Moon Knight First Impressions: Buckwild & Complicated Character Study

While Marvel sent out four episodes of Moon Knight to critics to keep this spoiler-free and not to talk about things that won’t be coming out for a month, this will be more of a first impression than a full review of the first four episodes. Look for in-depth with labeled spoiler reviews to follow episodes as they drop each week. 

Moon Knight was always going to be a difficult character to adapt to live-action. He’s not a well-known character outside of diehard comic book fans. His origin story is absolutely insane, and he’s a character created in the 1970s with one of the most stigmatized and misunderstood mental illnesses out there. That is a lot to try and pack into a movie or a show, and this show does take on all that baggage admirably by leaning into how freaking weird all of this is. In terms of overall quality, if there is a weak episode in the bunch, it’s the first one, but that’s because there is a lot to set up here. So if you find yourself not overly impressed by the end of episode one, try to give the show another chance the next week. It’s almost generic in its first episode and only gets more and more buckwild as the episodes go on.

It’s difficult to get into the performances of any of the main players without addressing the elephant in the room and that Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID. This was previously known as multiple personality disorder, and it is something that Steven/Marc very much have. The show isn’t making the different identities part of his powers when he became Moon Knight or anything like that; it is explicit that they were already there when Khonshu gave Marc and Steven the powers. This is a hard thing to portray well [looking at you, Split], and there will be people who will be unhappy with the way the show handles the presence of Marc and Steven. However, two key factors need to be taken into consideration.

The first is language. As previously stated, this is a complex and complicated mental illness that is hard for professionals to understand, let alone for people making a TV show about a dude making a deal with an Egyptian god, and he gets superpowers. The language that Moon Knight uses when they talk to Marc and Steven, the way they talk about themselves… these are the things that are important. When someone implies that Steven is broken, he says, “I’m not broken, I just need a little help,” because that is true; people with DID are not broken; they just need help. In another episode, and we are vague on purpose for spoiler reasons, another character asks, “Marc, is it true? Are you unwell?” That word, “unwell,” is essential, and it’s one we see so rarely used whenever any piece of media is talking about mental illness, let alone something like DID.

The other thing to keep in mind comes from the performance of star Oscar Isaac. Unlike other things where it has been incredibly obvious which personality is in control, Isaac makes it much more subtle. It’s almost entirely in his body language, and the real distinguishing difference between them is the accent. The best comparison would be Willen Dafoe in Spider-Man: No Way Home with the Goblin personality and Norman. That was another performance that was almost entirely defined by movement, but subtle movements which are key. The difference in body language also just comes from their different walks of life. Steven is a mild manner gift shop employee, while Marc is a former U.S. Marine. Marc isn’t dangerous because he has DID; he’s dangerous because that is what he needs to be to survive and from the powers he got from Khonshu. However, as previously said, this is a complicated illness, and there are going to be people unhappy with the portrayal. They are allowed to feel that way, but for what it’s worth from someone who is mentally ill in a different way, the language used and the performances showed good intentions on the part of everyone involved.

This is primarily a character study, and we see the struggle that both Marc and Steven have as they fight against each other for dominance over one body and try to figure out how to save the world. We also see how they need to work together and how, at the end of the day, they both need each other if they are going to make it through this because they both have skills the other doesn’t have. It’s a pretty interesting dynamic to watch play out over multiple episodes.

As for the rest of the cast of Moon Knight, they are all great. Ethan Hawke plays Arthur Harrow with such sincerity that he thinks he is doing the right thing, and he fundamentally does not understand why anyone wouldn’t want him to succeed. He is calm, collected, and eerie to watch as this unassuming man parts crowds like the Red Sea. Hawke doesn’t usually do villain roles, but we are getting this one and The Black Phone this year from him, so double win for us. Maya Calamawy as Layla is the other standout. Unfortunately, the cast is fairly small, and there aren’t many women around. This is mostly a four-person show with Marc/Steven, Arthur, Layla, and Khonshu lurking in the background. She manages to have completely different chemistry with Marc and Steven, which is fascinating to watch, but in terms of characters that feel a little neglected, she is the biggest four episodes in. F. Murray Abraham yelling at Marc or Steven in voiceover or lurking in the background as his CGI god form is just hilarious to watch for all the right reasons. Finally, the score from Hesham Nazih is fantastic, and if there is any justice in this world, we will hear more music from him in big productions soon.

Moon Knight is up there with WandaVision when it comes to completely unique takes in the Marvel universe. It feels very much separate from the rest of the MCU by design, and if there are easter eggs in those first four episodes, they are well hidden and not insanely obvious. It still remains to be seen whether or not they’ll be able to stick the landing in those final two episodes, the track record for Marvel shows isn’t stellar, and things go pretty buckwild in episode four. Still, Moon Knight runs headlong into that weirdness with grace as it also carefully handles mental illness. Tough line to walk, and they more or less pull it off.