@andrewbloom Marvel trying to blame "the media/people" for picking a derivative name like She-Hulk, when actually Marvel was just trying to cash-in on the Hulk's popularity, is mighty hypocritical...
Also, Jen derides super-heroes as "narcissists", when herself is acting like a narcissist 99% of the time.
@erebos I don't mind the in-universe explanation of She-Hulk's name coming from the media. That's pretty common for these sorts of stories (see: J. Jonah Jameson christening Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2). And we can hardly blame the people making the show in 2022 for the naming conventions that Stan Lee and company came up with back in 1980!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-08-25T15:59:02Z
[6.5/10] This has the same pathology as the last episode, more or less -- some really interesting ideas marred by a really annoying presentation. What if you wanted to resume your normal life, but were sidelined and pigeonholed because everyone knows you have superpowers? What if you were a qualified professional, but couldn’t get work in your field because nobody wants the “sideshow” of your abilities, which they only know about because you acted to save people? What if you had to compromise your ethics and work for a bad guy because it’s the only job you can get? And what if they only wanted you for that job because of what you are, not who you are?
Those are all great ideas! The problem is that the second episode of She-Hulk races through them from scene-to-scene, and drapes them in the same unavailing quips and cartoony players. Jennifer’s new corrupt jerk of boss is such a stock archetype, who feels like a snarling cardboard standee rather than a real person as dangles hiring/firing and makes ethically compromising demands of her. The overexaggerated family dinner scene and strained conversation with Bruce fall into the same unimaginative dialogue traps that the first episode did. I wish the quality of the execution here met the quality of the concepts in play.
It is nice to see Tim Roth back in action though. He plays the faux contrite supervillain well, and it’s something of a kick to see this show referencing The Incredible Hulk, a flick that the MCU has all but forgotten. The most interesting part of his “I thought I was the good guy” story is that it sparks an idea in Jennifer. She sees there’s a genuine argument that he was acting under orders and only went mad because of the injections his handlers were giving him, to where he’s not responsible for it. The clockwork of her being reluctant to represent the man who tried to kill her cousin but then seeing a winning strategy after getting more details and putting an argument in place is good stuff.
I just wish the characters were deeper and more winning and the scene-to-scene dialogue could support that good stuff. The fly in the ointment of Abomination’s escapades in Shang-Chi has promise as a complicated pickle Jennifer will find a creative way out of, but two episodes in, I’m less hopeful that the show can match that potential with execution.