Hey, so She-Hulk's pretty good so far. I wasn't really that
hyped for it but two weeks in it's a solid way to spend 30
minutes a week. That run time is strange actually - I don't mind
these episodes being tiny even though for any other Disney+ show
short episodes is a huge frustration. The only other time I
didn't mind episodes this short was Wandavision, because those
opening episodes are just full episodes of a sitcom, start to
finish, complete with A and B storylines.
She-Hulk is
evidence that a Disney+ episode doesn't need to be long to be
good, it just needs to be full. 'Full' doesn't mean
action-packed, since there isn't any action in Episode 2. So
far, She-Hulk's episodes are stuffed. I was getting a bit tired
of these MCU shows not giving us the title superhero in full
costume doing their thing until midway through the finale, but
here we have She-Hulk getting her name, her powers, her premise
as a superhero lawyer, and some training to become proficient
enough to be entertaining, all in the first 2 parts of this
9-part series. A more tedious version of this show following the
standard 6-episode model might have ended Episode 1 with the car
crash and her first transformation reflected in the car door.
The most important thing about this show is Jennifer Walters
herself, and Tatiana Maslany is great. Her performance makes it
more than okay that we're blasting through the set-up at a
million miles a minute because she silently fills in the
nuances. When talking to Abomination in his cell in Episode 2,
we understand without a line spelling it out that Jen is helping
him because she too just wants to live a normal life and escape
the cell her new powers and fame have put her in. The fourth
wall breaks flow really nicely too, feeling effortless and
charming.
We'll have to wait and see whether the middle
starts to slow down but so far there's plenty of plot to go
around. The current Abomination case is exciting and it'll heat
up further when Wong arrives and we get the explanation of what
they were both doing in Shang-Chi. There's also the subplot with
He-Hulk going to space and the promise of Daredevil appearing at
some point beyond Episode 4. And that's just what we currently
know about - apparently this show is going to be a cameo-fest. A
lawyer show dealing with a new case every few episodes is
certainly a fine vehicle for cameos and there are enough
original new characters popping up in these cases like Titania
and Frog-Man to avoid the problem of making the MCU feel too
small.
The first two episodes have me hooked. I hope to
every god Gorr hasn't butchered that the show keeps this up.
Next: Episode 3 Review