Will Ferrell might be the greatest athlete of the sports comedy world. He dominated the world of figure skating in “Blades of Glory,” raced into the annals of NASCAR history in “Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby,” alley-ooped his way into the NBA in “Semi-Pro,” and passed his wisdom on to the next generation as a little-league soccer coach in “Kicking and Screaming.” Now, he’s set his sights in the world of golf in his new Netflix comedy series, “The Hawk.”
Per FlixPatrol, “The Hawk” was the No. 1 Netflix show in the United States and Canada across the first three days of its release. Co-created by Ferrell with his longtime comedy collaborators Harper Steele and Chris Henchy, the show stars Ferrell as the titular Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins, who was the No. 1 golfer in the world … back in 2004. Two decades later, Lonnie is determined to make an epic comeback and complete his Career Grand Slam.
Among those standing in his way on the PGA Tour are Lonnie’s own son, Lance (Jimmy Tatro), a rising star in the golf world, and Lonnie’s long-time rival Golden Fisk (Luke Wilson). The series also stars Molly Shannon as Lonnie’s ex-wife, Stacy, and Fortune Feimster as Lonnie’s caddy, Sam.
The Hawk is topping charts but hitting rock bottom in reviews
The draw of a new Will Ferrell comedy may have helped “The Hawk” come hot out of the gate, but reviews for the show indicate that it could lose momentum fast. It has a dismal critic score of 29% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, and a common refrain among critics is that the show simply isn’t funny. Others pinpoint the problem of the premise being made into a series rather than being contained in a 90-minute feature comedy, resulting in too much padding and the laughs being spread very thin.
“The Hawk” ran into some challenges during development, which might explain the bumpy results. The original creative team line-up was Ferrell, Ramy Youssef (who was also set to co-star), and Josh Rabinowitz, but Youssef and Rabinowitz parted ways with the project last year, reportedly due to creative differences.
Golf is a sport that seems like natural comedy gold. It has athletes who don’t necessarily look athletic, silly checkered pants, and an audience comprised mostly of stuffy rich people who can be easily affronted by outlandish antics. “Caddyshack” has a sporadic collection of funny moments and “Happy Gilmore” found success with the classic fish-out-of-water formula, but other golfing comedies — including “Happy Gilmore 2” — have struggled to gain much traction.
Unfortunately, it looks like golf is a comedy nut that not even Will Ferrell can crack. But if you want to judge the show for yourself, “The Hawk” is available on Netflix now.
