Hey guys! Happy Friday! How's everyone doing this morning? I'm actually pretty good. Today I'm taking a look at the first episode of the new Disney+ series from Marvel, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I've been waiting for this show for two years now and I'm so excited that we finally got it. So let's get right into it. Before I do though, I would like to say that I'm going to try to go spoiler free with this review, but I may have to talk about some minor spoilers in order to talk about certain parts of the episode. With that out of the way let's dive right in.
Whenever a Marvel movie or TV show comes out I always ask myself if it's something that I would watch if Marvel hadn't produced it and Marvel characters weren't involved, because many Marvel movies aren't just Marvel Movies. For example Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a political thriller, Thor is an epic fantasy and Guardians of the Galaxy is a Sci-Fi Comedy. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision are no different. While WandaVision is a weird psychological character piece, it's not something I'd be watching whether it's a Marvel show or not. So when The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was first announced two years ago and we found out what it was going to be about, I knew ordinarily it's not a show that I would normally watch, but because I really enjoyed both Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan as Bucky in the MCU movies they appeared in up to this point and because Captain America: The Winter Soldier is probably my favourite MCU movie ever, I knew that I'd enjoy this show.
Fast forward to about half an hour ago when I finished watching the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and I'm still trying to process what I saw. Because it's good. Not good in the "holy crap everything Marvel touches turns to gold!" fanboy kind of way. No, it's good because the people involved in it's production know what they're doing and understand why people like these characters in particular. I think Captain America: The Winter Soldier was the first Marvel movie where I understood what these movies could be besides just a superhero movie, if given to the right people. Unfortunately, since then the MCU movies have become a formula and they're no longer as interesting to me as they were seven years ago when I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier on the big screen. But that's just me though and I know the vast majority of people don't share my opinion on that.
I genuinely enjoyed this episode. It wasn't predictable, and it also wasn't boring, even though there was only one action scene near the beginning of the episode. And honestly I appreciate that because it felt like there was more substance than style and with the last several Marvel movies I've felt like they've been the reverse of that where it's been more style than substance. I'm glad that Sam Wilson has a sister and two nephews. I'm glad that Bucky is dealing with what he did for HYDRA as the Winter Soldier. I'm also glad they're dealing with the loss of Steve Rogers as well as the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame because, outside of Spider-Man: Far From Home it doesn't feel like the MCU has really dealt with that on a grand scale. From what I've heard WandaVision kind of deals with it, but only as far as how Wanda broke following the loss of Vision at the end of Infinity War and not really dealing with the actual aftermath of Endgame itself.
One of the things I like about this episode is that it doesn't drag and it doesn't feel like an introduction. It takes it's time to reacquaint as with Sam and Bucky, because even though the show is set only six months after Endgame, for us it's been two years since we saw them last. Which is a long time even if you've rewatched the entire MCU film catalogue since then. And not knowing where they were following the events of the movie made it satisfying in a way. I also like that we get equal screentime with Sam and Bucky. The show is called The Falcon and the Winter Soldier not The Falcon and Maybe Bucky will Show Up from Time to Time so the fact that while they aren't together in this episode, it gives us an equal opportunity to get to know these characters on their own again before bringing them together in episode 2 or episode 3. The show is only six episodes long so I'm assuming Sam and Bucky will come together in next week's episode and that they won't wait longer than that to make it so.
Besides watching the first trailer back in September or October, I haven't kept up with the production of this series because I wanted to go into it without knowing anything. Because of that, I didn't realize that Don Cheadle would be showing up as Rhodey on the show. So it was a pleasant surprise to see him in this episode. Rhodey was one of my favourite characters in the Iron Man movies so I was glad to see him with Sam in this show. Now if we could only get Nick Fury at some point...
There's so much to talk about with this episode, but I want to keep it spoiler free so I'll leave it here for now. However the thing you need to know is that I loved this episode. I'm not a Buddy Cop guy, you know I've never seen Rush Hour, Lethal Weapon or Bad Boys, but if there was one thing that would make me consider seeing those movies, this show would be it. So good job Marvel for giving us a great first episode. Hopefully it doesn't get overshadowed by Zack Snyder's Justice League because I'm not seeing people talking about it online like they were with WandaVision last month. But it is only 11 o'clock in the morning so most people probably haven't had the chance to watch it yet. So I guess we'll see tonight. Regardless, expect a full spoiler review when the series finishes next month.
Alright guys that is going to be it for me for today. Unless I finish Animorphs #6, The Capture tonight before bed, the next time I post something will be Monday when I do my review of Disney Sing-Along Songs: Beach Party at Walt Disney World. If I do finish The Capture before bed tonight, expect that review to come out sometime tomorrow. Until then have a great rest of the day and a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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