![]() I look forward to seeing how Sam and Bucky interact when they have prolonged screen time together, what this pairing of a conflicted Black patriot and a 106-year-old white guy with a history of fighting (however unwillingly) for the wrong side will feel like. It’s familiar and glum, though the glumness is understandable. It just means that if Bucky Barnes, Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones were to meet in a therapist’s waiting room, they would probably discover they have a lot in common and they might even go off to a dingy urban bar to mope together. That doesn’t mean it’s bad or that Stan isn’t playing the character’s neuroses well. The Bucky story, on the other hand, feels basically like the Marvel shows Jeph Loeb produced for Netflix. Throw in the bayou location for a lot of Sam’s plot and there’s some freshness here. Sarah’s resentment about Sam leaving home both to join the military and then, unavoidably, as part of Thanos’ genocide is something different, as is Sam’s opportunity to note how being a superhero is effectively an unpaid position and therefore its own form of privilege. ![]() The Falcon show features the boffo action opening, and also a richer exploration of the lives of those left behind in the Snap and of the internal contradictions of being a Black superhero in a country that doesn’t fully embrace Blackness than Marvel has ever approached. Since critics have only seen the first episode, it’s almost necessary to review The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as two shows. This would not be evident to anybody seeing the pilot, in which Mackie’s Falcon and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes are initially completely separate, even after Avengers: Endgame brought them together in their mutual respect for an aged Captain America and his shiny, shiny shield. Much has been made of how showrunner Malcolm Spellman approached the six-episode Falcon and the Winter Soldier as a buddy dramedy in the 48 Hours/ Lethal Weapon vein. Nothing in the rest of the Kari Skogland-directed pilot equals it, but nothing really needs to. After the surprisingly lackluster Vision-on-Vision flying fight from WandaVision, this extended sequence is a fun, creatively choreographed adrenaline rush that feels close enough to anything you’d get from a superhero scene on the big screen to scratch that “brightly lit thrill ride” itch that’s been building for awhile. In that opening scene, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, donning his Falcon suit, is sent on a mission - one the American military can’t be seen to be involved with, and one I can’t fully explain - that has him soaring over, around and through a Middle Eastern desert. It’s a balance that will probably play well. Then, for those who loved the introspection of WandaVision, the 47-minute pilot continues with 30-plus touchy-feely minutes. ![]() The second Disney+ entry from Marvel was actually supposed to premiere first, before COVID delays The Falcon and the Winter Soldier begins with an action scene that, in this context, plays as a “The excitement is back!” note of reassurance to fans who worried WandaVision got too touchy-feely. ![]()
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