Welp. That was depressing and dark as fuck.
Talk about getting the Bad End.
But if this is a taste of what Multiverse of Madness is going to be like... Consider me even more hyped.
I just don’t get why Kareth is goofier and also the new guy. When his character was around in the 90’s, in Captain Marvel.
Also that the more serious T’Challa would call himself Star Lord, like Quill.
So beautiful and lovely, like the beginning of the episode said, a person's true nature shines above it all, and this isn't just about T'Challa/Star-Lord but about Chadwick, our forever hero.
[7.7/10] I was so pleasantly surprised by this! I didn’t really know what to expect, with this being Marvel Studios’ first foray into animation and the high concept premise of the show. But I really enjoyed what we got.
For a while, I expected that this was really just going to be the plot of Captain America: The First Avenger except with Peggy slotted in rather than Steve. And that would still have been perfectly fun! Watching this show hit the same beats of that film, except with small but significant difference thanks to Captain Carter being in the role rather than Steve Rogers would have been worthwhile on its own.
For one thing, I like how this episode, as Agent Carter did, focuses on how even with her accomplsuhments, Peggy faces discrimination because of her gender. Of all the people for the MCU to bring back, it’s funny that it’s Bradley Whitford’s returning from the all-but forgotten Agent Carter one-shot. But he makes sense as someone who always thought too little of Peggy, stepping into a leadership role after Col. Phillips is shot, and creating an internal impediment.
To the same end, I like how the episode flips the dynamic with Peggy and Steve, but tshowing how they still understood one another and would bond with one another, even if their situations were changed. The two still falling in love, only to have Peggy making the heroic civilization-saving sacrifice play instead, is still heart-rending, and a nice sign that even as major things change, some things stay the same.
But I also liked the places where this episode goes off the reservation! Howard Stark building a proto-Iron Man suit for Steve Rogers called “The Hydra Stomper”? Yes please! Captain Carter saving Bucky, thereby avoiding the Winter Soldier situation (at least with him)? Hell yes. Her finding the tesseract and bringing it back to the good guys on an early mission? Awesome!
The further along the plot of First Avenger that this episode gets, the more it diverges and makes its own rules and own story, and I really appreciated that. Her team’s attack on Red Skull’s stronghold made for a rolokcing conclusion. I don’t know who Red Skull’s “champion” was. (Hive? A Chithuri?) But watching Peggy fight a giant squid monster while the Howling Commandos rescue Steve made for a killer conclusion.
I was especially impressed by the fight sequences here. I have to admit that I had some reticence about the cell-shaded graphics. In truth, the vocal tracks didn’t always sink perfectly. But the action was surprisingly fluid and well-staged. The show uses the freedom of animation to add greater flow to Captain Carter’s badassery, and some of the combat has a more impressionsitic style that makes it top tier MCU fisticuffs. Even the use of lighting and color in these fights stand out. Going into What If...? my biggest concern was the visuals, but they came through like gangbusters.
Overall, this was an exciting start to this new show and raised my expectations for What If...? to be more than a shiny lark, and instead be a meaningful exploration of what these changes in the path might look like.
Now THIS is the content I've been waiting for. Things are finally picking up. I've found this show hard to get through up until this episode, but now I'm invested. Great episode.
Heavy handiness continues with that opening (mainly spitting on the black soldier) but damn if it doesn’t go completely overboard with the revelation of the police chief - whose practically in love with a black woman - having a figuretive skeleton in his literal closet in the form of a KKK wardrobe. The storytelling grace of a sledgehammer. (Assuming he affiliates with that stuff and it's not just a remnant of a dark family past. Even then, not sure how many non-racists would keep it hidden in their big closet, and overall I doubt that there'll be more nuance to this in episodes to come.) Might already be losing me at this point. Mystery-box intrigue keeps intriguing, but those rarely build up to anything meaningfully substantial. (Also: Looking Glass giving extra Rorschach vibes with his not taking the mask off while at home this-is-my-true-face type of deal.)
Sarah is handcuffed to a doorway push-up bar which is meant to be easily removed. She could have easily just taken the bar off the doorway.
This is now officially the unauthorized Roadrunner adaptation.
And at this point, I'm only watching it because of some misguided hope that the Coyote will have their day.
I don't like dream sequences at all. Like any tool, I guess they're neutral, and dependent on the hands that wield them, but I can honestly count the number of dream (or vision) sequences I've seen that have felt narratively and/or artistically engaging on two hands. Which makes it even more impressive that this teen super hero show just did an episode that was at least 50% dream sequence and managed to knock it out of the park to a degree that's honestly a bit scary.
I'd enjoyed the parts of the previous episodes where we got a taste of Tyrone and Tandy's empathy powers, and in hindsight, I really appreciate the way those glimpses built towards what this episode did. The creative team manages to lend a weight of emotion and purpose to these abstract happenings that made them feel both moving, scary and consequential. I think the most important part is, that even if these powers are rooted in trauma, the prevailing mood in the dream sequence is one of empathy, sympathy and connection. Tandy and Tyrone recognise each other's pain, they recognise the pain and joy in the people they're channeling, and the show manages to make that connection feel comforting and uplifting for me as a viewer, even if I'm intermittently (and deliberately) unsettled by the imagery and trauma involved.
I'm honestly a bit flabbergasted at how well the show does these things, and I'm really happy it exists.
Side note: Still a bit on the fence when it comes to Olivia Holt; the directors/producers don't quite seem to have cracked how to get the same level of performances out of her compared to those of the rest of the ensemble. It's not like she's bad or anything, it's just that the level of the rest of the cast have been such that her perfectly competent-but-nothing-more performance sticks out a bit.
It has sad scenes.
How tyson saved her life, how they had good moments together as friends. Real friendship.
She is really brave and stubborn. She wants to reveal.
She sometimes looks at people with the eyes. Towards them, even into face. Maybe cant do the role or did not work so hard, i am not sure. I know some other characters with vision disability roles, they were not like her.
That max is stalker. Said "keep coming to your home". This is threat, harrasment but she liked it.
Molly got pretty lucky...
At least the deal with AWOL seems off the table now :D
Anyway, I really wanna know how built/sent that drone. Is there a new player or did I miss something?
Nice, looks like there's plenty of drama left.
Catherine is getting what she deserves, Frank seems to have his own agenda (not quite sure yet - maybe his main aim is to just keep the church?), Karolina learns more about her father, and Livvie's back.
Unfortunately, Molly got overconfident...
7.5/10 - Some quite good scenes. Karolina trying to sabotage their plan and almost succeeding was quite scary. Seems like she trusts and likes Jonah way too much. However, her meeting with her mother at the end was a good sign and might fix things.
Gret's move at the end was concerning but it might help too if she meets her parents (which are obviously on her side).
Anyway, by far the best scene was Robert standing up to Jonah and hurting him in revenge. So badass and in this case it felt right. It really really sucked that those damn two sisters of the church showed up and that he didn't lock the door... Unfortunately he's most likely dead now (not confirmed but it certainly looked that way), which is even far worse. At least Jonah was hurt and angry!
Sheesh! Catherine Wilder was always fierce but shooting Darius cold blank!?! :o That was really evil...
Other than that there was some cool action and cute relationships.
Oh man, Molly messed up... :o Her character can be somewhat annoying but I also feel bad for her - she's a good person.
Anyway, the Stan Lee cameo was nice <3
Now it's getting exciting.
Can't wait for Janet and Robert's secret relationship to mess things up between the parents xD Victor definitely deserves that blow (he's so despicable... :o), not sure about Tina though.
Molly's great lie after the initial fail was unexpected and really awesome!
Alex & Nico happened much sooner than I expected.
I'd say the best part of this show are the complex character dynamics, interactions, and relationships.
Just like the other three finales, Hawkeye's final episode turns out to be more personal and less focused on big reveals, much to it's benefit. This is a blast of an episode, and manages to find it's footing in the midst of all of the moving parts to find a grand unifying theme of found family and shared loss. All of our major players here save Clint - Kate, Yelena, Maya, and even the LARPers to an extent - all have found their homes not in their blood relatives but in those they come to find to be family. Kate's ultimate rejection of her mother in their final moments together cements that theme and I really love how messy that is. Not every family is good, some just kind of suck and unfournately Kate's isn't really that great. As for Clint's side, his confrontation with Yelena is one of his best scenes in the entirety of the MCU, mainly for how much you really get to see Jeremy Renner showcase his acting chops. This is a tired, tired man who is sick of the fighting, and seeing him only restrain Yelena as he is nearly beaten to death is hard to watch - and it only makes their subsequent talk over the impact that Natasha had all the more impactful.
Oh, and how could I forget about Vincent D'Onofrio as our favourite crime lord himself? While certainly not here for long, he slips right back into the role like he never left, and while certainly toned down from his Daredevil days (an impossible to avoid side effect of being in a more lighthearted, family friendly show like Hawkeye), he's still the Kingpin we know and love, and his physical acting is impeccable. Especially love how beefier he is like in the comics, beefy Kingpin is best Kingpin. Excellent finale!
This was a really funny episode, I laugh a lot!
But at the same time it feels maybe a little bit to much funny at some point.
It was amazing to see Kingpin on the screen again, I almost got chills.
And it was beautiful that Yelena and Clint finally made piece.
And to the million dollar question, is Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin really dead now?
Merry Christmas!
We live in a truly great age, that post credits scene was just perfect, over the top, inaccurate to the original story (deliberately), beautiful parody.
Ok am I they only one that wants to see a real Rodgers the Musical ?! Lol
The highlight of this episode was the scenes between Kate and Yelena for me. The elevator scene made me laugh and I love that there's basically no stakes during their fight because you know Yelena is not going to kill Kate and Kate isn't as skilled as Yelena to beat her (at least in a fist fight).
I honestly want them to become friends, they truly have great chemistry. It would be a shame if we'd get no interactions between them in a future project.
All I wanted for Christmas was for Hawkeye to make it home.
After some of the big emotional beats that permeated all of last episode, Hawkeye decides to step back and focus on another character in particular this time around - specifically that of Yelena Belova, the standout from Black Widow this past summer and her experiences during and after The Blip. In fact, Natasha's ghost is felt throughout this entire episode, and while it's called "Ronin" it's clear that Jonathan Igla and his writing staff is more interested in how somebody like Barton became the Ronin rather then the persona itself. Grief has been a consistent theme throughout Phase 4 and here it's clear that grief, once again, is what propelled Clint to do what he did and continues to rule over his entire life. Both him and Maya are two sides of the same coin in that regard and their scene together (plus a great action beat) is an easy highlight here.
But yeah, this is Yelena's episode to lose, and her interactions with Kate are the easy standout here. Florence Pugh is great as per expected, and while this episode doesn't shine visually or even camerawork wise like some of the prior episodes it's got some strong writing. Really love Yelena's almost nonchalant attitude towards talking to somebody who was fighting her just a couple of hours prior, and her comedic timing is impeccable here. The reveal at the end is also a gamechanger, not just for the show itself with our new mastermind unveiled but also for the rest of the MCU as the possibilities of who can show up and when has officially changed - let me tell you, I nearly screamed. Top tier stuff once again from Marvel.
Amazing episode! Florence Pugh stole the show once again. Yelena‘s scene with Kate was just so well written and acted. Also very interesting that they are bringing in characters from the Netflix shows now.
Far from home spoilers…
We just got given daredevil and king pin the same day. I am so happy. At least this time I wasn’t in the cinema so I could freely shout at the top of my lungs when I saw him.
Florence Pugh is great of course and funny. The reveal in the end is awesome too. I guess next week is the end already. I could go for 12 episodes.
I like the way how the show is slowly exploring the side of Hawkeye, the movies failed to do. Loving it.
Florence Pugh lifting the show to a higher level. Loved it.
Cool visualization of The Blip (god, still not getting over that name :lol:) from the goner's perspective!
2021-01-01T00:00:00Z2021-12-31T23:59:59Z