Hi! It’s Annie!
Well, ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ just premiered on Disney + and I can honestly say that I’m baffled. I went into this show having no idea what to expect in the first place and I’m still pretty unsure of what to expect, but I’ll get more into that later. I honestly didn’t like the trailers that had been released for this. I thought the action felt a little cheap and the comedy fell flat. One trailer featured Sam teasing Bucky for getting beat up by a girl, which is a really old joke that I don’t really find funny. So what he was beat up by a girl? But I digress. Anyways, going into this my expectations were low. The ending of WandaVision didn’t make that any better, because I’m not sure how anything can come after that. I can honestly say that I was very bored by this premiere and I’m not sure how much they’ll be able to accomplish in six episodes. Especially after this one episode that felt more like exposition than an episode. But let’s get into it. SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Sorry.
Sam Wilson (The Falcon):
I have a lot of love for the character of Sam. He’s one of my new favorite characters in the MCU and I really loved the idea of him getting his own show. This episode disappointed me right off the bat when it comes to his character. We open on Sam in a giant action sequence that feels right out of one of the actual movies. My issue with this action sequence is that it didn’t actually seem to have anything to do with the plot. It was action just for the sake of action. Then we see him handing Cap’s shield over to the government to be put away in a museum. This is what made me most angry throughout the entire episode. I actually really liked the storyline about how Sam was unwilling to pick up the shield because he’s not sure he wants to represent a country that does not represent him. That was a well thought out storyline that I thought was insanely important, especially now. But why would Sam ever give Cap’s shield over to the government? Force it back onto Bucky? Absolutely. Keep it in the back of his closet to collect dust? Sure. Steve probably would have liked both of those things better. Because if anyone had a giant mistrust of the government, especially when it came to himself and his image, it was Steve Rogers. Giving anything so dear to Steve over to the government feels so absolutely out of character for Sam Wilson. Sam and Rhodey were at each other’s throats in Civil War just for them to suddenly agree on giving Steve’s shield away? I know this was to set up the eventual conflict with the government making their own new Captain America, but this was a nonsensical way to get there. I at least liked seeing Sam with his sister.
Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier):
When we come back to Bucky Barnes we still get the feeling of brooding that we always get from him. Bucky hasn’t gotten much character development in the MCU other than brooding and I’m not sure this first episode gave me any hope in regards to that. He starts out the episode having a nightmare where he killed an innocent witness as the Winter Soldier. We then cut to Bucky doing mandatory therapy; a scene that is entirely shot with extremely angled close ups that I absolutely couldn’t stand. Bucky has been trying to get all of the people he had done jobs for arrested. This resulted in a hilarious scene where he scared a politician who had used him, beat up someone in her car, and then smiled awkwardly at her while telling her that it was part of his therapy. Later we find out that Bucky has befriended the father of the witness he killed in order to try and make amends. We also see Bucky on a date that doesn’t go so well as his date, Leah, begins to talk about how the old man he has befriended just wants to know how his son died. I am a bit suspicious of Leah because a quick look on IMDB told me that she’s actually listed for all six episodes of the series. This felt exactly like watching Bucky buy his plums at the beginning of Civil War, just much much longer. It’s still his regular brooding self and I really hope we get something more dynamic out of him soon. Also, I have to say, how could Steve leave Bucky like this? But that’s something I cover more in my post about how Peggy Carter shouldn’t have ended up with Steve.
Sharon Carter (Agent 13):
Unfortunately, Sharon Carter has not made an appearance yet. I’m really hoping that we’ll get a lot of this character, but I was definitely disappointed that she wasn’t at all in one of only six episodes. Sharon Carter has been pushed into the love interest position for too long and I really want to actually see her kick ass. Apparently, not yet though.
The Chemistry:
A lot of people were excited about this being a buddy cop style show with Sam and Bucky. Especially because they seemed to have such good chemistry in Civil War. Unfortunately for those people, Sam and Bucky don’t even meet up in the first episode. Everything important that they don’t include just feels several times more baffling because the series is supposed to be so short. This first episode really made me wonder what the point of this show is even supposed to be.
To put this in short, the show didn’t even set up a plot. There’s barely anything that you can take from this episode that seems like you can make an entire series out of it. As soon as the episode ended my family remarked on how boring it was. The first words out of my mouth were that the episode felt like a collection of downtime deleted scenes. Nothing felt very coherent and nothing felt plot relevant. It was really difficult to care about what was happening. I’m hoping that the show will get better from here on out, but I can’t say that I’m optimistic about that. This was a very nothing premiere for such a short series and I’m not sure how they can pick this up if they started it out so slow. Especially because the main writer said that this show is the exact opposite of the intrigue of WandaVision. That makes me worry that the entire series will be like this. I’d be absolutely happy to be proved wrong, but I think this one is going to be more of a fail. Right now I’m just going to be waiting for Loki to come out. But I’ll keep you posted! Who knows, maybe I’ll love it. Or maybe I’ll end up putting it down. Either way, I’ll be sure to let you know.
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 