Her place in the MCU is refreshed for the audience in the form of unnecessarily rehashed flashbacks, whose place in the show are edited in a frankly burdensome way. It points to the central point of contention this show suffers from: Its place in the MCU. Despite this, they do act as a way for the creatives behind the series to showcase the seeds planted which unfurl into Maya’s thrill for vengeance. The ghosts in her life haunt her and stifle her path to healing, a theme that is present throughout. “You’re filled with rage … it makes you blind,” is what Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) said to her during one of her first appearances, and Maya still struggles with this in her own series.
Along with her grief and anger, the introduction of a different kind of power that Maya will soon inherit becomes another thing to juggle. It’s a power that when its first introduced seems like it may blow up the show’s well-crafted smallness, yet instead it surprisingly enhances it. What the first three episodes of “Echo” are concerned with is the idea of mythologies, and stories that are passed down as a means to not only force us to confront where one comes from, but also to warn us of the mistakes our ancestors made in the past. At the beginning of each episode, we are transported back in time to watch a woman from Maya’s long line of ancestors inherit a fantastical gift that allows them to overcome their strife.
The sound work present in these flashbacks, and every action scene they’re followed by immerses you not only in the story but Maya’s world as a hearing-impaired hero as well. The silences give us an in-depth look into Maya’s sphere, and the jolting sounds that strike back into place for the audience snap the audience back into this harsh world she was forced into as a child. The camera often holds on Maya’s face as she struggles with an opponent, sound evaporating from the scene except for her rapidly beating heart, then, with the crack of the breaking neck of her opponent, the sound around her quickly trickles back in. Each fight scene is wholly dynamic, and is a fantastic change from the grueling CGI filled mess found in “Secret Invasion.”
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