She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law
9 Episodes @ ~30 minutes each/Rated TV-14
Created by Jessica Gao
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s breakdown below, then Listen or Watch as he and Ryan discuss the first 4 episodes.**
Synopsis:
Jennifer Walters navigates the complicated life of a single, 30-something attorney who also happens to be a green 6-foot-7-inch superpowered Hulk.
There’s been a lot of talk about She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law ever since the project was announced, and even more so since the first trailers appeared and there was a vocal backlash to the quality of the CGI.
We’ve had the opportunity to watch the first four episodes of She-Hulk, so we’ve got some sense as to what is going on with this series.
I feel like we’ve been saying this a lot lately, but this is kind of a mixed bag.
Tonally, She-Hulk is part legal drama, part sit-com, part self-aware commentary, and part single woman dating comedy.
Without spoiling too much, let’s break down the first 4 episodes.
Episode 1 (or: How Jennifer got Green):
Closely hewing to the comic origins, there is, in a fourth wall breaking flashback, a car crash involving Jennifer and her cousin Bruce (and the cause is something that will either come back later in the series or in future MCU films). However, instead of Bruce saving Jennifer and having no choice but to give her an emergency blood transfusion (making the “infection” by Gamma radiation a choice, albeit a difficult one, on his part), Jennifer saves Bruce and accidentally gets a couple of drops of his blood in an open wound on her arm, leading to an immediate transformation into She-Hulk. She’s an accident.
Oh, and there’s very toxic men at the bar she finds herself at after she comes down from that initial change.
Men bad. Remember that; there will be a quiz.
We get the trailerific training sequence in which she’s really good at all the physical stuff, with the added bonus that she can transform at will while retaining her “normal” psyche (which makes Bruce a little jealous, of course).
The episode ends with the introduction of super-powered “influencer” Titania (supposedly a big part of the show) in a courtroom, forcing Jennifer to Hulk-out to save people (and exposing her secret, which gets her fired afterward), who then disappears until her name is uttered at the end of episode 4.
How important can she be?
There’s a credit scene that is insulting and juvenile.
Episode 2 (or: How Jennifer got a new job)
Hired by the law firm she beat in the case she just got fired after, Jennifer learns they only want her for her body. Her She-Hulk body, because they need a face on their new superhero division.
Sexist, right. Quiz later.
But in order to take the job, she will have to represent Emil Blonski, aka Abomination, at his parole hearing. There’s a bit of a conflict of interest as Blonski tried to kill her cousin way back when he still looked like Edward Norton.
And yes, they make that joke for you, in case you’re too stupid to get it yourself.
Wong shows up as a witness in Blonski’s trial (see next line.)
We get our obligatory Shang-Chi tie-in, and then there’s a silly credit scene.
Episode 3 (or: Who’s after Jennifer?)
This is the episode the internet hate industry has been waiting for: the anti-man episode.
The main “plot” of this episode involves a (predictably douchy) former coworker, Megan Thee Stallion, an Asgardian elf, and an incompetent gang of men trying to get a sample of Jennifer’s blood.
But who sent them?
Credit scene: She-Hulk twerks.
Episode 4 (or: Are we going the wong way?)
This is a Wong heavy episode. I’m starting to feel like Wong is the Phase Four equivalent of Phil Coulson, Darcy, or Jimmy Woo: brought into various properties to give everyone someone to like.
A failed student of Kamar-Taj becomes a mundane stage magician, and oops, bad things happen.
Jennifer gets sued for trademark infringement. By Titania.
Credit scene of Wong watching This is Us.
Like I said: tonally this thing is a mess, and worse, it’s not really pointed in any particular direction, which, basically halfway through the series (9 total episodes), is a problem. Yes, other Disney+ series have had this problem, but you could argue that was caused by Covid-shortened seasons and reshoots, but it’s now becoming a pattern for Disney+ shows; they front load the season with fluff then try to cram the important bits into the last couple episodes.
Eventually, people will stop waiting for the “important” episodes to arrive and not watch at all.
To be clear: I love Tatiana Maslany and think she’s a perfect fit for this role [see Note 1], and I’ve loved She-Hulk as a long-time comic reader (even have some She-Hulk art on my wall). That said… this show seems as if it has no idea what it wants to be, or if it does, it has no idea how to actually be that thing.
Maybe the final 5 episodes will clear this all up, tie it all together, make it make sense.
Maybe.
But like so many people, I’m starting to grow tired of hoping the end justifies enough of the means to be worth it.
She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law will stream Thursdays on Disney+ beginning August 18 and stars Tatiana Maslany, Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Wong, Tim Roth, Jemeela Jamil, and Ginger Gonzaga.
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[Note 1] Tatiana is perfect for this specifically because of her work in Orphan Black. Much how Scott Bakula was acceptable playing a starship captain in Enterprise, because we had grown used to seeing him play anything and anyone in Quantum Leap that it didn’t seem a stretch, we’ve seen Tatiana play literally a hundred different people in one show, so Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk isn’t really a stretch, is it?
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