“She-Hulk” Episode 1 R&R: The Case for a Better Show
Above, a good actress redirects her anger toward the writers and showrunners.
by Rob LoAlbo
All photos courtesy Marvel Studios and Disney Plus
It’s the show no one wanted with the trailers that brought little to no enthusiasm! Is it as bad as we expected or better than we thought? Is She-Hulk a welcome addition, or as ersatz as America Chavez?
Since this show is trying something new with format and length, I thought I’d do the same, so keep your rage in check: spoilers are on their way!
This week’s case: Banner v. Walters
FACTS OF THE CASE
Jen Walters is a successful lawyer ready to close her most recent case. She’s worked hard to build her career and won’t let anything or anyone get in the way. But before we enter the courtroom, it’s flashback time to how she got hulked out in the first place. Set the scene: while on a road trip with Bruce, Jen gets into a bad car accident (she served to avoid a Sakaaran courier craft—bigger things are afoot!) and mixes her blood with Bruce’s, making her green with envy.
“Even though I’m much shorter, can you please stop referring to me as ‘lab rat’?”
After a few hidden reveals, Jen is whisked off to Bruce’s Mexican island retreat, the place where he spent his blip time refining his inner demons. (Whereas Paul, against all odds, manages to refine his demons in bubble baths while watching ‘Real Housewives.’ To each his own, I guess.) Bruce analyzes her blood while she’s asleep (lab tests on your unconscious cousin? Not creepy at all!) and discovers that Jen can synthesize gamma radiation just like Bruce. Using his hulk background and decidedly male privilege, Bruce plans her journey for her, figuring out what causes her to transform.
Bruce: “The triggers are anger and fear.”
Jen: “Those are, like, the baseline of any woman just existing.”
She’s a woman in a mans’ world, being constantly undermined, mansplained to, or dismissed. Her secret? She’s always angry. So having managed that much frustration before becoming a hulk makes her a candidate for even keel city, balancing the two halves of her greenness, something that took cousin Brucie fifteen years to do. (Girls get it done!) Since she’s not Sybil-ing out with another personality, jealous Bruce takes her through a training montage that she aces, much to his chagrin. He’s taking this way more seriously than Jen because he sees her role as protector of the earth, but she just wants to get back to her lawyer life. She’s not a superhero, he disagrees, they fight a lot, stuff gets broken, he relents. Quip, quip, quip, etc. Typical cookie cutter Marvel stuff.
“Wait…how long have you been sitting there?”
Fourth wall break and flash forward again, Jen’s back in court about to close when in drops the bad girl of the week Titania (welcomely played by “The Good Place’s'“ Jameela Jamil). Jen outs herself to everyone, saves the day, and we’re off.
EVIDENCE AND TESTIMONIES
There’s a lot of good character work going on here, with Tatiana Maslany embodying the green machine really cleverly. She’s got good energy and presence, with thoughtful and funny line deliveries. She’s clearly well cast, and her previous work on Orphan Black proves it. She’s a great addition to the MCU, with vastly improved CGI since the trailer, and she’ll do just fine, whether later in the show or in the overall MCU. (Showrunner Jessica Gao doesn’t seem to know what to do with her, at least in this episode.)
As Mark Ruffalo’s usually playing second fiddle to some other big star, it’s nice to see him get center stage even if it isn’t his show. That Gao chose to rely on him in the pilot episode was smart, giving viewers a smooth way in on this world. And thankfully, he and Maslany have equal star power, with neither outshining the other. We also finally fill in the gap as to how Bruce’s physicality works: he was wearing an inhibitor to keep himself human, couldn’t integrate his two halves because of his hurt arm, but internet dubbed “Smart Hulk” healed it with the help of Jen’s blood. These little Easter Eggs (Steve Rogers lost his virginity to a USO girl: Peggy Carter gets sloppy seconds!) help weave this show into the larger fabric.
“I’m out here Hulking it every day, and she comes along and is like ‘hold my rock.’”
It’s also refreshing that the show is trying a new format, since Marvel shows have been criticized for being nothing more than long movies. This show actually feels intentionally paced with its half-hour approach, and between the overbearing narrator, Deadpool-like fourth wall breaks, and sitcom vibe, at least Marvel isn’t resting too hard on its successful haunches.
VERDICT
Yet, where Ms. Marvel’s tone was all over the place, She-Hulk is tonally consistent but also muted. Sure, there are stabs at sitcom humor, but very few of the jokes land and they don’t lean in on the sitcom tone hard enough. The showrunners need to commit to a goofier tone and stop playing it safe. As such, this feels like all too familiar Marvel product straight off the factory line. It’s better than we expected, but it’s not too memorable or impactful beyond a few Easter Eggs and some good life hacks (Cheetos are best eaten with chopsticks? How am I just learning this?!?) The dialogue is a bit repetitive (it seems like Bruce and Jen are arguing the same points over and over, just at different volumes) and the structure is hackneyed and cliché. Fourth wall breaks are great, but are too randomly inconsistent. Additionally, the editing around the humor isn’t cut well, so jokes don’t get the necessary beats to land properly and are paced more as quips than jokes.
“Thank goodness the picture behind me is crooked or they might have noticed my hair and outfit.”
WIN, LOSS, or SETTLEMENT
I’ll rule that it gets a temporary pass since they managed to get the origin story out of the way and contain it to the first short episode (unlike Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight where the entire run was exhaustingly an origin story). There are some good foundational aspects in place that the show can build upon, but if it continues in this bland tonal vein, it will be totally forgettable, being nothing more than exposition for a new character. (Remember “Loki,” where we went on actual journeys to other worlds and places, introducing thoughtful characters?) For now, we will settle out of court with hopes that next week rallies for a bigger payday.
Star City Rating: 3 out of 5
Next Week: Can I keep up this format for eight more episodes? Will I do it for Daredevil’s 18 episodes?!?