We all know that in terms of the current ‘Marvel-DC’ debate,
Marvel currently, and to be honest probably will always have, the edge when it
comes to films thanks to the massive critical and commercial success of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, in terms of TV shows, that edge definitely belongs
to DC at the moment. Sure, Marvel has had done quite a few shows before, but
most of them have been animated whereas the majority of their live-action shows
were made more than 3-4 decades ago. Nowadays, DC currently has two of the most
well-regarded comic book shows on TV right now in form of the CW’s ‘Arrow’ and
its recent spin-off, ‘The Flash’. Marvel, on the other hand, is slowly but
surely starting to take a stab at the world of TV. Their first major
live-action show since the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ‘Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, debuted in September 2013. And while I will always defend the
show’s initial run as being better than what the internet put it out to be,
unfortunately it didn’t really gel well with audiences early on due to overly
high and unfair expectations. Thankfully, that didn’t last too long as the big
HYDRA reveal in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ carried over into ‘Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ and gave the series new life, now allowing it to stand
toe-to-toe with ‘Arrow’ and ‘The Flash’. And really, the fact that the show is
connected to the MCU means that it has an advantage that clearly ‘Arrow’ and
‘Flash’ won’t ever have in that it’s able to play off of key moments from the
MCU films.
There’ll be a few more MCU-set TV series coming out over the
next few years, primarily in the form of a group of shows based around ‘The Defenders’
which will be featured on Netflix, with the first of these shows, ‘Daredevil’,
set to debut this April. But amidst the mid-season break of Season 2 of ‘Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, Marvel brings out their newest show in the form of ‘Agent
Carter’, centered on arguably the best non-superhero female lead of the MCU
films, Agent Peggy Carter. Originally debuting in ‘Captain America: The First
Avenger’, Peggy Carter proved to be one hell of a female lead, primarily thanks
to both the brilliant performance by Hayley Atwell in the role and the solid
romantic chemistry between her and Chris Evans (Captain America). That great
chemistry was the main reason why the finale of ‘First Avenger’ was emotional
as it was. But that wasn’t the end for Miss Atwell in the MCU. Two years later,
she got the chance to prove that she could hold her own as a main character
through the Marvel One-Shot short film, ‘Agent Carter’, which debuted as a
special feature for the Blu-Ray of ‘Iron Man 3’. That of course led to the
creation of an ‘Agent Carter’ TV series and because of Atwell’s terrific
performance in the role, along with really strong writing that offers a very
cool retro spin on the MCU, ‘Agent Carter’ immediately makes a great impression
as a top-notch comic book-themed TV series.
The series takes place after the events of ‘Captain America:
The First Avenger’, following Captain America’s heroic ‘sacrifice’ when he
crashed the plane he was on into the Arctic. Of course, we all know what
‘really’ happened but at the time, he was believed to be dead. One year after
the end of World War II, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), still mourning Steve’s
loss, now finds herself stuck having to do routine office work for the SSR
while also having to deal with being in the male-dominated workforce of the
40’s. However, when Peggy’s old ally, inventor Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper),
is framed for allegedly supplying weapons to enemies of the U.S., he enlists
Peggy’s help in order to prove his innocence. With the assistance of Stark’s
personal butler Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy), Peggy begins to search for Stark’s
missing inventions, and her investigation eventually has her going up against a
mysterious organization known as Leviathan. But because Peggy is doing this
behind the backs of her SSR co-workers, she frequently runs the risk of being
discovered by them as they too investigate into the case, namely to try and
find Stark.
One of the reasons why I loved ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ from
the get-go was that it was a comic book show that wasn’t primarily about
superhero main characters; it was instead from the perspective of non-superhero
characters and I felt that it helped give the show a nice down-to-earth tone
even though it was a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The same can
definitely be said with ‘Agent Carter’ and while there have definitely been
plenty of great emotional moments in ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ over its current 1 and a
half season run, ‘Agent Carter’ admittedly has done a much better job early on
in terms of offering a very grounded perspective on the MCU while also giving
us some effectively emotional moments. Yes, Peggy Carter is quite the badass
when it comes to combat but that doesn’t mean she’s just a straight-up ‘action
heroine’. She’s still just a regular human being and the show has done a great
job at showing how she handles the lifestyle she goes by and how it impacts
those around her. In the very first episode, her roommate, who had nothing to
do with Peggy’s situation, is murdered by an assassin who was hunting for her.
Two episodes later, one of her SSR co-workers ends up getting killed and we see
how this tragedy really affects everyone at the SSR, even Peggy despite the
fact that the agent never treated her that well. I guess you could say Peggy is
probably the better example of a relatable character in this world of heroes compared
to the team on ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’
The production design for the show is spot on, capturing the
feel of the 40’s quite well in regards to set and costume design. Plus, the
fact that the show is set in the 40’s really helps distinguish it from most of
the shows currently on TV today, just like how ‘The First Avenger’ definitely
felt different from the rest of the MCU films for also being set during the
‘World War II’ era. Visuals, action sequences, and the overall direction are
also solid too and the overall tone of the show is a good mix of light-hearted
fun and serious drama, which in my opinion is Marvel’s greatest advantage over
DC at the moment. Sure the show hits the right notes emotionally when it needs
to but it’s not all dark and gloomy, like the route DC is apparently taking
with their Cinematic Universe. But on that note, ‘Agent Carter’, despite being
a part of the MCU, doesn’t do ‘too much’ in terms of staying connected to it. But
in most people’s eyes that’s actually a good thing. Because that was one of the
biggest problem a lot of people apparently had with ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’;
it referenced the MCU ‘too much’. While I never had a problem with that, because
otherwise it wouldn’t seem like the show as connected to the MCU at all, ‘Agent
Carter’ probably fares much better because it isn’t as reliant on referencing
the films. But of course the references are still there, like the introduction
of the program that trained Black Widow, represented here via one of the main villains
of the season, a seemingly innocent girl named Dottie who initially befriends
Peggy before revealing her true colors.
As I already noted, the best part of the whole show is
Hayley Atwell as Peggy, as she’s the one that really gives the character both
her emotional strength and composure, especially in scenes where the odds are
against her. A key element of the show is the ‘buddy cop’-esque relationship
between Peggy and Jarvis. Atwell and James D’Arcy (the latter of whom,
according to my friend Matt, ‘reminded him of Benedict Cumberbatch’ which, I’m
not going to lie, is a pretty accurate comparison) have solid camaraderie and
D’Arcy is definitely a stand-out amongst this cast being quite frankly the
literal example of an ‘average joe’ that is caught up in a crazy situation; in
other words, a lot of the best comedic moments in the series come from him as a
result of how he handles some of the situations that he and Peggy get into.
Because a lot of time is spent with them, early on some of the other main
members of the cast, specifically SSR agents Jack Thompson (Chad Michael
Murray) and Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) and SSR Chief Roger Dooley (Shea
Whigham) were rather indistinguishable from one another. Thankfully, as the
series went on, they each had their own moment to shine, like in Episode 5,
‘The Iron Ceiling’, when Thompson tells Carter about a mistake he made during
the war and in the penultimate episode, ‘Snafu’, where it is revealed that
Chief Dooley has a bit of a troubled family life along with a key heroic action
he does that I won’t spoil here for anyone who hasn’t seen the show.
Despite all of the comparisons that I made between ‘Agent
Carter’ and ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ in this post, the latter is still my
favorite show on TV right now. But ‘Agent Carter’, another Grade A effort from
Marvel Studios in terms of giving us a comic-book inspired TV show that wasn’t
primarily centered on a superhero, is arguably even better, especially from the
get-go whereas ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ did take a little while to really get going. It’s
not just because of excellent production design and solid direction that makes
this series great. It’s really thanks to Hayley Atwell’s brilliant work in the
role of Peggy and excellent writing that gives us a fantastic female lead that,
to quote the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, is ‘a person first and an action
hero second’. DC may be the ones who’ll end up releasing the first major
female-led superhero film of the modern superhero film era, but Marvel Studios
has already given us a bunch of fantastic female characters these past few
years, from Black Widow to the ladies of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, despite the
fact that they’ve yet to do a female-led superhero film (though they will soon
enough with ‘Captain Marvel’). In just a brief season run of 8 episodes, ‘Agent
Carter’ definitely made quite the first impression and hopefully we’ll get to
see more of Peggy Carter’s adventures down the road.
Season Rating: 4.5/5
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