“The Hawk” (2026) refers to Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins (Will Ferrell), and the Netflix streaming series’ theme song goes, “They call him the hawk. *Hawk!* He’s a golfer. The greatest golfer in the world” in a hair metal, enthusiastic delivery. Lonnie lives and travels in his tour bus to different competitions. In 2004, he missed an opportunity at completing the Grand Slam and has not come close until now when his son, Lancelot, commonly known as Lance (Jimmy Tatro), is also at the top of his game and called The Hawk. Golden Fisk (Luke Wilson), the man who beat Lonnie, is still competing. Will history repeat itself or will The Hawk finally win? What do they need to do to reach the next level? It is an uneven streaming comedy that consists of ten episodes roughly thirty minutes each, but eventually it picks up steam and becomes funny, but rarely laugh out loud. If you enjoy the cast, it is a great way to turn off your brain.
According to the broken clock rule, Matt Damon was right that the reason to watch Netflix streaming series is the ability to watch and enjoy it while doing something else, i.e. multitasking. “The Hawk” does not quite fit that bill because the humor relies on a lot of physical gags that vary in terms of hilarity. It also feels as if the series takes a long time to find its footing and feel like an actual story, not a bunch of skits with the same characters weakly connected to each other. For instance, the watch story line is still dangling so maybe it will loop back around in future seasons.
Who does not love Ferrell? “The Hawk” heavily relies on its audience’s adoration of the funny man. His character is a working-class hero who does not fit in the golfing world, which is why he is so popular. Lonnie prefers to practice golf in public courses and is proud of his humble, rough beginning, which explains his irreverent, loud demeanor. Lonnie is a showboat who likes to have fun at work with his caddie, Sam (Fortune Feimster), eating wings at clubhouse and unwinding in parking lots with van life people. There are so many references to Walmart that it is probably an embedded commercial. Sam and Lonnie are a terrific pairing and are on the same wavelength.
Lonnie is obsessed with playing golf and hopefully winning, which means a long-term separation from Stacy (Molly Shannon), his wife. Their son is his opposite in terms of temperament. Not going to lie, but when it became apparent that Lance was going to play a big part of “The Hawk,” it was initially not a draw, but a deterrent. Lance feels like the archetype of the big, dumb jock obsessed with fine tuning his body thanks to the help of his trainer, Jerry (Gabriel Hogan), and fiancé and influencer, Natalie (an underutilized Katelyn Tarver). His routine is a scientifically fine-tuned to optimize his performance. Eventually when Lonnie gets messy, he levels up as a reliable source for laughs.
“The Hawk” does not work as well when Lonnie getting into shenanigans is kept separate from Lance and his entourage. The exception is Shannon, who is the most consistently funny actor in any situation with any cast member. Stacy is a foul mouthed, ill tempered, aspiring entrepreneur who wisely thinks that she cannot rely on her husband’s money and is hoping to leverage her son’s fame to become the face of her product. She is dating Radford (David Hornsby), who appears to be a closeted man and does not fit into their world, but is happy to go along for the ride, a move that pays off during a pool scene late in the series.
Unlike “Stop! That! Train!” (2026), Chris Parnell’s slow burn hater golf official is a consistent presence who becomes pivotal and escalates gradually until it becomes an explosive, ridiculous gag that pays off. Chef’s kiss for understanding how to use tropes and leverage Parnell’s comedic style perfectly. It was also a nice gimmick that folded in more characters into the fun that would otherwise be forgettable, specifically a boardroom scene. His storyline also embeds some incisive socioeconomic commentary, especially when Shannon joins him.
Golden could have been written in a more cliché way as a villain, but when handling Lonnie, Golden is a midpoint between the structured regimen of the younger players and Lonnie’s ways but is way more loosey goosey with Lance. Wilson plays him as a man comfortable in his skin but also has a healthy competitive attitude. There is a Danish golfer who feels like a riff on Werner Herzog, who is German, and was probably the funniest capsule performance.
“The Hawk” is not safe for all audiences. It relies heavily on bawdy humor, i.e. sex jokes. It is low hanging fruit balanced with opposite sex platonic friendships. A lot of entertainment, especially from SNL alum, exists to be aspirational and model how they want society to look. It is the unofficial, behind-the-scenes sequel to “Will & Harper” (2024), a “documentary” about a road trip between friends and colleagues, Ferrell and Harper Steele soon after the latter’s transition. The pair hoped for a welcoming reception from the country at a time of rising transphobia. Steele is this series’ executive producer. While there are no trans characters, Sam has a moment when she is misgendered. The script walks a fine line, and some homophobic slurs are used with the immediate apology and lesson of how it is mistaken with a long running gag that Lonnie dresses in women’s clothes. Does the ironic use of hate speech work? While it is period accurate for a man as stuck in the past as Lonnie to use such a term, it would be nice if this kind of humor could be phased out. It is having your cake and eating it too humor: use a slur then explain why it is bad so you can still use it.
“The Hawk” is an unusual series because people of color are present in many scenes so here is a cookie for diversity. Like the Bechdel test, which determines whether women characters exist as individuals or primarily in relation to a man, for people of color, there needs to be a test whether they exist with their own independent dreams and concerns or just to assist a main character or have a substantial number of lines or are just background. Crystal (Aida Osman), Lance’s childhood friend, spends more time supporting him though her storyline is more serious though not central to the entire narrative. At another point in the series, there is a running gag about how few Black golfers exist or that they are fictional, magical Negroes. It is another example of having your cake and eating it too humor: point out the problem before perpetuating it so you have a plausible defense that you would never do something like that because you know about the problem. Ok. Know better. Do better.
Do not conflate criticism as condemnation. No one is expecting “The Hawk” to change the world, but because the people who are making it have good intentions and want a better world and an optimistic energy and outlook on the world, let’s hope that they are more open to improving. Instead of just patting themselves on the back for modelling for their audiences that it is possible to coexist with people who are different from you, future seasons can build on that impulse.
