I've never read a Moon Knight comic and barely knew who Moon Knight was (other than he's sometimes thought of as Marvel's 'Batman like' character) before the Disney+ Moon Knight Series was announced.
Of all the Marvel series released to date this was one that I had little to no anticipation for. I mean, of course, I was always going to watch it since it's MCU cannon, but it's the first series where I had no investment in any of the lead characters.
Over the six episodes I was never that excited to see what happens next each time until, maybe the end of episode four. Then I did kind of become much more invested in the final two episodes.
Episode six, the finale, ended with me thinking 'most disappointing ending of a series so far' and then, like a magic trick, the post credit scene kicked in and turned everything around into an extremely satisfying conclusion with a big hint that there's easily a season two just waiting to be green lit (and I'm there for it if they do).
The series opens with Stephen Grant (Oscar Issac) dealing with a problem of losing time and potentially sleep walking right out of his apartment and getting up to no good (maybe?). Whatever he's getting up to it's enough for him to tie himself to the bed and set up some intricate indicators to show if he left his apartment anytime while he was asleep.
He soon discovers he's been given the powers of an Egyptian Moon God and that he may be sharing his body with a whole other personality who has been leading an entirely separate life.
Moon Knight is a series that won me over in the end. I did enjoy episode one and two but got a little frustrated with three. However four pulled me back in and I was definitely on board for episodes five and six.
While, Stephen Grant initially feels a bit of a parody, you do get used to, and eventually appreciate him as a character in his own right. Oscar Issac really does such an exceptional job in drawing clear lines between Stephen's personalities that you do see them as separate people rather than one person speaking in different voices.
Initially Stephen is fighting with his other personalities and I think this is why I became frustrated by episode three. Stephen himself is a bit whiny and was getting in the way of letting us see Moon Knight do his superhero thing quite a bit by that point.
Ethan Hawke does an equally great job as something of a cult leader, Arthur Harrow. He's very convincing that he just wants to do good, even though his concept of what that is, is clearly not acceptable to Stephen.
I also very much enjoyed May Calamawy as Layla, who I would not be disappointed if she got her own series or movie. While she's consistently good, portraying Layla as very capable throughout the entire series, the final episode with her will give you flash backs to Wonder Woman 1984 (if you've seen it) and Diana's winged armor that was a little underwhelming in that movie's third act. They needed to take a leaf out of the Moon Knight series for how to make winged armor look cool in a fight.
All the Egyptian mythology helps to give this series a fairly unique look that differentiates it from anything else in the MCU, and just seeing the various looks of Khonshu, voiced by F. Murray Abraham, makes for cool imagery all on its own.
Ultimately Moon Knight is not my favorite Marvel Series. Hawkeye is easily my number one. But, for a property that had no real attachment to anything in the MCU prior to its debut, it won me over in a way that I would definitely have anticipation for a season two.