She-Hulk: Attorney at Law - Episode 3 Review

The Savage-Classy-Bougie-Ratchet She-Hulk

​I'll admit, I did find the "this isn't a cameo every week kinda show" 4th wall break in the same episode with a throwaway Megan Thee Stallion cameo to be kind of silly. I'm assuming it was an intentional juxtaposition, but who knows.

All in all, I feel like this episode is when we first see the actual show come together. We get a glimpse, albeit brief, of antagonists and a possible plan behind them as well as finally start to see the very beginning of Jen accepting her She-Hulk image and trying to live with it instead of in spite of it. It took a few episodes to get to this point, but it didn't feel like wasted time since the first two episode carried enough developmental content to keep things moving along.

The third episode, titled "the People vs Emil Blonsky," picks up with Jen confronting Blonsky as to the nature of his removal from his cell to participate in an underground fighting ring (as seen in Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).  Blonsky explains that while he was removed against his will, he returned by his own choice. He then puts Jen on the track of Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, who was responsible for the whole debacle. Legal-Darcy Nikki Ramos, Jen's paralegal, manages to set up a meeting with Wong, who confirms Blonsky's story and agrees to testify in his parole hearing. From there, we are introduced to plot B, which features hunky lawyer and former Arrow villain Pug being signed on to represent Dennis Bukowski, the douchebag lawyer and probable podcast host that Jen used to work with, who was defrauded by a magical elf pretending to be Megan Thee Stallion. Stories A & B intersect, much to the approval of Jen herself, when Jen is asked to testify that Bukowski is a delusional dillweed, thus helping Pug win the case. Throughout the whole episode, Jen receives advice from multiple characters that she needs to simply accept her lot in life as a She-Hulk and become part of the story in order to control the narrative. The episode ends with an appearance of the Wrecking Crew, who promptly get the absolute bejesus smacked out of them, before Jen reflects on her reflection and seems to like what she sees.

Then she twerks with Megan Thee Stallion in the stinger. Which was delightful.

This episode is definitely where a lot of threads get tied down, though they all happen quickly toward the end of the episode, meaning episode 4 is more than likely going to feel like a show officially out of it's developmental chrysalis and soaring into the overarching narrative of the season. Despite the writers claiming otherwise, I thought the courtroom elements were handled extremely well, which alleviated a lot of my worry from last week. That said, I can't really see much of a purpose to story B, the Bukowski trial. It's possible that Pug is going to become a bigger part of the show, something I definitely wouldn't mind because I overall enjoyed his time on screen andImeanlookathim, but it's a bit too early to tell. In a vacuum, the Bukowski stuff didn't feel entirely necessary. Sure, it was entertaining, but in a show with a fairly quick run time, it leaves me wondering if the time could have been better spent getting to the Wrecking Crew earlier than they did and maybe giving us a more detailed glimpse into whatever antagonist is behind them. Hey, at least we got our second cameo of the episode out of it.

Speaking of cameos, Benedict Wong needs to be in every show, every movie, all of it. Wong is a fun character, overall. The MCU did an incredible job taking a mostly offensive comic character and turning him into gold. I would love to see Wong make more appearances in this show or even more MCU content. Same can be said for Tim Roth's Blonsky/Abomination. You can tell that Roth is excited to be back in the role, as he has stated in the lead up to the series, and it would be such an incredible waste of that character to not have him pop up a bit more.

She-Hulk is running on all cylinders for me at this point. While there are definitely things to nitpick and poke fun at (sorry Nikki), the pacing of each episode has been spot on, the humor has been a delight, and overall the show feels like a very fresh story in a universe that has felt increasingly samey for a while now. We're finally getting content that reflects the narrative diversity that the comics have had for years, wherein not every super-powered tale has to be about high-stakes, world-ending problems, but can instead be about the person behind the powers. As this mini story arch comes to a close, I'm pumped to see what's next.

Episode 4 of She-Hulk premieres September 8th. Until then, keep on twerkin'.