MCU series: yes spoilers

Val also has a romantic history with Nick Fury, which I now desperately wish to see. She is currently Madame Hydra, I believe, or at least was at one point in the comics, but I think they're actually making her Leviathan here. (See: Dottie Underwood, AKA beloved Soviet proto-Black Widow who should have gotten to kiss Peggy Carter again. For reasons.) Which would make more sense timeline-wise.

As to your second point, I cannot think that Disney would be that tone-deaf and stupid, especially considering that they were still filming this show last year. Put them in danger? Sure. But I really can't see an MCU property not on Netflix going so dark.

It's a Captain America suit for Sam, probably with some sweet-ass new wings.

Ok I was expecting Bucky talking to his old man friend to make me cry, but it was the statue of Isaiah & his response that did it. That was...oof. Totally did not see it coming and it hit hard.

Y’all speechifying must be a side effect of carrying the shield cause DAMN, Sam out-did any of Steve’s. 
I see Bucky learned some of his motorcycle-riding skills from Steve “motorcycles are for throwing” Rogers.
Man, Karli’s version of the serum must be shit if she can’t even take a couple of bullets. On the plus side, that means Walker can’t take a couple of bullets either. 
OMG that Army guy called him SERGEANT BARNES!
And Bucky straight-up non-ironically called Sam “Cap”  

HOW am I supposed to live a complete and fulfilling life without new episodes every week?! WE DON’T EVEN HAVE A SEASON TWO GUARANTEE YET.

We've already bought both his albums.

I'm very glad to have been wrong. Karli had threatened Sam's family in an earlier episode and they were all happy last time and I was really worried, OK?
I feel like the USAgent stuff was kind of shoehorned in. Also, how did Walker still have the costume after his trial? I know he made the shield himself, I saw that bit. He was handling his scenes surprisingly calmly for all the rage in the last two.
Everyone commenting that Sharon is a Skrull is making me wary and unhappy. I've been unhappy since the Skrulls showed up in Captain Marvel and the reveal in Spiderman: Homecoming just further annoyed me. The Skrulls are such an easy copout and Secret Invasion was bad and everyone involved should feel bad.
I teared up a little during Sam's speech and Bucky talking to Yori.
Why was this only six episodes?

Maybe it was meant to make up for Barsanti's "this show is bad and should feel bad (even though the last episode isn't even out yet) review from Thursday?

My final verdict on the show is that its politics were a mess, Marvel Studios did not really fully think through how they were going to handle the after-effects of The Snap in-universe, and it was very obviously a product of pandemic interruptions, but that the character development was A+. And honestly, I watched this show solely because Bucky and Sam are two of my favorite characters in both the MCU and the comics, and I was absolutely dying for them to finally get their due on screen. I love the personalities the writers have chosen to give both of them - which are, in fact, pretty close to their 616-universe selves. I wonder how much input Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie had into that, or if they just decided to play it like their comic-book counterparts.

I cracked up out of sheer delight at the reveal of Sharon as the Power Broker. This heel-turn into selling U.S. intelligence secrets is so much more interesting than her SHIELD/CIA agent career. I think she might be a Skrull, but if she isn't, that's even more fun.

I think my feelings are pretty similar to The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk .  This was a good-but-not-great mini-series that ultimately was always going to end up with muddled politics and storytelling because when it comes down to it making a statement is always going to take a backseat to protecting Disney's golden goose and setting up further installments.  I'll stop short of saying that MCU shouldn't even bother trying to tackle bigger things, but you just have to go in prepared for them to not stick the landing.

haysoos reminded me of another tangentially related thought I had the other day: they are really going to struggle to integrate Fantastic Four and specifically Reed Richards should they ever get to that seemingly inevitable point.  They've done a good job capitalizing on Black Panther's popularity to have Wakanda fill in that Tony Stark (and to a lesser extent SHIELD) role of being the source of all the random superhero technology that shows up.  It's going to be hard to have another white guy super-genius showing up (that has historically also served that purpose) not seem a bit regressive.

I thought this piece had some interesting thoughts on where Falcon & Winter Soldier missed the mark.  You can say what you want about pre-MCU superhero movies playing fast-and-loose with the characters or not 'staying true' to the comic book roots, but I think the writer does touch on the shortcomings of the 'slavishly give the comic book fans what they want' approach.  Did it really make sense for this version of Sam to take on the Captain America mantle if you remove the all the meta-context?  


‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Never Took Its Protagonist Seriously

That's fair, but I think it also shows how just cherry-picking the "best" concepts and stories from the comics sometimes ends up feeling a bit unsatisfying.  I have not yet read that actual run, but in the comics world Sam taking up the shield comes after at least two different failed replacements for Steve (that I can think of, honestly there are probably more), Sam already having storyline history with being unwitting token representation, Bucky having his turn to carry the legacy, etc..  It plays differently.  Coming to the conclusion that he basically has to do it despite the obvious reasons not to feels more earned.

It's not really the MCU series fault that it instead feels really obviously reverse-engineered to get Sam in the suit because The Fans will be excited about the idea of seeing Sam in the suit (Just Like The Comics!!).  Yea, John Walker is there to justify the decision, but it's obvious that's why he got worked into this show, if that makes sense.  It doesn't feel like anybody thought "wouldn't it be interesting if somebody who really shouldn't be in that position took over for Steve?" and then they extrapolated out how Sam, Bucky, etc. would all respond to that.  He just got pulled out of their closet of Marvel IP as the most useful way to get from Point A to their desired Point B.  The valuable IP strings were a little to visible (imo).  

I think it's useful to compare this to WandaVision, which I'm sure also had some specific Point B's to move characters toward, but they were ones that much less obvious to the audience going in.  Other than knowing that Wanda probably wasn't going to die because they'd already announced she'd be in Doctor Strange 2, it at least felt like there was a pretty wide range of possible conclusions.  F&WS had exactly one and as I said above, it made the entire story feel very calculated.

Also, Emily VanCamp still has some residual REVEEEEEEEENGE season 1 goodwill with me, but you are absolutely right that Sharon (at least her MCU iteration) is boring as hell and leaving out the 'mystery' of the Power Broker would have, at the very least, cleaned up the proceedings.

Sure, Captain SamMerica was always going to happen, but media about historical events -military, cultural, or biographical- by definition “milk drama from a forgone conclusion”, as do movies based on books, but I rarely hear anyone complaining “oh there should be no more movies about WWII because we all know the Allies won so what would be the point digging into the perspectives and experiences of individuals?”*  

I mean if people examining their place within events isn’t your jam, ok, but brushing off character development as “noise”  is pretty reductive.
Given the MCU’s history of spending almost zero time caring about the development of characters not named Tony Stark, this show’s allowing Sam and Bucky to breathe & live outside of the borders of a summer blockbuster was completely unexpected & a really nice change from always focusing on WORLD THREATENING EVENTS. That’s not really relatable for most people, but “Am I good enough to take up this job?” Or “Can I be a better person?” are extremely relatable situations. 

It sounds a little pat, but the show was about the journey & not the destination. I’m definitely not saying it was perfect, but dismissing it as pointless because we know Sam was going to take up the shield seems like a little ridiculous. 

As an aside, I’m also profoundly white & middle class,  and I thought the musings on race and identity packed quite the punch (which is also the reaction I’ve seen across ye olde internets).

The parts on class tried, but stumbled, which may be due to America thinking we don’t have a class problem, or that the people in charge of production are definitely part of that problem. 



*for other reasons, sure, but not for that one

Much to my surprise, Loki's first episode was the one I enjoyed most out of the three Disney+ series. I say I am surprised mostly because I have never in my entire MCU-watching life given a single crap about Loki. The TVA set design is like if Jack Kirby produced The Price Is Right and I love it.

Also, good to see Pillboi found some purpose in the afterlife.

Loved the 70s sci-fi book cover look of...wherever the TVA is supposed to be when they panned out to it. I thought the pilot was great, but it was also one of those pilots that doesn't really give you any idea of what the series proper is going to be like.