracts Ronin's opponents, and Hawkeye is forced to save her before long. Hawkeye – who repeatedly begs people to call him "Clint," to to the chagrin of any UK viewer who wants to take the proceedings seriously and for whom the name has become inextricably linked with Petula Clark - appears in the second episode. "Where has Clint gone?" In Dinnerladies, Gordino's inamorato – hunting down the suit and, unwittingly, building a bond with his fellow archer.

Mentoring takes place, as well as the discovery of a criminal plot. It's not overly fast-paced or inventive, but it's good enough to keep you interested in the remaining four episodes. Especially since we still have Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova and Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez/superhero Echo on the way. Renner and Steinfeld have incredible chemistry, which is more fun than anything else. Renner has built a career out of playing the uninteresting second fiddle on the big screen - so uninterestingly on the occasion that it's felt like the bluff should be called. The adaptation to the small screen works nicely for him and his low-energy persona. He asks if he may speak to their manager when he is kidnapped by thugs (and put in a children's abandoned play area instead of a warehouse — they've all been converted into apartments, his captors explain). "It's like talking to furniture," he adds tiredly, and entirely convincingly given the low-key setting.

However, it is Steinfeld who has the upper hand. As well as the blockbuster action sequences, she sells Kate's angry teen features – continually pushing at her would-be mentor's bounds – and scenes as a frightened and powerless observer to her mother's (an as-yet underused Vera Farmiga) connection with Jack.

The characters are credible and deserve a little more emotional investment than normal, even if the plot isn't up to much — what little happens in the first two episodes is irregular and riven with holes, leaving you taking a lot on trust and hope backfill will begin soon. Or at the very least MCUsual, despite the fact that we aren't in Wanda and Vision territory.