The Hawk

Will Ferrell stars as a past-his-prime golfer in the new Netflix series, The Hawk. If you loved watching him play self-absorbed athletes in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Blades of Glory, you might be into this too. He reunited with some funny former collaborators like Molly Shannon, Luke Wilson, and Chris Parnell. The Frat Pack vibes are high, but does this old school sports comedy feel fresh or stuck in the past? If you want more big goofy gags, check out these episodes: ‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass’ is a fun dumb time at the movies https://www.npr.org/2026/07/15/nx-s1-5888603/gail-daughtry-and-the-celebrity-sex-pass-is-a-fun-dumb-time-at-the-movies 'Stop! That! Train!' goes off the rails in a good way https://www.npr.org/2026/06/15/nx-s1-5855439/stop-that-train-goes-off-the-rails-in-a-good-way Connect with Pop Culture Happy Hour: Letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/ / Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pchh Our weekly newsletter https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture Support Pop Culture Happy Hour+ https://plus.npr.org/happy See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:14Speaker 01

  Look, Will Ferrell is starring in his very first sitcom, The Hawk, and the show's perfectly pithy theme song gives you pretty much all the setup you need.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  Yes, that is the whole theme song. Might be the best part of the show, if I'm being honest. But look, the role of a pro golfer known as Hawk isn't really a stretch for Ferrell, which is to say, if you've loved watching him play these self-absorbed goofballs and stuff like Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory, maybe you'll be into this, too. Plus, he's reunited with some funny collaborators from throughout his career: Molly Shannon, Luke Wilson, Chris Parnell. The frat pack vibes are very high, but they're filtered through a very of-the-moment lens, I'd say. I'm Aisha Harris, and joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is journalist and host of the movie review podcast Seated, Travell Anderson. Hello, Travell.

• 1:13Speaker 02

  Hello, Ayesha. I'm excited for this one.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Ooh, me, too. Also with us is Ronald Young Jr. He's the host of the film and television review podcast Leaving the Theater. Hey, Ronald.

• 1:24Speaker 03

  Long time no see, Ayesha. Glad to be here with you.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Yes, always, always a pleasure. So, look, a lot goes down over the course of The Hawk's 10 episodes, but the gist is this: Will Ferrell's playing Lonnie Hawkins, a pastime golfer on a relentless quest to clinch a career grand slam. But he's carrying tons of personal baggage that threatens to derail his aims, most notably a rivalry with his troubled son Lance, who's followed in his dad's footsteps and is also a successful pro golfer. Lance is played by Jimmy Tatro. You'll know Tatro from the first season of American Vandal, or more recently, the action comedy movie Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. The Hawk is streaming on Netflix. And Ronald, I'm going to start with you. I have a sense of how you feel about this show, but tell me. Tell everyone. Tell us all.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Were you in to The Hawk?

• 2:13Speaker 03

  OK, so when the show started, I didn't like it. And they were leaning into Will Ferrell and his Will Ferrell-ness, and they were trying to kind of get that old thing back, as I would say. They were playing the hits early on.

• 2:27Speaker 04

  You are a ball. I am a man. The classic redemption story. We both come from humble beginnings, yet together we will reach unimaginable heights.

• 2:37Speaker 03

  And then Fortune Feimster shows up, and I felt like it got a lot better when there was interplay between the two of them. But inexplicably, they kind of couch Fortune Feimster in a way. She becomes kind of background or only a setup to more Will Ferrell jokes. And the show just kind of spirals into one long, fratty, nonsensical slog for the rest of the episodes. By the time I got to the final episodes, I was just like, please, just be over already. And it's an unsatisfying ending. I'm not rooting for anyone by the time it's over. I'm not sure who I'm supposed to be rooting for. I don't know who the protagonists are. I was only rooting for Fortune Feimster. Molly Shannon, also, great job.

• 3:20Speaker 03

  But other than that, I'm not sure why we were here, except for the fact that they wanted to give Will Ferrell some money, it seems like.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  So Fortune Feimster, I agree, she was the best part of the show. She is playing Sam, who eventually becomes Lonnie Hawkins' new caddy after his previous caddy and his, like, best friend, confidant, who's played by Keith David, Old Henry. He just dies on, dies on the golf course, like, within the first 10, 15 minutes of the show. And Sam steps in, and she becomes sort of his sidekick, but the sidekick who, I think, at least like myself, doesn't know anything about golf, doesn't care about golf.

• 3:54Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 3:55Speaker 05

  Did you know chickens can memorize over 100 faces? Where did you say you caddied before? Oh, I didn't, because I haven't. The only time I've been on a golf course was doing donuts in high school.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  And yes, Molly Shannon is playing Stacy, Lonnie's estranged wife, which I guess gives a lot of comedic-- is it comedy? I don't know. Travell, I need to hear from you before I say anymore.

• 4:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm right there with Ronald. I did not enjoy this from the beginning, if I'm being honest. Fortune is the best part. And I think in so many ways, The Hawk was trying to give us that ooh-a-a sensation of yesteryear. It just didn't work. I was looking for something more, something different. It felt like one of those movies that you'll just, you know, it'll be number one on Netflix because we'll put it on and then we'll go wash dishes or something. You know what I mean? That's the vibe and the energy it gave.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. I think I'm a little bit softer on this than both of you. Look, I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm going to return to this anytime soon or ever.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  I came ready to fight, Ayesha, so be careful where you go with this.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  Look, I agree that it kind of throws a lot of darts at the wall or throws a lot of putts. I don't know golf. It does things. It tries to do a lot of things, and it goes from being sort of this quest for the career grand slam, but then also, you know, Lance, his son, Will Ferrell's character's son, has a gambling addiction amongst many other issues. I think you can't have a sports show that's set in the present day now without having that aspect of it. I at least admire the fact that they try to incorporate something that feels true to the way sports are consumed and the way sports are played. I don't know if the comedic side of that works. I think it takes kind of a lighthearted approach.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  It tries to balance the darkness of what's going on with Lance's character with, like, the world of Will Ferrell, which I don't think those worlds mesh very well. There's also so many product placement, like--

• 6:08Speaker 02

  They're everywhere.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  I think that's where this is, like, there's a sensibility here that feels like it is trying to call back to Talladega Nights and whatnot, especially, you know, when you think about NASCAR, when you think about, well, any sports, it's all about corporate interests. So you get all these references to, like, middle American franchises like Chili's and Red Lobster.

• 6:28Speaker 02

  Carrabba's.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:30Speaker 03

  Outback, Buffalo Wild Wings.

• 6:32Speaker 01

  Outback, yes.

• 6:32Speaker 03

  Popeyes, Mike's Hard Lemonade, all of them.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  Yes. I mean, they're not just in the background. It's like they're incorporated into the script.

• 6:42Speaker 04

  And then the side? Oh, the most perfect baked potato. I mean, just swimming in sour cream and chives.

• 6:49Speaker 06

  Oh, you're making me hungry, Lance.

• 6:50Speaker 04

  And here's the crazy thing. It's just a random Outback somewhere outside of Dallas, you know?

• 6:54Speaker 06

  I sure could use some of them blooming onions they got.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  There's a very kind of 2000 sensibility that sort of frat pack feel that, like, I'm not sure entirely gels with where we are at now. But like, overall, the nostalgia, though, like, I feel like there were moments that I enjoyed. Like, I like all of these performers, but there's not much to hang your hat on here, right?

• 7:15Speaker 03

  So I think the biggest problem, and I think this would have fixed this immediately, just make it a movie. Make it a movie. We could have been in and out. That they dragged this out, there are scenes that have no business being as long as they are. There's a whole funeral that happens in the show. The Hawk, Will Ferrell, is unable to make it to the funeral. And there's a part, I was thinking, where if this were a movie, this probably would have been a two- to three-minute sequence where he shows up late, essentially, right? And the fact that that took 22 minutes for them to get to the point, which wasn't much of a point by the time that they got there. So I didn't understand. And there's multiple sequences like that in the show, where I immediately thought,

• 7:57Speaker 03

  if this had been a movie, it would have sped along and it would have worked. But I think the fact that they stretched it out into a television show is what, to me, is mostly what kills what we like about Will Ferrell, especially in this environment.

• 8:10Speaker 02

  If it was 90 minutes, you're absolutely right. We'd be having perhaps a different kind of conversation. But because they feel the need to fill, you know, 10 episodes with stuff, we end up getting, you know, back and forths about boner jokes, for example.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 8:28Speaker 02

  You know, extended. But you like those, Ayesha, I think. You're laughing.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  No, no, no, those are my least favorite parts.

• 8:36Speaker 02

  OK, good.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  But yes, they're boner jokes. There are also, you know, a long extended sequence of the thong song. I love that song as much as the next person. I think it's a classic. I will never turn that off if it comes on. But do I need Will Ferrell, like, mouthing the words to the thong song on a golf course with Keith David in the back? Like, no.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  But that would be like the post-credit sequence.

• 9:00Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  I think that that is the problem, right? It's like you are trying to both tap into that nostalgia of what Will Ferrell has meant to like multiple generations of people. And also what like someone like Molly Shannon has meant to multiple generations of people. But then like Will Ferrell's character is just kind of baffling in not just his quest for what he wants to do, but also in just like being, I feel like it's calcified, right? Like the Anchorman, the Ron Burgundy, that felt like very pointed satire. Where here, I think we're supposed to actually like kind of like this dude, even though he is awful, like he's an awful parent. He's not at all attentive to anyone else's desires or needs.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  He literally like steals a piece of property off of his dead caddy. Like, that was the other thing that, like, if you're gonna have Keith David-

• 9:50Speaker 03

  Yes, problematic, wow.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  Play a character named Old Henry, who is a caddy.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, what was that? Yes, yes.

• 9:58Speaker 01

  And at one point, there is a Legend of Bagger Vance reference, but like not related to his character, of course.

• 10:04Speaker 05

  I haven't seen a black person play golf in like three days.

• 10:07Speaker 03

  Well, they play, they play all the time.

• 10:09Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 10:09Speaker 03

  Tiger Woods.

• 10:10Speaker 05

  Uh huh. That's who you got?

• 10:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:13Speaker 05

  It's very obvious.

• 10:14Speaker 03

  Bagger Vance.

• 10:15Speaker 05

  Fictional.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  And so I was just like, we're just gonna kind of dance around this whole weird racial dynamic between that character and this character. And then you kill him off, like, ah, it made me so angry, like, why do you cast Keith David and kill him off? And I feel the same way about Molly Shannon, where I'm like, I hate to use the word unlikable, but like, I don't understand who this character is and why we're supposed to care about her. She's very focused on her new alcoholic drink called Tidoff, which is, you know, a golf play, ha, ha, ha. But yeah, I don't know, there's just something, something just like very kind of eh about it. But at the same time, again, I kind of liked it. I don't know. Well, we've got a lot more to talk about, and we'll be right back after this break.

• 11:01Speaker 06

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• 12:03Speaker 01

  Welcome back. If you're into what you've heard on PCHH, you'll love what we're sending out in our newsletter. Every week, we catch you up on hot topics, recommend your next watch or listen, and go deep into the cultural stories we didn't cover on the show. Subscribe today at npr.org/popculturenewsletter. Ronald, what are you thinking about?

• 12:21Speaker 03

  I just, I gotta point out, when we're talking characters, the Natalie character, I was utterly baffled by that character.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  Caitlin Tarver.

• 12:28Speaker 03

  Yes, she shows up early. I don't know if she's good or bad. And then she's gone, and I don't understand what her impact was supposed to be. If we just go technically and just say, the pacing was weird and that the character development was all muddied, and to say that it doesn't rise to a level that's funny enough to outpace those basic issues, to say like, hey, is Lance good or bad? Is Lonnie good or bad? And my thing is, even if they're not, even if they're somewhere in the middle, you're not even doing a good nuanced job of dictating that to us based on their interactions with each other, because it seems like they're all bad enough that they should all get along a lot better without kind of this weird family tension between the three of them,

• 13:13Speaker 03

  specifically between Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell, and Jimmy Tatro as Lance, Stacy, and Lonnie, so.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. And Natalie is playing, at the beginning of the show, Lance's fiance, right? And so there's also a weird dynamic between her character and then the Molly Shannon character. Basically, Molly Shannon is playing a boy mom, and it's kind of weird and gross, and Natalie, his fiance, points it out, rightfully so.

• 13:38Speaker 07

  Your mom runs up and kisses you after every round you play. If I win. Well, maybe when you win today, you could kiss me instead of your mom.

• 13:48Speaker 01

  That's the thing, right? Like, we have so many characters and so much plot. It gets to the point where, like all of these movies of that previous area and shows like this, they always have to amp up the escalation. But the way it ends is just, clearly, they think maybe there might be a second season, but I'm not sure.

• 14:07Speaker 02

  Oh, please, no.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  I don't know where that would go.

• 14:10Speaker 03

  Don't do it again, please.

• 14:11Speaker 02

  Please, no. But yes, you're right, they kind of end the show in that way.

• 14:16Speaker 03

  Just make it a movie, make it a second season movie.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes, yes. There's not that much to the show. I think that's the problem, right? The jokes aren't necessarily landing. That would be fine if maybe there was something, some dramatic tension here, but there isn't, like, the show just kind of exists, right?

• 14:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I feel like it wants to be like unoffensive in its simplicity, but it also has this like raunchy, edgy air about it that I think is supposed to, you know, it's supposed to remind us of this style of a production that many of us are familiar with from the early 2000s in particular. But for me, I just did not feel like there was any evolution.

• 14:58Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 14:59Speaker 02

  It feels like a movie that would have came out shortly after Blades of Glory, right? In terms of its style, in terms of what it's asking its characters to do. I will also say for myself, one of the co-writers of this is Harper Steele, Will Ferrell's longtime collaborator. They did a documentary on Netflix about Harper Steele coming out as a trans woman called Will and Harper, and developing their relationship and going cross-country. And so I was hoping for a little something fresh, a little something different, this go-around with this project, and it's not there, unfortunately.

• 15:38Speaker 01

  Well, look, sounds like we were not all fans of The Hawk, but we can't like everything. And also, you probably clicked on it, and maybe you felt the same, or maybe you felt very differently. That's okay. That brings us to the end of our show. Trey Bell Anderson, Ronald Young Jr., thanks so much for being here. And, you know, they can't all fly. It's okay.

• 15:58Speaker 02

  It is okay. Thank you, Ayesha.

• 16:00Speaker 03

  Thanks for having me.

• 16:01Speaker 01

  This episode was produced by Liz Medsker, Hufsa Fatima, and Mike Cassiff, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello Command provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all next time.

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