The season finale of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is finally here and boy, did it shake up a lot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
She-Hulk opted for a truly surprising twist to end its season, one that caught me completely off guard, messing with the status quo of superhero TV shows. This may be a bit of a hyperbole, but this episode truly was like nothing the MCU has done previously.
Warning: This review may contain light spoilers. Be sure to check out our past reviews of the first two episodes as well as the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth installments.
Synopsis
I am going to try and do the least amount of spoiling but I can’t guarantee much because of how big of a twist this whole episode was throughout.
Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) deals with the fallout from her anger-induced attack after Internet trolls released a sex tape of her at an award gala.
She wakes up in prison and takes a deal that allows for her release. Part of the deal requires her to wear an inhibitor and promise she will not turn into She-Hulk again.
Jen’s life begins to fall apart as she loses her job, has to move in with her parents, and deals with the ensuing media circus.
While Jen slogs through her new normal, her friend Nikki Ramos (Ginger Gonzaga) enlists the help of Augustus “Pug” Pugliese (Josh Segarra) to infiltrate the troll who ruined Jen’s life.
While there, we learn the true identity of HulkKing and learn more of his motivations. At the same time, Jen flees to the retreat of Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to escape the fallout.
There, she unknowingly finds HulkKing, finds out Blonsky has been turning into the Abomination for speaking engagements, and meets up with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Titania (Jameela Jamil).
Jen then breaks the fourth wall at a whole new level and goes full meta as she seeks answers from Marvel as to why the story went from legal comedy to superhero movie cliches.
She gets her answers, learns who’s truly running Marvel Studios, and returns back to the story, which ends up wrapping up cleanly, just as Jen dictated. She even gets a visit from Daredevil (Charlie Cox).
There is an end-credit scene which sees the return of Wong (Benedict Wong).
Breakdown
This episode was absolutely bonkers but in the best kind of way. Apparently my minor complaint from the previous episode about it leaning too much into superhero tropes was how Jen also felt.
This show was always a comedy at heart so much so that it leaned into many sitcom elements to tell its story. Jen realizing that she was in control of her story was a fantastic metaphor.
The episode started out with a great throwback to the late 1970s TV show The Incredible Hulk. It was an excellent juxtaposition for the rest of the opening half as there wasn’t a ton of comedy.
Jen’s big fourth wall break came as a true surprise. I wasn’t expecting what would happen and some aspects of it got insanely meta, which just helped set She-Hulk apart from its other Marvel shows.
What’s great about the entire second-half of the episode is Jen acknowledges a lot of the gripes and insights fans of the MCU have said over the years. Maslany plays this role so well that, at times, it feels like she’s going to bat for the viewer.
The comedy returned heavily in the second half of the episode, which I missed significantly. Jen acknowledged the genre of the show being a legal comedy, noting that it shied away from that and she wanted it to circle back to it.
This is how I felt about the show and loved how unique it was. This episode showed how it can still be both while not taking itself too seriously.
There is another great twist at the end of the episode that clearly sets up some future elements involving Ruffalo’s Hulk. There’s also a lot of interesting future storylines that can now happen with Daredevil.
One little part that I will always geek out at is the use of music to tell the story. This episode featured another short little soundbite of music from another movie.
This is similar to how the X-Men: The Animated Series theme played in Multiverse of Madness and how the Daredevil theme played in the last episode. Small shoutouts like this really highlight how good Marvel is at its finer details.
While this episode was fantastic in many aspects, there were still some downsides.
The 30-minute constraint was painfully on display in this episode. It easily could’ve gone on for an hour and I don’t think anyone would’ve complained.
This constraint was felt strongest after Jen returned back from Marvel and everything was just cleaned up. I know that was part of the joke but the quick resolution was a bit jagged in regards to the story.
Verdict (4.5 stars out of 5)
This was, in my opinion, easily the best episode of the season. It had some much going for it.
I think it’s important to view this episode and the last one as one project similar to how we view Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. One without the other is incomplete. After viewing this episode, my opinion of the last one jumped a bit.
This episode also had me laughing the hardest and genuinely shocked me at times. The 30-minute constraint was burdensome, but despite it, the season finale thrived.
I always have a hard time giving anything a perfect score on a five-star system. My bar for a perfect episode is Ozymandias from Breaking Bad so it’s a high bar. That said, this episode was still amazing and a great way to close out this unique show.
I am so excited to see where these character go from here.
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Standard Definition is The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast here on The Boss Rush Network. Each week, a set of Boss Rush hosts will take you down memory lane with series like Indiana Jones, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, classic video games, Marvel movies, and much more. If you enjoy the feeling of nostalgia then check out Standard Definition: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast here on The Boss Rush Network. You can also suggest topics for episodes and series by heading to our Discord or Patreon page. You can listen to or watch the show every Sunday morning at 7 a.m. ET on YouTube and podcast services everywhere. Thanks for watching! You can get each episode of this show two weeks early on Patreon!
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