They call him The Hawk, he’s a Golfer, but Happy Gilmore does it way better!

Will Ferrell, known for his excellent, if not occasionally misplaced roles, stars as Lonnie ‘The Hawk’ Hawkins, a washed up Golf Pro who finds himself in the midst of a professional resurgence. This is not just any resurgence, he’s playing against his son!

Stretched over 10 episodes, each around 30 minutes in length, this show is a comedy about golf. Don’t be confused here, this is no Happy Gilmore. In fact, I would suggest even Happy Gilmore 2 is a step-up from this, and that was a bit of a disappointing mess.

The cast here do an admirable job for the most part, but the standout here is Fortune Feimster as Sam, a hardnosed down-and-out who becomes Lonnie’s caddy. Along for the ride is Luke Wilson as Golden Fisk, Lonnie’s greatest golfing nemesis. It’s here that this series really does ‘borrow’ from Happy Gilmore quite a bit. Also starring is Jimmy Tatro who plays Lonnie’s son, Lance. I haven’t seen Tatro in a great deal, but his on-screen presence is undeniable, and I think there’s a great future ahead of him.

As for the comedy, it’s definitely there and I had a few laughs while watching it, but unfortunately the scripting and the timing often fall flat. There’s another issue here, and that is Ferrell himself. I do think he’s one of the best comedy actors of our generation. Stepbrothers and The Ballad of Ricky Bobby confirm this status. But if you take the characters from those films, and all the others before and after, you start to see a weird mash-up in Lonnie. It’s almost as if Ferrell falls back to previous form so he didn’t have to craft a whole new persona. Maybe, it’s just a case of Will Farrell having very little range as an actor.

The production is average, with obvious signs that not a lot of money has been spent on it. To be honest with you, it’s pretty typical Netflix fare, way below in both scale and budget compared to the massive titles that are Stranger Things and The Boroughs.
The music is good, and I found myself miming to the very tiny rock intro, but still, the soundtrack is very capable of holding it’s own, even if it is quite generic.

What I found difficult to understand is the relationship we are supposed to have with the titular character. At no point did I feel like I should be rooting for him. Actually, I found myself rolling my eyes at yet another dated genital gag which litters the whole series. In one scene, Lonnie attempts to explain the difference to a Hot Streak and a run, by defining a run through the use of excrement terminology. It’s just baseless, dated humour that lands so far off the mark, it’s hard to tell whether I should be laughing with embarrassment, or crying in pain for having tortured myself with it.

The plain truth is that Ferrell is way past his best, and there’s only so many times we can see the same character portrayal, just in a different setting. Maybe it’s time to accept that some career high’s have just come, and gone!

I give ‘The Hawk’ a score of 1 and a half stars.

The Hawk is available on Netflix…should you feel the need to torture yourself!