So I finally got around to finishing
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier which means I am completely up to date with the MCU now! At least until Moon Knight is out at the end of the month. I did not have high expectations for this series because everyone said it was the worst show out of the ones we've had so far (except
What If?, but even then it's debatable), but you know what? I think it's my favourite show out of all of them! It tackled the mantle of Captain America really well and what it meant to be a "Super Soldier" and showed Sam having to put in effort to be worthy of it in the eyes of others and himself, which is really cool and I look forward to seeing this be expanded upon in
Captain America 4. Having Isaiah Bradley, John Walker, Bucky, the Flag Smashers, Zemo and Sam himself all have different perspectives and ideas for the meaning of the role and the qualities behind it was done really well I think - nobody overstayed their welcome, everyone got some solid development and I honestly think it was a great well-rounded show!
I have criticisms of course - the last episode was really dark so made some of the action hard to see? The Flag Smashers felt kind-of odd as the antagonists but I think they were meant to - they were normal people who took the Super Soldier Serum to establish their own ideas of what the world should be, and that normalcy is what makes things feel a bit awkward to me (they had nice escalation of conflict towards the end too, you could side with them but gradually see their ideology and what they were willing to do to achieve it dwindle). Bucky did feel a smidge underpowered and it would have been nice to see him let loose a bit and come to terms with his past as the Winter Soldier a little bit more there? I also don't really get why everyone thinks the young Bradley will become the next Falcon or Sam's sidekick, he was barely a part of the show besides to support Isaiah (but yeah, would be cool to maybe see where they take that).
My ranking for the Disney+ shows is now this:
- The Falcon & The Winter Soldier
- Hawkeye
- Loki
- Wandavision
- What If?
Looking forward to Doctor Strange 2!