She-Hulk: Attorney At Law gifts us a self-contained wedding episode
Our hero attempts to be "Just Jen" for the nuptials of an old friend played by guest star Patti Harrison
TV Reviews She-Hulk
Well, they faked us out, didn’t they? After a tantalizing glimpse at Daredevil’s new helmet in the last episode, this episode has not even a hint of Matt Murdock. That’s a risky game to play with Marvel fans, but the show is, at least, self aware that it’s thwarting our expectations. “Yes, it’s a self contained wedding episode. And if you think this is happening at an inconvenient time in the season, you’re right,” Jen addresses us. “‘Cause that’s how weddings always are.”
So no, there is once again no major MCU cameo in this episode, but Lulu the bride is played by Patti Harrison, which is just as good if not better! And I’m happy to report that “Just Jen” is a steady improvement over last week’s offering as She-Hulk settles into its rhythm. Like the previous episode’s exploration of beauty industry exploitation, this week’s plague of traditional femininity is the plight of the bridesmaid. Anyone who has been through it will recognize the hallmarks of the genre: the cheugy “will you be my bridesmaid” invitation sent out of obligation, being pressed into service to clean up around the venue, walking down the aisle with a dog. That last one is probably less frequent in real life, but it rang true, didn’t it?
Jen is still dealing with the insecurities that were stoked by putting She-Hulk’s dates on the stand last week. At this point, she’d rather show up to the wedding as the glamorous and beloved “Shulky” (as Nikki calls her) than as herself. But say what you will about nightmare bride Lulu, it is kind of rude for a superhero to pull focus from the event. Understanding this, she quickly agrees to spend the rest of the weekend (sorry, Wednesday and Thursday) as “Just Jen.” Cue title card!
This is difficult for Jen when Titania shows up in an obvious bid to provoke her, and when Lulu doesn’t care about any of her actually impressive accomplishments and instead probes into her lack of love life, a clear area of sensitivity for her right now. But there’s a cute guy at the wedding who is actually interested in Just Jen–he thinks she’s beautiful! Their awkward banter is adorable, and perfectly played by Tatiana Maslany and Trevor Salter.
Unfortunately, the romance is interrupted by Titania, making good on her promise that their enmity isn’t over. Side note: guess Jen retains some of She-Hulk’s hardiness in her human form, because she takes Titania’s punch like a champ. Unfortunately, human Jen is not as adept as fighting (despite what she may think), so she’s forced to break her promise and shift into Hulk form. (Though it takes her a minute: “Oh no, I forgot how to do it,” complains a hilariously drunk Jen.)
Titiana’s also finally expresses her motives for antagonizing Jen. She’s bothered by all the attention She-Hulk’s getting (no surprise there), and indignant that our hero is pulling her limelight “for something you don’t even want!” She wants to prove that She-Hulk doesn’t deserve her hype. Instead, she takes one hard hit and then trips face first on the dance floor, shattering her veneers. Titania flees the wedding in disgrace; one gets the feeling that the rivalry probably still isn’t over.
I haven’t forgotten our B story: a few episodes too late, but Renée Elise Goldsberry is finally stepping up as a series regular. This week, Mallory delightfully teams up with Nikki to handle the divorce case of Mr. Immortal (the wonderful David Pasquesi), who, if I’m not mistaken, is the first comic book character She-Hulk has introduced (on the guest star side) who doesn’t already exist in the MCU.
Even though they’re representing him, Mallory and Nikki have no respect for Mr. Immortal, who would rather temporarily kill himself than deal with confrontation. (“I’m a nice guy,” he argues. “I think this is the most considerate way to end a marriage.”) His jumping out of the window of Mallory’s office rather than face her judgment was very dark and very funny, and perhaps the most absurd image of the series to date.
This side plot allows both women time to shine, particularly Nikki, whose unconventional approach to arbitration with Mr. Immortal’s eight exes proves she can be fabulous and useful outside of Jen’s sphere. The storyline also leads us to Intelligencia, the website “for hateful man babies.” Looking into it after wrapping up the case, Mallory and Nikki discover a whole sub-thread on the site dedicated to hating She-Hulk, even to the point of death threats. Mallory thinks they shouldn’t tell Jen about her trolls, but Nikki immediately disregards that advice and gives her a heads-up on her voicemail.
And just in time, too, because some creepy stalkers in a science lab who may or may not be connected to Intelligencia are watching Jen at the wedding, and it seems like they’re preparing yet another attack to steal Jen’s blood. It seems next week we’ll finally get some answers about the mysterious mugging a few episodes ago. Or maybe not, if the Daredevil fake out is anything to go by. They like to keep us on our toes over at She-Hulk!
Stray observations
- Lots of great Nikki moments in this episode, including: “It’s twice as much of a sin to kill a fun person.”
- Super designer Luke made Jen a dress for the rehearsal dinner as well as, it seems, her bridesmaid dress. It’s a pretty sharp turnaround from being reluctant to work with her at all to offering her non-work outfits. Also, these dresses still look baggy and wrong on Just Jen. Guess Luke is not quite as adept as Edna Mode at making clothing that perfectly suits an expanding body.
- Poor Jen gets put on ironing duty because the groomsmen wrinkled their shirts while playing Mario Kart. (“Video games are sports now. They’re on ESPN and everything.”)
- “Walking On Broken Glass” may be an unconventional choice for a wedding dance floor montage, but Maslany’s drunk dancing made my whole week.
- Speaking of great needle drops, “The Electric Slide” is a great soundtrack for a wedding fight. Thank you, DJ InChedible Hulk.
- Uh-oh, Jen hasn’t been able to get in touch with Bruce for weeks, or months, or maybe days. (“Call me back, ya ding dong!”)
- Jen: “Oh, come on, I won that fair and square, get over it.” Titania: “I don’t get over anything!”
- Drop Patti Harrison in any cinematic universe, and she will surely shine. She was a perfect Lulu, but especially loved her quick turnaround to flattered that She-Hulk attended the wedding. “I’m a fan! Whoa, huge boobs.”
- The user inquiring about the “next phase of the plan” to go after She-Hulk goes by HulkKing, not Hulkling, as I originally thought. Sorry to any Young Avengers fans who, like me, were briefly excited about a Teddy Kaplan appearance.
198 Comments
Shout-out to Great Lakes Avengers fans today; may your dreams of MCU glory be fulfilled without a monkey’s paw curling next time.
Those final moments of the episode were weirdly disjointed. Kind of going through it my head, Nikki leaving that voicemail message was odd from a storybeat point of view as it wasn’t a specific threat against Jen nor was it somehow that if Jen had heard it instantly it would have affected anything. So it felt unnecessary as it just repeated information from literally the previous scene and if you left it out, the end would still have played the same.The only reason I can think of that choice if Mallory turns out to be involved in the plot and that was somehow to draw attention to her not wanting to alert Jen, but I don’t know how likely that is. Also it just feels really implausible based on that site in general that Jen wouldn’t have received some threats like that already through social media.
The show has made it quite clear that Nikki doesn’t keep her mouth shut. Even in this episode she started talking to and insulting a client as a legal assistant, while ignoring the lead attorney’s signals to STFU. There’s no way in hell Nikki would see death threats against her best friend and not instantly tell her. It wasn’t a repeat of the previous scene because Nikki was leaving a voicemail and it segued into the audience seeing the threat is real and immediate. Now the audience is left to wonder if Jen will get that voicemail in time.
It also just worked as a joke – “Okay, we won’t tell her” *cut to scene of telling her*
Well, I mean, “it worked as an *attempt* at a joke”, to be sure.
“On-Set She-Hulk Reference”That’s one odd credit you don’t see every day.
We probably should though. There’s someone doing that acting between the CGI.
iirc from Tatiana Maslany’s recent Comedy Bang Bang episode, they use a mix of techniques for set-up and scenes with She-Hulk, including the stand-in, a tennis ball on a stick, a 3D model of She-Hulk’s head on a stick (there’s a picture of this on Patti Harrison’s Instagram), and Tatiana in a mo-cap suit with a carboard cutout mounted on her head.
She’s *almost* a full-sized stand-in:
So they managed to make this week’s episode even worse than the previous one. That’s some accomplishement, I guess. SoS
But you got to see yourself represented this time!
I don’t need to see myself represented in anything because I don’t have self esteem issues, sweetie
Check again.
I found your mom. What know? I
Run, because she died 10 years ago and she’s probably not happy you dug her up, you fucking incel cunt.
LOL.Oh man, don’t ever change. I hope you kept watching this show you obviously hated and commented on every episode.
Pattie Harrison is enough to get me back into an episode, just as long as She Hulk doesn’t throw her tables into a mud puddle.
I think I might get distracted by the tables. Does anyone wear big Freddy Kreuger boots and stomp all over the tables? What is her job, anyway?
TABLES!
Thanks to spending way too much time in Reddit’s Am I The Asshole, I’ve seen plenty of stories like Jen’s this week. Brides will rope in old acquaintances to be “bridesmaids” and guilt them into doing all the shit work, so that the real bridesmaids/groomsmen can drink and relax.
Those people are always the asshole.
I honestly had no frame of reference for that and had no idea how to place that behavior. I just thought people were dunking on Jen for no real reason. I wonder if this is a sign that I’m being invited to too few weddings, or just the right amount (I attended one, admittedly great, wedding this year, and it was the first one I’d been to in at least a decade I think)
The over the top glitter invite was a pretty good indicator of how this wedding would go. IRL, if someone distant to you sends you that type of invitation to be a bridesmaid – run. For. The. Hills.
Yeah, I also thought it was people taking advantage of the fact she’s an agreeable pushover (like how immediately she said sure, let’s meet up again when she ran into the douchey Jon Bass date) because I didn’t know this was a thing.
First comics character the show has introduced you to that wasn’t already in the MCU? You mean besides the Wrecking Crew and Titania, right?
sheesh, you’re right, i AM mistaken–should have been more specific in terms of guest stars/GLK&H clients
It happens! Honestly I was super excited just because Mr. Immortal is the first time we’ve seen a member of the Great Lakes Avengers in the MCU. Can my all-time favorite Squirrel Girl be far behind?
squirrel girl would be a perfect tonal fit for this show!
Now you’ve put that in my head and I’m legit upset it hasn’t happened yet
I’m still convinced Squirrel Girl was subtly introduced to the MCU via the rodent in Endgame
If ANY show has set up the right light comedy tone for the Milana Vayntrub Squirrel Girl we were promised years ago, this is it! Fix that mistake, Marvel!!
Problem is, that show was a New Warriors/Great Lakes Avengers mashup that included a much younger Mr. Immortal, so they’d have to start over from scratch on that. I hope they keep Milana around, though.
Quick note: although very obscure, Luke Jacobson is also a pre-existing Marvel character.
Also, it’s “Shulkie,” not “Shulky.” This nickname goes back decades.
I said this on io9, and it still holds true:I enjoyed the episode for what it was. I got secondhand embarrassment from Jen drunk dancing, but she was having a good time – until she yakked in the bushes. I was also thinking the worst when it came to Josh; honestly, I’m kinda waiting for that other shoe to drop.Lulu and the other bridesmaids were the typical bridezillas. Yeesh.The Mr. Immortal stuff was fine, but watching Nikki and Mallory connect was wonderful.Enough with Daredevil, okay? We’ll see him when we see him.
I hope the show will throw Jen a bone and just let Josh be a guy who is genuinely interested in her, but yeah, I also got the same vibe that his focused attention on her may be for ulterior motives.
Yah it’s turning into a bit of the shows detriment that they teased Daredevil (and the other cameos) cuz like this show is about She-Hulk. I got exhausted by people demanding Mephisto and Magneto during WandaVision I feel like throwing that mob a bone with Daredevil is this is still just resulting in those fans being impatient.
It would be the funniest troll ever if the MCU just never gets around to X-Men LOL. Just to deliberately fuck with fans. But constantly give us little nods like Patrick Stewarts cameo and the moment in Ms. Marvel for years and years. It’s kind of brilliant.
That would be funny, but I think we’ll get over it once they surprise drop an announcement that Giancarlo Esposito will be Charles Xavier and Denzel Washington will be Magneto.
I’m all for Esposito as Xavier, but I really think Magneto’s German Jewish heritage is essential to his character. I think it creates an even better dynamic having each come from a background of oppression (Magneto with the Holocaust and antisemitism and Xavier with racism) and how they may differ on how to deal with the oppression mutants may face (as they always have)- Magneto with superiority and revenge, Xavier with understanding and peace (similar to Civil Rights leaders).If I were making the call, it’s Christoph Waltz’s role if he wants it.
Problem is the further we move in time, the more improbable it is to have a reasonably-not-ancient Magneto who is a Holocaust survivor.
That’s fair, of course.
…and some toxic twit in response will start the next iteration of 4chan, calling it “Intelligencia.”That is a genius casting suggestion.
The rumor of late has been that Fox had contracts with the old cast members until 2025 and Marvel can’t recast or even begin development publicly before they expire. Which makes sense given we’ve only seen Stewart and no X-Men movie was announced for Phase 5 or 6 yet.
Yeah, I could buy that.
Fairly clear how this is going. Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen all of the previews, I guess.
Next Ep: Frog Man appears and those incel fucknuts take another run at She-Hulk and get a lot closer this time. It actually puts Nikki or Pug in danger and Jen is really ready to just be done – to the point of quitting her job.
Episode 8: Matt Murdock/Daredevil helps her see she can do both
Episode 9: She fucks shit up and we get a better idea of the big bad. Hint: It rhymes with Focter Foom.
I don’t think “The Leader” rhymes with that at all…
That’s probably the odds-on favorite, but I’m going with higher odds. I think Titania, after getting easily handled by She-Hulk, realizes she needs more power.
And then we get back to her comic origin, where Doom gave her power.
I can’t see them introducing Doom here. Don’t get me wrong, I was shocked that they introduced Kang in the last episode of Loki and kept it (mostly) secret, but that at least fit the circumstances of the story. This show already has so many references to The Incredible Hulk, that the MCU has generally ignored prior to now, and the only dangling thread that movie left that hasn’t been addressed is The Leader. If I was placing a bet I’d go with those odds.
Oh, you guys are both right. And the safe money is the Leader. And probably Sharon Carter (or whoever she’s actually working for, because that storyline remains stupid) is a better bet than Doom.
For that matter, you could argue Zemo has as good a case, if only because he’d want to figure out a way to remove Hulks from the board. Doom would just be fun.
Not to go off on a further tangent, but we are still waiting for a satisfactory explanation for Carter’s heel turn.
1) Feige had to quarantine for a couple of weeks and they rammed that through without him knowing and he fired everyone involved and they are just going to drop it.
2) It’s a work and Sharon is undercover to take down whoever she was calling at the end. (I read one half-cocked rumor that they were trying to get Dafoe to at least do the Norman Osborn voice, but couldn’t make it work.)
3) They really are going with it. I’m not sure the character or the actress has the gravitas to pull it off, but we’ll see.
I really think expecting her to have her exact comics origins here is perhaps foolish? I really don’t think they’d premiere him in a show like this. That would be such an odd play. I really don’t feel like we’ll see him until after Kang. Doctor Doom would overshadow Kang as the next big bad.
It was hilarious that She-Hulk beat Titania with the assist of an ice-cube.
I think either of these could be setting oneself up for disappointment but alas. I wasn’t part of the Mephisto thing. You guys do your whole bit of building up expectations and being furious when the MCU doesnt do it.
Yes, my idle speculation about this television show will surely lead to devastation when it doesn’t happen.
* Fin Fang Foom. Fixed it for ya!
Wait… would that rhyme with Din Dang Doom? Now I’m confused.
isn’t fin fang foom racist tho? How does that fix anything
No? He’s just a big space dragon.
Two double DDs there.Honestly, I’m trying to square both A) How this Titania might fit with that Foctor Foom. (Say two years back, Titania was but a simple … what? A mid-level employee at VD Industries? Who secretly wanted to be a pro-wrestler? Who took a shot at pitching something to the CEO and… Idk. Ma-ay-be there’s something there. Dump the pro-wrestler angle and make her a tri-athlete and make whatever happened to her that gave her super-strength – fry her brain a bit.)and B) How this She-Hulk will fit with that Matt Murdock. I think Normal Jen and Lawyer Matt can get along fine. Flirty, even. I guess I’d like to see Shulkie get Daredevil to crack a smile. She’s funny. He’s not. Still, I’m hoping for the shock-edit from them talking pleasantly on the roof to them in bed together. Do it, show!
“Two double DDs there.”
Circling nicely back to Lulu’s line.
The episode title clearly shows that episode 9 is daredevil and the only reason why this abomination of a show was even produced is to bait viewers with Daredevil comeback.AndAnATheThAnd to make she hulk fight incels is peak feminist writing
Abomination! HAH! The incel made a funny!
Manhater got a joke, that’s gotta be a first
Incel?
Pretty tasteless to have Matt Murdock help her see…
Wait until Echo helps her hear the voice in her head and Professor X helps her walk through her troubles!
Today I discovered that Renee Elise Goldsberry is 51.This seems impossible.
Same age:
That’s just not fair…..
Wilford Brimley is always a cheat as he looked old for his age . Anyway people aged quicker back then, it was the from the CFCs in the air and post trinity testing nuclear fallout or something.*(well actually smoking and being exposed to a lot of UV rays )
I also think it’s fashion changes. Or something. I’m not sure on this point. My grandmother, who died in 1996, or so looked like your stereotypical grandmother with white hair styled like a granny and old timey clothes. My mother who is right now around the same age as her mother when she died wears the clothes of someone in her late 50s and looks just fine and appropriate. I’m the same age now as that Brimley photo but there’s no way I’d wear those kinds of clothes. Or maybe it’s just Brimley’s gray hair and mustache.
There also is a genuinely (sorta?) scientific argument that people do age slower as average lifespans expand. I mean teens even in the 1970s do NOT look like teens now (check out any yearbook from back then) and that had little to do with smoking—(BTW Renee heavily smoked well into her thirties, apparently)
It does cause casting issues for things like revivals. ie you can’t easily cast a 50 year old as Norma Desmond or even a mid 30 year old as Blanche DuBois anymore and have the audience buy it. If anyone knows the 1971 Sondheim musical Follies, it revolves around two couples who are between 45-55 and are meant to be at the start of the “last act” of their life. Of course a lot of that is societal changes (in 1950 a single Blanche DuBois would still be seen as probably past her chance to ever get married or even find new work), but some of it is natural as well and when they revive the show they cast those characters at least 10 years older (partly because they like to cast the show with aging Broadway stars, and a 45 year old Broadway star is no longer seen as aging, neither is it seen as amazing that a 45 year old Broadway star can still do a complex production number without passing out or breaking a hip.)
Anyway, I’m thrilled that Renee is finally getting the star work she’s long deserved. Pre-Hamilton, I remember her popping up in a lot of minor stage shows, and being underused for years on One Life to Live, and nothing else.
She was very good in The Good Wife
This photo of She-Hulk right here is a great example of her not appearing like she’s actually in the same room as her surroundings.
And Paul Rudd is now older than Wilford Brimley was in that picture
Paul Rudd is the real Mr Immortal
what the fuck?
Ms. Immortal
Annnnnd another third-rate sitcom episode, not funny enough – heck, just not funny, period – for the genre and sadly lacking in all other departments you’d want for a superhero-based show. Absolutely no reason to turn Mr. Immortal into a narcisstic sleazebag, either. This is hands-down the biggest MCU TV disappointment up to now, in a field that has been yielding nothing but disappointments starting with Falcon & Winter Soldier.
I mean I’m enjoying it , but it’s really leaning a bit too hard into the men are all terrible trope, which it needs to pull back on a little.Also , Jesus …are American weddings that bad ?? no free bar , bitchzillas , and a bride who yoyo’s from dont be hulk and show me up to “yay! hulk!”
Nah. Pug is a delight. Ched is obviously out there just living his best life, and don’t forget good ol’ Wongers. Even Jen’s current boss isn’t a lech. He doesn’t want Jen in She-Hulk form to gawk at, he wants her working in that form for company branding, and he still expects her to be a competent lawyer first.When part of the main character is, “has bad luck in dating life”, you get bad dates. You’d get a parade of stereotypical, bad women characters if you swapped Jen with Bruce but kept the premise the same.If you are talking the jerky clients… well, GLK&H is a top law firm. Unless you’re working in the Pro Bono division, the clients are usually gonna skew hard towards rich, or wannabe rich, douches.As for the wedding, it was like that because of Lulu the Bridezilla. American weddings are as varied as her people. From everybody brings a 12 pack and a gift (that’s usually another 12 pack) to the trailer park, to open bars and ice sculptures at the resort.
I mean I’m enjoying it , but it’s really leaning a bit too hard into the men are all terrible trope, which it needs to pull back on a little.Jesus. Insecure more.
The thing that gets me about this take is the show seems to go out of it’s way to not do that. For every terrible guy in each episode there seems to be at least one good guy and one shitty woman “balancing” them out. It takes effort to wrangle “This show is saying all men are shit” out of it.
I was going to write a somewhat similar response to Dr Bob, but since his take so clearly shows that he’s ignored the portrayals of any woman on the show, and only focused on how some men are portrayed, I figured it a worthless endeavor.
There are a lot of people, men and women alike, who can’t pay attention when female characters are on the screen showing characterization. The straight guys might pay attention that she’s present if she’s showing skin, but really they’re hearing all her dialogue in Charlie Brown Parentese and waiting for the real characters to speak. Men are characters, women are props.
Years ago we were watching the Oscars and my Dad clicked fast forward when Best Actress came on and I was like “hey fuck you!”
lol seriously.
How can it be leaning into “the men are all terrible trope” when this episode showed both Titania and Lulu as two terrible women for different reasons.
There are a lot of American weddings that are that bad, yes, but it will usually be only one of those awful elements rather than all of them combined. I think Lulu’s change of temper had to do with two main things: a) the wedding was over, and even the most uptight bride tends to unclench a bit at that point; and b) she was utterly shitfaced.Oddly enough, there’s a Spoiler Space entry from earlier this week asking why George R. R. Martin hates weddings, and all of the comments are pretty much “Everybody hates weddings!” with horror stories provided. So I guess bad weddings are a vibe these days: https://www.avclub.com/why-does-george-r-r-martin-hate-weddings-1849548070
Meh, as a white American male, I was more offended by what they did to Nuke in the Jessica Jones series than anything here. Sometimes, we suck. On the other hand, I haven’t had to approach anyone in a bar for a conversation in about 16 years and I feel like I’d really be bad at it.
That was a bad wedding by American standards too. Not all are that bad, but some are. More than should be the case.
Yeah, American weddings are just like that. I can’t tell you how many brides I’ve gotten mixed messages from on whether or not they want me in Hulk form!! Like just give me a straight answer so I know what to wear, damn!
F&tWS was the second MCU series after WandaVision, so if you’re saying you didn’t like any of it other than WandaVision maybe you should… stop watching?There’s so many TV series and movies out there and so little time to consume it all, I’ll never understand the people who continue to watch things they don’t enjoy. You can just stop, it’s fine!
This is a poster who trashed this series and in the next paragraph, sympathized with Mr. Immortal. All that was missing was, “well, those Intelligencia posters had a point.”
How does one admit to being an incel without saying the word…
Familiarity, it’s the same reason people have sex with exes. People would rather watch the later-bad-seasons of a once great show than explore a new show.
It’s why I’m up to date on Westworld despite not enjoying it anymore.
I’m an MCU fanboy but getting a little burned out with the sub-par TV shows lately. I only watched one of these and thought it was the worst yet. It seemed really dumb and cartoony and Ruffalo as Smart Hulk had waaaay too much screen time that first episode and it just wasn’t as funny as it wanted to be. Has it gotten better? Feels like MCU-TV is really wearing out its welcome…
The entire police procedural genre wore out its welcome by the 1970s, and yet there are still a dozen new ones each year. I think sub-par MCU is like sub-par pizza – hey, it’s still pizza.
That’s exactly how I’ve been viewing this “hey it’s still pizza”.
My Dad really likes Hulk and Lou Ferigno and he loved Ragnarok. He was kinda excited for this but we dropped it. He does not like Smart Hulk. Not a strong dislike just like the one character he liked became meh.
During this whole episode my wife kept saying over and over “This is SO stupid” After it was over she asked me what I thought. I replied, “It was pretty stupid” … My wife generally loves superhero shows but is definitely hating this one so far.
I get the feeling that it wasn’t being drunk that caused Jenn some problems, but rather being drugged. I specifically went back to check if that guy might be Thunderball, but it’s not. Still, I think that that guy’s in on it.
I don’t know that there’s any reason to believe that she was drugged (She’s clearly adjusted to Hulk drinking, and might have just overdone it) but I was definitely suspicious of Too Good To Be True Guy. I’m also not sure about Mallory not wanting to tell Jen about the website. Neither character is really all that hinky, but the show really seems to be waiting to reveal its cards, which has me side eyeing everyone.
Speaking of side-eye: Nikki shoots a look at the camera in her last scene with Mallory, which might be meaningful or it might just be something GG did that they decided to leave in.
When it cut to them hanging out together on the couch I was like HMM WHAT IS THIS, but then it led to Mallory talking about being married 11 years and having a kid and then quickly changed to them investigating the She-Hulk Haters forum. So… who knows. Feels like it might come back, but the episodes already feel a bit rushed and overstuffed.
My thought was the guy flirting with Jen was specifically expressing how he liked her *as* Jen to give himself a shot at being close to her in a private setting with non-Hulk skin, but the mysterious scientists producing bigger, scarier needles probably debunks that guess. Hopefully he was just a nice guy and a win for Jen and not there under nefarious motives, but when there’s a secret unseen villain you can never count anyone out immediately.
“My thought was the guy flirting with Jen was specifically expressing how he liked her *as* Jen to give himself a shot at being close to her in a private setting with non-Hulk skin”
Same thought here, but you’re right that the final shot of the beefed-up needle throws cold water on that idea. I still think there’s something up with Suspiciously Ripped Pediatrician in this regard.
which has me side eyeing everyone. Right? When the Grooms-dog showed up, I caught myself thinking, “I wonder what his angle is.”
I see no indication that Jen was drugged. We see her buy drink after drink after drink till she pukes. She was just drunk. That doesn’t mean Josh doesn’t have some ulterior motives, but he didn’t drug Jen.
I see no indication that Jen was drugged. We see her buy drink after drink after drink till she pukes. She was just drunk.1 word: Bartender
It’s pretty clear that Jen was just regular-drunk here. As Cayde-6’s said, we see Jenn buy multiple drinks because she’s having a miserable time and thinks “Why not get drunk and have fun?” The dancing montage accentuates this.
Jen is drunk, not drugged (although technically alcohol is a drug, but you know what I mean). We see her buying a drink multiple times, and the dance montage clearly shows that she is drunk.
Thank you for using the word “cheugy” that is absolutely my favorite zoomer slang. I actively own / wear like seven pairs of Crocs. Cheugy defines me. A lot of “90’s kid” stuff is cheugy and I absolutely adore it.
Younger people at parties always seem to love how cheugy I am because they think I’m doing it ironically it’s hilarious. I busted out my ipod shuffle to charge it at a party and all these younger people were so impressed by how clunky my tech is. I have a Samsung and everything it’s amazing I just never caught on to style my entire life and now coolness has run full circle and so now I seem like an unintentional hipster but I’m just doing what I’ve always done. I absolutely love it.
“Unintentional hipster” is how I’ve felt obligated to define myself for a while now. I’m an autistic geek, which means I both don’t have any artifice and am extremely into utterly random shit (some mainstream, some esoteric), which means I am constantly finding myself doing hipster things, but wholly unironically. In addition to a large amount of Beatles stuff, I have (and sometimes play) a mandolin and banjo (and ukulele, naturally, among other instruments), which sit right next to my grandparents’ 77-year-old coffee table, not far from the autographed Wyatt Cenac and Tom Paxton posters on my wall, which are themselves not far from the Haida art prints and massive collection of DVDs (a fair number of which are criterion collection films). And, of course, I have a (reasonably well-kept) beard. So yup – unintentional hipster.(I finally fully realized this a few months into the pandemic when I was ordering mason jars in which I intended to store my homemade shrubs, just in case there was any lingering doubt.)
Ah I hate that word. Not the concept, but the sound and the spelling. It’s like “moist”.
Cheugy is the nyquil chicken of words.
Gen Z is the Nyquil chicken of generations..
Were we watching the same show? There was one, and only one moment in this episode that I actually enjoyed, and it was Nikki agreeing with Mallory to keep Jen in the dark about Intelligencia, only to immediately tell her. Pretty much everything else was bollocks, as was much of last week. I was really looking forward to She-Hulk as well, and it’s been a huge letdown (Wong and Madisynn aside). At this point I’m only still watching out of a sense of duty and because I want to see Daredevil.
Yah, I don’t know – I went in WAY excited for: a) Tatiana Maslany, and b) a great, fun show with a well-written/well-realized female lead, and instead we got…I honestly don’t know. /smh
I’m fine with the sit-com-y-ness of (some of) it – but “sitcom” doesn’t have to mean “lazy, sloppy writing/lowest-common-denominator”; I’m also fine with the “most men are bastards” thru-line (source: am man), but it’s often played more for a laugh, which – I don’t know – kinda defeats the purpose? (A show/movie can be both dark/serious *and* funny…ya just gotta have the writing chops.)I guess…it’s a show that doesn’t seem to know WHAT it wants to be, so it careens around in a half-dozen directions at once, never really leaning into ANY of them.I’m genuinely sad, because Tatiana Maslany is *insanely* talented, and can work WONDERS, and Jameela Jamil is ludicrously charming/talented, but this…this material is just…*meh*. /shrugs
Couldn’t have put it better myself!!
Same. And I’m not sure if it’s the sloppiness or the laziness that is more frustrating. It’s sloppy to have a settlement where the spouses’ lawyers aren’t even there. It’s lazy to end the wedding storyline with the bride approving of She-Hulk, when nothing was done to get us to that moment.
I’m fine with a light breezy superhero comedy. But within the context of their own writing, they could be doing better than they are doing.
As for the most men are bastards thing, I think the problem with that is it isn’t coming from the perspective of the character (which would make sense, thematically) but established an in-universe fact, (which makes less sense, and feels false) which is why the writers are being accused of projecting.
“It’s lazy to end the wedding storyline with the bride approving of She-Hulk, when nothing was done to get us to that moment.”The bride is obviously drunk at the end when she sees She-Hulk – you can tell from how she talks. She hasn’t changed her mind about not wanting Jen as She-Hulk, but that’s what she thinks when she’s sober. She’s clearly drunk here and in that state *loves* that She-Hulk is at her wedding. That’s the joke.
Well said, that was my expectation and is how I feel about the show too. I really wanted to like it but it’s just okay, not great. I wish the talent was much better utilized. I don’t understand the dismissal of criticism by saying, “it’s just a breezy sitcom!” because there are plenty of breezy sitcoms with better stories and writing (doesn’t hold a candle to say, Bob’s Burgers).I agree it seems like they haven’t really figured out the tone and what it wants to be. The episodes are just too short, it’s difficult to cram an interesting “fun” episode story arc while also moving along the pieces in the larger “serious” story in under 25 min without it feeling kinda disjointed. The closest was probably the Wong and Madisynn episode. These last few were alright too, or maybe I just know better what to expect.
(Not disagreeing with you, more, critiquing the show-runners): but you *can* get some AMAZING storytelling done in under 25 minutes – just go look at “Homecoming” (*especially* the first season); those episodes were tight and (skillfully) dense.
I agree, it’s definitely possible but not an easy feat. I haven’t seen Homecoming but this might actually get me to watch it! I didn’t know the episodes were on the shorter side and lately I’ve felt like I don’t have time for hour long dramas. I *was* intrigued by the second season, as a Janelle Monae fan.
Hahaha…well, fair warning (and as much as I love Janelle & her talent): the first (Julia Roberts)(!)-helmed season is a MUCH better-executed story. Not saying the 2nd (Janelle) season is bad…it’s just not quite as good as it’s progenitor. 😉
But go watch it! It’s a great little show!
I got a BIG laugh out of Mr. Immortal jumping out the window to get away. On one hand, it was a funny punchline to the dilemma he’d been explaining. But on another hand, I found it amusingly relateable, and I’m not sure if that was the intent or not. Because if it was, then that, along with the remark about the inconvenience of this episode, as well as several of the other asides throughout season, paint a picture that this is a show that knows it’s kind of not that good, and they are hoping you don’t mind.
It’s really weird. Like the geeky kid in school who makes fun of himself as armor so the bullies can’t use it against him. He’ll still get stuffed in a locker, there’s just less left to say.
I enjoyed Mr. Immortal jumping out the window while Nikki and Mallory were talking shit about him to his face as well. I also guffawed when they revealed who Jen would be walking down the aisle with. And, of course, Patti Harrison is always a delight.
It’s kinda funny that this is one role where Jameela Jamil does an American accent. Her natural accent would seem to fit the character fine as well, especially if she could play it as an American faking a UK accent.
There was a great bit on The Good Place when they infiltrated Hell and to fit in Tahani adopted an (excellent, hilarious) American accent.
I don’t know how excellent it was (in terms of authenticity; it sounded a lot like a lot of the UK kids I went to high school with pretending to do an American accent), but it was indeed hilarious.However, her New Ducktales character was played with an American accent I was surprised to find out it was her in the end, mostly because I only knew her American accent from Rhonda Mumps.
She can be very funny doing it, although I feel like the directors on She-Hulk aren’t giving her enough freedom to vamp or something. She’s so funny doing influencer parody voices in the two minute clip on this site, but I haven’t heard her get to really nail it with her lines on the actual show.But it kind of is of a piece with my feelings on the show as a whole: the direction hasn’t always been tight enough for the jokes to land as solidly as they should be landing.
It’s BAFFLING because we know Jameela is hysterical (and glamorous and camp and amazing), and absolutely none of her line readings are landing for me.
I still think it’s a runtime problem. There’s just no time to give Jameela or any villain of her ilk in what are like 18 minute episodes. I’m assuming at least half of the episode screen time needs to feature Maslany. How could Jameela play anything but a cardboard cut out of a character with this restraint?
It’s the type of stuff I could an excuse a quick and breezy cartoon for but whatever reason it seems so much more detrimental on a live-action show. I can’t pinpoint why I feel that way.
Probably my favorite episode. Her response to the demon who said she was going to take a dump, and would anyone like her to bring them back one too is hilarious..
It’s been distracting for me. Jameelas natural accent is so charming. I was so excited that she was appearing on this and that excitement was kinda deflated by her accent here.
Since Tahani and Titiania are both high-profile society “influencers” in their own way, I almost feel as though the choice to have Jameela play Titiana with an American accent was deliberately designed to make her seem less like Tahani.
So the visual link-up between finding out about “The Intelligencia” and the subsequent cut to the lab where they were reinforcing the needle so as to get them some gamma-blood really adds to that “this is how they reintroduce The Leader” speculation, doesn’t it?
Sure does, good call.
Sure feels that way.
I hope She-Hulk didn’t leave her tables looking like they were tossed in mud.
I can’t know how to hear anymore about tables. TAYYYY BULLLLLLLS.
Maslany continues to shine, and getting Patti Harrison & David Pasquesi in the MCU on the same day? Incredible.
“and you should see what my She-Hulk hair looks like” was so damn charming
Nikki needs to turn bad or be secretly working for the bad guys.
The Lodge 49-ification of the MCU continues with David Pasquesi as Mr. Immortal.
Patti Harrison was underused.
It sometimes blows my mind that David Pasquesi played both a gentle, idealistic seeker of truth on Lodge 49 and Selina Meyer’s shitbag grifter of an ex-husband on Veep. Mr. Immortal somehow lands between the two, a bit closer to Andrew Meyer.
Also the sleazy Twi’lek butler in Book of Boba Fett, who I would have sworn was actually Matt Frewer under that makeup.
I first saw him in a stage play called Qualms (which was about a couple nervously trying to dip their toes into the swinger community), and he was hilarious as a not-quite-sleazy accomplished swinger. So it perfectly tracked when I later saw him turn up on Veep.
He will always and forever be Stew the Meat Man from Strangers with Candy to me!
And Tony Pugnalata, the knife guy, from “At Home With Amy Sedaris”.
Pfft, he’ll always be the psychologist in Groundhog Day who nervously tells Phil that he normally works with couples, families: “…I have an alcoholic now.”
Just a shame that they burned a cool character with a cameo appearance making it unlikely we’ll ever see a GLA MCU comedy, at least not one with the full comics lineup.Would love to hear how such a decision is made.
Notably, The Intelligencia exists in the comic books as a secret organization of super evil geniuses such as The Leader, the Wizard, Red Ghost, MODOK, etc. And since we’re apparently getting The Leader in the MCU many years after his being teased in the Incredible Hulk once upon a time…
Fun story, it was already in the MCU before this, and not just the comics. In Black Panther when Ross shows T’Challa the file on Klaue, he’s listed as a former member of the Intelligencia.
There are just way too many Easter Eggs in the MCU, with a low signal to noise ratio. And I say that as someone who likes pretty much all of the shows and films.
Well like the first guy said, it’s been a thing in the Marvel comics universe for a long time, so this is less likely to be a secret connection to She-Hulk and more likely to be an easy detail to include on Klaue’s rap sheet. At least it serendipitously works now because Klaue did seem to be sort of terminally online.
I don’t know if it’s intentional or pure coincidence, but I do think it’s also a little funny that we get this reference so soon after having gotten an Illuminati as well.
It’s posts like this that make me miss laserface.
I’ve been mostly enjoying this show, but idk…the particular brand of feminism in this episode especially felt really dated. There’s a bridezilla storyline straight out of the mid-aughts. We get Jen sitting alone, stuffing her face with candied nuts in a very Not Like The Other Girls moment. Then we have a vain, one-dimensional villain whose main motivation for antagonizing Jen is that…Jen is getting more attention than she is? Who then gets Hulk-smashed into the ground and gets up crying about her veneers, because I guess they felt having her whine “but I broke a nail!!!” would just be *too* much of a trope?
Yeah, she’s Jen… so she can be Jenny.But Shulky has to be Shulkie because it’s a slightly ironic term of endearment, rather than an average name-shortening or term of endearment. *not a real rule or anything – just a vibe* … and elsewhere in media, for a couple years now, I’ve seen it spelled “Shulkie.”
I only know the correct spelling because of the old AVC commenter :’)
I liked this one. From a pure sitcom standpoint, I thought everything came together really well. If they’re trying to do the “three jokes a page” thing, it felt like everything hit. Would have liked a two or three second shot of the nuptials (I do… I do… Jen holding the dog) just so you knew the reception was officially on, but that’s a nitpick. It had plenty of screen time for the four main female characters. Great.
Since bigamy’s illegal in the first place, shouldn’t Craig’s “oldest” living wife be the only one with a claim?
Much like “now his watch has ended,” they’re probably leaning on the “til death do us part” loophole!
That’s why the push the “legally dead” loophole. He actually died in human terms, so “til death do us part” still counts, so he was married sequentially without any complicated overlaps.
I don’t really get what they were trying to push with Mr. Immortal, story-wise. Surviving an accident that would kill non-superpowered individual is completely different from dying. I expected the visual representation to be that he actually gets buried and reincarnates into a new body or something along those lines. But if he just does the Wolverine thing where he suffers what regular people would consider fatal damage but just regenerates on the spot, stands up and walks away, who is even there to issue a death certificate? Under this definition most superheroes “died” then. Heck, even someone who had a near-death experience and was revived would be considered legally dead if that was the case.In fact, I though that subplot would involve Mallory and Nikki explaining to him that he was never declared dead under the law, he just walked away from his (in turn, illegal) marriages
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law doesn’t seem very strong on the law aspect.
In the aside, Nikki and Mallory gave him a quick rundown of all the laws he may have broken. Bigamy and first claim aside, it seemed clear everyone wanted to settle. BTW – did none of them have a lawyer?
Mr. Immortal is exactly the kind of Marvel D-Lister I was hoping this show would dredge up. My absolute favorite thing about Slott’s She-Hulk run was how he would pull some of the greatest oddball characters out of Marvel obscurity and I want more of that here!
I did not know a lot about She Hulk before this show, but I had heard that about the comics. I love how Gao is playing that part up.
Mr. Immortal really worked for me, whoever was that Asgardian Shapeshifter character, not so much.
John Byrne did it first.
Have they confirmed anything behind Intelligencia? Just the name and their search for Gamma infused blood screams The Leader to me. Are they setting up for the next Cap?
The show’s pretty good, though I wish it would stop being so tepid. And Titania as a character is just NOT working, which is odd because I loved the actress in The Good Place.
Right?
I’m cribbing from an above reply I made, but: the show just doesn’t seem to know WHAT it wants to be, so it does a half-dozen different (story/plot/tone) turns each week, but never really leans into ANY of them, and the result is a great milquetoast waste of both Tatiana and Jameela’s (and everyone else involved’s) copious talents.The only thing that makes me feel a little bit good about the whole thing is that everyone involved is at least making some big Marvel Money(tm).
Really enjoyed this ep. My only grievance was that Mr Immortal didn’t seem to suffer any consequences for killing whoever was in that car he crushed.
Wait, was there someone in that car?
Pretty sure the car was just parked there empty.
Pretty sure that car was parked and empty. It’s a security car, and you can see the security driver next to it on his radio.
I guess he knew that when he decided to dive out of the window. Or he totally risked murdering someone in order to quickly leave an unlocked office.
Would have been cool if he’d just landed directly on top of someone and pulverised them.
And Jen could have gone to the puppy parade.
Oddly, I’ve been to a wedding on a Wednesday night, and I’ve been to a wedding on a Thursday night. Even weirder: they were on consecutive nights. Annoyingly, one was on the ass end of Long Island and the other was deep in the heart of Jersey. (They were also completely unrelated weddings. There were no overlaps in the guest lists other than my wife and me.)
I like the show overall but IMO, the 4th wall breaks subtract more than they add. Yeah, I know it’s from the comics but not everything translates to screen. I appreciate that they’re used sparingly. So sparingly, in fact, they could be completely removed without affect the story at all. I can see if she had hilarious jokes or something but so far they’ve just been meta comments like “Look! The A and B story came together!” or “That’s right, this is a bottle episode!” but she’s never said anything worth taking us out of the story for. She just reminds us we’re watching a show for the sake of it.And that opens another can of worms… If this is just a “fun lawyer show” does that mean none of this is “real”? If it’s a show, is she on a set? Are there cameras? Producers? A writer’s room? Was that really Wong or an actor playing Wong? Is any of this really happening?It’s one thing when Deadpool does it. He’s supposed to be insane. In The Office, they’re filming a documentary. But what’s Jen’s excuse? If it’s a show within a show, then I think they needed to commit to that idea and dive much deeper. (arguing with the director, etc) Otherwise, it comes off pretty half-assed. Since the jokes/insights aren’t THAT valuable, why even bring it up?
In the John Byrne comic run, Jen knew she was in a comic book. She would often talk about comics tropes, and talk back to the writer.So far the fourth-wall breaks here haven’t implicitly stated that Jen realizes she’s on a TV show, or that the entire MCU is a series of movies/TV shows. And we haven’t seen her calling out the show’s writers/show runners … yet?
Despite some of the complaints that the show has been “slow” or hasn’t incorporate enough “MCU/superhero elements”, what they are doing is making me care about the characters (great development for Mallory this week) and they’re really knocking the comedy out of the fucking park. The humor is genuinely funny rather than funny by the standards of a superhero show/movie.The character work will pay huge dividends once these characters show up outside of the series. I can’t really say the same about the other Disney+ shows. Part of what made the team-ups in Phases 1 thru 3 so great when they finally came is that we were invested in the characters on their own and were excited when they finally joined forces.
I love your recaps, but I have to disagree about the wedding fight song. You are a DJ at a wedding where Jen and Titania (I LOVE Jamil in this role!) are guests – how do you NOT have Kung Fu Fighting cued up, just in case. On the other hand, I thought the Eurythmics cue was spot on.Any one else get the feeling that Josh is connected to the Wrecking Crew? It is just the type of disappointment this show has given us before.Finally, Jessica Gao is just taking the piss out of all the predictable haters of this show on a weekly basis. It is genius.
I can’t figure out who this show is for.
sometimes it takes a minute (the quantum leap reboot) with she hulk it was this episode, i lot intrest and pushed the button
I’m sure everyone here missed you.
.
I continue to love this show. I’m a dude, and I can enjoy it because I recognize all the crap the women in my life have dealt with, and I’ve heard about.What I enjoy as well is the certain types of people who REALLY HATE IT. For all their shitty opinions, it doesn’t seem to be budging the needle on public opinion.But: Real talk. Anyplace with an online ratings system needs a better way of fighting off bots and trolls:https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/she_hulk_attorney_at_law
37% with a critic score of high 80’s suggests the reviews have been exploited. Some places have figured this out, but not enough yet. (Walled troll gardens)
One thing I’ve noticed moving forward with the last few episodes is that there are no stingers. The first few episodes had stingers. Even a stinger of Jen and Matt would’ve tided fans over.