Will Ferrell in “The Hawk.”
Netflix/Aaron Epstein
Will Ferrell’s new Netflix golf comedy series The Hawk is whiffing with Rotten Tomatoes critics.
All 10 of The Hawk’s 30-minute episodes began streaming on Netflix on Thursday. Ferrell stars in the sports comedy as Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins, the No. 1 professional golfer in 2004 who has been struggling ever since missing an easy put that would have cemented his career as one of the greats in the sport. Even though his body is ready to retire, Hawk’s mind isn’t, so he launches a comeback to win one more major tournament to complete golf’s Grand Slam.
Created by Ferrell, Chris Henchy and Harper Steele, The Hawk also stars Molly Shannon as Hawk’s estranged wife, Stacy, and Jimmy Tatro as their son and hotshot golf pro Lance. The Hawk also features Fortune Feimster as Hawk’s new caddy, Sam, Luke Wilson as the golfer’s old rival Golden Fisk and Chris Parnell as PGA Tour board member Anton.
As of Thursday, The Hawk has been splattered with a 26% “rotten” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer based on 26 reviews. RT’s Critics Consensus, Audience Summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings are still pending.
Disclaimer: The trailer featured below for “The Hawk” includes crude comedy.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘The Hawk’?
Richard Roeper of RogerEbert.com is among the top critics on RT who gives The Hawk a “rotten” score. Roeper writes in his RT review summary, “Virtually everything about The Hawk reminds us of better golf movies and TV series.”
Lauren Sarner of The New York Post also slams The Hawk with a “rotten” score, writing on RT, “It’s a story that might have made for an amusing yet forgettable five-minute Saturday Night Live sketch. It’s tedious, as a five-hour series.”
John Anderson of the Wall Street Journal isn’t a fan of The Hawk, either. Anderson writes in his “rotten” RT review summary, “The series simply doesn’t know when to be witty and when to be vulgar, and it goes over that line far too many times to win a viewer’s respect.”
Joining the chorus of boos aimed at the sports comedy is Kathryn VanArendonk of New York Magazine/Vulture, who writes in her “rotten” review summary on RT that The Hawk is “just a show about an unpleasant golfer who finds himself more funny than anyone else does, and whose fondness for puka-shell necklaces and Thong Song can’t fill in all the cracks where his humanity should be.”
In her “rotten” review summary of The Hawk on RT, Rachel Aroesti of the Guardian writes, “One problem is that the show isn’t actually poking fun at anything in particular—not even golf itself — which means it lacks the specificity or sharpness even stupid comedy requires.”
Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times is among the top critics on RT who gives The Hawk a “fresh” score, writing, “It has the advantage of concerning a sport the actor loves and plays, making it feel affectionate and informed, even as it creates its own silly world.”
James Jackson of The Times (U.K.) also deems The Hawk “fresh,” writing on RT, “Look, it’s a platinum-blond Will Ferrell in a golf visor — no one’s going to expect subtlety or sophistication. It’s extremely daft summer season viewing.”
Also giving the series a “fresh” score on RT is Benji Wilson of the Daily Telegraph (U.K.), who writes, “Firstly, The Hawk is funny; at times very funny, which is always the first salvation of a hackneyed storyline.”
Rated TV-MA, all 10 episodes of The Hawk are new on Netflix.