It’s a surprisingly soapy subplot that feels more in line with one of Marvel’s earlier ABC shows, although it’s refreshing to see Pariah’s Adepero Oduye get so much screen time after years of being criminally wasted with small roles in big films.īut it brings us guff like Sam heading to the bank to help his sister get a loan (filler that does at least ask a question many of us have been asking for years: how do the Avengers scramble together an income?), water-treading thats feels especially mundane when spliced together with more familiar Marvel scenes of intrigue and chaos, a combination showrunner Malcolm Spellman hasn’t quite mastered just yet. It’s an impressively big intro, although the show soon calms down into something far smaller, at times a little too small, especially as we delve too far into the weeds of Sam’s family fishing business and how his sister is struggling to survive financially. It’s a daring high-altitude rescue mission spearheaded by Sam AKA Falcon AKA Captain America’s old buddy (Anthony Mackie) taking on a group of radical terrorists who crave a return to the anarchy caused by Thanos’s infamous blip that saw millions disappear for five years.
That’s felt most keenly in the show’s bravura opening sequence, an exhilarating action set piece that quickly answers the question of whether the small-screen Avengers will look quite as fancy as they do on the big screen. While on initial glance, it’s unlikely to cause the same amount of online rabidity as WandaVision, there’s something reassuringly slick about its scale and storytelling, a much-needed injection of pomp at a time when most of us are still sorely lacking the visceral thrill of the multiplex experience. It’s a far more conventional yet mostly entertaining action adventure that in its first episode at least, promises an Avengers extension that will please core fans and provide a smooth entry point for those less well-versed, an encouraging sign of things to come. Just two weeks after the latter completed its diverting, if a little comically over-lauded, first season, we now have $150m six-parter The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.