After one episode, I’m convinced the only reason Moon Knight will succeed – if it succeeds – is due to the charisma of Oscar Isaac. Because, despite what appears to be a pretty insane premise (man with dissociative identity disorder ends up possessed by an ancient Egyptian deity – who is voiced by F. Murray Abraham, naturally – gets embroiled in trying to stop another guy who is possessed by an ancient Egyptian deity from taking over the world – played by Ethan Hawke, of course), I’m intrigued to see just where this story ends up taking us.
We’re still missing a lot of the threads that will ultimately tie this story together*, so the first episode hinges entirely on Isaac’s performance. And while stories dealing with DID (which, despite the prevalence within films and television series, is an incredibly rare disorder) can fall apart rather quickly, I’m hopeful that this one will be less about the multiple personalities (or come up with a reason for the DID that goes beyond it being a mental illness and is related to the whole possessed by Egyptian god thing) and more about Khonshu and Marc/Steven co-existing together to stop the apocalypse. Isaac is pretty great right out of the gate, delineating clearly between the two core personalities at war within him. Steven is nerdy but charming (albeit with a pretty rough English accent) and Marc – what little we see of him – is strong and fully in control. Although, I couldn’t help but want to spend more time with Marc. With these MCU television limited series, we get such a finite amount of time to churn through a story that characterization can get lost in the shuffle. Here, we’re being introduced to a fully new character and origin story – while also trying to tell a bigger story on top of it – that I worry we’re bound to run out of time to really get to the heart of who this man is outside of the impending apocalypse. After all, we only have five more episodes left.
*While Moon Knight is one of the more obscure Marvel properties the MCU has adapted, there are still plenty of comic incarnations to look to for Easter Eggs and guess as to just what is going down here in this story. As the plot unspools a bit more, I’ll be throwing in some ideas as to what might be happening into these reviews – who knows, it could be Mephisto! – but thus far, the storyline appears pretty simple. Aside from that whole “DID sufferer is possessed by the spirit of an Egyptian deity” part of the tale.
Worries about the future of the series aside, this opening episode felt just plain cool to watch, from the various Egyptian monsters to the judicious use of mirrors to reflect back the outer and internal threats facing Steve as he begins to come to terms with his reality. It was trippy in all the right ways, ratcheting up the suspense and adding to the horror vibe of the series. And the stuff with Ammit’s scales on Arthur Harrow’s forearm? That was some cool CGI work (the monsters felt a bit rough, but that tattoo was very cool). I liked that we didn’t get a definitive answer as to Steve’s own soul – burdened as it is by several identities, he is cloaked in chaos (other MCU folks dealing with chaos at the moment include Wanda and Doctor Strange, just in case we’re meant to be keeping score).
While this story appears to have global ramifications, it still feels very insular at this point, with most of the conflict being confined to Steve himself. And when the outside forces start to push in, Steve blacks out and Marc takes over with the Moon Knight persona. I’m sensing we’ll get a flashback explaining this all sooner rather than later – we were given a vocal tease of the show’s other main cast member, May Calamawy, who was so damn great on the Hulu series Ramy, over the phone as someone from Marc’s past desperately looking to reconnect with him. Once Marc’s life fully starts to intersect with Steve’s, I think we’ll be off to the races.
So, as pilot’s go, this was a pretty solid one. We’ve met the key players in some form, been presented with the main antagonist and know his dastardly plan, and we know the key internal conflict that our “hero” will need to address by the end of the story. The pieces are in place. Now it’s time to have some fun and play.
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