Over the moon for “Moon Knight”

By Matthew Gresham

Moon Knight is the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show, following the hits of Loki, Wandavision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye. Prior to the start of this series I knew absolutely nothing of the character Moon Knight, but after watching the first three episodes of the series, he’s now one of my favorites.

Episode 1 of Moon Knight does exactly what a first episode should do: It introduces the main character, Steven Grant (played by Oscar Isaac), an awkward, helpless gift shop worker for London’s British Museum who dreams of being a tour guide for the Egypt exhibit. We learn Grant suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and whenever he goes to sleep, he seems to always end up somewhere other than his bed.

During one of these moments, he wakes up and finds himself in a mountain town (in what looks like Switzerland), where we’re introduced to a cult-like leader, Arthur Harrow (played by Ethan Hawke). Harrow appears to channel powers like the Egyptian legend of the Judgement of Osiris, where souls are determined worthy of going to the afterlife. We see how Harrow has control of this city, leading to an action scene and car chase, where we see Grant’s alter ego, who is the titular Moon Knight, takes ove with unexpected results. This episode had me at the edge of my seat the entire time I was watching, and I couldn’t wait for the next episode.

Episode 2 continues the slow reveal of Grant’s dissociative identity disorder and his struggles to cede his body to Moon Knight. We also meet a woman who has a relationship with Grant’s other half, a mysterious but capable and deadly agent known as Marc Spector. As we learn more about Harrow’s evil motivations and plans, Steven gets a taste of Moon Knight’s powers.

By Episode 3 I was really hooked because every episode seems to develop on the Moon Knight powers. I couldn’t wait until this episode aired because this show manages to leave enough questions to where you want more.

Star Wars actor Oscar Isaac plays Steven Grant/Marc Spector. One thing I love about his performance is that he nails the differences in both personalities. When you see Marc leave, you see Steven take over, and vice versa, and Issacs makes the switch so well that sometimes I can’t believe it’s the same actor. Meanwhile, Hawke makes a fantastic, manipulative villain. I just wish that they could go into his mysterious powers a bit more, but perhaps that will come in future episodes.

If you haven’t started watching yet, you can easily catch up, or wait until all seven episodes have aired and binge watch the whole season. Moon Knight can be viewed on Disney+ with new episodes appearing every Wednesday.