Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law – episode 1 impressions
Disney+’s new Marvel series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, dropped its first episode this past week. It features the new “super hero” cousin of the Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo) of Avengers fame. We all know the journey that Bruce Banner aka the Hulk made, and he tries to impart that to his cousin, Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany). However, she doesn’t want to be a super hero; she wants to continue helping people as an attorney.
Now, I’m trying not to get too deep into spoiler territory, but essentially the first episode is an origins story. It’s great to see Mark Ruffalo, one of the mainstay actors in the core Marvel movies, make such a lengthy appearance in this episode. I’m hoping he continues to make appearances throughout the series, without overriding it, of course.
It is tough for me to gauge how much of a must-see show this is for me with Disney+’s strategy of stringing out their shows’ episodes to make it seem like they have more new content than they really do (Marketing labels it as a way for viewers to get time to obsess and talk about the show over a longer period, but we all know the real reason). So far though, it has pulled me in more than Disney+’s last series, which was Ms. Marvel. Don’t get me wrong, Ms. Marvel had its moments and I would not call it bad at all, however it seemed to cater to a younger audience than me, and it also seemed to try to lean into the culture thing too hard. That might sound more negative than I really mean it to be, but it felt like it was trying too hard to explain the nuances of the specific sub-culture of Pakistani Muslims living in America instead of more naturally integrating it into the story. Maybe it is because I was fortunate enough to have had substantial experiences with different cultures growing up (including the ones featured in Ms. Marvel), as well as the juxtaposition of those different cultures, that I found the Cultures 101 aspect to be more upfront and less natural than a typical viewer might. Anyways, that’s more than I wanted to get into on Ms. Marvel considering that this is an article (supposedly) focusing on She-Hulk. However, the point is that I’m not sure how eager I am to watch each episode as they drop versus something like Ms. Marvel where I watched it whenever I basically ran out of things to watch – which happen more frequently than I’d like to admit!
Still, this episode of the She-Hulk pulled me in enough that I am looking forward to the next episode. Other articles and reviews I read did not seem to have as positive a sentiment as I. Some referred to different agendas or levels of representation that seemed to not have been met, others felt the impact was too weak, but honestly, I’m just looking at it as a story with good characters and flow that will entertain me for a certain period of time. I don’t want to feel like I’ve wasted my time watching it, or spent more time with the fast-forward button pressed down than up – it just needs to feel like I enjoyed it.
As a side note, the series is headed by Jessica Gao, who also wrote for Rick and Morty, as well as Silicon Valley (the show, not the locale). For me, I enjoyed Silicon Valley and am looking forward to more smart (and good, obviously) writing. But I’m sure there are others that will be relieved to know that a female writer is in charge of a series with a female lead, as opposed to males writing for a female lead, if the concern was authenticity based on the experience of a writer. Personally, it doesn’t matter to me if they have personal experience, as long as it is good, but I do admit I prefer things to be “believable” which would be easier to do if it was accurate, and I can understand how it would be easier to be accurate if one had experience in or with a situation or topic.
So, the short of it is this: I am looking forward to the next episode, although I am cautiously optimistic.
Also, what happened in 1943 at an USO tour? Watch to find out!
