She-Hulk: Attorney At Law Review!

Alright! Today I'm reviewing the seventh MCU TV show and the 38th project off the MCU assembly line, She-Hulk, which is about the lawyer Jennifer Walters who accidentally receives a blood transfusion from her big-name cousin Bruce Banner and then gets Hulk powers of her own. Now she finds herself confronting the dual identity and new pressures placed on her role in society, all while trying to maintain a healthy dating life. 

Now, before we go any further, we must address the CGI elephant in the room - the titular heroine's Hulk form is decidedly not up to par with modern VFX standards.  In fact, it looks like they didn't even bother to try and get her up to modern standards, but rather that of daytime television from ten years ago. I put no fault on the VFX artists for this - Marvel Studios is putting out more content than ever before, what with five television shows this year alone and three movies and ten more projects coming every year for the foreseeable future. Overworked, underpaid, nonunionized, and demoralized every time D23 happens, they are rushing these things to meet deadlines. 

This brings us to the next problem - it would be perfectly acceptable to just not have weekly Disney+ content, especially when Andor has 12 episodes to go around and Werewolf by Night came out during She-Hulk's airing anyways. It's okay to let the meal simmer for a bit. But due to the rigorous connected tissue that is the MCU, these things have to come out on time no matter the quality of the project. It's why the Black Panther finale looks like a video game cutscene and She-Hulk, well, looks like she does. It needed a bit more time to cook or a preexisting CGI model from a $350 million Avengers movie to truly sit right. As it stands, she looks like a weightless green sprite whose interactions with real objects are about on par with what you saw in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. 

She-Hulk labels itself as a "comedy" and attempts to be a half-hour paralegal sitcom... however, these attempts are all for naught. While humor is subjective, the situations and courtroom battles Jennifer Walters faces are all poorly thought out and never as entertaining as they should be. I'd say the courtroom scenes all felt like they were written by a group of high school freshmen for their drama club, but I think the freshman would be funnier and more outlandish. I'm admittedly no expert with legal jargon or courtroom dialect, but hey, neither are the writers. Either due to the writers not knowing how to write courtroom scenes or the (refreshing) 25-ish minute runtime, each courtroom scene, drama, and glitchy "technicalities" that resolve the episode all feel ripped straight from an SNL sketch or dumb cartoon (The same criticism that followed Thor: Love and Thunder). Like, "Someone did this ridiculous crime, let's make a few jokes about it, someone gives a testimony, it goes poorly, and then the judge says 'order' a few times and we call it a day." 

While the online reaction is to immediately compare it to a beloved and acclaimed example (Specifically Better Caul Saul) - I say that's admittedly unfair. I think a better example is The Bee Movie. It's utterly ridiculous in every sense of the word, but it works because it rolls with that instead of constant generic courtroom mantra bogging it down - That and a few genuinely good one-liners. The only courtroom scene that truly worked was the one involving Frog Man, where it was resolved due to his disregarding the manufacturer's instructions. That one worked because it seemed like a fairly believable scenario and didn't have to serve as the A-plot of the episode but rather the starter fluid. 

Several of the scenarios She-Hulk faces - shapeshifters who transform into celebrities and scam people, an immortal being who "dies" in order to get out of marriages, leaked sex tapes - can't help but feel better suited for The Boys, where a level of grotesque dark humor, commentary, and better costumes would have been prevalent. It's also interesting to note that She-Hulk chose to focus on new characters instead of things that could have been tied into the existing MCU - perhaps someone whose car the Hulk smashed wants reparations or San Francisco sues Shang-Chi for wrecking their streets during his bus fight. Maybe telephone line repairmen sue Spider-Man for leaving webs everywhere. I dunno, but they could have done a lot with the concept and chose to do a little. 

She-Hulk is decidedly less funny than previous MCU efforts despite having the episodic feel of a real sitcom. If it were genuinely funny or delivered riveting courtroom scenes the CGI would be an easier pill to swallow, but as it is the show gives you little to be engrossed in, leading to questions like "If they couldn't properly animate her, why did they self-impose a rule that she has to be CGI in her office?" "When will Daredevil show up?," and "Wait, why does Titania hate She-Hulk again?" (Like seriously what was the deal with Titania, her use in the series is wholly nonsensical. Nothing she did made sense). 

With that in mind, the series works better as a thought experiment than a piece of entertainment - She-Hulk is either absolutely genius or unfathomably stupid. They must have known people would irrationally hate it as soon as it was announced, either due to wholly online "M-She-U" or "woke" sexist criticisms, and thus they didn't even try to be good - if you're going to be hated anyway, why bother? Have fun with it and have her twerk with Megan Thee Stallion. It's a question of if there's a method to the madness or if it's just madness. 

The same goes for the fourth wall breaks and most of the last episode. It's not really a fourth wall break or as meta as they think it is. They're just straight-up saying things that are blatantly happening on screen. A good fourth wall break is Deadpool is asking if he's meeting McAvoy or Stewart when told he's being taken to Charles "Wheels" Xavier. A bad fourth wall break is She-Hulk straight-up saying her show has issues ("This is a tacked-on ending episode") and then proceeding to do that issue. Just because you acknowledge your fault doesn't get rid of it. If anything, it just alerts the audience to that fact. It's like the common theater adage - if you make a mistake, the audience probably didn't notice. But if you draw attention to that mistake, they will notice and hold it against you (Like X-Men: Apocalypse). I didn't care that all the characters were showing up randomly at the same place just in time for the finale. I thought it was cheesy and fun. But then the show says that's actually really stupid and I shouldn't be enjoying it and then proceeds to retcon itself out of the season-long build-up via Deus ex Kevin.

However, for all that Hamlet insane-or-not-insane talk, She-Hulk commits several cardinal sins that are giant issues for any piece of entertainment. For starters, Jennifer Walters is the least interesting main character. This is not to say she is a bad character, but rather that there were better characters. The episodes that centered on Jennifer Walters were never as interesting as those involving Wong, Daredevil, or Madisynn. It's the same complaint I had about The Book of Boba Fett - it was obvious when the writers were having more fun. We all know whose show it is, but the added elements make it go down easier. 

Again, it's not that Jennifer Walters is a bad character, quite the contrary. While they did do the trope where "newcomer acts disrespectfully to established characters" that everyone hates (Jennifer talking about anger management to the Hulk) and used strawmen men to prove a point no one seemed to be arguing (Every male character the show introduces is unbelievably misogynistic, one guy referred to a woman as "it." Like dude.), one certainly does feel sympathy for Jennifer Walters when her life is taken over by her green counterpart. While I do bemoan modern superhero media completely eschewing the philosophies of why these characters don costumes and fight criminals, I applaud the series for giving Jennifer a complete arc where her powers completely revamp her dating life. It's an aspect of superherodom that I never think about, so the series' attempts to half function as a dating comedy are appreciated. 

Speaking of which, the large influx of superhero projects is starting to oversimplify the logic behind crimefighting. While most superhero media ultimately boils down to "it's the right thing to do," that logic becomes mere dogma after hundreds of Marvel projects each year and the fact that it already worked best with Superman, whose genuine belief in the best of humanity is integral to the character. I'm not saying everyone needs an Uncle Ben or Martha why-did-you-say-that-name Wayne, but Jennifer's arc of using the powers to improve her dating life and then punching criminals is missing steps. She doesn't seem to fall into the three archetypes of MCU heroes wherein it's their job (Doctor Strange, Black Panther, the Avengers), unapologetically the right thing to do (Kate Bishop, Ms. Marvel, Captain America), or a reluctant means to an end (Clint Barton, Moon Knight, Jessica Jones). Her motives for fighting crime are seemingly unbeknownst to her and the viewer, only given a vague grounding in reality via wise words from Matt Murdock. 

Another aspect of the series that fell flat for me was the action. Moments that should be monumental and the show treats as such are weirdly glossed over, specifically Jennifer's first battle with Titania in the courtroom. The questionable graphics and nonsensical editing make that entire moment feel rushed and underwhelming, which is unfortunate as it's the moment that the entire show hinges on. It's Jennifer's "I am Iron Man." While I don't expect comedies to have edge-of-your-seat action, I do expect basic competency from Marvel Studios. The odd editing continues into the first appearance of Daredevil, where what appears to be a fully CG model of the two heroes fighting has voice-over work that doesn't match up to the movements of the characters at all. It reminded me of a video game, the disconnect between movement and audio, especially when the characters are quite obviously not moving their mouths at all. The entire show only had one good action scene - Daredevil in the hallway - and that's because it's Daredevil in a hallway. You can't go wrong with Daredevil in a hallway. 

The show was also mildly interesting in the way that it butchered characters that I really liked. For example, Abomination, once a cold-hearted Royal Marine fueled by rage, is turned into a chicken-loving hippie with seven soulmates. It didn't feel like a character arc but rather a complete revamp of the character ("You've changed, and not entirely for the better"). The same goes for characters the show introduces - the Wrecking Crew, who I was a fan of via their appearances on Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Superhero Squad, are completely stripped of their colorful costumes, cartoonishly buff bods, and their trademark dimwit nature that made them such fun characters. Additionally, they whitewashed Thunderball, so... where's my angry Twitter mob at? They also butchered Mr. Immortal, who I was a fan of via this giant Marvel Encyclopedia that I got when I was, like, six. Gone also are his colorful costume, youth, darker aspects of his suicidal nature, and his ultimate great purpose in the scheme of the Marvel Universe. He just adds fuel to the flame of a message about misogyny no one seemed to be asking - it's like how Joker was a statement about the system. What system? The system. Same goes for She-Hulk and misogyny. He's also played by the worst annoying character from The Book of Boba Fett (The Majordomo played by David Pasquesi), so that didn't help. 

Now, I have to accept that these are d-list comic characters and I might be the only person annoyed by their depiction. When it came to fan-favorite characters, the series did absolutely perfectly. Wong provides the show's biggest laughs as he continues to be the best part of Phase Four. Daredevil is just perfect. Just as Kingpin got a comic-accurate strength upgrade in Hawkeye, Matt Murdock flips off of buildings and twirls with the ease of a character like Spider-Man. While I do miss the realism of him being tired after fights that featured so heavily in his Netflix show, seeing him a bit more on the acrobatic side and donning his yellow costume was undoubtedly awesome. Additionally, his role in Jennifer's own character arc was wonderfully well done, as was the near-perfect imitation of his Netflix hallway scenes, moody lighting, and lighthearted (But not banal) banter. Which was honestly my biggest worry for the character, the nonsensical MCU quips. 

Aside from those two supporting characters and the lead, She-Hulk still leaves much to be desired. It's most interesting in the sense that it shows the MCU's genre appropriation failing to capture the spirit of the original article. Where Captain America: The Winter Soldier beat out Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit as gritty 2014 spy thrillers and Guardians of the Galaxy outlasted Star Trek as surrogate space families, She-Hulk joins the rank of Ms. Marvel as feeling like a lesser version of the actual genre (Never Have I Ever and literally any sitcom ever). While most MCU projects are eventually dragged down by the fact that they are MCU projects (See: WandaVision, Shang-Chi, and Moon Knight's bloated finales, Ms. Marvel's superhero aspects being less interesting than the high school aspects, etc) She-Hulk never really takes the chance to jump the CGI sky beam shark, never devolving into an action spectacular with an identifiable but ill-defined villain, leaving only the signature MCU quips, lack of stakes, and poor graphics. 

It's that combination of things you've seen before (Eccentric superhero fashionistas, "haha what a dumb name" jokes for at least three different characters, and deeply terrible fourth wall breaks) along with the genuine inferiority to the actual half-hour sitcom that makes She-Hulk such an odd mix. It's passable entertainment, nothing more and nothing less. It would be insane to blindly hate the show, but it's also insane to love the whole thing. I can get loving bits of it - Wong was fantastic, hearing Daredevil's theme made me go full-on fanboy, and Jennifer talking about how She-Hulk has smashed her life was genuinely emotional. But those moments are at odds with 90% of the series' total mediocrity/genuine terribleness. 

It's weird the product is so mediocre. There are a ton of interesting ideas in here - Jennifer Walter's newfound fame impacting her life in crazy ways, the focus on her sex life, a case-by-case sitcom with fun and wacky comic characters - there are a lot of things in here that I personally think could have been made into really interesting social commentary instead of merely referencing the fact that it could be commentary. Maybe delve into how Jennifer sleeps with three guys during the course of the show and gets a sex tape leaked and slut-shamed while a character like Star-Lord runs through women and it's written as a lovable womanizer. They could have done so much with what She-Hulk had potential to be, but instead, they settled for what it ultimately became. 

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law commits my least favorite MCU Disney+ show trope - the things it sets up are far more interesting than the actual show. Based solely on this show, I'm far more excited about a potential World War Hulk story and Daredevil: Born Again than I am a second season of  She-Hulk. When Jennifer Walters shows up next in Captain America: New World Order or what have you, she'll work better as an added value element than as the headliner. 

Overall, I give She-Hulk: Attorney At Law a 5/10. "Odd visual effects combined with a script largely devoid of laughs leave She-Hulk banking on fun guest stars."

Just because she broke the fourth wall in the comics doesn't mean it works here.