I'm a huge fan of David Mack's art and storytelling, so when I heard this character was going to get her own limited tv series, I was naturally excited. I also have a friend, Monster Midian, who was involved in the hair, make-up, and costume department. Echo follows the character Maya Lopez who is adopted by the Kingpin. What I especially loved about this series was Maya's background, as she belongs to the Cheyenne Nation and is hearing impaired. What I have just learned (literally just now as I'm writing) is that actress Alaqua Cox who plays Maya is also hearing impaired. This allows the show to take on a a very different dynamic to anything else I have seen.
As soon as something mainstream dips into using subtitles heavily and allows me to access another culture, I cannot help but be supportive of the efforts. The show also has a predominantly female production team from direction to cinematography and editing too. A couple of my favourite songs are part of the soundtrack which made me really happy, and I've got to check out the remainder of the musical choices as it was pretty action packed.
What this show got me reflecting on was family. Of course, this is a huge theme in the show as Maya's father is killed by the Kingpin, who then adopts her. There are other really important themes such as ancestral power and healing. I spent a lot of 2020 and 2021 working on ancestral healing with a friend who is a shaman. An important aspect of the family dynamic was accountability. If you do watch this show, you'll find that it has a lot in common with the Disney film Encanto. Accountability is difficult, and especially so for adults it seems. A lot of children, young teens, and traumatised adults are out there still waiting for people who had been responsible for them, to be accountable for their past actions. Sadly, a lot of them will never hear the apology that they deserve. I am also one of those people. So seeing shows where adults demonstrate accountability is a really beautiful thing. I come from a religious family where it seems that the only being one must be accountable to is God, but those same people will never understand the damage they have caused and how the lack of accountability for their actions as they continue to get older creates a further rift. Accountability is one of those things that get brushed under the carpet as families continue to live with dysfunctional patterns passing the same ideologies on to their children. In order to understand each other's actions we must open up a line of communication.
As much as I loved the show, there was something missing for me. I can't quite place what that thing is, however despite that feeling, the show is still very much worth watching and is an important addition to cinematic history in film and television through it's representation on and off screen. You can watch all 5 episodes on Disney+ and get through it within 4 hours and still manage to take some breaks.
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