By Marlon Villa
A nine-episode comedy show with legal cases, fourth wall breaks, being single in your thirties, easter eggs and cameos are what She-Hulk delivers while still setting up future storylines for established characters like the Hulk and Daredevil in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With the first episode starting off strong by balancing comedy and a serious tone. The She-Hulk series brings Bruce Banner back to mentor Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) with her new powers and give the audience a very entertaining sibling-like cousin dynamic where the stories that the Hulk shares further strengthen his relationship with other characters in the universe.
From episode three and on, the show struggles to keep itself serious and at points forgets that a big arc of the character is being a lawyer and instead focuses many of its episodes on Walters’ dating life.
When the show does give the audience Walters in a courtroom, it does a good job at showing off her skills as a lawyer.
Walters’ dating life and legal cases are storylines throughout the season, which come together when Matt Murdock gets reintroduced into the Marvel universe to serve as a lawyer and explore a romantic relationship between the two which is one of the most entertaining parts of the season.
Walters’ struggle to keep her She-Hulk persona from getting in the way of both her professional and romantic life is a big part of the series, but it sometimes comes off as an excuse so that the VFX department doesn’t have to worry about using She-Hulk with a lack-off action sequence.
The show tends to lose the attention of the audience throughout the season, but it recovers it by bringing back characters such as the Abomination who had last appeared 14 years ago in “The Incredible Hulk” and Daredevil, who is a highlight of the season. He brings the seriousness the character is known for while also demonstrating a lighter side of the character which wasn’t seen in live action before.
An issue that the series had was that it seemed to not have an overall plot and no actual main villain with each episode appearing to be its own thing at times. But in the season finale when the main villain is finally revealed the show comes full circle in one of the best ways possible, by fully embracing what the show was known for and breaking the fourth wall in a way that has never been done before.
Overall, Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk is a character that is expected to soon become a fan favorite, but the series itself fails to keep the audience’s weekly attention. This is done by distracting them with cameos or plotlines teased in the after-credit scene of episodes that weren’t visited until many episodes later.
