I am a child of the 2000s (and specifically San Diego), which is to say that the work of Will Ferrell (and specifically “Anchorman”) is deeply important to me. Star vehicles like “Step Brothers” and “Talladega Nights” — also, did I mention “Anchorman”? — epitomized the bluster and blissful ignorance of Bush-era masculinity, somehow even more so than Ferrell’s impressions of the president on “Saturday Night Live.” I have a deep and abiding love for Ferrell’s classic work, and I’ve carried that affection to more recent efforts like a bit part in “Barbie” or the delightful “Eurovision Song Contest,” a film inspired by Ferrell’s personal passion for the annual spectacle.
I hope this throat-clearing buys me some credibility when I say this: “The Hawk,” Ferrell’s first time at the top of a scripted TV comedy’s call sheet, is a major disappointment — especially to this longtime resident of a whale’s vagina.
From the start, “The Hawk” is haunted by its own potential. Set within the world of professional golf, the show’s logline instantly evokes “Talladega Nights,” another rise-and-fall-and-rise-again story of a star in a conservative-coded sport. Ferrell fans have also had years to build anticipation for this project specifically: a version of “The Hawk” was first reported in 2023 as a thinly veiled take on the ascendant, Saudi-backed LIV golf tour, a controversial rival to the PGA. Comedian Ramy Youssef boarded the show in 2024, only to exit months later over supposed “creative differences.” Perhaps relatedly, the final version of “The Hawk” only makes a cursory mention of LIV and its attendant geopolitics, focusing on Ferrell’s over-the-hill golfer Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins, his attempted return to the PGA tour and his relationship with his son Lance (Jimmy Tatro), now a PGA pro himself.
