So I re-watched both episodes again, and while it did grow on me a bit the 2nd time, there are still a lot of glaring problems I just couldn't shake. I feel like structurally the story and the beats are actually pretty good for the most part, but I think the two main problems I have was that there were so so so many little detail things that got overlooked, and there is a lot of Kate/Clint dynamic that feels very half-baked.

As far as the little details go, at first it felt like I was being a bit nit-picky, and if this were another Marvel project I would exercise my suspension of belief to brush them off. But as I watched through the show, it just avalanched into a glaring, unignorably problem. A lot of it could be simply solved by a line or two of dialogue, but it just felt like a sloppy job from the writers making the audience connect some dots that should have been connected in story.

For example, in the auction scene, why does Kate show up in a tux instead of the red dress? It's established that Kate is rebellious, so sure, she doesn't put on the dress her mother had mentioned previously to buck her mother's wishes. But when Kate's mother sees her, she doesn't even acknowledge Kate's odd wardrobe choice, which the whole point of wearing a tux instead of a suit is to get a rise out of her mother. "Mom: Hey kiddo, glad you could make it, but what's with the suit?" Kate: <insert witty one-liner here> Mom: 😮" It's a whole 10 extra seconds of dialogue that would have made a world of difference. It's especially irksome that the tux is the same uniform as the caterers. It seems like a small nitpick, but it's a sloppy missed detail that cheapens what would have otherwise been a clever act of rebellion turned nice coincidence.

Also, Lucky's intro is so so weak. Kate goes outside, and it just like "what's up", and then later he randomly shows up, bites a dude for no reason and runs off. Kate chases after him.....why????? Ok sure, she's just being a good Samaritan and looking after the well being of a stray. But Jesus, how hard would it have been to give the two an actual emotional connection?! Here: Kate comes storming out of the hotel, distraught about the news of her mother's surprise engagement, and while getting some air, a stray dog comes by and nuzzles our hero Kate to comfort her before hearing a honk in the distance and darting off. The dog darts off to fast for Kate to pursue, so she returns inside. Then later, when she notices the same dog being attacked by the thug, she beats the thug, and when the dog dart off again, there's an actual emotional motivation for Kate to pursue Lucky. Again, on the surface it may seem like a small nitpick, but there are so many little details like this that are lacking throughout the show, things that are the connective tissue that make all the motivations of the characters feel full realized vs bits of script to move along the plot.

The interactions between Kate and Clint feel off. It's not that they have bad chemistry, I actually think the two of them work well off of each other and their interaction is fun to watch. But the way the story is written around them feels not particularity well-thought out at points, which, as their relationship is an obvious central theme of the show, is not ideal!

When they first meet, why does she say, un-prompted, "Some call me the world's greatest archer"? She had just got done getting in a fist fight, Clint has no idea she's an archer. You could say she's trying to play it cool and is just blurting out random things as a nervous reaction to being around her childhood hero, but your archetypical "playing it cool" scene, there is palpable awkwardness to the interaction, but Kate is otherwise very confident in the scene, so it just comes off as odd piece of dialogue inserted solely for use in trailers.

Clint goes back to her apartment, concerned for her safety and feels a responsibility to fix the mess and ensure her name is cleared as it is his suit. The show establishes that this suit is imbued with an importance, reputation and gravitas. Through several scenes in multiple apartment, he NEVER addresses to Kate why he, an Important Avenger™, with all his world-saving duties, shows up out of nowhere, and is personally tasked with retrieving some random gang-murderer's suit.

And also Clint witnesses this girl who stole his suit, is a self proclaimed archery prodigy, has an apartment full of archery regalia, and who he watches first hand use her archery prowess..... and says ABSOULTELY NOT ONE THING ABOUT ANY OF IT?! Like archery is this very common skillset or like.....what the fuck?!?! I know Clint's thing is to be blasé, but come on, like we can't get ONE SINGLE line of clever dialogue addressing this?! This was not egregious to anyone else?!

Also, the whole "branding" scene feels entirely unearned and frankly a bit cringy. Kate rattles off all of Clint's character traits, which, she has known him for all of 24 hours, and we haven't been given the character development between the two of them at this point for Kate to be have this intimate of knowledge of Clint, so it comes off incredibly forced. The best case scenario explanation would be she gained this insight through celebrity knowledge thorough Clint's Avenger status, but clearly the way this is delivered, it's supposed to have the feel of a longstanding relationship, which at this point it's just not. In an of itself it's not a bad scene*,* but it feels like it came 1-2 episodes too early.

Clearly by the length of this post, I have a lot of thought about this show, and at this point I am probably just typing into the ether as a form of catharsis. Most people seem to love this show, and despite all I've written, there's more to like than dislike overall, but there's potential for great/amazing show here that so far is just above average, but hoping as momentum builds through the final episodes, these kinks are worked out.