Image via Disney+
She-Hulk is the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s lineup of TV shows. Streaming exclusively on Disney+, She-Hulk follows the life of Jennifer Walters, an attorney who happens to be the cousin of Bruce Banner.
Played by Tatiana Maslany, an Emmy Award-winning actress from the series Orphan Black over on BBC America, Jennifer Walters has an overall interesting personality and starts the show off strong. However, there are some things that were lacking throughout.
Synopsis
The episode opens up with Jennifer Walters rehearsing her closing statement for a trial she’s working on. After that, we get a 4th wall break–though, I’m not really sure why–and Jennifer explains how she came to be a Hulk.
Turns out, she and her cousin, Bruce Banner, were involved in a car accident and she got some of his blood into an open wound of hers. And she was dosed by a lethal amount of gamma radiation, apparently. Now, she is a Hulk too.
Bruce decides to help her figure out how to navigate being a Hulk, and Jennifer seems to resist this a lot. Understandably, she wants to get back to her normal life of being a lawyer and doesn’t want to deal with the whole “with great power comes great responsibility” shtick.
Through some training montages, Jennifer seems to be a bit of a natural at this Hulk thing. This is where I felt a bit of a disconnect. I understand that in a series, you want to move things quickly when you have a limited amount of story-building time. However, we know that Bruce Banner dealt with a lot of Hulk-related issues for years and couldn’t control it. Why can Jennifer control her Hulk-powers so well and nearly flawlessly so quickly?
Maybe this point will be explained in a later episode, but so far, I’m at a bit of a loss with this one. She-Hulk is technically a comedy as well, so maybe the plot development isn’t the most vital part of the whole thing for the script writers.
Anyways, eventually, Jennifer returns to her home and that’s when the show catches up with the present again. She goes to finish the trial and the court room is randomly attacked by a random person who gets a good punching from Jennifer Walters.
That’s pretty much where the episode ends. There isn’t too much substance, just a bit of a training sequence to serve as exposition.
My Thoughts on She-Hulk, Episode 1
As an opening to a show, it’s not bad at all. It’s not excellent nor is it amazing either, but it’s not terrible. Compared to some of the other Marvel shows, it’s been interesting to watch. Maslany is a great actress and nails her role very well, which helps make the show tolerable, I suppose.
My main gripe with it is just that it feels…strange? I’m not sure exactly how to place it, but something about it just feels a bit lazy. I mean, the ending sequence alone was very ridiculous and didn’t make much sense. Obviously, we’re going to learn who this mystery villain is, but the scene was just random. Out-of-place, even.
Jennifer’s reaction to being a Hulk is also pretty realistic–I don’t think many people would enjoy turning into a giant green monster over emotional bursts of rage, but hey, to each their own.
I guess there were some funny moments as well. Not funny like “I’m crying of laughter” funny, but more like “I breathed out of my nose a bit hard” funny.
Now, I know that a lot of people have said this, but I really cannot get past the fact that she’s just kinda like Fiona from Shrek. I know this is a reoccurring joke, but seriously, how can you fault me for saying this after there was an entire sequence of the two burping loudly on purpose? It’s textbook Shrek humor.
The CGI is also meh. It’s not as bad as it was in the first trailer, but yeah, it’s bad. I know that TV generally has a lower budget for CGI, but man, the CGI in the latest Marvel stuff has been really exceptionally bad. I mean, genuinely, it’s so bad. And it’s in their movies too.
Once again though, how did she learn to control the Hulk part of her so bad? I really hope they address this in later episodes, because it’ll be really silly if they don’t.
Overall, I give it a 6/10. It’s not the most entertaining show ever, but it gave me a laugh or two here and there, so a 6 is the score I think fits it the best.
Also, I feel bad for the suit jacket she wore at the end. It was a pretty nice jacket.
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
