Moon Knight concluded this week, and it may be the clearest indication yet of what the MCU will look like on television vs in theaters. The MCU series on Disney+ have had pacing issues since the debut of WandaVision, and Moon Knight is no exception, with a slow start that leads to a rushed conclusion, but Moon Knight is also the most well-structured Marvel series ever. Moon Knight is structured into a distinct three-act framework with six hour-long episodes, mirroring the narrative flow of a film but with more room for story and character development.
Moon Knight never entirely balanced itself across those six episodes, which is the only major flaw of the show. The beginning was slow, the ending was rushed, and Layla (May Calamawy) didn't receive a proper setup for her hero moment, but it did a fantastic job portraying Marc Spector and Steven Grant, the two-in-one character played by Oscar Isaac.
Moon Knight excels at what it does, expanding the MCU's world without ever feeling heavy or clumsy, despite a bipedal hippo goddess appearing to unload exposition on Marc and Steven in one of the MCU's more bizarre recent events.
Even as ancient gods battle on a metaphysical world in the Egyptian desert, Moon Knight is unafraid of its own strangeness while maintaining a grounded atmosphere. Jeremy Slater, the show's creator, and Mohamed Diab, who directed four of the six episodes, including the final two, don't shy away from the weird, but they keep it grounded in Steven and Marc's internal strife. Oscar Isaac does an incredible job portraying these two personalities, to the point where it's heartbreaking when Steven realizes he isn't "real," but rather a protection mechanism Marc devised as a child to protect himself from abuse.
The more bizarre Moon Knight becomes, the more satisfying it becomes, to the point where the image of the Egyptian gods Khonshu and Ammit fighting as giant animal kaijus in the background while their human avatars fight on the streets of Cairo is one of the most thrillingly odd sights in the MCU to date. Moon Knight's blend of mythology and street-level violence works well; I just wish there was a little more room in these six episodes for Layla's unveiling as an avatar and superhero (she might be Scarlet Scarab, a deep cut from the comics, but it's left intentionally ambiguous in the show).
When Layla dresses up, it should feel like a lot bigger deal, especially since Marc was trying to keep her out of this gods' mess, and we should have a better idea—or any idea—what it means for her to be the hippo goddess's avatar, but we don't. What does it imply for Marc to be the "fist of Khonshu" and Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) to be the "voice of Ammit"? "Tawaret's sword arms," perhaps?
Marvel hasn't yet cracked their formula over six hours of televisual narrative, but they're getting there. And I'm curious if, once they've perfected it, we'll see anything as pleasantly strange as Moon Knight once more. Moon Knight isn't flawless, and Layla deserves a little more, but it takes some risks and isn't afraid to get weird and macabre—the scenes in the psychiatric facility are particularly memorable (Legion fans are probably incensed this is getting more attention by orders of magnitude, and Moon Knight definitely owes a debt to Legion).
Steven's outrage at Marc's mercenary acts is well balanced, as is Marc's evident sense of guilt (and the apparent lack of guilt Jake Lockley possesses). Moon Knight is one of the most engaging and emotionally grounded storylines in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite its uneven tone and weird backstory. Strange. This is without a doubt one of Marvel's strangest endeavors.
