‘Echo’ Review — The MCU’s Boldest and Bloodiest Series Is One of Its Best

When we look back at Echo, the new MCU series whose five episodes are now streaming early on Disney+ and Hulu, it is not going to be the point that marks the salvation for the seemingly declining superhero behemoth that is Marvel. Despite the promise that this is a “Spotlight” series, meaning supposedly casual viewers can go in without needing to remember everything else happening in this vast universe of movies and television, the first episode of the five-episode season plays like it is gunning for the record of the longest “previously on” segment you’ve ever seen. Heavily reliant on filling in the gaps of everything you actually apparently do need to know, with some repurposed footage that then gives way to new sequences, it feels more like cramming in homework right before a test starts and represents a mighty rocky start for a series that starts to hit its stride the longer it goes on. One almost wishes it had nothing to do with the baggage of this massive universe. Alas, it very much does. It is one of the franchise’s best, with more bold and bloody elements than much of its past entries, but that still isn’t saying as much as one would hope.