Entertainment
Will Ferrell’s New Netflix Series Just Became One of the Streamer’s Biggest Hits of 2026
The gap between what critics wanted from The Hawk and what viewers actually did with it has become one of the more interesting streaming stories of the summer. Netflix dropped all ten half-hour episodes of Will Ferrell’s first television comedy on July 16, and within days the show had planted itself at the top of the streamer’s US Top 10 chart.
In its first week, The Hawk logged 4.8 million views and 24.7 million viewing hours worldwide, according to Netflix’s Top 10 reporting, enough to make it the third most-watched English-language series on the platform for the week. It also grabbed the No. 1 spot in Australia, Canada, and Iceland, and landed at No. 2 in the UK, New Zealand, and Ireland. To date, it’s earned 1.5B minutes watched. For a show about a washed-up pro golfer in very loud plaid pants, that feels like a hole in one.
What Critics are Saying About ‘The Hawk’
Of course, critics have not been as enthusiastic. The show holds a pretty dismal score on Rotten Tomatoes against a considerably warmer audience rating, and the pans have been unusually pointed for a Ferrell project. The Hollywood Reporter called The Hawk “the most shapeless and least comedically focused” sports project of Ferrell’s career and described the series as “flat and disposable.” Variety went with “lackluster.” RogerEbert.com pointed to a tone that swings between slapstick, crude wordplay, and half-hearted emotional beats without ever settling on any of them. The recurring line in most negative reviews is that Lonnie Hawkins reads like a Ricky Bobby refit and that the show is coasting on Ferrell’s commitment instead of writing him anything sharp to do.
Not everyone agreed. NPR, in one of the show’s warmer reviews, praised its “satisfying silliness, amusing shenanigans and surprise cameos.” The Los Angeles Times wrote fondly about its affectionate handling of the sport itself. And at Collider, we scored it a 6/10. The Hawk is chasing a harder joke than Talladega Nights ever told, because Lonnie is not an earnest idiot in the Ricky Bobby mold. He’s an idiot who knows exactly what his obsession has cost him and keeps making the same call anyway.
Why ‘The Hawk’ Is Working for Netflix Audiences
The reason viewers seem to be responding to the show, based on the sustained chart run, is that Ferrell, in full meltdown mode, remains a pretty bankable pleasure. Lonnie cooing at a golf ball, brawling with a bunker, sipping suspicious sports-bottle contents, plowing his tour bus through the green: this is what Ferrell has always been good at. His refusing to protect his own dignity is still, in 2026, a watchable bit.
The cast around him is doing serious lifting too, and that’s probably a bigger part of the audience response than the reviews have given it credit for. Molly Shannon plays Lonnie’s estranged wife Stacy as a woman happy to turn every waking moment into a sales opportunity. She is genuinely great opposite Ferrell, especially when their chemistry turns from bitter loathing to something a bit hornier. Jimmy Tatro, as Lonnie’s cold-plunging wellness-appropriating son Lance, is the generational foil the show needs, and the father-son contempt running between them is the sharpest storytelling device the show sometimes makes use of. Fortune Feimster, as the DIY-mechanic caddie Lonnie hires out of a Walmart parking lot, gives the series the closest thing it has to a heart. And Luke Wilson turns up as Lonnie’s smug rival, Golden Fisk, while Chris Parnell floats through as an envious tour board member to round out a bench that shares the comedic wealth.
The finale is also a lot of fun, and one that will keep viewers arguing well past the credits. Without giving too much away, it all comes down to a single putt, a father-son standoff, a pickle jar, and one very pointed question Lonnie flat-out refuses to answer. None of this is prestige television, and it is not pretending to be. The Hawk is a well-cast, casually filthy, extremely watchable Netflix comedy that lets Will Ferrell do the thing Will Ferrell has been doing well for 25 years. Netflix has not confirmed a second season yet, but the numbers say the audience already voted. Another season of Ferrell losing his mind on a manicured green would suit all of us just fine.
The Hawk
- Release Date
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2026 – 2026-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Jonathan Watson
- Writers
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Madeline Walter, Paul Welsh, Jerry Collins, Emma Rathbone, Cameron Squires, Harper Steele, Chris Henchy
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