Disney+: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

[Vee]

Been preoccupied with my own stuff for a couple weeks, but finally getting to this. Sebastian Stan is doing amazing work with very little dialogue in the premiere - all his eyes and micro-expressions. And I love seeing Sam's family life and background; his sister and nephews are great. Anthony Mackie is the man to lead this franchise forward. This show may not have been the mysteries of WV but it's very solid for me, at least in the first episode. The character stuff with the bank was great.

 

Rhodey's very subdued reactions to Sam giving up the shield and the military brass thanking him for doing so were exceptional work by Don Cheadle - you can tell how much he doesn't like it but how much personally and professionally constrains him. Danny Ramirez (Torres) is super hot.

 

Poor Bucky! Poor Yori!

[Vee]

Carl Lumbly has always been an incredible actor (who I've always wanted to see on better soaps), but he is heartbreaking and incredibly riveting as Isaiah Bradley. I wasn't sure if they were going to go into that character and storyline in this series, but I am so glad they did. And with showing us Elijah they've added another

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into the mix. Most of those characters are now either already onscreen or have been cast and will be seen in upcoming Marvel projects shortly.

 

I'm only two in, but thus far John Walker's character has, on the surface at least, been considerably softened - Wyatt Russell is as charming as his father. The Walker of Mark Gruenwald's classic 80s storyline was just a few shades off from the alt right grift circuit, a deeply unstable redneck who had hooked up with a bunch of barfighting superhuman jamokes looking for a quick buck and some fame. It took him a long time to be even somewhat redeemed from his ugly origins; even when John Byrne added him to the West Coast Avengers, he was half-nuts and talking to ghosts in his bedroom at headquarters. The legendary Christopher Priest is doing a miniseries for him now and he's still a little nuts. We'll see how deep and dark they go into Walker as the story continues.

Erin Kellyman is great as Karli Morgenthau. I hope we'll see a lot more of her. I did not know that Torres

Danny Ramirez is so cute.

 

 

I knew I'd seen Bucky's shrink somewhere (Amy Aquino) but I didn't realize, out of all her many TV and film credits, that the one I was thinking of was her playing Melanie Griffith's secretary at the end of Working Girl. The chemistry between the duo is as always hilarious. "We're locked in now!"

Edited April 9, 2021 by Vee

[BetterForgotten]

Every episode has been better than the last. Haven't seen the 4th episode yet, but I thought episode 3 was the best yet. 

[ChitHappens]

I only finished eppy 1 because my little guy asked me to wait.  Not anymore, especially after I got a glimpse of the latest eppy.  

 

The first eppy was excellent.  Can't wait to catch up!

[Skin]

I am sensing a theme here with all of Marvel's new television series in that the best and most important episodes are the ones right before the season/series finales. The same theme popped up on WandaVision where stuff really started to get interesting in the episode right before the end, and it's really no different for Falcon and the Winter Soldier series. 

 

One thing that I will say in favor of FATWS is that they have done an admirable job in connecting all three central storylines together and investing enough in making people care about all three plots. I didn't love Sam's family story with the boat stuff but the macro stories fit perfectly: Falcon's story in becoming the first Black Captain America in the context of the 2020's and in reflection of Walker's America is genuinely thoughtful, the Winter Soldier trying to find his place in society post brainwashing and defining himself as a person outside of Steve is poignant, and the story with Karli as the central antagonist is provoking even if it's not necessarily nuanced or cerebral enough to get at the larger  factors of radicalization and what's happening in society today.

 

With WandaVision the only real story was centered around Wanda's identity and her resulting grief. SWORD as a whole largely fell flat. I don't feel that here at all, and even the side expositions with Zemo and Sharon feel worthwhile, even if they are a bit glossy and feel like they were added just to pad the series a bit, for lack of a better term.

 

That scene with the Sam and Isaiah was so beautiful constructed that it almost justifies all the missteps that I feel the series has had with Karli as the antagonist of the series.

 

Those hard truths are just so critically important, and you really understand the divide between who America thinks it is (Steve Rogers) vs. who America truly is (John Walker), at the end of the day.

 

The fact that Sam tries to find out what Isaiah did wrong "to deserve" his treatment is harrowing but I appreciate that the writers let Sam look bad here, because it's needed. It's not Isiah who did anything wrong, it's that America is unwilling to see itself as Black, which is underscored so completely with the John Walker storyline. The country would much rather promote a white symbol even if underserving, than let a black man have the shield and confront what that means about American identity.

 

I will just say whoever wrote this line needs to be promoted to the front of the pack when it comes time for the next Avengers film, I've never heard words given voice like this, so much that when you actually hear them in a context setting in the MCU they ricochet throughout everything that ever played before it, masterfully and much needed:

 

 

Between this show and The Boys, I really haven't seen media successfully deconstruct the American identity so fully and thoughtfully. It gives me hope that at least some people in Hollywood understand what is happening at a core level of American society, even if most people within America don't. 

 

My one quibble with this show is that for all of it's great work and understanding of racial dynamics and it's impact on people from a socio-political and cultural perspective, I still feel like they aren't able to successfully underscore the reason for Karli's rise in support. It just comes off in a really clumsy way, whenever she is featured.

 

There's this insignificant narrative that she is a leader because she represents "the forgotten people", or because "the government doesn't care about us", and that's like not it. That's like 20% of it on a very surface level. Which is interesting because this isn't the first or even most notable time this subject of revolutionary leaders and uprisings have been incorporated into larger shows most recently. Game of Thrones for instance had this same problem, not too long ago, where they really didn't seem to understand the audience appeal, and what the popularity of these thoughts mean at a larger sociological level. 

 

The Game of Throne writers for instance also seemed blind to what made Daenerys the "it factor" character for the series, and even now they still use her likeness as a flagship of the show even after the disastrous execution of the 8x05 episode. What this tells me is that they still don't understand why it created as much backlash as it did, and don't understand the polarized reaction in just making her Stalin with breasts instead of bridging the nuance of what she means as a revolutionary icon/figure within the series. I think the same thing is happening at a weaker level with Karli (I don't get the sense the fan reaction really understands her other than being a stepping stone to Sam's ascension to the Shield, and a counterpoint to his peaceful/diplomacy first nature), but mostly in universe. 

 

The reason why Karli and individuals in her position are so successful is because of the radicalization that is happening in the world, and because the people outside of the 1% feel powerless. They have no voice, are disenfranchised and left at the mercy of governments, with no community or protection. Their requests are denied or ignored and so the only way to create change is through becoming equally violent in a world that only prioritizes power, and causing reaction through violent escalation.

 

The reason why fans bought into the cult of Daenerys was because fans saw the 'good guy' Starks get slaughtered by the Lannisters, and the in universe just let it happen.

 

The reason why people bought into the cult of Daenerys is because she witnessed slavery, and was the only person who actively did something about it. She saw inequities and paid them back the pain that they inflicted on the down trodden. She vengefully paid back injustice with a justice for the innocent that was more in line with righteous anger, indignation and fury.

 

I am sort of left to assume that Karli is doing that as well in these broad strokes as a of wayward Robinhood figure and that's why she has global support. But it's all surface level puddle depth that I feel like I am doing a lot of heavy lifting to get there in plugging in the dots for the writers.

 

Zemo mentions that Karli is a supremacist, and I don't know if I necessarily agree. She feels like something notably more recent in phenomena than that of Nazism and White Supremacy. She feels like a sort of Che Guevara, modernist figure. Karli herself isn't important, she is largely a tool, a symbolic figure. The government nations are hurting people, and they want an instrument that rights the playing field, because the world leaders ultimately aren't doing their jobs.    

Edited April 18, 2021 by Skin

[Vee]

Insane to see Madripoor and the Princess Bar (Wolverine's favorite haunt in town) in Episode 3. Again, stuff I never thought I'd see onscreen. More later.

[BetterForgotten]

Marvel also released a Madripoor tie-in site with direct references to mutants (including Wolverine and Mystique), and then erased all X-Men related references a few hours later. Revised site is still up though.

 

https://www.exploremadripoor.com/

 

I know Feige confirmed the use Madroippor was a last minute addition allotted to them because of the Fox acquisition. 
 

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by BetterForgotten

[Vee]

So proud to see it:

 

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[Vee]

 

[Vee]

This did my heart good at Disneyland's new Avengers Campus.