QUICKIE -- Moon Knight (Disney+ Exclusive Series, Episodes 1-6)

Moon Knight is an American television miniseries created by Jeremy Slater for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics featuring the character of the same name. It is the sixth television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to be produced by Marvel Studios, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. Slater serves as head writer with Mohamed Diab leading the directing team.

Oscar Isaac stars as Marc Spector / Moon Knight and Steven Grant / Mr. Knight, two alters of a man with dissociative identity disorder (DID), with May Calamawy, Karim El Hakim, F. Murray Abraham, Ethan Hawke, Ann Akinjirin, David Ganly, Khalid Abdalla, Gaspard Ulliel, Antonia Salib, Fernanda Andrade, Rey Lucas, Sofia Danu, and Saba Mubarak also starring. The series was announced in August 2019, with Slater hired in November. Diab was hired to direct four episodes in October 2020, with directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead joining in January 2021 to direct the other two. Isaac was confirmed to star at that time, and used different accents to differentiate Spector's various identities. Filming took place from April to October 2021, primarily in Budapest as well as in Jordan, Slovenia, and Atlanta, Georgia.

Moon Knight premiered on March 30, 2022, and ran for six episodes, concluding on May 4. It is part of Phase Four of the MCU. The series received positive reviews, with particular praise for Isaac's and Hawke's performances and the darker tone compared to previous MCU series.

Premise

Marc Spector, a mercenary who has dissociative identity disorder (DID), is drawn into a deadly mystery involving Egyptian gods with his multiple alters, such as Steven Grant.

Cast and characters

• Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector / Moon Knight, Steven Grant / Mr. Knight, and Jake Lockley

• May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly / Scarlet Scarab

• Karim El Hakim and F. Murray Abraham as Khonshu

• Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow

• Ann Akinjirin as Bobbi Kennedy

• David Ganly as Billy Fitzgerald

• Khalid Abdalla as Selim

• Gaspard Ulliel as Anton Mogart

• Antonia Salib as Taweret

• Fernanda Andrade as Wendy Spector

• Rey Lucas as Elias Spector

• Sofia Danu and Saba Mubarak as Ammit

Shaun Scott recurs in the series as the living statue Crawley. Also guest starring are Lucy Thackeray and Alexander Cobb as Grant's co-workers Donna and J.B., respectively, Díana Bermudez as Yatzil, the avatar of the Egyptian goddess of love Hathor, Declan Hannigan as the avatar of the Egyptian god of kinship Horus, Hayley Konadu as the avatar of the Egyptian goddess of moisture Tefnut, Nagisa Morimoto as the avatar of the Egyptian goddess of the moon Isis, Loic Mabanza as Mogart's bodyguard Bek, Joseph Millson as Dr. Steven Grant from the fictional film Tomb Buster, while Bill Bekele portrays his young assistant Rosser, Claudio Fabian Contreras as Spector's younger brother Randall, and Usama Soliman as Layla's father Abdallah El-Faouly.

Episode SUMMARIES:

** SPOILERS BELOW!!! ***

Episode 1: "The Goldfish Problem"

Steven Grant works at the British Museum in London where he hopes to become a tour guide using his knowledge of Ancient Egypt. After going to sleep one night, he wakes up in the Austrian Alps and witnesses a cult meeting led by Arthur Harrow, who demands a scarab Grant unknowingly has in his possession. As he attempts to escape, he has several blackouts and hears a mysterious voice in his head before waking up in his home. Grant realizes that two days have passed since he went to sleep. He finds a hidden phone and keycard in his apartment and receives a call from the most frequent number in the phone's call log, a woman named Layla who addresses him as Marc. The next day at work, Grant is confronted by Harrow who reveals that he is a servant of the Egyptian goddess Ammit. Grant escapes from Harrow but is forced to remain at work that night on his own to make up for being late. Harrow summons a jackal-like creature to attack Grant, but his "reflection" asks to take control of their body. Grant agrees, transforming into a cloaked warrior who kills the jackal.

Episode 2: "Summon the Suit"

Grant is blamed for the damage caused by the jackal creature, due to it not appearing on the museum's security cameras, and is fired. He uses the keycard to access a storage locker where he finds the scarab. He speaks with his "reflection", another identity in Grant's body that introduces himself as American mercenary Marc Spector, the current avatar of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Grant is confronted by Layla, Spector's wife, who is unaware of Grant's existence, before being arrested by police officers working for Harrow. Harrow reveals that he was Khonshu's previous avatar until he chose instead to follow Ammit. He explains that he wants to use the scarab to find Ammit's tomb and resurrect her so she can purge humanity of evil by wiping out everyone who has or will commit evil deeds. Layla rescues Grant, but Harrow summons another jackal creature. Grant manages to summon a suit of his own to fight the jackal, but is overpowered and allows Spector to take control. Spector kills the jackal but loses the scarab to Harrow. Khonshu threatens to claim Layla as his next avatar if Spector fails to stop Harrow.

Episode 3: "The Friendly Type"

Harrow and his followers discover the location of Ammit's tomb in the Egyptian desert. In Cairo, Spector and Grant both experience blackouts while tracking a lead to Harrow's location. After failing to gain information, Khonshu calls a council between his fellow Egyptian gods and their avatars to warn them of Harrow's plans, but Harrow successfully denies the accusation. Hathor's avatar, Yatzil, tells Spector to find the sarcophagus of a medjay who knew of the location of Ammit's tomb. Layla finds Spector and takes him to meet with Anton Mogart, an acquaintance who owns the sarcophagus. Harrow arrives and destroys it, forcing Spector, Grant, and Layla to fight off Mogart's men and escape into the desert. Grant assembles some of the sarcophagus fragments into a star map, but it is two thousand years out of date. Khonshu uses his powers to briefly turn back the night sky to the correct night, allowing Grant and Layla to find Ammit's tomb. The other gods imprison Khonshu in an ushabti for this, leaving Grant and Spector's body without Khonshu's powers.

Episode 4: "The Tomb"

Grant and Layla find a deserted campsite at the location of Ammit's tomb, which is a maze in the shape of the Eye of Horus. They discover that some of Harrow's men have been killed by undead Egyptian priests, who then attack Grant and Layla. Layla defeats the priests but encounters Harrow, who claims that Spector was one of the mercenaries who murdered her archaeologist father, Abdallah El-Faouly. Grant finds the tomb and discovers that Ammit's last avatar was Alexander the Great; he retrieves Ammit's ushabti from inside Alexander's body. Layla angrily confronts Spector, who reveals that his partner killed Layla's father and Spector himself before Khonshu revived Spector as his avatar. Harrow arrives and shoots Spector, who wakes up in a psychiatric hospital populated by people from his life. After escaping from Harrow, who appears as a therapist at the hospital, Spector finds Grant in a separate body trapped in a sarcophagus. They also see a second sarcophagus with someone else trapped inside before being greeted by a female hippopotamus-headed figure.

Episode 5: "Asylum"

The hippopotamus-headed woman is the Egyptian goddess Taweret, who explains that Spector and Grant are dead and the "psychiatric hospital" is a boat sailing through the Duat, the Egyptian afterlife. She weighs their hearts on the Scales of Justice to determine whether they can enter the Field of Reeds, but the hearts are imbalanced by hidden memories that she suggests they explore together. Grant sees a memory of Spector's younger brother Randall drowning and Spector's mother blaming him for it, while Spector shows Grant how he became Khonshu's avatar while on a mission with his partner Bushman, who murdered Layla's father. Spector and Grant convince Taweret to help them return to the living world so they can stop Harrow, and she steers the boat towards the Gates of Osiris. Spector reluctantly explains that he unknowingly created Grant as a result of their mother's abuse. Grant and Spector reconcile with each other, but their scales fail to balance and hostile spirits attack them, dragging Grant into the Duat where he turns to sand. The scales balance and Spector finds himself in the Field of Reeds.

Episode 6: "Gods and Monsters"

Harrow frees Ammit and kills the avatars of the other Egyptian gods. Layla finds Khonshu's ushabti and releases him. Spector refuses to stay in the Field of Reeds and returns to the Duat to rescue Grant. With Taweret's help, they escape through the Gates of Osiris and awaken in their body. Khonshu re-bonds with them, restoring their powers. Layla discovers that Ammit can be re-bound by multiple avatars and agrees to become the temporary avatar of Taweret. They join Spector, Grant, and Khonshu in fighting Harrow and Ammit. Harrow overpowers Spector and Grant, but they experience a blackout during which time they somehow defeat Harrow. Spector and Layla seal Ammit in Harrow's body, imprisoning her, and Khonshu urges Spector to execute Harrow and Ammit. Spector refuses and orders Khonshu to release him and Grant from their service. The pair find themselves in the "hospital", where they reject the vision and choose to continue their new life together as heroes. In a mid-credits scene, Harrow is killed by Jake Lockley, Spector's third alter, who is still working with Khonshu.

The Verdict:

Going into this new Disney+ series, I felt the same way that I did when I hear about this character being brought back for a solo series or added into various team-up books over the years. I look at it this way. My impression of him hasn't ever changed. It's cool when he's around, but I'm not losing sleep about it whenever he's not. When trailers started popping up to hype and set the tone for this series, I saw a lot of people jumping to conclusions that this character would be the Marvel Cinematic Universe's answer to Batman or would bring about the more violent tone that was known for Marvel's Defenders-oriented TV shows that were on Netflix. I honestly laughed those assumptions off as I knew that they wouldn't go that far in one of this shows - at least not that soon.

In the weeks coming to this series' arrival, Disney+ surprised a lot of viewers (myself included) with new parental controls after adding all of the content from the Marvel Netflix and ABC Television shows, including (but not limited to) The Defenders, Daredevil (Seasons 1-3), Jessica Jones (Seasons 1-3), Iron Fist (Seasons 1-2), Luke Cage (Seasons 1-2), and Marvel's Runaways (Seasons 1-3).

The streaming rights to the Netflix shows expired late last year so it was only going to be a matter of time before they showed up on this platform. I just didn't think that it was going to be so soon.

I guess I should start off with my thoughts of how the costume looks. I thought it was a rather odd choice to go with this odd mix of practical effects and the use of CGI for the costume. It felt like it hindered his look in a sense when they would have to shoot particular scenes a certain way for you couldn't see the finer details of the costume properly or it would just look flat out bad in other shots. When he's standing still - as either Moon Knight or Mr. Knight (Steven Grant's variant on the hero) - the costume looks amazing but I'm still split on whether I love or hate the design choices here. While I appreciate the subtle nods to Egyptian culture and more references to Khonshu in the design, it just feels like it's a little too complicated for it's own good. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do to distance themselves from the Batman comparisons no matter what they did with the design.

At the end of the day, I thought the costume works for the most part, but if Moon Knight is to make a proper debut on the silver screen, I would like to see them tweak the design up a bit.

This review isn't going to go too extensive as I don't feel that's necessary for a show like this. Not to mention that this is a character that I'm not going to pretend like I'm very knowledgeable on anyway, but I'll offer my thoughts on this series as a whole though as we go over the plot.

Episode 1 is setup intentionally to be a mind-fuck as viewers are presented with the bizarre situation surrounding Steven Grant. The usage of several blackouts/cutaways to hide the action and magnify the mental dilemma going on Steven's head. It's not until Episode 2 that we're introduced properly to Marc Spector, another identity in Grant's body that is the current avatar for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. This is where it's revealed that Steven/Marc have dissociative identity disorder where they have multiple identities/personalities functioning in the same body without much recognition nor memory of the other identity's actions while in control.

Arthur Harrow, the leader of a mysterious cult, is after the scarab that is unknowingly in Grant's possession since he wants it to lead him to the Egyptian goddess Ammit's tomb. He wants to resurrect her for she can purge humanity of evil by wiping out everyone who has or will commit evil deeds. Harrow was Khonshu's former avatar but chose to follow Ammit instead.

Steven/Marc are joined up with Marc's wife, Layla El-Faouly, who is aware that he is Moon Knight. This is where it gets a little more confusing if you weren't keeping up to the details to this point whereas Marc has had a whole other life with Layla prior to adopting his Steven Grant persona. Layla was adventuring with Marc on his missions for Khonshu while Marc was hiding the fact that he was protecting her from becoming Khonshu's new avatar - along with the fact that he played a part in the murder of her archeologist father.

Khonshu is revealed to be the source of Marc/Steven's powers. So when the other gods of Egypt imprison Khonson into an ushabti for acting on his own after "falsely" accusing Harrow of attempting to revive Ammit, Steven/Marc are left powerless when they try to fight off Harrow's men. That doesn't stop them from continuing their pursuit of Harrow and Ammit's tomb, but Harrow shoots Marc after revealing to Layla that Marc Spector was one of the mercenaries who murdered her father, Abdallah El-Faouly. Everyone leaves Spector for dead since he's powerless without Khonshu, but that's far from the reality.

Instead, we're treated to an episode and a half of sorts in a mock "psychiatric hospital" that is a symbolic representation of a boat on the Duat, the Egyptian afterlife as the Egyptian goddess Taweret is weighing their hearts for they can enter the Field of Reeds in death. Unfortunately, their hearts aren't balanced, so she suggests that they revisit their memories that they have hidden from each other.

I thought this was the most intriguing episode of the entire series as it explodes how damaged Marc's psyche truly is. Steven Grant is merely a persona that manifested to cope with his abusive mother's treatment of him after his younger brother Randall drowned that she blamed entirely on him. It's in complete denial of that happening and the fact that his mother had already died in the years that followed that tragedy. Marc Spector repressed those memories from Steven in a sense and allowed it to harden himself into the mercenary that he is today. These flashbacks failed to revisit Spector's blackouts from previous episodes and failed to mention the third sarcophagus that was locked in same the psyche ward where Marc broke Steven out of. If you didn't watch the mid/post-credits scene after the final episode then you wouldn't know that there's a third persona within Spector's body, Jake Lockley, that's been behind the murderous rampages that Marc and Steven have no memory of doing.

That's the core problem with this series is that it brings a lot of interesting concepts and themes to the table, but never give them enough time to breathe and flesh out properly. A lot of these issues end up being casually (read: lazily) resolved without much conflict nor struggle or merely glossed over by the end of the last episode. Layla never brings up Marc's involvement with the murder of her father again but they work together to defeat Harrow without issue nor conflict in the final episode. Layla frees Khonshu with no issue whatsoever with Harrow's underlings in the tomb standing guard, but she's able to find and release him easily. Marc and Steven are able to escape the Duat easily after Khonshu is released, thus restoring their powers so they are able to join in the final battle. Khonshu is on the losing end against a powered up and fully revived Ammit, only for the other Avatars to reveal that she can be imprisoned again rather easily and with the use of only two Avatars after the others were killed by Harrow. All of this feels a little too convenient in terms of everything working out, even down to how they defeat Harrow in the end and imprison Ammit into his body as an unwilling vessel.

Marvel Studios are repeating the same mistakes as the Marvel Netflix shows in which they have a (somewhat) decent idea for the first half of these TV series, then rush to resolve everything in the last 1-2 episodes. I don't get that in terms of decision-making in the least either. You own the fucking streaming platform! Couldn't you just give yourselves an extension on these episode orders to resolve these shows in a coherent manner? I get tired of sounding like a broken record in these reviews when I have to mention time and time again that the core conflicts and issues have been rushed to a mediocre conclusion in the finale and said show could have used another episode or two to flesh things out.

Fortunately, a lot of attention is given to Steven/Marc's issues with mental health and their ongoing struggles with living with DID (dissociative identity disorder). I thought this psychological disorder was well represented and portrayed to an amazing degree, thanks to the talents of Oscar Isaac juggling the duality of both roles as Marc Specter and Steven Grant interchangeably on any given moment. It's amazing to watch him switch back and forth between both roles, especially after knowing that Oscar Isaac did these scenes in the same take(s) without recording them separately. For the first half of this series, I enjoyed Marc/Steven fighting for control over their shared body while conversing with themselves in reflections. When we got to Episode 4-5 and were enlightened by the origins of Marc's Steven personality, things took to much more profound twist. Marc wasn't "crazy". Instead, Steven was a coping mechanism created by his subconscious to cope with his abusive mother who wouldn't stop blaming him for the death of his younger brother. It was an intriguing idea to see Marc navigate his own mental health and confront his trauma, instead of bottling it up inside until it bursts at the seams - an ongoing problem with a lot of these heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (especially in Phase 4) in the wake of the events following Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Marc/Steven's blackouts were very interesting early on in this series, but it became a tired trope by the end of Episode 6 when audiences realized that we were never going to see what happens when he "blacks out". It was cheap ploy by the creators to dodge the bullet of Disney's censorship of extreme violence, even though we did get a few bloody scenes of the aftermath of whatever attrocities that Marc/Steven have done during that time.

(Laughs) Those cutaways reminded me of the "Relax-O-Vision" episode of Freakazoid where the censors had deemed the cartoon to be too violent and opted to resolve this issue by cutting away to something peaceful and non-threatening during all of the violence and action. It became the ongoing joke of that episode until the characters in the cartoon grew increasingly more annoyed at the cutaways and turned on the censors themselves to free the viewers from their unnecessary censorship.

The choice to go with these "blackouts" is a risky gamble too, given the fact that the creators have chimed in interviews that this was done intentionally not just to hint and tease Marc's other persona, Jake Lockley, who was revealed in the post-credits scene of Episode 6 but to set up a second season that may not never come to fruition since Disney has been pretty gun shy (outside of Loki) into giving these Disney+ Marvel shows more than one season. With that in mind, that omission of Lockley's actions comes across as very lazy and cheapens the overall experience in a sense because the creators are essentially robbing the audience of any satisfying conclusion to any of the major battles. It refers directly back to another glaring issue with these Disney+ shows and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole until the Disney umbrella - maturity ratings for this content.

I don't understand what is so hard about this. They added mature content filters for the Marvel Netflix shows on Disney+, so they aren't completely opposed to having mature, adult content on their streaming platform. What I don't get is why won't they fully commit to the violence entirely. In terms of the films, the closest we got to them fully pushing the envelope was in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness in terms of the horror and blood-filled visuals. It's not fair to your audience to continue flip-flopping around like this.

Let's not shy around the fact that it makes some of the visuals here hard to believe with the lack of blood or anything, such as the opening scene of this series where we see Arthur Harrow fill his sandals with shards of broken glass and we don't see a trail of blood in his wake or anything. I can't speak for anyone else but stuff like that kills my personal immersion into what I'm watching. Any media - whether it's a film, TV show, video game, etc. - that allows it's viewer to lose that connection or rather level of identification to what's going on is failing at its job to not only tell a story but simultaneously failing to provide its viewers with the escapism that these mediums are supposed to provide.

Moon Knight pushes the envelope in terms of some darker scenes and tones here, but it's never enough. I don't mean that we have to go into The Punisher territory here, but is it too much to ask for something in the same vein as Daredevil's infamous hallway scene(s)?

Last, but not least, I felt I should touch onto one more topic before closing up this rather brief review. I thought the introduction and inclusion of the Scarlet Scarab felt a little forced but I understand why it was so important for the showrunners and creators of this series as it was their own final stamp to this love letter to Egyptian culture. I know many people will point to the "woke agenda" but representation matters now in 2022 more than ever. I don't blame them for taking the opportunity to introduce and reimagine an Egyptian superhero for that culture to have one of their own. Where else will they get the opportunity to do so? It's not like there's room for it in any other Avengers projects in the pipeline, so I don't see any harm in doing so here, especially when we're already dealing with an obscure and lesser known hero as Moon Knight to begin with. This is all uncharted and unfamiliar territory for a lot of mainstream fans.

May Calamawy's Layla El Faouly was already a bad ass in her own right in this series without superpowers, so it was an added bonus that she would become Taweret's Avatar. It should be noted that her father's name, Abdallah El-Faouly, is a play on the comic book character Abdul Faoul's name who was the male equivalent of the Scarlet Scarab in Marvel Comics. Fans who were savvy to that character probably have picked up on him calling Layla his "little scarab" and he wore a scarlet scarf with a scarab design on it that Layla made for him. It was only fitting that Layla would pick up the mantle after laying those breadcrumbs and subtle foreshadowing.

(Laughs) Can we all agree that it was pretty stupid of Marvel.com to spoil that character's inclusion the day that episode went up on Disney+? I doubt that was going to make more people who weren't already watching this more inclined to see it either.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

I can't personally speak for everyone else, but I can't recommend people to go out of their way to watch this Disney+. Sure, watch it once you have caught up on everything else of note on your watch queue during this overly abundant season of new summer streaming releases. Moon Knight is not a bad show - far from the worst of the MCU's TV shows, but it's merely a footnote in what will more likely be forgotten about in the grander scheme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I personally don't see Marvel coming back to this corner of their universe and why should they? All possible connections to the wider MCU (such as references to the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder's Gorr the God Butcher) were axed out of narrative completely. It makes this show feel like a stand-alone and isolated affair that doesn't really feel important in terms of that constant feeling of what is going to lead to what's next in the MCU.

It's a shame too as Oscar Isaac's performance is one to see as he juggles these dual roles simultaneously to highlight an already amazing depiction of dissociative identity disorder in this continuity. Ethan Hawke does what he can with little he has to work with as the show's main antagonist, but I don't think viewers should sleep on May Calamawy's performance either. She gives this adventure the much needed Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones/Relic Hunter vibe that it needs with its Egyptian roots. This series should be also praised for not just its representation of Egyptian culture and its people, but its attention and dedication to a much more accurate depiction of modern Cairo, Egypt than the universally panned portrayal of such in Wonder Woman 1984.

I went into this series completely indifferent to this character from my exposure to him in seeing him off and on again throughout what I read growing up - mostly West Coast Avengers - that saw him as a team member or a recurring guest star. By the time this show was over, I was left feeling the same way. It's like I told people when this series was announced: "When Moon Knight's around, cool, I'll check it out, but once he disappears again, I'm not going to lose sleep over it." At the end of the day, that's exactly how I feel here about his future in MCU.