Weekend Watch - She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 1

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch, where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a review and recommendation. This week’s Watch, chosen by votes on the Instagram account, is about the new MCU Disney+ show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law whose first episode dropped this week and will run for another eight weeks on the streaming service. It stars Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk as well as featuring Mark Ruffalo, Ginger Gonzaga, Jameela Jamil, and Steve Coulter. Future episodes are also supposed to feature Tim Roth, Charlie Cox, Benedict Wong, Josh Segarra, and Griffin Matthews. The show follows the origins of She-Hulk and Jennifer’s efforts to maintain a normal professional and social life as she gains these new powers; let’s get into the review.

Letter Grade: A-; for what is essentially a pilot episode, this might be one of the MCU’s best so far.

Should you Watch This Show? I’m gonna say yes. This show feels like it has a lot of potential to take its characters in fun directions and it feels worth checking out.

Why?

                This first episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law serves as the hero’s origin story. It starts as Jennifer is prepping her closing arguments for a case against some powerful individual. She then breaks the fourth wall (as the character often does in the comics) to cut and acknowledge that she is in fact a “Hulk” and then goes into the back-story. The origin involves a trip with her cousin Bruce Banner where she becomes a Hulk and then a long training journey where he teaches her how to be a Hulk. Along the way, we get a lot of development of both characters, delving deeper into Bruce’s connections to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers in some fun and even briefly emotional ways. At the same time, we see a little bit of what makes Jennifer tick, learning about her love for her job and her hesitancy to become a superhero in spite of her new powers. The threads that are set up in the flashback provide some nuggets for strong character development as the show goes forward. The CGI, which was a problem for many when the show’s trailers first dropped, has been touched up surprisingly well, especially for a T.V. show on a streaming service. It’s by no means perfect or “movie-quality” but it’s better than most of the other MCU shows for sure. I have seen people complaining about Maslany’s characterization of Jennifer and She-Hulk as too abrasive or “feminista” or whatever, comparing her to Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and I cannot disagree more. Yes, she has some talking points that should be expected in a show featuring a female superhero (only the fourth Marvel project to do so in a solo endeavor, I might add), but the character is legitimately funny and doesn’t feel overconfident or disingenuous at all to me. She is a New York attorney whose job is prosecuting powerful people (maybe even superpowered people), confidence and an ability to adapt on the fly are incredibly necessary in that world. I will also say, the show’s comedy harkens back to some of the more classic MCU days in a way that is highly reminiscent of the Iron Man franchise and even the first Avengers, and I didn’t hate it. In fact, this episode’s post-credits scene might be the best that Marvel has ever done, in terms of comedy; I was dying laughing when it went to black. Overall, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s first episode sets the tone for a solid superhero origin story featuring a mix of likable original characters and familiar MCU favorites with some quality topical comedic writing thrown in to top it all off. I’m excited to see where the rest of the show goes. Follow it as it releases each week on Thursdays on Disney+.