37. Review of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Dir. Kari Skogland, 2021)

After how much I enjoyed WandaVision, I really hoped that I would enjoy The Falcon and the Winter Soldier just as much. And although I did enjoy it, there was just something not quite doing it for me from the beginning.

The show follows the aftermath of The Blip (when Thanos snapped his fingers and made half of life in the universe disappear), specifically focusing on Sam and Bucky as they face many challenges adjusting to life after coming back from The Blip.

Alongside their own many personal struggles, Sam and Bucky quickly find themselves involved in trying to stop a "terrorist group" called the Flag Smashers, who quite literally want to "smash flags" and abolish borders in order to help those in need after being uprooted from their homes and jobs after people returned from The Blip. 

The show is quite heavily focused on humanitarian issues, including mental health, poverty, racism, and the abuse of power. These elements were all extremely gripping and I felt the show explored them quite well, and raised some important discussions in fictional and realistic manners.

The serious nature of the show however is why I think my initial enjoyment lacked; despite knowing that WandaVision and TFATWS were going to be very different shows, I don't think I had realised just how different that they would be, which meant my overall view and mindset continuing the show potentially clouded my judgement of it. At some points it did start to feel like I was only watching it for the sake of seeing Sebastian Stan wear his lil leather jacket and beat a few people up with his metal arm.

It wasn't until around episode four when I really began to feel invested in the story and what the characters bar Sam and Bucky were up to, which in the context of the show only being six episodes long was quite disappointing for me. The show really did pick up after that point though, and by the end of the final episode I had finally yelled in excitement, got unreasonably angry at fictional characters, and even shed a few tears.

Although I did enjoy TFATWS and felt positively towards certain aspects of the show, I think that if it had been any other show and not a key part of the Marvel franchise that I probably would have given it a worse review than I have. It was just disappointing to have only really been interested in around half of the show.

I do think that TFATWS is worth a watch but to not go into it with super high hopes like I did, as I do think the show conveys some important messages and sets up for some really great Marvel projects in the future. I don't want to spoil too much but... I cannot wait to see where Sam's character arc will go.

~Paige Nicole