The best of all the Marvel One-Shots is “Agent Carter.”  And I’ll tell you why.

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When I said we’d be dealing with the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, I meant it.  Not only does that include the short films (or, One-Shots), it also includes the television shows.  So far, Marvel has provided us three TV shows that tie in to their universe.  The goal of these shows is not to give life to the movies.  That is unnecessary.  Rather, the goal of these shows is to introduce stories and characters that you can follow just as closely as you’ve followed the movie characters.

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I’ve already established how obnoxious Kat Dennings is as Darcy.  I also think that Natalie Portman as Thor’s love-interest, Jane, is shallow and uninteresting (which is shocking, considering the fact that Natalie Portman is a very talented actress…could this be a rare instance where Marvel’s screenwriters are to blame?).  Stellan Skarsgård, though, is quite an enjoyable character.  So also are Thor’s “Warriors Three” and, to a lesser extent, the Lady Sif.  Another fine actor (a legend, actually), Anthony Hopkins, does an okay job as Odin.  Rene Russo hardly exists as Frigga. Continue reading →

In 1940s America, women were viewed as inferior and unwelcome in many “a man’s” world.  We get it.  Perhaps my biggest gripe with ABC’s Agent Carter is that the show can’t seem to stop trying to tell us this story, as if there is some deep moral/polical/social point they are trying to tell us.  This is a common trend in this “Golden Age” of American television: starting with Mad Men, we’ve had Pan Am, Agent Carter, and the upcoming Astronaut Wives.  All telling the same story, as if to help to show just how far we’ve come since those dark, terrible years.  I think that even the writers of Mad Men, which is a certifiable masterpiece of TV, would admit that things would have played out better if they had established the gender dynamic more subtly, introducing us a bit at a time to the culture rather than bombarding us with one element of a culture that could fairly be defined by hundreds of different things. Continue reading →

I’ve been asked many times how I feel about the current “Golden Age” of television.  I am fully in support of the movement to put great stories into the medium.  I love that TV is where it is today.  But, I will always be a movie guy.  There is a real difference between TV and movies, and the more you study them, the more obvious that becomes.  A lot of people see that television shows are an hour long while movies are two and say that there can’t be much difference.  But there is.  Continue reading →

You were wondering where this one would end up.  Well, here it is.  Half the people in this world think it’s too high.  The other half probably thinks it’s too low.  Well, I think we’ve got a Goldilocks situation right now.  And, I think placing it at #9 is right where it belongs. Continue reading →

The second season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was really good.  The producers and writers learned from their mistakes in the first season.  Unfortunately, less people tuned in to see it, disheartened by the lackluster first few episodes of this promising series.

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Whether or not you’d like to admit it, Captain America is everyone’s favorite superhero.  I know you want to say your favorite is Iron Man, or Spider-man, or Batman, Wolverine, or, of course, the all-powerful Superman.  But Captain America is the one that we all love the most.  Because Captain America didn’t ask for any of it.  He was just trying to do the right thing.  And of all the characters in the MCU, he’s the one that most tried to ensure that his powers didn’t change him. Continue reading →

If TV-MA is the equivalent of an “R” rating (which it is), then Daredevil, Marvel’s first foray into Netflix territory, is the first “R” rated programming in the history of the MCU.  And, it will probably be the last.  I have a hard time seeing the upcoming AKA Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, or Iron Fist shows being as dark and violent as this one.  But no matter.  It doesn’t matter.  The only thing that matters is this, that Marvel’s Daredevil is so good, it’s close to spectacular.  It’s so good, that I even put it ahead of the first Iron Man movie.  While the other Marvel television shows have been good at times, bad at others, and spotty all times in between, this is one series that deserves to be included in this “Golden Age of Television.”

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Iron Man was great partly because it introduced us to political commentary, however dulled or indirect, in our superhero movies.  Of all the superhero characters in the MCU, it only makes sense that Tony Stark be the one through whom the most political issues can be tackled: he’s an “Establishment”-type right-winger who’s made his billions helping us invade Iraq.  He’s one part capitalist poster-boy, one part market crusher, the man willing to empower government in order to protect national security.  Without doubt, if Marvel wanted to make a political stance, or ask a political question, to do it through Tony Stark is likely the best bet.

And it was.  It worked.  But, to do it with Steve Rogers?  We never saw that coming. Continue reading →