The Hawk Review: ★★☆☆☆ (3/5)
Will Ferrell’s return to the sports comedy arena in Netflix’s The Hawk is, unfortunately, a swing and a miss. Despite a highly talented supporting cast and a few fleeting chuckles, this 10-episode golf series suffers from outdated jokes, a repetitive plot, and a confusing identity crisis. It ultimately stretches a thin, movie-length premise far past its expiration point.
Back in the mid-2000s, Will Ferrell was the undisputed king of the goofy sports comedy. Masterpieces like Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory worked because they perfectly balanced cartoonish absurdity with genuine heart. Naturally, when Netflix announced Ferrell would star in a new 10-episode golf comedy series called The Hawk, fans expected a triumphant return to form.
Instead, the final product feels like a tired retread of old ideas that should have stayed in the clubhouse.
The series follows Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins (played by Ferrell), a loud, washed-up, and deeply selfish former major champion. Lonnie is currently hacking away in the lower leagues, but he decides to launch a desperate comeback.
His motivation, however, isn’t particularly noble. It turns out his son, Lance (Jimmy Tatro), is a rising star on the PGA Tour. Lonnie simply cannot stand the idea of his son being better than him or stealing his nickname, “The Hawk.”
The series kicks off with a bizarre tragedy: Lonnie’s lifelong caddie and only friend, Old Henry (Keith David), dies mid-round. Rather than mourning, Lonnie immediately searches for a replacement, hiring a total stranger named Sam (Fortune Feimster) whom he literally meets in a Walmart parking lot. From there, Lonnie begins a chaotic march toward the U.S. Open, leaving a trail of emotional destruction in his wake.
The biggest issue with The Hawk is that it doesn’t seem to know what kind of show it wants to be. On one hand, it tries to be a broad, wacky sports comedy. Lonnie wears painfully bright outfits, screams at quiet golf crowds, and acts like a toddler when he misses a shot.
On the other hand, the show occasionally pivots into a surprisingly dark drama about a toxic, golf-obsessed addict. Lonnie is a truly terrible father and husband. He skips his best friend’s funeral to play a round, texts his eulogy from the golf course, and treats his son like a rival rather than family.
His ex-wife, Stacy (played by a criminally underused Molly Shannon), is constantly furious, shouting vulgar threats and trying to sell her own brand of spiked iced tea. Meanwhile, Lance is dealing with a serious gambling addiction that the show treats as a minor plot point to fill time. Because the writing bounces wildly between slapstick humor and depressing family drama, the viewer is left feeling incredibly uncomfortable rather than entertained.
It’s incredibly frustrating to watch such a talented cast get bogged down by a weak script. Ferrell still has plenty of charisma, but Lonnie is just too unlikable to root for. The chemistry between Ferrell and Fortune Feimster is actually quite good, but the writers burden Sam with a bizarre, completely unnecessary crime subplot that feels totally out of place.
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We also get appearances from Luke Wilson as Lonnie’s smug rival, Golden Fisk, and Chris Parnell as an uptight PGA board member. Yet, none of these characters get anything particularly clever or funny to do.
To make matters worse, the comedic timing feels incredibly dated. The show relies on overly long, repetitive riffs—like a joke about Lonnie wearing a woman’s shirt that drags on for several painful minutes—along with cheap crude humor that feels like it was written twenty years ago.
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The Hawk might have worked as a quick, silly 90-minute movie. Stretched out over ten 30-minute episodes, however, it quickly becomes a repetitive chore.
If you are looking for a sharp, modern sports comedy, you are better off skipping this one. The Hawk aims for greatness but ultimately ends up lost in the rough.