She-Hulk Attorney at Law: Whose Show is This? and Season 1 – TV Review

TL;DR – Probably my favourite of the Disney+ Series so far, and the first to make the most of the narrative medium it was on.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

How do you tie up a season that has been so joyfully chaotic as we have gotten so far? Do you bring back Wong (Benedict Wong) because everyone loves Wong? Do you add a splash of Daredevil (Charlie Cox) because people can’t get enough of him? Do you bring in a secret cameo that didn’t get spoiled in the first trailer for the show? After watching it, I can tell you that you did not expect to land where were ended up. In today’s review, we will first look at the season finale and then take a broader look at the season as a whole.

So to set the scene, after trying to take She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) down all season because they don’t like that she is a woman with Hulk powers. In Ribbit and Rip It, the group of assholes finally found their moment to strike when Jen was getting an award for being a good lawyer. While that was happening, they broadcast intimate images taken without her permission, trying to slut-shame her with revenge porn. In that moment of complete degradation of privacy, She-Hulk lashed out at the televisions showing the abuse, but now people see her as a monster, and cue old-timey opening titles. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: Ribbit and Rip It – TV Review

TL;DR – Banter, Courtroom Fun, an Idiot Super, and a walk of shame, perfect  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no mid-credit scene

The Los Angeles skylight at sunrise.

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

Because we were away at PAX Australia last week, we are only just catching up with things now, so this will be a short mini-review of what I thought was a fantastic episode. Oops, spoilers. I thought it was a good episode.

So to set the scene, Jen (Tatiana Maslany) really likes the outfits that Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews) has been making for her that work, no matter if she is Jen or She-Hulk. However, this week, her boss Holden Holliway (Steve Coulter), is making her represent Leapfrog (Brandon Stanley), who claims that Jacobson’s outfit failed him. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: Just Jen – TV Review

TL;DR – It’s time for the wedding episode with an unexpected guest.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no mid-credit scene

Just Jen Attorney at Law

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

As we reach this middle part of the season, it has been nice to see She-Hulk revel in these smaller character-driven episodes. Where we get some time to get to know what drives the characters and what their motivations are. The good thing this week is that this episode is all that, but also a little bit more.

So to set the scene, while things are going well for Jen (Tatiana Maslany) at work, an unexpected package has put a pause on things. She has been invited to Lulu’s [her high school best friend but since then, they have drifted apart] wedding. This was a moment to show just how well she was doing. Only Lulu (Patti Harrison) insists that there should be no She-Hulk at the wedding. Back at work, Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) and Mallory (Renée Elise Goldsberry) have to work for a client that calls himself Mr. Immortal (David Pasquesi) because all his ex-wives and ex-husbands just found out he is alive. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: Mean, Green, and Straight Poured into These Jeans – TV Review

TL;DR – This week’s smaller episode focused more on setting the stage for the fight going forward.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Titania's ad for her new perfume.

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

Looking back at the halfway point in the show, I have to consider how well She-Hulk Attorney at Law nailed the premise from the start. Every episode has been a tight 30min-ish romp through the MCU that also works as a pitch-perfect law procedural. With that strength in mind, we take a kind of pause this week as the show reorientates itself towards that back end of the season.

So to set the scene, at the end of last week’s Is This Not Real Magic? Jen (Tatiana Maslany) was served with a legal summons to stop using the name She-Hulk because Titania (Jameela Jamil) had trademarked it. On the one hand, Jen was never comfortable with the moniker She-Hulk, but then she is confronted by someone else using it everywhere she goes. But when Holden Holliway (Steve Coulter) makes it clear that she will be out of a job if she does not fix this, well, it is time to send in the lawyers. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: Is This Not Real Magic? – TV Review

TL;DR – I am not sure we needed to meet ‘Wongers’, but I am fundamentally glad that we did.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

A dude reading 'Bad Feminist' by Roxane Gay.

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

In the MCU, some films tend toward the more light and jovial, like the Ant-Mans and the more recently Thor: Love and Thunder. However, while Marvel had nailed the comedy movie, I was wondering if they would be able to nail a comedy series and this week’s episode shows that I think they have.

So to set the scene, we open in Los Angeles as a ‘magician’ The Great Donny Blaze (Rhys Coiro) is performing to a very not sold-out audience that feels less than impressed with his act. Trying to woo them, and from the encouragement of Cornelius P. Willows (Leon Lamar), Blaze calls for a volunteer from the audience and Madisynn with two N’s, one Y, but it is not where you think (Patty Guggenheim) comes up on stage. Things take a turn when Blaze opens up a portal behind her, and after a long trip, she ends up in Kamar-Taj just in time to spoil Wong’s (Benedict Wong) night. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: The People vs. Emil Blonsky – TV Review

TL;DR – Three episodes in, and She-Hulk shows that Disney+ and Marvel have finally nailed what it is to be a Marvel TV Show.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

The super-max prison.

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

In the transition to MCU projects on Disney+, one of the big issues that have popped up in the past is that the stories may have been there, but fitting those stories into the TV format might not have been as successful. TV is a very different beast from a feature film, and you have felt that they have struggled to make that leap at times. However, after these first three episodes, I think we can be confident that they have nailed it with She-Hulk.   

So to set the scene, during Superhuman Law, Jen (Tatiana Maslany) struggled to find her place in the world after being fired by the DA’s office. However, she is given a new opportunity when she is offered a job by Holden Holliway (Steve Coulter) at the law firm GLK&H. the only issue is that her first client would be Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) or, as he is more commonly called, Abomination, the guy that once attacked her cousin Bruce (Mark Ruffalo). Knowing she had a strong case for parole, she took the job just moments before footage of Abomination having his cage match in Shang-Chi was leaked to the press. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: Superhuman Law – TV Review

TL;DR – She-Hulk continues to be a delightful and fun romp

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Courtroom sketches of last week's episode.

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

One of the significant issues that the MCU has had when making the jump to Disney+ has been finding the right tone and setting. Shows have struggled to land their feet or find a reason to exist over so many episodes. So far, She-Hulk has avoided those fates because it knows exactly what it wants to be and shines while doing it.  

So to set the scene, last week in A Normal Amount of Rage, we got to find out how Jennifer ‘Jen’ Walters (Tatiana Maslany) became She-Hulk. It just took a crash and her trying to save her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and some accidental blood contamination, and now she can go Green. Hoping to keep that secret was dashed when Titania (Jameela Jamil) crashed into the courtroom, and Jen had to Hulk up to stop the jury from being killed. You would think saving people’s lives would be rewarded? But instead, Jen is fired from the DA’s office. Things are looking down when she is offered a job by Holden Holliway (Steve Coulter) at the law firm GLK&H. The only catch is that she has to represent Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) or, as he is more commonly called, Abomination. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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She-Hulk Attorney at Law: A Normal Amount of Rage – TV Review

TL;DR – This week could be titled ‘backstory the episode’, but I think it worked because it got all of this out of the way while also letting Tatiana Maslany shine.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Bruce about to wake Jennifer up with a horn.

She-Hulk Attorney at Law Review

When the new slate of Disney+ MCU shows was announced, a lot piqued my interest, but I have to be honest, She-Hulk was not one of them. The idea did not click with me, and I didn’t have the joy of the comics to carry me through. But. When I heard that Tatiana Maslany of Orphan Black fame was being cast in the lead. Well, I can be honest and say that one casting choice made this a much watch, and now that I have seen the first episode, I can say this was a good choice.

So to set the scene, we open in on Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), who is preparing a significant closing argument for a case she is working on. But before we go there, she talks to the audience and tells them she will explain her backstory first. Several months earlier, she was on a trip with her cousin Bruce (Mark Ruffalo) when a Sakaaran ship dropped out of the sky and caused their car to crash. As Jennifer tries to help Bruce out of the crashed car, some of his blood falls into a cut on Jennifer’s arm, infecting her with the same gamma radiation that turned Bruce into the Hulk. When Jennifer wakes up, she is in Bruce’s lab in Mexico because it is time for her to learn what it means to be the She-Hulk. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – Destroyer

TL;DR – This is a film that holds its cards very close to its chest but that makes the slow burn that much better   

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Destroyer. Image Credit: Madman.

Review

Okay … wow, this is a difficult film to parse because its structure and tone jump all over the place and it is a film guards its biggest conceit at all times. This also makes it a difficult film to review because there are vignettes throughout that I really like and really didn’t and it is hard to conceptualise that without immediately running into spoilers. However, that is what we will attempt to do.

So to set the scene, we open on Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) a detective in the LAPD who has clearly had a tough life, and is clearly worse for wear after a long night of drinking. She is arriving at a murder scene of a John Doe that had been shot multiple times. The police on site were not happy to see Erin, and even less so when she implies she knows who did it because she recognises the tattoo on the back of his neck and the money covered in die spread around the body as a warning. All of this is confirmed when we next see Erin at her office and she gets a letter with one of the dyed bills revealing a past that haunts her to this day.

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TV Review – Orphan Black: Season 5

TL;DR – Boy does it finish in a way only Orphan Black could, it has been a ride sestras, one hell of a ride.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Orphan Black: image Credit: Temple Street Productions.

Review

Goodness, we actually got here, an end to the wonderful sci-fi series, I say this because the track record of sci-fi shows I love getting their final goodbye is not high. But today we are going to break down the final seasons and look at the things that did work and what didn’t, and take a look at how it all finished. So if you have never watched Orphan Black it is a story about clones, which is not a spoiler because you find that out in the first episode. However, because this is a story about clones it means that lead actor Tatiana Maslany plays at least five main distinct roles throughout the series, and more amazingly each of them feels like a real character. The main story revolves around Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) who has to juggle her past life and impersonating Beth Childs (Tatiana Maslany) who committed suicide in front of her, Alison Hendrix (Tatiana Maslany) who just wants to be a suburban mum and is not ready for her world to explode around her, Cosima Niehaus (Tatiana Maslany) who has devoted her life to science only to find out she herself is a science experiment, Rachel Duncan (Tatiana Maslany) who has lived her life knowing she was a clone and has a detached uncaringness towards her sisters, and Helena (Tatiana Maslany), who has been abused and tormented all her life and turned into a weapon to unleash on her sisters. The seasons revolve around trying to unpick the Dyad Institute and Neolution and more, what are their plans for the clones, and the world.  At this point just a reminder that we will be looking at the season as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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