A shapeshifting mediocre spy-thriller disguised as a Marvel action TV show.So, I need to address my own personal elephant in the room first: the nature of taking a storyline that easily could have been it's own Thanos-level threat and making it a grounded miniseries focusing strictly on the non-super super spy side of the MCU. My biggest fear when this show was originally announced was that they wouldn't be able to make the stakes big enough without feeling too awkwardly empty of 'thems what do the Avenging.' Honestly, I haven't had those fears assuaged yet. That said, our first episode, titled "Resurrection," does provide a fairly decent spy thriller featuring familiar characters. Nick Fury is called down from his position in space by Maria Hill and his green shapeshifting pal, Talos. Along the way, we meet a cheeky MI6 leader looking to smoke out some Skrulls, a plot set to trigger war between Russia and America, and more "hey do you remember that history we have together that either happened off screen or so long ago that we have to remind the audience about it" dialogue than you can shake an Adidas track suit at. The action was good, with some fairly well choreographed fight sequences; though, not as well executed as Marvel has done in the past. Samuel L. Jackson does extraordinarily well as Nick Fury, as always. He was born for this role, and I hope he knows it. Everyone else does fine, but most of the acting seems fairly muted. The characters barely seem like they want to be there, occasionally just mumbling lines almost inaudibly, and whole sections of dialogue just seem bizarrely confused as to what emotions the audience is supposed to take away from it. As for the plot, the premise is fairly light. Skrull rebels are mad that they don't have a planet, decide to take earth by sowing chaos around the globe. Skrulls are immune to radiation, so I guess the plan is have America and Russia nuke each other into oblivion and then build a new Skrull planet on the ashes. Pretty shoddy plan considering what the world would look like after a nuclear holocaust, which I feel probably should have been researched during the development phase. I guess the nuclear power plant the rebels are hiding in doesn't have WIFI. Anyhoo, the rebels want to use a dirty bomb at a Russian cultural festival and somehow implicate the US in such an act. How they intend to do that, we haven't seen yet, we've just seen them explode a bunch of stuff and some Skrull played weird mind games with Nick. Okay, I'm being harsh, but I do believe the series has time to improve. We just need to develop the story and the bad guys a bit more. Currently, they feel a little reminiscent of the baddies from Falcon & the Winter Soldier, in that their main motivation simply seems to be that they got mad at some point and couldn't shake it. Writers: people need more motivation than just being angry and/or slightly peeved (honestly most of the people in this show just look like they're wearing uncomfortable shoes). If moderate anger leads to terrorism, then the developer of Getting Over It would have been locked up years ago. Overall, I'm luke warm to the series so far. Only one episode in, so time will tell, but it just wasn't a super strong start for me. Had some funny moments and great Nick moments. Some cool action. Beyond the little tidbits though, the real meat of the series just felt undercooked. Or half-cocked. One of those. And as for my initial fear I mentioned above, it seems like the response to making the stakes not big enough or too big to not be an Avengers level threat was to just make the stakes kind of... not exist in any capacity? Or feel very vague at least. Honestly, if you told me this script was written by ChatGPT, I'd believe you.
Speaking of: the AI intro was also garbage. Not worth cutting out paying jobs for. Episode 2 comes out June 28th. We'll meet you back then to see if things have shaped up. Ha.
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Can we also talk about how the intro music slaps hard?
It's weird, it's creepy, it's kind of gross at times - it's very Junji Ito. Early in 2023, Netflix launched a new anime dedicated to the story-telling style you know and love from the horror king himself. Featuring some familiar faces, as well as some stories you may not know, it's a compilation of macabre with some hits, some misses, and some icky bits to keep you up at night. If you're into his style, it's definitely worth a watch.
How does one -become- a monster voice actor?...
Children's programming can be really hit or miss; sometimes it leans too crass and silly, sometimes it leans too adult and isn't entirely appealing for kids. Moon Girl, on the other hand, nails the balance perfectly. Beautifully animated, brilliantly acted, and a killer soundtrack, we are anxiously awaiting season 2!
Jen smashes your expectations...Fourth wall breaking is not new to media and certainly not new to Marvel. Everyone by now is fully aware that Deadpool does it - heck, it's basically (and sometimes literally) his super power at this point. However, the true power of breaking the 4th wall extends beyond simply making meta references or the giggles that come from a fictional character knowing they're fictional. Having a character lambast their own creators, media format or storylines is a powerful tool for discourse in regards to the nature of storytelling or the need for change. For this reason, I've always felt Deadpool writers play it too safe with his relationship with the fourth wall, typically going only as far as a sarcastic quip against Marvel as a company but rarely fully diving into anything worthy of a discussion. I'm reminded of the most recent run of Gwenpool, "Gwenpool Strikes Back," which dedicated a serious amount of time lambasting Marvel's habit of quickly discarding characters as well as the tropey nature of storylines that characters with 100 #1 issues constantly find themselves in. This sort of commentary not only promotes a healthy mindset in the reader, one that promotes focusing on growth and critical analysis of narratives produced by the company, but it also establishes an otherwise ultra-zany character as far more calculated and aware than previously thought. Since the first trailer, there has been ample talk about She-Hulk's use of 4th wall breaks, typically in the pattern of someone complaining about them and then someone else explaining the history of them. It's been a whole lot of "I like it better when Deadpool does it" countered with "She-Hulk did it first" and on and on and on. However, it's important to not only remember that she did actually do it before Deadpool, but also focus on the how and why of it. Without dedicating too much time to the history of it (and also saving me time in looking up a myriad of quotes so that I can eventually just get to talking about this actual episode), the Sensational She-Hulk run was an outlet that explored everything from the treatment of non-male characters to the toxic environment that often brews in fanship. Even in her infamous "nude jump roping" cold open, Jen spends the time putting Marvel marketing practices on blast and taking jabs at the pushy nature of the comics code. The entire series dripped with internal critique of Marvel and a wider critique of the medium, elevating the 4th wall breaks to a place beyond simple gimmickry. As for the show, it was mostly gimmicks. Silly nods to fan theories. Fun little through away lines that were clearly aware of reddit threads, both positive and negative. Kitchy digs at the MCU but never anything way to critical. Until, of course, we get to Episode 9. OKAY, STOP! A LOT happened in this episode, and I've never really shied away from spoilers in previous episodes, but I think it's important to SPOILER WARNING at this point. This was a fairly heavy episode, so just in case you do actually care about big time, somewhat silly spoilers, now is the time to click away. ALRIGHT, SPOILER TIME... The episode opens with Jen in prison after her rage explosion in the previous episode. She agrees to a plea bargain that involves an inhibitor. Once she's out, we see that she has been fired from GLK&H and eventually has to move back in with her parents. While there, she works with Nikki to try and uncover who is behind the Intelligencia site, the HulkKing account and ultimately who ruined her life so she can sue them for damages. Nikki takes it upon herself to upload an embarassing video of Jen to Intelligencia, garnering an invite to some event the group is having. She ropes in Pug to be her proxy because groups like this aren't fans of females. Jen, unaware of Nikki and Pug's mission, heads out to Emil's compound to talk with him about what's happening to her, since he's clearly going to understand. To make a long story short, turns out the HulkKing event is being held at Blonsky's compound and Emil is doing a key note speech at the event AS Abomination. Jen discovers this and skeezeball Todd reveals himself to be HulkKing and the owner of Intelligencia. He also reveals himself to be the one behind the attempts to steal Jen's blood, which he claims his team has synthesized. He shoots up on some green goo and turns into the Incelible Hulk! Then Bruce shows up from space and starts fighting Abomination, even though Emil was just trying to protect Jen from Todd-Hulk. Then Titania shows up and just starts fighting basically everyone. It's a chaotic mess of an ending. And Jen knows it. So she leaves. No, not the compound. The show. She pops off her inhibitor, kicks her way out to the Disney+ launch page and smashes her way into ASSEMBLED. Yep, CGI She-Hulk is now walking around the Marvel Studios lot. She works her way tot he writers room, judges them harshly for the finale and finds out it's "what Kevin wanted." So, logically, she demands to meet this Kevin. NOBODY MEETS KEVIN! Jen meets Kevin, who turns out to be K.E.V.I.N., a robot intelligence responsible for the construction of the MCU. Jen argues with Mecha-Feige about the nature of the finale, calling out things like overused story archs and the overall formulaic approach to Marvel things. She constructs what she believes to be a better finale and makes sure to throw in a return of Matt Murdock into the mix. Kev-Bot agrees and then kicks She-Hulk back into her show, wherein we get a finale without a big fight, without a male hero showing up to save the day, and more importantly with people getting their comeuppance and taking accountability for their actions. We end with Matt and Jen having lunch with her family. Bruce shows up and reveals the reason he was in space: to meet and fetch his son. People are going to absolutely HATE this ending. They're gonna hate that it throws their own veiled insecurities and silly criticisms back at them. They're gonna hate that it's critical of Marvel movies and characters. They're going to hate that it suggests that Marvel isn't perfect and that things can be improved upon. I LOVED THIS FINALE. Like I said previously, utilizing 4th wall and "meta" to criticize the very world the character exists in is the peak of the art form. This episode does it and does it STRONG. There are quite a few lines that almost feel dangerous, knowing how controlling and strict Marvel can be. And sure, Marvel signed off on all the commentary meaning they felt it was "safe," but that doesn't change the fact that we had a major piece of Marvel media directly stating to the audience that Marvel needs to grow narratively and start telling different stories. It gives the audience the chance to feel the same way without feeling uncomfy about it. Maybe it's even Marvel's way of saying that they feel the same way, but let's not get too optimistic. At the very least, this sort of internalized criticism lets fans know that it's okay to feel critical about the thing you love. It can be tough as a fan to find yourself critical of something that you once loved without question. It leaves you feeling distant and cutoff from the people that you see as more passionate than you. In addition, with the way fan communities online have gone, it can sometimes make you feel villainized if you share a dislike of a film or show with someone who dislikes it for an incredibly bigoted or awful reason. If terrible people are sending death threats to writers and actors over something they didn't like, am I a bad person for also not liking it? Am I giving them support every time I share my dislike? It's a tough world to be in, but seeing the critiques come from inside alleviates that a bit. It's nice to be able to say "look, they feel it too and they're MAKING the things, so I can still be passionate and critical of the content." Ultimately, Season One of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was a win for me. It definitely had slow points and I think there was an issue with balance in the middle. While I GREATLY appreciate the finale, I think it also would have been an incredible show if it didn't try to build to some greater plot. Granted, the finale showed that the build and possibly the complications caused by it were all part of a greater commentary the showrunners wanted to make. All that said, the cast did an incredible job and the show was fun. I am really stoked for a season two, and I hope it doesn't lose its silly side.
Things I liked:
This show was a good time. Thank you so much for keeping up with us in these write-ups. We'll catch ya on the next show, whenever that may be! 💚 He's finally here, folks.Yes, the day has finally come friends: we finally have the highly anticipated superhero appearance that has been on everyone's mouths and has been angrily demanding for weeks. The day has finally come and we can rejoice: LEAPFROG IS HERE! Everyone's favorite street-level bad boy has finally made his way to the MCU along with his signature catch-phrase of "ribbit and rip it," which I don't remember being in the comics but I've found my memory is a bit hazy on Leap-Frog lore, to be honest. Maybe it's just been a while since I've read any Leap-Frog books. Anyway, they did take some liberties with his character a bit. Instead of a down on his luck inventor, they've turned him into a stuck-up rich boy, using his father's money to purchase his suit from Luke Jacobson. Obviously, in the comics, Leap-Frog is talented enough to make his own frog-related super suit with which to do crimes. They also made him initially trying to be a hero, which threw me off a bit, but they corrected it by the end and had him being the antagonist. Gripes about the changes aside, I'm glad that this character has finally made his MCU debut. It will be interesting to see how his character is utilized in the future, or if he's just relegated to a one-and-done kind of thing. Oh, Daredevil also pops up in this one, like anyone cares. Episode 8 sees Jen get tasked with representing the Friendly Neighborhood Amphibian as he goes after Luke Jacobson for faulty merchandise. Apparently, his fire-proof suit caught fire and he suffered 3rd degree burns on his legs. They take this man to court and who should show up to represent him but the devilishly handsome Matthew Murdock himself. Long story short, turns out Leap-Frog was an idiot and that's what caused the burns, which Matt figures out using his Super Sniffer™, and the case is dropped. Matt and Jen meet at a bar, hit it off, flirt a little, both have to leave for urgent work-y things, and Jen is off to meet up with the creepy dude Todd who just keeps being creepier and more entitled as time goes by. He claims to have a legal issue, says some entitled white boy shit, makes a pass at She-Hulk, gets a table shoved into him, and Jen leaves to crash on her couch after her extremely busy day, wherein Leap-Frog calls her in a panic because he's being relentlessly pursued by somebody. Wait, that "somebody" wasn't ominous and hinty enough... He is being relentlessly pursued by SOMEBODDY.Jen finally dons her super suit, which looks fantastic by the way, and is off to help the Spectacular Frogger Man, when who should she come face to face with but the Matthew-ish-ly handsome Daredevil himself! He flip flops his way around as the two banter, eventually getting the opportunity to explain that Leap-Frog is the real villain and has kidnap Luke Jacobson! The two head off to the Lilypad (yep) and punch, wham, smash rescue Luke. Cops show up, day is saved, Luke forgives Jen for suing him in the first place, credits roll. Wait, no, first Matt and Jen flirt some more and then go back to her place to put the D in Defenders. dNow credits roll. Wait, no, the next morning, after a shot of Daredevil doing the walk of shame, Nikki shows up because it's time for the GALA! As mentioned last episode and the "last time on my show" bit in the beginning, Jen won "Female Lawyer of the Year" and is being honored at a gala. We pop over to the Gala and Jen, Nikki, Pug and Jen's parents grab their table. Jen's name gets announced as well as the names of a few other female lawyers, meaning the award is more of a group affair than lead on the believe. As Jen gives a little speech, the screen gets highjacked by the HulkKing Intelligencia community. They start flashing Jen's texts and photos from the phone Josh cloned in the previous episode as Jen and the audience panic. The whole thing culminates when it's revealed that Josh actually filmed the two of them having sex. As the video plays and gets more heated, Jen has her very first encounter with the Hulk rage that Bruce warned her about. The episode ends after a mini rampage and we are still in the dark as to who the HulkKing really is. A hefty episode setting up a very chaotic finale. This episode was super cool. Jokes aside, it was absolutely great having Charlie Cox back, and he just seemed to be having so much FUN. My favorite thing in all these films and shows is when you can truly see the passion that the actor has for their character. You see it every time Ryan Reynolds dons his red suit, every time Vincent D'Onofrio clutches a jewel tipped cane, and it was super apparent here that Charlie was just happy to be back. If Daredevil's character here was any indication of what he'll be like in Born Again, than we are definitely in for a fairly different DD experience, which I'm sure will have plenty of people hot under the collar. However, Charlie Cox is incredible at having chemistry with whoever he is on screen with, so I'm not worried in the slightest. I'm glad that Daredevil got a whole episode and it wasn't just relegated to a cameo in the finale, a trick that Marvel has shown time and time again they are not above. Moreover, I'm glad that Daredevil acted as an accompaniment to Jen and the two worked well together on screen. It's nice seeing this character that we've only seen so far in a very limited capacity be able to hold his own in a new universe that is much faster and more bombastic than his old one. His fighting style felt familiar but more advanced and faster than that of his Netflix predecessor, which is where the character needs to be to work within the rules set by the MCU and to feel more tied to his comic counterpart. Overall, this episode did a good job tying threads together from previous episodes to build to the finale. I'm excited to see how the whole thing culminates. While I feel the middle of this season could have been improved by at least one additional episode that allowed room for a bit more emotionality on Jen, I think this episode does a nice job rounding out the finishing touches on the main storyline of Jen figuring out how to live two lives at once, especially at the serious leg work put in by the previous episode. Sure, a mid-season episode that was very bottled and character focused would have made the message a bit clearer sooner, I still think we had enough happening throughout the season to keep things pushing forward. There's no love lost from me.
One episode left. October 13th. BE THERE! Another one bites the dust... sigh.
This episode is both necessary and super sad. You may have heard that the Prime Video adaptation of Paper Girls has already been cancelled after just one season. While it may not have been the best new show to drop this year, it was a solid rendering of the story and a lack of renewal is a huge loss of potential. Just another hit to comic-based TV... sigh.
You can smash everything, but can you smash your feelings Let's face facts: the world of superheroes is majorly populated with people, good and bad, who need to receive proper help for managing their mental illness. Whether that be therapy, medication or a rigorous treatment program, many of the dangerous criminals and a good bit of the dangerous heroes in these worlds could benefit from someone just checking in with them and approaching their problems at the root. Honestly, that's what made Spider-Man: No Way Home so incredible. It approached supervillains form an angle of "how do we help them" instead of "how do we stop them." It presented a clear message of the need for healing, that people aren't damaged beyond repair if one tries hard enough, and that even the most challenging people don't need to be beat into a pulp as punishment for things not necessarily within their control. It was an incredibly progressive approach to the superhero genre, and I've been waiting for more content that approached things the same way. In steps She Hulk Episode 7, wherein Jen is off to visit Emil Blonsky after she is contacted by his parole officer regarding a malfunction to his inhibitor. Parole officer is nervous about potential Abomination happenings and wants the comfort of a Hulk. Meanwhile, Jen is waiting on a text from Josh. The episode opened with a montage of the two of them sharing a few dates and becoming increasingly intimate before Jen finally decides to ahem wait for it SMASH. Anyway, Josh is ghosting her, which sucks and has her super stressed out. So off to Blonsky's ranch she goes, where she eventually meets Man-Bull and El Aguila, who promptly destroy Jen's car in a "fight." Turns out they're actually just working through some stuff, and Blonsky invites Jen to spend the day on his cell-receptionless ranch and maybe work through some stuff of her own. Jen scours the land looking for even the smallest bubble of reception before finding it in the woodhouse, where Blonsky is holding a group session. Here we again see Man-Bull and El Aguila, as well as meeting Porcupine and the Saracen for the first time. As Jen sits in the corner quietly obsessing on her phone, in walks Wrecker, who if we remember from episode 3 tried to steel Jen's blood. Jen goes Hulk and starts to fight, but Blonsky talks her down and invites her to join the group. From here, Jen not only confronts Wrecker on an emotional level, but also confronts herself. We see Jen say out loud what the show has been dancing around for the whole season so far: that she feels overshadowed by her green persona and just wants to be comfortable as Jen. While it took 7 episodes to get to this point, we do finally get a small bit of growth and resolution in Jen, as her new found friends give her some actually well constructed advice, both in regards to She-Hulk and to the whole Josh situation. It's then revealed in a flashback that Josh (predictably) is tied to the whole HulkKing hate community. Gotta be real, saw it coming. My favorite thing about this episode is how confined it was. There were two sequences of extremely brief action. The rest was very personal to Jen and let Tatiana Maslany really go to town on digging deeper into the character. It never got extremely emotive, but there was definite growth and healing shown. As I mentioned earlier, I LOVED the approach to supervillains in No Way Home and have been yearning for more. While done more comedically and a bit more superficially, this episode scratched that itch for me a bit. We saw Jen re-encounter a villain from a previous episode, who she accepted an apology from and moved past. We saw a Hulk confront themselves, which is typically a hyper-violent scenario, but was handled calmly and with love. It was cool, and the writers honestly did a solid job giving Jen good advice. Some of it was a bit cliched, but it was honestly decent advice for someone dealing with the issues Jen found herself in.
I do say, I find it amazing that we are only two episodes from the end here. I'm assuming the identity of HulkKing will probably be revealed toward the end and roll into season 2. Just seems like not a lot of space for an antagonist to come out of the fog. It's looking like the main villain of season 1 is just going to be Jen's own insecurity and acceptance of her new persona, which I'm good with on the whole. I think She-Hulk is doing a lot of legwork in establishing a new format for superhero content, and while it has some rough edges, I do feel like it's succeeding in breaking new ground. It feels different enough from the big set pieces and huge conflicts of most superhero media while still providing the occasional action piece to keep things feeling comic-y. I think as time goes by and we see more "sitcoms in superhero universes" be developed, we'll see the subgenre truly take form. Episode 8 premieres October 6th. Just two more to go! Many Funerals and A WeddingI need to get something off my chest right off the jump here: I really am NOT a huge fan of humor derived out of everyone around the main character being a delusional asshole. It always just makes me cringe. It's just needless douche-baggery for the sake of making the protagonist have to navigate impossible hurdles, inevitably falter and then we all point and laugh. That said, this episode hit me right in the annoying bone fairly hard, but I still had a good time overall. In this episode, Jen is invited to be a bridesmaid at a wedding of someone she went to highschool with. She is honored despite the whole thing being awkward since she has barely kept touch with the individual. Meanwhile, Nikki holds down the fort with Mallory in Jen's stead as the two tackle the case of Mr. Immortal, who likes to unalive himself instead of dealing with marital issues. At the wedding, Jen confronts Titania who has weaseled her way into the wedding specifically to mess with Jen, she meets a nice guy named Josh, she dances and drinks a lot, and she experiences a lot of horrible mistreatment at the hands of the bride and bridal party. The episode wraps with Nikki and Mallory discovering a thread called Hulk-King hosted on a terrible hate site where a bunch of people make death threats and dangerous comments about She-Hulk. We get a glimpse that this "Hulkking" person might be more than just an internet troll as scientists prepare something for probably episode 7. The bride and bridesmaids characters were incredibly hard to deal with for me. I get that everyone hates weddings, like it's one of those "what is the deal with airline food" kind of jokes at this point. I myself have never really had a bad experience at a wedding, but I know plenty of people have, whether it's dealing with a bridezilla or difficult family members or some sort of complication in the event itself. It sucks, truly, but watching someone just get absolute battered back and forth by a wedding party consisting of some of the most grating characters ever committed to the screen does not make for entertainment for me. My biggest issue is that writing like this rarely leaves room for a point, which is ultimately what held this episode down as I'll explain later. When the people you're main character is challenged with are so delusional in their terrible nature, it presents little message at the end of the narrative beyond "avoid bad people," which isn't much of a message at all. I'm not saying all comedy needs to be preachy, but comedy built out of conflict should be able to have more of a resolve than just "hooray, the main character can leave now." All that whining out of the way, there was a decent bit of clever writing that did revive the wedding segment for me a smidge, as well as the just continued charming performance that is Tatiana Maslany in every single episode. There was one moment where the bride asked Jen how she was doing, to which Jen laid out how great her new career is and having super powers. The bride responds that she doesn't care and meant more does Jen have a boyfriend, to which the answer is "no." The bride immediately jumps on the pity train, Jen says it doesn't bother her, and the bride responds with a backhanded "good, you've got a little bit of time left." While painful, it was the small subtle moments like this that changed the tone just enough to be palatable. Ironically, it's when these moments become more real that there is actually something to be gained from this. Moments like the bride being angry that Jen makes a big, green entrance or the bride chilling out after the wedding is over (and admittedly having a few drinks) ground the whole thing more in reality and honestly provide the message that was needed, which I suppose in this case is don't let people judging you or trying to treat you unfairly dictate how you choose to present yourself. I do think this episode could have been a good moment for Jen to gain more confidence as Jen, and it's possible that the runoff of this episode is still going to provide that, but overall it was a fun episode and felt less chaotic than the prior episode did. I hope we see more of Josh, as I think his teeny bit of screen time was a delight. As for the "HulkKing" stuff, I do think it is very ballsy of the creators to constantly make their very IRL critics into the in-universe villains. A few episodes back, they had a bunch of people on the media complaining about "why do we NEED a girl hulk?" and the like. In this episode, we see that the website the HulkKing stuff is posted to has a STRIKING resemblance to reddit, where many and many pitchforks have been strewn about over the past few months. I've honestly avoided talking about it in previous write-ups out of an uneasiness that I just couldn't put my finger on. There was a part of me that worries about shaking up any beehives or invoking the ire of this group of shitty people, but honestly - I say go for it. I'm so very tired of irrationally hate-filled and bigoted fans, that I am fully on board with making them the enemies. Call them out. Make media exclusively against them. I don't mind if someone doesn't like this show, it truly doesn't bother me; but it's naive to think that 100% of that dislike is just casual distaste and then ignore the very clear misogyny and bigotry that does exist in these fandoms. So hoorah, She Hulk Team, you got my vote. Just a very, very real quick shout-out to the inclusion of Mr. Immortal. Excellent choice. All of the Great Lakes Avengers should make an appearance on this show. They are absolutely perfect for it tonally and making Mr. Immortal into a grifter who fakes his death instead of dealing with marital conflict was just absolutely Episode 7 of She-Hulk premieres on September 29th. Will we get more Josh? Will we find out who HulkKing is? Will Titania have new veneers? Stay tuned and find out!
Sometimes you gotta lose to win...As I mentioned in last week's episode synopsis, the best thing She-Hulk brings to the table is balance. Having a super-powered person in an otherwise normal person space backdropped on the weirdness of the MCU provides an incredible bevvy of storytelling potential - and I feel this show has solidly tapped into that potential. That said, episode 5 is a bit of a lull in quality for me, wherein that balance goes a bit extreme and causes some pretty severe pacing issues. After watching this week's episode, I was trying to reflect on why I felt like so much and yet so little occurred. The episode focuses primarily on She-Hulk's brand battle with Titania, who we learned in the previous episode had trademarked the "She-Hulk" name. Titania is using the name to sell less-than-legit cosmetic products and is making absolute bank while doing it. She-Hulk takes her to court and is forced to prove that despite not inventing the name "She-Hulk" and initially rejecting it, she has come to accept it and become one with the identity. How is she going to prove this? By parading out her failed dates from the previous episode as witnesses, a moment of incredible cringe and light chuckles. While this storyline is happening, we are also following Nikki and Pug as they hunt down a stylist who specializes in superhuman clothing, a connection that Pug gets through his hook up named "the Drip Broker." Jen eventually links up with designer Luke Jacobson and he fashions her some suits and "something special." The episode ends on a cheeky little Daredevil tease. While I understand and appreciate the purpose of the stylist plot, this episode felt incredibly chaotic with very little gain at the end. We have already seen Jen come to terms with her new identity, more times than one would think necessary only five episodes in, and the trademark battle just seems like we're hulk-smashing a dead horse. I feel like I keep ending these episode reviews talking about my excitement for the greater push of this show, but at least at the moment it seems a bit stalled on rehashing situations wherein Jen accepts her hulkiness. That said, I still think this episode kept a lot of the charm that has been established, especially in the scenes of Nikki and Pug hunting down Luke. We have more examples of normal, everyday people being confronted by weird situations and just sort of accepting them. The idea that some guy is out there calling himself "the Drip Broker," a clear nod to the very real and very dangerous Power Broker, is just the kind of absurdism that would be commonplace for actual citizens of the MCU. Does the Drip Broker know of the existence of the Power Broker? Do Nikki and Pug get the reference? It's things like this that I love to think about, this sort of heavy air around certain references. I can only imagine as a normal MCU civilian there would just be this weird tingle around things like this. This biting "I feel like I'm supposed to know more about this and yet I don't, it's just a Drip Broker, right?" I love the idea that they exist in this swirling pool of references, crossovers and callbacks and are forced to just lay back and let the tide take them. I will never stop praising this show and any after it that let the absurdity of MCU life stand to the forefront. It's 2022; it's time people accept that superhero universes are freakin' weird... So, you know, kind of a weak episode overall. I am glad that Jen got her wardrobe hookup, I am glad we got more time with Pug's handsome face, I am glad we got more MCU weirdness, but overall I am ready to either move on past the "Jen accepts the Hulk" arc or honestly give it more attention and time to actually have a message behind it. Currently, it's just "oh no, I have to accept the She-Hulk thing" and then either a green smirk or a Jen Walters shrug and the world moves on. I'm absolutely fine if that needs to be the main story. Jen's own internal battle with her identity being the main antagonist would be absolutely wonderful, and, hey, the Hulks have a long history of successful identity driven stories. It just hasn't been given enough time to feel strong enough to take center stage, and yet we are now five episodes in with probably 50% of screen time dedicated to the topic of Jen coming to terms with her Jolly Green second half. It's time to either move on or take some time fleshing it out. No stinger this time around, so you guys will need to do your own twerking.
Our next episode premieres the 22nd of September. Catch you then! Smoother than a vodka yak milk...For better or worse, the MCU is tonally diverse. There have been serious moments, a la the fight between Tony, Steve and Bucky in Civil War. There have been funny moments, a la the fight between Peter, Bucky and Sam in Civil War. And there have been downright silly moments, a la basically everything that is Thor recently. It's been expected that every movie outing will have some variety of these across a spectrum, with different characters filling in needed tones to bounce things around as the filmmakers see fit. However, with the development of the MCU shows on Disney+, we've seen an interesting trend of each show having a more centralized tone. In recent examples, Ms. Marvel has presented more of the fun, direct comedy, while Moon Knight stuck to a darker, more serious tone. And then in marches She-Hulk in glittery parachute pants holding a rubber chicken. (This doesn't actually happen in the show, I'm saying it's going for the silly tone...) She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was always going to be a goofier, more humorous show. Whether you knew this from the comics that were being used as source material, or you just paid attention to how the people behind the scenes were constantly saying "this is going to be a goofier show," it was expected basically from day one. While we've seen some of the tongue-in-cheekiness of the show, it had so many details that needed establishing in the first three episodes that it had yet to reach it's full sonic-clap power of silly. Episode 4, titled "Is This Not Real Magic?," finally hits the full tonal stride. The episode is festooned in 4th wall breaks, Wong being out of touch, hammy characters and chuckle-worthy gags. If this be the reservoir of silly, then the Megan Thee Stallion twerk stinger was the dam. Short episode synopsis time! Wong is mad that a cheap magician named Donny Blaze (yes mhm uh-huh) keeps using things he learned at Kamar-taj to rake in that sweet-3-shows-a-week-at-4-different-venues-for-a-10-person-audience money. So, he's suing him. With the help of their key witness, perma-drunk Madisynn, Jen and Wong take Mr. Blaze to court to middling success. Blaze eventually releases some bat-demon things into the world, Jen and Wong fight them, and then Jen intimidates Blaze into agreeing to their cease and desist, which I don't think the Bar Association would appreciate, but whatever. Also, Jen dates in this episode, finding much more success in her green mommy-dommy form than in normal, attractive, successful lawyer form - a situation that we can only truly blame the internet and possibly Capcom for. As I said earlier, the show has finally found it's true form. It feels incredibly traditional, as an episodic sitcom should. The humor and irreverence is amped up at this point, as we focus in on Jen moving through different wacky situations with the help of her wacky friends and wacky acquaintances and sometimes just wacky drunk ladies that like froyo. This episode provided more than a few laughs while keeping the pace fairly consistent, moving from scene to scene seamlessly. There was also a nice bit of action, with Wong and Shulky cleansing the Bat-Demon horde, which visually looked incredible, so props to the team for that. The inclusion of a full action segment is where She-Hulk will truly shine against the backdrop of other sitcoms. Setting a show in a super hero world and featuring a super hero character gives the creators room to do things that other sitcoms can't. Jen as a protag can not only do things that most standard sitcom leads can't do, she can experience things that they can't either. With this in mind, the showrunners and Tatiana Maslany have given us a Jen that isn't phased by much of the Marvel Universe weirdness. She is an incredibly believable citizen of a world, where Gods and Monsters fly around daily. In fact, most of the characters react ho-hummedly to even the most fantastical things being presented around them. This show existing alongside the citizens of the MCU gives it an incredible stage to truly analyze just how strange being a normal person would be. What would life be like and how desensitized would John Q Public be in a world where billions of people were once poofed out of existence by a cosmic Grape Ape? It's an amazing show so far with a lot of potential to explore a ton of stories there just isn't room for in other MCU titles. As we move into the next story that brings back Jameela Jamil's Titania, I hope we continue to see just as much of the world around these characters as we do the characters themselves.
She-Hulk episode 5 premieres September 15th. See you then. (Also, when will we get "Wong: Multiverse of Madisynn?" I hope soon.) |
Cover B PodcastChris & Tee host this weekly comic-focused show, providing insight on new comics, entertainment news and more. Archives
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