The Disney Plus era of the MCU has been a little weird because so much has been interrupted by the pandemic. The release schedules of the films and series have been jumbled, and the problem continues with Fantastic Four, Deadpool 3, Secret Wars and Blade have all recently been delayed. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is a show that I am enjoying very much, even if it is not the most interesting show currently airing on Disney Plus (please watch Andor). She-Hulk works for me because it is a comedy more than anything else, as the action always takes a backseat to the comedy. The finale of season one (as season two has been strongly hinted) took a potentially big action sequence and turn into a really good meta joke. The finale was enjoyable, and the twist about K.E.V.I.N. was awesome and totally unexpected, but it also had a very rushed feel to the ending. The series has stuck to a 30-minute sitcom episode length, but the finale could have benefitted from an additional 10-15 minutes. With the finale feeling rushed, we did not get the payoffs we were expecting, specifically the HulkKing reveal felt anti-climatic. In my review of episodes four and five I mentioned that the lack of depth given to characters outside of Jen was a problem. Episode seven did a good job of setting up some new characters, but outside of that episode almost every character gets superficial treatment.
There are ups and downs on any show, but I found She-Hulk: Attorney at Law to be very consistent episode to episode. While each episode tells its own story, the tone of the show has been consistent, and the performances by all of the cast has been really good. The running store of Jen feeling underappreciated when compared to her alter-ego She-Hulk has been really strong, and we got some good emotional moments. The case of the week formula meant that beyond Jen and Nikki no other characters got as much screen time as they did. I ended up liking Nikki a lot more than I expected; a lot of that is due to Ginger Gonzaga imbuing the character with a lot of personality. Tatiana Maslany had a proven track record as an actor but playing Jen/She-Hulk has allowed her skills to be seen by a much bigger audience. All of the actors that appeared throughout the season did a good job, and all of the minor characters that were introduced in She-Hulk was one of the major reasons the series was so much fun. The use of Abomination and Emil Blonsky was completely different from what I was expecting, but it worked so well for the tone of the show. Taking a character like Blonsky who was a serious soldier in The Incredible Hulk and turn him into a new-age guru worked because Tim Roth crushed his performance. The final four episodes of the season were all good, but they were also all different which made them more interesting.
RECAP OF EPISODES 6-9
Episode six titled Just Jen opens with Jen opening a box that is a wedding invitation to a high school whom she has a difficult relationship with. Nikki will help Mallory with a powered man's divorce case so Jen can attend the wedding. Jen shows up in a dress made by Luke (the designer), she arrives as She-Hulk, but the bride does not want to be overshadowed so she asks Jen to change back to normal which Jen does. The divorce case Mallory and Nikki are working on is for Mr. Immortal who leaves his various marriages by faking his death. During the meeting Nikki and Mallory judge Mr. Immortal for his method of ending relationships so he jumps out the window falling onto a car below. Titania shows up to the wedding as she is dating a friend of the groom, and Jen knows Titania is there to antagonize her, but nobody believes her. Jen walks away where she is approached by a guy named Josh who seems to be interested in her, until the bride (Lulu) asks Jen to clean up because half the staff quit because of Lulu's treatment of them. Nikki, Mallory and Mr. Immortal have a meeting with all of Mr. Immortal's ex-spouses who are all mad at him.
Cousin Ched is the DJ for the wedding, and as Jen (in human form) drinks and dances, while Mallory and Nikki get all of the ex-spouses to agree to the terms of the divorces. Josh and a now intoxicated Jen talk and Jen expresses her resentment that everyone loves She-Hulk more than they do Jen. Jen vomits because of the alcohol, and she is helped up by Titania who then punches Jen. Jen turns into She-Hulk, leading to a wedding fight between her and Titania. The fight ends prematurely as Titania slips and falls on her face destroying her veneers, so Titania storms off. Nikki and Mallory are celebrating the settlement by looking at the Intelligencia website and they find an entire section of the site dedicated to She-Hulk hate. The episode ends with Jen and Josh eating fries, but they are being watched by people in a lab who prepare a much larger syringe to get a sample of She-Hulk's blood.
Episode seven which is titled The Retreat starts as Jen and Josh are going on dates which culminates with one of dates ending with them sleeping together. Jen wakes up the morning after and Josh is gone, so Jen texts him and he does not respond. The longer Josh does not respond causes Jen to text him more and become obsessive over why he is not responding. Jen then gets a call from Emil Blonsky's parole officer who says he needs to see Blonsky about his inhibitor malfunctioning and he wants Jen as backup in case he needs help. Jen drives up to the retreat being run by Emil, and everything appears good, and the parole officer leaves. Jen is about to leave too, but then her care is damaged by a fight between Man-Bull and El Aguila who are clients of Emil. Emil convinces Jen to stay until she can have her car fixed, and Emil uses the opportunity to help Jen who has no phone signal. Jen wanders around the estate looking for signal, and when she finds it, she interrupts a group therapy session that Emil is holding. The group is made up of El Aguila, Man-Bull, Porcupine and Saracen and Blonsky offers a place for Jen to join but she goes back to her phone.
Another member walks into the meeting and it is Wrecker (who attacked Jen in episode three), and Jen attacks him. Blonsky stops Jena and he asks her to sit in the calm chair. Wrecker explains that he has changed since their previous encounter, and that he is sorry for what he did. The group encourages Jen to share her feelings, and she tells them about what happened with Josh. Jen goes on to explain that while being She-Hulk is great it is coming at the sacrifice of Jen whose self-esteem is cratering. The group comes together to defend Jen's honor, but Emil wants them to solve issues without violence. All members of the group share nice thoughts about Jen, and she eventually changes back to human form. The group encourages Jen to delete Josh's number from her phone, and the group sends her off with good wishes. The episode ends with Jen on the way home, and after a breath she smiles, but we see the final encounter between Jen and Josh from Josh's perspective. Josh is working for the people after She-Hulk, and he messages them that he got the blood sample.
Episode eight which is titled Ribbit and Rip It begins with a hero calling himself the Leapfrog interrupts a robbery, but it ends in failure. Leapfrog is now suing Luke who made his hero suit which was the cause of his injuries. Jen goes to Mr. Holliway to pass the case to another lawyer, but Holliway says Leapfrog's dad is a powerful client and he wants She-Hulk on the case. Jen goes to see Luke to tell him that he is being sued, and Luke is furious at She-Hulk, so he tears up the dress he was making her for a gala. At the court case we learn that Luke is being represents by Matt Murdock (played by Charlie Cox) who quickly has a key part of Jen's case thrown out. Matt Murdock is able to smell that Leapfrog's suit had jet fuel in it which Luke says was not part of the manufacturing guarantee. The judge throws out the case because Leapfrog ignored Luke's recommendation that he not use jet fuel in the suit. After the case Jen is getting a drink at a bar when Matt joins her, and they hit it off immediately until Jen is called away on business. The business Jen has to deal with is the important client of her law firm in Todd (the guy she went on a date with), Jen meets him at a restaurant where he reveals he asked her to come for personal reasons (another date with her).
Jen leaves Todd as soon as he tells her why he asked her to come, and when Jen gets home, she is called by Leapfrog who says he is being chased by a guy in a suit. Jen puts her superhero costume that Luke made her, and she saves Leapfrog from Daredevil. Daredevil and She-Hulk fight, but Daredevil's acrobatics poses a challenge until Jen does a sonic clap which stops Daredevil. She-Hulk removes Daredevil's mask revealing Matt Murdock and they talk with Jen learning that Leapfrog kidnapped Luke. She-Hulk and Daredevil go to the Lilypad (Leapfrog's hideout) where they rescue Luke, and Luke agrees to finish Jen's dress for the gala. Jen and Matt head back to her house where they sleep together. The next day is the day of the gala where Jen is being given an award, the award ceremony is interrupted by the Intelligencia who aim to embarrass Jen. The Intelligencia show a video of Jen and Josh sleeping together which causes Jen to fly into a rage and smash the screen causing everyone to run away from her. Jen leaves the gala and outside she is surrounded by Damage Control agents as the episode comes to a close.
The season one finale titled Whose Show is This? picks up with Jen in the cage they used to hold The Abomination in episode two. Jen is released, but she needs to wear an inhibitor, she loses her licence to practice law (loses her job) and moves out of her apartment (and back into her parents' house). Nikki and Jen are looking for the people behind the Intelligencia site, but they have not made any progress. Jen needing to get away for a few days decides to go stay with Emil Blonsky, while Nikki manages to get herself invited to a Intelligencia event. The event host assumed that Nikki was a guy, so she enlists Pug to attend in her place. Pug runs into Todd at the event, who then tells Pug that he is HulkKing, and he then reveals that the guest host is Abomination. Jen learns from Wrecker that Emil is hosting an event at the lodge which is the Intelligencia meeting. Todd then injects himself with a serum made from Jen's blood which transform Todd into a Hulk, Titania shows up and starts attacking people, Abomination picks up Jen, so she doesn't get hurt and then Bruce arrives and starts fighting Abomination.
Jen then speaks to the camera that none of these storylines make any sense, and we go back to the Disney Plus home page where She-Hulk crawls out of the title and into the studio lot where she goes looking for the writers of the show. She-Hulk enters the writer's room, and they tell her that this is the show that K.E.V.I.N. wants, so She-Hulk goes to speak with Kevin. She-Hulk needs to fight off a bunch of security guards to make it to K.E.V.I.N. who is actually an Artificial Intelligence (AI). The AI asks Jen to change back into human form off camera so as to save visual effects workers time, Jen makes her argument for a different ending. The episode starts again in a different way with Todd being arrested, Emil goes back to prison for violating the terms of his parole, and Daredevil coming back. Jen then has a family dinner with Matt Murdock by her side as Bruce arrives who introduces everyone to his son Skaar (who was born on Sakaar). She-Hulk is back after the charges are dropped as the episode ends with Jen going back to court for her lawsuit against Todd. The mid-credits scene features Emil in prison when he is visited by Wong who breaks Emil out of jail as the season comes to a close.
FINAL VERDICT ON THE SEASON
The first season of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was a success and I couldn't care less what trolls think of the show. I was shocked when I looked at the score on IMDB and I noticed that the score was very low (5.1/10) for the show. I think there is a segment of our world that I won't name but they are big babies who hate strong female characters. I don't think She-Hulk is anything less than a 6/10, and it deserves higher than a 6. There are valid criticisms to have about the show's lack of action, but that was never going to be the show. Marvel had let people know awhile ago that it was going to be like a sitcom (like WandaVision), and it was going to be more Ally McBeal and less Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The coworkers that I talked to about the show were happy with it, and that tells me that fans of the MCU who just enjoy good entertainment with no prejudices will enjoy She-Hulk. The CGI was not always top notch on the show, but it was never bad enough that it ruined my watching experience. The showed did not look as good as other shows, but the cheaper look also did not bother me at all. Marvel has delivered a bunch of series that look great, so it is fine that the quality is not as high, especially so for a series that is more comedy centric.
The finale was something so different than what anyone expected that I think the writers and showrunner did a fantastic job of skirting expectations while calling out Marvels typical formula. The way She-Hulk made fun of Kevin Feige was truly epic having K.E.V.I.N. be an artificial intelligence system that was running the studio. It was a brave choice for the show to call out Marvel for being formulaic, and it was an interesting choice for them to have a finale that featured almost none of the typical Marvel finale cliches. There was only two cliches which were the mid-credits scene and Bruce reveal of Skaar. The Bruce reveal that he has a son was a little weird; after subverting the cliches the episode played right into one. I think that was part of the joke, but I wish Jen turned to the camera and yelled K.E.V.I.N. (like from Home Alone). It is a small critique that did not ruin my enjoyment of the episode or the season. There were a lot of great guest performances, and the show did a great job of finding funny cases for Jen, Mallory or Pug to be involved in. I think there was a lot of issues that She-Hulk had to deal with throughout the season, and the biggest one was Jen dealing with She-Hulk being more popular than Jen. We saw a bit of that idea being explored in Thor: Ragnarok where Bruce and Hulk both felt that their other self was more loved. She-Hulk dove deeper into that well, and it had a more heartfelt approach to it.
There is going to be a lot of rating going on now as I rate the last four episodes, and the season as a whole. The series started strong with a great episode that covered Jen's origin story, and after that the series settled into a sitcom type of show. The episodes of the show ranged from 31 minutes to 38 minutes, and in a lot of ways it was similar to WandaVision. The length of the episodes and the tone that is similar to a sitcom. WandaVision was the first Marvel Disney Plus show, and it benefitted from a budget that was spent to show quality of the MCU on Disney Plus, but now they don't need to overspend, and She-Hulk proved that. I am not meaning that as a slight against She-Hulk, I mean it more that Marvel has proven that their shows Disney Plus are good, and She-Hulk has continued that trend. Episode six was the wedding episode, which was funny, but it was also the lowest rated episode (on IMDB) of the season. I do not think Episode six was the worst episode of the season, I am going to give it a 7/10 because it was funny and the fight between She-Hulk and Titania had a funny conclusion. Episode seven was a surprise for me since I found the group therapy sessions to be funny and heartwarming. Episode seven will also be a 7/10 since I liked the theme of the episode being that Jen needs to love and accept herself. Episode eight had the highest score (on IMDB), and it was a really good episode that introduced Daredevil into the MCU. Charlie Cox returns as Daredevil/Matt Murdock and he is playing a more lighthearted version of the character. The chemistry between Jen and Matt was excellent, and Leapfrog was a fun villain of the week. The finale (episode nine) went in a completely different direction than I expected, but I liked the choices made (except I wanted a longer episode). Episode nine is also going to be an 8/10; it had some fun moments, and the decision to poke fun at the MCU was a fun choice.
The season as a whole was a success, but I have no clue about streaming numbers and fan engagement numbers. I would like a second season, and I think it deserves one since it carved out a niche in the MCU for itself as a comedic law sitcom. I think the season deserves an 8/10 for how well it did with keeping the tone of the show light while also telling a personal story about Jen's struggles. I look forward to seeing She-Hulk in the MCU again, and whether the show gets another season or not I am sure Marvel is happy with the choice of Tatiana Maslany as Jen/She-Hulk. There is going to be a lot of complaints about the series, but when their issues are about CGI, another female hero, the show lacks action or something like those pay them no attention. She-Hulk altered the Marvel formula, and I think the time is now for Marvel to start exploring new genres. I am not going to say She-Hulk was perfect, but it gave us 9 entertaining and funny episodes which is better than I expected. The weekly format of new cases/characters was used brilliantly, and the casting of the guests was also really good. I thought Moon Knight sucked the life out of the show by the end, and even trying to go back and binge did not help. Moon Knight could work, but the tone of show was incredibly out of balance which is why I appreciated She-Hulk finding that tonal balance so effortlessly. She-Hulk might not be for fans looking for action, but fans of the MCU will appreciate the entertainment given by the series over the nine episodes.
Thank you for reading my review of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and please tell me if you liked She-Hulk.
Post a Comment