Agent Carter Episode 1 Review: 'whelmed

Agent Carter, Pilot: Now is Not the End

As a testament to the fact that one shouldn't read reviews before watching or reading something, I was absolutely freaking underwhelmed with Agent Carter's pilot episode, despite all the rave reviews it's received. It's actually a pretty okay pilot, certainly a stronger one than, say, Gotham's pilot... but I just can't bring myself to really care.

I don't particularly care about Agent Carter as a character even before I watched the pilot, and indeed I find it really, really hard to care about any of Captain America's supporting cast that were introduced in his first movie. Partly because they're all too dead to matter in the present day, and being set as a period piece isn't really impressive for me. And that's really a problem that a lot of 'Zero' stories done in manga have, or even some parts of Arrow or Gotham. I don't particularly care for some random plot introduced that doesn't have a bearing on the present-day plot. And, y'know, a lot of things have already revealed to have happened. We know Hydra will infiltrate SHIELD, we know Carter will marry someone, we know Howard Stark will end up getting murdered by Hydra, we know his name will be cleared, we know Peggy Carter won't die anywhere throughout the show, et cetera, et cetera.

Overall the pilot was... beautifully produced, I have to give them that. It's got all the post-WWII atmosphere or whatever going on and it's just that, y'know, I don't really fucking care. All the sexism will probably appeal to a lot of feminists out there, how Carter is going to step over all the sexism that is rampant in that period, but I thought the show is just being so unsubtle with the sexism, like the completely needless, distracting and cringe-inducing scene of Carter threatening to rip out a random douchebag jerk's brachial artery for being a misogynist... which is all nice and well, but does it have a place in the episode? I'm all for a strong female lead and sexual equality, of course, but there is a line between portraying sexism and being really, really painfully obvious about it.

I'm not going to get into a major debate about feminists or sexism or whatever. All for gender equality. But I certainly dislike just how painfully anvillicious this aspect of the show is, and at points it takes away from Carter's character and the whole spy plot, and it kind of signs something that's pretty m'eh if half of Carter's personality is going to be just her showing that she can be competent in spite of being in a men-dominated workplace. Era-oriented realism aside, that's kind of... eh, I dunno. It's a gigantic can of worms I'd prefer not to open.

There's also the 'ladies' matters' excuse that Carter gives the male agents, and the reactions from the male agents were quite funny. I guess sex ed weren't that great back then?

It's not my major complaint, though. There is a big plot going on about how Carter is going to go around and gather all the 'bad babies' that has been stolen from Howard Stark's vault, and she comes into contact with this mysterious organization Leviathan who apparently makes its members be mute so they can talk through some weird mechanical translator thing. All the while Carter has to work with Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark's butler, who is freaking hilarious. Both Carter and Jarvis are strong personalities on their own to make me like the episode a lot more than Gotham's pilot, and Jarvis in particular is rather fun for his constant henpecked trying-to-hide-the-spy-life-from-his-wife antics.

There's that moment where it's kind of sad that Carter's roommate got killed off-screen, which I thought was a pretty jarring turn from the rest of the episode, which was pretty well done.

Pacing wise they could've done better. I thought the typewriter thing that the Levianthan dude did to communicate with his superiors is kind of a cool concept, but after they take the time to clickety-clack through every single line being talked back and forth you'd think they would trim it down a bit. Also thought Peggy infiltrating the casino was dragged on a fair bit as well.

There were also some nice little shout-outs to other Marvel movies, like the Vita rays, the entire concept of Jarvis, Anton Vanko showing up, and some other stuff too.

The supporting cast is... well, they don't do much other than Jarvis or Stark, since it's the first episode, but we've got the competent boss of the SSR, the sexist misogynist douchebag, and the nice crippled dude who stands up for Carter. I don't know if any of them are people in the comics since I'm not a big Marvel comics geek, so I don't particularly care.

But overall I just can't really bring myself to care about Agent Carter's show. I mean, more power to the people who do, since it's a beautifully crafted show and I'm sure it'll appeal a lot to people who like period pieces and whatnot, and it's cool we're getting a show starring a woman... but, y'know, a lot of stuff make me just don't really care about this show enough to follow it regularly.

There's just too much things that are just random generic stuff. It's like Agents of Shield with its generic evil sci-fi technology organization, only they swapped out 'Centipede' with 'Leviathan' and super-cyborg-implants with neon orange globe-bombs. There really isn't much promise of anything really superhero-y like Agents of Shield or the Flash, and... well, I dunno. It doesn't feel like something I would really like. It's a solid pilot, and I just, y'know, don't particularly care. I will probably give episodes two and three a shot, but I don't particularly care about Agent Carter or indeed anything in the setting of the show enough -- the post-WWII era, the founding of SHIELD, the whole premise of yet another big evil organization -- to feel guilty about not following the show at all. I dunno. I'm not hating on the show just because it has rave reviews or whatever. It's just that I'm pretty underwhelmed unless some big game-changer superheroes or whatever gets in play.

It's like... I watch Arrow and the Flash because they are adaptations of comic book superheroes, and I didn't even care about the Flash enough to check it out until the second or third episodes before it became my all-time favourite superhero TV show, and the only reason I watched Arrow was because of Deathstroke. And Agents of Shield, as much as I like it, is an unevenly paced show... but it stars Coulson, someone I care about, and runs in the background of a movie series I really adore. Gotham, for being such a bland show, is, y'know, about Batman characters.

Agent Carter? I don't care about her as a character. Not because she's a woman, because I will watch the shit about a show starring Catwoman or Black Widow or Wonder Woman or Mockingbird or Starfire or the Wasp or any of the many female superheroes out there. I don't care about Agent Carter specifically, nor do I care about Howard Stark or Edwin Jarvis. Or the Post-WWII setting. I just... don't. And the pilot isn't really impressive enough to budge me off my indifference. If I'm really bored, I'll probably watch the next episodes. Apparently there are only going to be eight? It's really hard to care about just some random plot that happened in the past that can be resolved in under eight episodes.

TL;DR... it's cool that this show exists. It's awesome that a woman is finally being a main character in a TV show. Good that we're addressing sexism. It's a beautiful pilot. It's just that... the entire premise and setting of the show just doesn't click together with me enough to bring me to care. More power for all of you who do, though, 'cause it's a well-done show and I liked what I saw.