She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
I feel like a lot has gone down Marvel-wise since my last "Revisiting the MCU" post. There have been many, many articles and think pieces declaring the MCU dead and superhero movies as a whole over, particularly after "The Marvels" underperformed. I agree that Marvel has some tweaking to do and I hope the strikes allowed them some breathing room to right the ship, particularly after parting ways with Jonathan Majors. I think we might be declaring time of dead a little prematurely here. I think it's actually great there's only one MCU movie coming out in 2024 and even better that it's "Deadpool 3." People love Deadpool and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. I can't imagine it not being one of the biggest hits of the summer. And I think shows like "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" shows that there is still gas left in the tank when Marvel approaches a property from the absolute correct angle. Let's get in to these last three episodes.
"The Retreat"
[talking about Josh in Blonsky's therapy group]
She-Hulk: "I met him when I was Jen, and he liked Jen. He specifically didn't ask about She-Hulk. [smiles] You know in high school that friend you have that's like cooler than you are? Like, more attractive and athletic. They get all the attention from everyone? [gestures down to herself] [playfully suggestive] Hello! Like, you think life would be so much easier if I were that person, and I can turn into that person anytime I want to. And everyone pays attention when I'm this. Like, my colleagues, my boss, guys. But it feels like cheating because would they like me if I didn't have all of this? Like, if I was just Jen, would the same guys who like She-Hulk stick around for Jen? Because some of them don't. And that sucks for Jen because Jen is great, and no one cares when they're She-Hulk. So, like, I meet this guy who actually likes Jen, and that just felt good to know that, you know? And then, he ghosts me and it sucks."
Jen has a great series of dates with Josh from the wedding culminating with them sleeping together. The next day Josh is gone and isn't responding to her texts. This sends our favorite Jade Giantess spiraling. While she is trying to avoid her phone, she gets a call from Emil Blonsky's parole officer due to a malfunctioning inhibitor cuff. Jen goes along to Blonky's retreat where she finds him in his human form and ends up stuck there after a mishap with her car. Will Jen find something of value with Blonsky's ragtag group of Z listers looking for self acceptance?
 |
| These guys... |
One thing that "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" does very well is use the time that it has very wisely. It's a thirty minute comedy and it uses the real estate its given to the utmost. It is able to take the thirty minutes it has and not waste a second. Take the montage that opens this episode. Jen is getting ready to go on a date with Josh, the guy that she met at her friends wedding. There is a really great montage of them going on great dates soundtracked to "Now I'm In It" by HAIM and honestly, there is no better band than HAIM for this show. This montage gives us everything we need. You can feel the chemistry that is between them. Jen's happiness is palpable. We've all felt the way that she has felt when we feel like we are really vibing with someone. Other shows would have spent maybe a couple of episodes on all this, but "She-Hulk" doesn't need to do that.
That is what makes Josh not texting Jen back so heartbreaking. I think we all know it's coming, but it doesn't make it anymore devastating. Because again, just like we've all felt the elation that Jen has felt and we've all felt the heartbreak of being ghosted. The humiliation. What's wrong with me? I was literally screaming at the screen when Jen is texting Josh. It's absolutely the wrong thing to do, but it's something we've all done and if you say you haven't done it, then you're a liar. It's a blessing for Jen when she gets the call that Emil Blonsky's inhibitor cuff has stopped working.
I love that Emil has become a supporting character on this show. It works really well. And it makes me hope that we see more of him throughout the MCU. Tim Roth and the writers have done a lot with the character especially if you think about him in "The Incredible Hulk." And this transformation of The Abomination into this self help guru peddling nonsense that also kind of works is so great.
This is a sort of bottle episode where all the action takes place in single location. Jen gets stuck at Summer Twilight when her car is totaled during an altercation between Man Bull and El Ánguila. With no wi-fi and a long wait until a tow can show up, Jen is stuck and ends up in a group therapy session with Blonsky's misfits. I am a sucker for like D List heroes or villains getting a time to shine, so this episode really hit for me. Along with those two, there's also Porcupine, Saracen and Jen's old "friend," Thunderball from the low rent Wrecking Crew that jumped her. I love when "She-Hulk" breaks the fourth wall so Jen instructing them to "Previously On..." Thunderball was fantastic.
After She-Hulk tamps down her murderous rage against Thunderball, she ends up in a group therapy session where she talks through her feelings and it's great to see a Hulk do this instead of smashing. The entire talking circle segment is so great. It's just another great example of how these D+ shows can work when Marvel hires the correct writing team and leans into a premise like a lawyer sitcom.
The episode ends with the reveal that Josh was working with Hulkking and the Intelligencia. He stole some of her blood and cloned her cell phone.
Grade: A-
"Ribbit and Rip It"
She-Hulk: "Eugene, let me give you some legal advice. Stop now, before you rack up even more serious charges. Legally speaking, we could say this is an episode of mania..."
Daredevil: [while fighting goons] "Temporary insanity is murky, but it's not a bad strategy. I'd angle this more as a form of traumatic expression due to undiagnosed PTSD."
Leapfrog: "So, the devil ninja guy, he's a lawyer?"
Daredevil: "No, I'm just a big fan of legal dramas."
[knees goon in the face]
She-Hulk: [turns to camera] "This guy's really kinda doing it for me."
Jen damages the relationship with her tailor, Luke Jacobson, when she has to represent the rich son of a client who claims that one of Luke's suits malfunctioned. After failing to settle with Luke out of court, Jen loses to Luke and his hot shot New York lawyer, Matt Murdock. Leapfrog aka Eugene Patilio doesn't love losing so kidnaps Luke earning the ire of Murdock's alter ego, Daredevil. So, She-Hulk has to team up with Daredevil like a real superhero to find Luke and save him.
 |
| The Devil of Hell's Kitchen |
This is honestly a perfect episode of a Marvel Disney+ television show. Like, I love this episode. I am not going to find anything bad to say about it. If you have never seen it, then what are you doing? Stop reading this and start watching this episode and then come back. It's so good. Even though there is a pretty high profile guest star, Daredevil, it never feels like he is hijacking the show. This is still Jen Walter's story. Matt Murdock is just making an appearance and they do a great job of inserting him in without ever truly removing the focus from our green lead character.
We have to talk about the Matt Murdock of it all. Charlie Cox has appeared as Matt Murdock in the MCU most recently in a cameo in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." And let me tell you, in the showing I was in, the room went up. Like, I couldn't even hear what he was saying. So, there is clearly a lot of love for his portrayal of this character. And watching him in this episode, it's really easy to see why. I can't imagine anyone else playing Daredevil. He kills it. I don't think I realized how much I had missed him as this character until I watched this episode.
The chemistry between Tatiana Maslany and Charlie Cox is so great. Even when Murdock is kind of obliterating Jen in court, Jen is really impressed so it's not a shock when they connect in the bar. There are literal sparks on screen when they are sharing it. I love how Matt puts the bug in Jen's ear to use her She-Hulk persona to help folks that the law has failed. And it makes sense that she would listen to him rather than Bruce. They have sex and it's amazing and adult and wonderful. I'm hopeful that since it seems like we aren't going to get a season 2 of this show that we see Jen on "Daredevil: Born Again."
There hasn't been a ton of action in the series but this episode really remedies that. We get to see Jen in her Luke Jacobson original superhero outfit. We get a great scene in the parking garage. It is amazing to see Daredevil moving down the side of that parking garage. And I love that they put him in is classic OG yellow outfit. Then, we get another classic Daredevil hallway action scene. It feels like if Daredevil appears then you need to have that in the show. And I love that She-Hulk makes her presence known by crashing the ceiling down on everyone.
This is the penultimate episode of the series so you know that we just can't have a Daredevil guest spot and that is it. Jen heads to the Female Lawyer of the Year awards and the show gets some good digs in about the fact that these awards even exist. But things take a brutal turn when images from Jen's cell phone start to play along with nasty messages from the Intelligencia. Despite Mallory's warnings, She-Hulk takes a page from her cousin's playbook and smashes. It's awful. And heartbreaking. And you just watch as all the good things that have been happening in Jen's life crash down around her. It sets up what should be a great finale.
Grade: A+
"Whose Show Is This?"
Jennifer Walters: "What?"
K.E.V.I.N.: "That error on our platform has been fixed."
Jennifer Walters: "Th-that's it? We're done?"
K.E.V.I.N.: "That's it? You obliterated the thrilling ending K.E.V.I.N. formulated."
Jennifer Walters: [gets up] "Yeah, that's what Hulks do. We smash things. Bruce smashes buildings. I smash fourth walls and bad endings. And sometimes, Matt Murdock."
After being arrested and losing her job, Jen Walters is at the lowest. She is forced to wear an inhibitor cuff and has to move back in with her parents. She isn't going to let Intelligencia get away with this and wants to use the law to get justice. With help from Nikki and Pug, they find the location of the Intelligenica meeting and things start to amp up, until Jen decides that this is not the ending that her show deserves. She breaks the ultimate fourth wall and meets the man? in charge.
 |
| I'd watch this show. |
If you have read a lot of my MCU re-visits, you can probably name my chief complaint with a lot of the shows and movies. It's the same across the board even when it comes to the properties that I really, truly love. And that is how the finales usually go. It doesn't matter if it is the third act final battle of a movie or the final episode of one of the shows, they always seem to go the same way. No matter what has happened before, it all boils down to this giant battle that is almost like mind numbing. It just comes down to this big CGI-palooza that loses any heart that the movie or show may have had up to that point. And it definitely looks like that is how the finale of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" is going to go. All the pieces are moving that way. All of the antagonists are showing up. Hulkking has injected himself with Jen's blood. Then, the Abomination shows up. Then Titania busts through the wall. At that point, Jen has had it and the finale takes a turn I don't think anyone saw coming, but if you're a fan of the "She-Hulk" comics series, you probably should have.
In "Sensational She-Hulk written and drawn by John Byrne, She-Hulk routinely talked right to Byrne. Sometimes she'd even walk off panel to confront him with the editors of the book getting in to the fun, too. So, I love that series took this route too. It's great watching Jen punch her way through the menu on Disney+ and getting to the real world so she can confront the writers of her show. But if you know anything about how the MCU works, then you know that it's not necessarily the writers of the property that make the final decisions. So, Jen tries to find the true mastermind of the MCU: Kevin Feige. She makes it to where he resides only to learn that he is a robot named K.E.V.I.N.
This is one of the funniest thing that I've seen in the MCU. It is the writers here kind of like saying, hey, we know what you all think. We know how this usually goes down. And this is the perfect property to comment on it in a meta way. I can't imagine how Feige felt when they came to him with this idea, but I'm sure he was a good sport about it. The whole sequence is so funny and it is kind of affirming to hear Jen say what I've been saying so much. Now, I will say, that it's great that they said all this, but it's not like things have changed. The MCU properties that have came after "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" have done the same stuff that this episode ridiculed, but it is still nice to at least hear it acknowledged and make fun of it.
The rest of the episode is kind of a protracted epilogue and sort of loses a little bit of steam which is my biggest complaint with it. Everything works out for Jen. The Intelligencia and Hulkking gets rounded up. Matt Murdock returns and meets Jen's family. Bruce shows up from Sakaar with his son, Skaar. And like, damn. The hairline on this kid is extremely suspect. Who thought that was a good idea? I can't imagine. After being cleared, Jen makes the decision to help people as Jen and She-Hulk.
The after credits scene is Wong breaking the Abomination out of prison and taking him to Kamar Taj.
Grade: B+
Next, it's terror time as the Werewolf by Night makes his first appearance.
There we have it? What did you all think of this series overall? And these three episodes? Are you hoping that there will be a season two despite what Tatiana Maslany said recently? Let me know in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment