Reviewing - The MCU: Agent Carter
Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter was one of the best characters of the first Captain America film, so the news that she was getting her own television show was really exciting for a lot of fans – myself included.
Airing during mid-season breaks for Agents of SHIELD, it was a nice way to keep the MCU momentum going for people like me who were trying to take in as much as we could. The fact that we got more of Dominic Cooper’s Howard Stark was great, and meeting the original Jarvis was a lot of fun. Jarvis and Peggy are basically the heart of the show – but while they’re occasionally fun together, they don’t always have the electricity that a leading duo ought to have. There’s just a few too many moments where it seems apparent that the writers want us to enjoy their interactions – and in most cases, seeing the man behind the curtain ruins the show.
On the whole, the show ends up as kind of a disappointment. The series was cancelled after two seasons - and though there's a bit of closure in the final episode, it's clear that the writers were expecting to get another crack at the character. Even so, Agent Carter isn’t without heart or little sparks of joy. More than that, she’s pretty good at kicking butt.
Season One
Agent Carter kicked off by modelling itself after the Marvel One-Shot of the same name. Carter’s in an office where no one values her skill, and she’s forced to do some off-the-books spy work in order to save the day. Any time Howard Stark was part of the equation, the show’s momentum surged forward – but when he wasn’t there, it felt at times like things were becoming relatively irrelevant. Using Steve Rogers’ blood as a plot device was a great call though. It was emotionally significant to Peggy, technologically significant to the world of the show, and deeply rooted in the world of the film from which Peggy came. That’s what makes these MCU shows so cool. When they pick something up from the film and run with it, they build on the universe in meaningful ways. Without something like Rogers’ blood in the picture, the story (however intriguing) starts to lose significance in the grander narrative. On that note, it was also very cool to see the Howling Commandos again. Honestly, I don’t know why that wasn’t the direction they took for the whole first season. Peggy and the Commandos taking down Hydra or hunting down Black Widow-esque bad guys would’ve been a blast, and the one episode where they showed up was a lot of fun.
The love interest guy kind of fell flat. It definitely seemed like we were supposed to be rooting for them, but there was virtually no time where Peggy and Sousa got to know each other better or do romantic stuff. At best, Sousa had a crush on Peggy that never went anywhere. I’m all for a slow burn, but man, you’ve gotta give us more than this.
Season Two
Season Two upped the jokes by a significant margin – some of them worked, but some also seemed fairly forced. The writing just seemed to get progressively worse and worse as the season went on. In the final episode, our heroes were holding onto a rope that kept a guy from falling into a cosmic rift, and I couldn't tell whether the tone was meant to be dramatic, comedic, or if we were meant to care at all. There were virtually no stakes in the finale. I wasn't worried about anybody's safety, and there were no real consequences for what had happened.
Jarvis’ return to the series was inevitable, but they didn’t really have much of an excuse for him just showing up and starting to help Peggy again. I know that the show's all about Jarvis and Peggy, but can't we figure out a more constant way of having them work together? With regards to the love interest Sousa, I actually liked his fiancé for him more than I did Peggy. His fiance was great! She was charming, kind, and a great actress. The whole love triangle thing (or square thing, in this case) with Peggy and Sousa and the other two people thrown into the mix just felt forced and didn't really grab my attention at all. Why bring in the fiance at all if you're just going to cut her out of the show halfway through?
Worst of all though was the dream sequence in the penultimate episode. When Peggy opened her mouth and started singing and dancing, I just about lost it. Why on earth is this happening?! This show is a lot like Michael Scott from The Office - it thinks it can get away with much more than it actually can. You can't have a spy series take itself seriously and then have a throwaway sequence where all the characters sing and dance. Like, get it together, Marvel.
Sadly, this is not the show that it could have been. If you loved Peggy Carter in the main MCU films, then I'd recommend the Marvel One-Shot and MAYBE Season One of this series. But don't go further.
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