SHE-HULK EPISODE 9 & SERIES REVIEW (SPOILERS)

 

            I can’t decide if the She-Hulk finale was pure brilliance or a genius cop-out.

On the other side of the glass.

            Skipping the usual episode recap, we got one done as a remake of the intro to The Incredible Hulk TV series (which was brilliantly handled). Picking up from last episode’s cliffhanger, we find Jen in jail and taking a deal to never be She-Hulk again for her release. With her reputation ruined and job lost, she decides to go to Emil’s (Tim Roth) sanctuary for a bit. However, she happens to pick the night when The Intelligencia is holding a gathering there. It’s discovered that Todd Phelps (Jon Bass), the creepy tech bro Jen had a horrible date with one time and who kept popping up during the show, was the founder of The Intelligencia and had stolen her blood to give himself Hulk powers. And then Titania (Jameela Jamil) crashed the party. And then Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) joined in.

Smashing those 4th walls like it's Matt Murdock.

            And then that’s when everything REALLY went off the rails. Echoing moments from the original run of The Sensational She-Hulk comic series, Jen breaks out of the show through the Disney+ menu to head to the Disney studio lot to confront the She-Hulk writers about the insanely overcomplicated finale. That leads her to confront the one in charge at Marvel Studios: Kevin. No, it’s not Kevin Feige making a cameo; rather, it’s a GLaDOS-like artificial intelligence named K.E.V.I.N. (Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconnectivity Nexus). Jen proceeds to offer up common fan complaints about how MCU projects all have similar endings or too many plots converging at once.

"Now say: 'The cake is a lie.'"

This resulted in K.E.V.I.N. tossing out his “exciting ending” in favor of a new, quicker one. Todd and his cronies are being arrested; Emil is going back to jail for violating his parole; Daredevil (Charlie Cox) returns to help out too late and gets roped into a family barbecue; Hulk returns (again) at the barbecue and introduces his son, Skaar (Wil Deusner); Jen is a lawyer again prosecuting Todd and declaring she’ll take on guys like him in the courtroom and as a superhero; and Wong (Benedict Wong) returns to bust Emil out to stay at Kamar-Taj.

"Okay, the MCU--I have some notes."

Okay, to my conflict. Every reaction video I’ve seen loved the ULTIMATE 4^th wall break of Jen leaving her show for the Marvel Studios Office, while all the ones who have hated on this show since it came out and some comic guys have not. I, personally, thought it was great. I found every bit of that hilarious; from the sudden Disney+ menu screen to the little faux baseball cap on K.E.V.I.N.’s “head” mimicking Feige’s. This is probably the most I’ve laughed out loud for the entire season. I thought it was a perfect homage to all the times Shulkie was about to step out of her comic to deal with then-scribe John Byrne personally. Also, Tatiana Maslany was all of us, asking the big questions like “X-Men when?” This ending at least made it clear that Marvel has been hearing fans, acknowledge their flaws, and possibly hinting that they’re going to improve going forward (with upcoming schedules shifting and the format of planned projects being changed).

"You want X-Men? I got you, boo."

But then we get the ending. Or, lack thereof, as the series once again attempted to subvert expectations. Jen’s legal troubles? Gone. The whole Josh/blood-stealing plotline? Gone. The Intelligencia? Gone. Titania’s unhealthy obsession with Jen? Gone. For the entire season, later episodes had slowly connected to things established in earlier ones while building up an ongoing subplot even slower than that. But they decide to pull a Monty Python and give us a cop-out ending where everything is dealt with offscreen and hunky dory. We don’t see Jen reassemble her life, despite going off on K.E.V.I.N. about the stakes of the show being her life falling apart just as she was embracing being a Hulk. Titania became pointless. The Intelligencia became pointless. There was no payoff for anything. We didn’t get to see Jen complete her arc. I mean, give us the conclusion to something we’ve been watching! The Skaar reveal, I don’t mind so much because we know there’s a World War Hulk project in development and will likely fill in the gap between the episodes as this did with Shang-Chi.

"The X-Men movies had a blue mutant restriction...I think we need to talk about a green gamma restriction here."

Okay, overall thoughts. The series as a whole was a bit uneven. It was always entertaining, but didn’t always reach the levels it should have. Maslany slays as the Jade Giantess and has always been the highest point of the show. I absolutely love her father (Mark Linn-Baker) and how supportive he is whenever he appears (best MCU dad!). Many of the side characters were fun, but woefully underutilized due to the short runtime of the episodes. Touted as a “legal comedy”, we really didn’t get a lot of the legal side (and, depending who you talk to, some would say not much of the comedy, either) but there were some interesting cases in what we did get. A lot of deep cut characters made their MCU debut on the show, which is something I hope continues to happen. Let’s get audiences familiar with more than just the A-listers. I had a good time with the show, but it just didn’t feel like any of the ideas were allowed to fully bake. I hear there is a season 2 coming and I hope that, while the tone is kept exactly the same, they make things a bit tighter on the storytelling side. Break all the 4^th walls you want, just give us a story in the process!

"Heard you were doing a Fast and Furious ending. So I brought more family."

One last point: it’s no secret that this series took a lot of shots at toxic fanboy trolls. And, every step of the way, they accurately predicted exactly was they would say and post about the show (especially since this show was done about a year before its release). And, of course, you’ve got the YouTube videos out there saying “they hate men!” or claiming victory for “getting in their heads.” And then you’ve got the people who take umbrage with interviews where cast and crew say this was largely the point—to call these so-called “fans” out. Here’s my take: if that bothered you, then you’re probably one of the guilty ones. I’m a man, and I had no issue with the depiction of men on the show or them stepping in front of the toxicity often attracted by women-led and diverse projects (that’s not to say there isn’t good-faith criticism to be had on these projects; just that it isn’t generally the criticism that ends up being levied). And you know why? Because they were right. Every. Single. Time. You don’t like something? That’s fine. Move on. Why would you stick around? Just to get ammunition to complain? C’mon, life’s too short and, to quote Wong: “We’re truly in an age of peak TV.” Find your own yum instead of yucking everyone else’s.

SHE-HULK EPISODE 5 REVIEW

            Finally! The moment you’ve all been waiting for!

A very good lawyer.

            …Is not in this episode. Sorry! BUT! The door for it to happen has been opened, so just wait and see.

Titania making that bank.

            Overall, this was a fun episode that saw Shulkie dealing with Titania’s (Jameela Jamil) legal shenanigans, on top of her bestie, Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga), going to great lengths to help Jen get a new wardrobe appropriate for her double lifestyle. I enjoyed myself quite a bit watching this. Nikki and Pug (Josh Segarra) are this episode’s Wong (Benedict Wong) and Madisynn (Patty Guggenheim) and make a fun pairing. Also, once again, the callbacks are coming in (albeit not THAT far back this time around).

A comic book show with great art.

And can we just give a shoutout to the phenomenal artwork of Kagan McLeod that graces the credits of each episode? Among the repeated images seen every episode, we get fun renditions or episode-specific scenes and even the fleshing out of what could be just throwaway lines of dialogue. It’s almost like getting a bonus scene in every episode.

"Okay, I will make her clothing. But no capes!"

            That said, this episode highlights the major problem of She-Hulk: the runtime. This half-hour runtime is doing a serious disservice to the potential this show could reach. The few cases they’ve presented so far have been interesting, but all-too-brief. The case comes in, they do some courtroom banter, case closed. And to remind you, that’s just a few minutes out of everything else going on. We don’t get much lawyering in this “lawyer show.” I, for one, would like to have seen more of the characters dealing with these legal situations in their unique, quirky ways.

Mallory Book will legally eviscerate you as soon as defend you.

            Additionally, the secondary characters are being woefully underutilized. Let’s take the character of Mallory Book (Renée Elise Goldsberry). Readers of Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo’s She-Hulk comics will recognize her as the office B who holds Jen in all kinds of contempt after Jen spoils her flawless winning streak in the courtroom. In She-Hulk the SHOW, she’s seen for all of 10 seconds in the third episode as a potential lawyer for Jen’s former colleague Dennis Bukowski (Drew Matthews). This was the first episode where we got her to any great degree, and while Goldsberry delivers a fine performance as the character, we don’t know why she is how she is, or why Jen is working so hard to be her friend, or why the moment outside of the courthouse meant a lot for both Jen and the character. Instead, she comes off as just another person who puts up a hard front but actually gives a crap inside (at least a teeny, tiny bit).

There's a fun pair in this episode, but it's not who you thiiiiiiiiiiink.

            But honestly, it says something when a one-off character manages to be more memorable than your regulars. Within one week of her appearance, Madisynn has gotten memes galore, an official series poster, and even her own emoji hashtag on Twitter. Characters like Pug and Mallory? I’ve seen YouTube reactors get their names wrong while they were watching the episode! Hell, I, myself, can’t even recall the boss’ name without looking it up. Yeah, we get a couple of cute character interactions and maybe a quirk or two, but overall, these characters are just not given the prominence they should in an ensemble. Nikki is only slightly ahead of the game by the virtue of her just being on screen more than the others. We shouldn’t have had to rely on the credits artwork to fill in some of those blanks for us.

SHE-HULK EPISODE 4 REVIEW

 

A boating outfit and a cat with a matching hat? Swipe right on that!

            Dating in your 30s, amirite? 

"And for my next trick: an express portal to a hell dimension!"

            This is one of those episodes where you really need to turn your brain off and just enjoy. Why do I say that? Well, we get Wong back for another bit of crossover fun, and this time he goes to Shulkie in order to get a magician who flunked out of Kamar-Taj (the magical training ground from Doctor Strange) to stop using a sling ring (the ring that opens up the circular sparkling portals in the MCU) in his hokey magic act before he does something that could potentially disrupt the universe. The “turn your brain off” part comes into play when you logically figure the “sorcerer supreme” could have dealt with this rogue element in any number of ways (such as sling ringing into the culprit’s room at night and snatching back the ring or, as suggested in the episode itself, casting him into the mirror dimension) without relying on Shulkie or the American court system. Especially as seen in the show’s climactic fight scene. But the tone of the show seems to affect everything it touches and Wong is played more as the straight-man in a comedy routine. Particularly when he ends up constantly paired with drunk party girl Madisynn King (Patty Guggenheim). Yeah, I can’t get too much into that without spoilers, but you’ll likely find her annoying endearing (and speaking of spoilers: if you haven’t watched The Sopranos yet and plan to, you may not wanna watch this episode first).

Sexy fun time.

            We seemed to get a lot more Shulkie this episode. A lonely Jennifer attempts to hit the dating circuit with an online profile, but finds her human side either gets ignored or ends up with a total loser. So she makes a profile for her bigger half and discovers the joys of dating as a modern adult (read: mind-numbingly horrible). It does start Jen on the road to embracing her other self and starting to feel more comfortable in her gamma-irradiated skin, while at the same time paints the bummer picture that her world couldn’t give a crap less about plain, ol’, ordinary her (outside of family and friends, ‘natch!).

Maidsynn being...helpful?

            And can we just give it up for supportive superhero families? We’re getting back-to-back portrayals with the previous (and excellent) Ms. Marvel and the Khans, and now Mark Linn-Baker’s Morris Walters. From the one-on-one moment back in the first episode, to attempting to protect his superhero daughter from future attacks complete with a shovel to hide the bodies. Good families for the win!

"Okay, Twitter--say hello to my little friend!"

            Overall, another fun episode, although one you really can’t think too hard about. I did especially enjoy the little dig at online trolls like they did with the last episode. I’m also looking forward to seeing how all of these seemingly unconnected events find a way to intersect as the show goes on. With Jameela Jamil’s Titania set to return in the next episode after being largely absent since the first, it looks like the callbacks are beginning.

SHE-HULK EPISODE 3 REVIEW

 

Boundaries!

            I swear, this is not turning into a She-Hulk fan blog. I have other, NON-She-Hulk stuff in various stages that I’m waiting to not completely hate before I get around to posting. BUT, in the meantime…

The meeting of the plots.

            She-Hulk episode 3! If ever there was an argument for Disney+ Marvel shows being longer, I think this episode was it. After a brief taste in the first episode, we finally get around to some lawyer-ing on this “lawyer show” with two concurrent legal matters. However, the B-plot (so generously pointed out by Shulkie during the episode) had a lot of comedic potential that just wasn’t allowed to be fully tapped in favor of the A-plot, aka the parole of Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky. Both of those plotlines could’ve used a little more time to percolate and deliver a few more laughs.

Blonsky watches his lawyer work.

            We finally get the Wong cameo the trailers have been promising. Now this is where I’m afraid I’ll have to—ugh—actually agree with whiny fanboys about the MCU’s tendency to turn everything comedic at the sacrifice of character. Now, I understand this show is meant to be a sitcom and everything within its orbit will fall into that category, but Wong was a bit—off. Being Sorcerer Supreme seems to have diminished the character’s serious side, which was used to juxtapose Benedict Cumberbatch’s Strange’s more flippant quippyness. I also don’t recall him being so socially awkward when dealing with other people. There was a way to make him funny and still have him feel like Wong.

Enter: Wong!

            The episode delivered another excellent post-credits scene that had me laughing my ass off. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the CGI and I just didn’t see it. Or, it wasn’t enough to distract me. I thought it looked fine. Also, looks like there’s a mysterious plot developing. What will this mean for our Jade Giantess?  Plus! We get the MCU introduction of The Wrecking Crew: thugs empowered with enchanted construction tools.

They're gonna wreck it!

            Overall, it was another fun episode. Should have been longer to give the legal portion a bit more time to flourish before the brief moment of superheroics. It’ll be interesting to see how all these seemingly unconnected threads intersect by series’ end.

SHE-HULK EPISODE 2 REVIEW

 

            Now that’s more like it! Any complaint I had about Episode 1 was obliterated for Episode 2 (although my new complaint is you have a fourth wall-breaking character and you didn’t take advantage of that for the “Previously On” segment? C’mon!).

Jen's new normal.

            As I figured, they rushed through She-Hulk’s origin to get it out of the way. The second episode was much better paced. I enjoyed the story and the multiple excellent jokes (including a particular subtle “literally” joke) so much that I didn’t realize how quickly the time went by.

Starting to regret life choices.

            There isn’t much I can say that doesn’t fall into super spoilery territory as the story beats were minimal and concise. It is cool to see The Incredible Hulk become more integrated into the MCU, what with an episode of What If? depicting a scene from the film and now Tim Roth’s Abomination appearing in two Phase 4 projects. I guess that means either Universal’s stranglehold on the Hulk rights is beginning to lessen or Marvel legal has figured out ways they can reference it that won’t bring about lawsuits. I don’t know, I’m not familiar with the whole situation beyond the fact Marvel couldn’t do another solo Hulk movie if they wanted to.

Tim Roth returns!

Anyway, for hardcore MCU fans, this episode ties into Shang-Chi while referencing Eternals and firmly establishes the show’s place in the Phase 4 timeline. This will likely also lead into the expected appearance by Benedict Wong as his character, well, Wong as established by the various trailers for the show. Loved the introduction to Jen’s family (don’t recall if we ever saw much of them in the comics—at least not in any of the comics I’ve actually read), and as a tall person of some considerable strength I totally felt the end credits scene. And I’m loving Tatiana Maslany, especially her voice. It’s a good fit for the character! If she has any interest in voice work, I wouldn’t mind her continuing on as the voice of Shulkie in other projects.

"Yes, I'll be representing Marvel in all matters relating to The Incredible Hulk."

Overall, this episode was a marked improvement over the last, and if this is indicative of how the rest of the series is going to go this could be on track to take my top spot in the Disney+ spin-offs (y’know, if I played favorites. Which I don’t.). Also, keep an eye out for an X-Men Easter egg!