'She-Hulk: Attorney At Law' Episode 2: "Superhuman Law" Recap and Review
With the injection of a healthy dose of conflict the series sees a slight improvement in it’s second episode
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Looking back on Episode One, it is clear that the first two episodes of the season should have either been condensed into one or released at the same time. It’s slowly becoming the norm with Marvel that the first episode of each series lacks a lot of story in order to introduce characters and focus on world building. This could have worked 10 years ago when every aspect of the Marvel Universe was shiny and new but in the years since the shine has faded and we are no longer blown away by random space ships. Story, conflict, and character depth should no longer play second fiddle to sheer spectacle. This week was low on spectacle but high on conflict, story, and character development. Our main character was faced with strife and a difficult decision surrounding a returning character played by an absolute pro. While there is progress, the episodes somehow feel incomplete. The story seems to be broken up into small chunks that are made to fill the nine episode season which feels like a cop-out as opposed to make each episode feel satisfying on its own without needing to see another episode right away.
Picking up after the events of the last episode, Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) and her best friend/paralegal Nikki Ramos (Ginger Gonzaga) stop by an industry bar to celebrate. Before entering they hear chants for She-Hulk and after some convincing from Nikki, Jennifer decides to give them what they want. Nikki and She-Hulk enjoy themselves before being approached by her Boss and the celebration ends with the news that she has been fired. After some understandable moping caused by being rejected by several law firms Jennifer and Nikki browse job possibilities before Jennifer gets a message about an upcoming family dinner. She reluctantly attends and after the initial awkwardness, Jennifer gets some much needed encouragement from her father Morris (Mark Linn-Baker). Back to the bar for Jennifer where drinks her sorrows away, she is approached by Holden Holliway (Steve Coulter) who works for a rival law firm. He tells her he was impressed by her work and offers her a job which she immediately accepts, granted she can bring Nikki along. Jennifer arrives for her first day and Holliway explains that she, rather, She-Hulk will be the face of their new superhuman law division, and she needed to “change.” Jennifer is reluctant but gives in and becomes She-Hulk as Holliway escorts her to her new office where Nikki awaits and they both meet another lawyer in the superhuman law division, Pug (Josh Segarra). She-Hulk joins Holliway in his office where he gives Jennifer her first case, the parole of the Abomination, Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth). Despite her many objections, Holliway tells her that taking the case is mandatory. Jennifer goes to visit Blonski in prison to better gauge her interest in taking the job and the two come face to face. Jennifer is combative at first, but after listening to Blonsky she realizes that this may not be the same man who tried to kill her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) all those years ago. After her visit, she returns home and gives Bruce a call. She explains why she is taking the case to Bruce who gladly gives his blessing, believing that Blonsky has indeed turned a new leaf. He calls Holliway and officially accepts the job, right before seeing the news of leaked footage of Abomination in a cage fight not too long ago.
The reason the character Jennifer Walters felt flat and stagnate in the very first episode was largely due to the lack of complications in her life to test her character. Without those complications all we have to judge Jennifer by would be her initial presentation, that being an attractive, likeable success who is inexplicably good at everything. One can argue that becoming a Hulk could be a complication but given that she mastered her new form immediately it was more of an improvement. In this episode, she is immediately confronted by a complication, getting fired. This one event gave us more depth to Jennifer than the entire runtime of episode one did. We learn that she absolutely refuses the superhero life, in spite of having no other obvious options after we see her searching an article lining out new jobs for a fresh start. Then she is forced to represent someone who tried to kill a member of her family which highlighted her dedication for justice. Jennifer’s character became layered in this episode and puts a spotlight on just how mishandled her first impression actually was. This brings up the return of the legendary Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky a.k.a the Abomination. Roth provides a very different Emil in this iteration, he is peaceful, remorseful, and a bit sympathetic. This is a testament to how good Roth is if he is able to immediately turn the audience to his side after last being presented as a blood thirsty psychopath. He and Maslany have a good chemistry together and should be a fun underlining relationship to base the rest of the season on. There are even a few moments that give hope to the dangling events that happened the first episode. No we still don’t know why Jameela Jamil’s Titania attacked the trial, but we do get a glimpse of Bruce aboard the Spaceship that caused their initial wreck, implying that we may actually get an explanation as to why it was there is the first place. If you look closely at the article that Jennifer is reading you can see a blink and you’ll miss it easter egg hinting at the immediate arrival of the X-Men. Off to the side of the article you can see a small headline that reads “Man fights with metal claws in bar brawl,” this is a reference to Wolverine who famously first appeared in the Incredible Hulk comic before joining the X-Men. One detail of the show that amy have hit the wrong way is the presentation of casual sexism amongst Jennifer’s peers at the law firm. When we were first introduced to Drew Matthews’ character Dennis Bukowski he was criticizing Jennifer’s delivery of an argument for their case. He comes across as being arrogant and in competition with Jennifer which set him up as a professional adversary. Instead of continuing this they present him as a sexist stereotype lawyer that has been done many times over. He dismisses Jennifer’s transformation into a Hulk as nepotism and refers to a “Hot Girl” he sees at the bar as an “it”. If addressed and handled well this could be a good issue to highlight but he says this directly to Jennifer’s face and she absolutely does not react to it so it begs the question: What is the point?
Has the series improved since the last episode? Yes. Does it still have its flaws: Also yes. But after giving us literally nothing to hold onto from the last episode, the story beat of this episode vastly improves the shows quality. There is actually a story to follow, that being Jennifer’s initially reluctant representation of the Abomination. Is there obvious conflict to her being his representation? Kind of, they mention public backlash in a throwaway line, but there is no sign of this and even Bruce was strangely supportive of her working with Emil. The core issues with this series are the separation of story beats from episode to episode. There is no connective tissue in between moments that make the events feel flat. If we look at a typical story structure, the first episode was presenting the main character in her normal world. The first episode was a brief recap of her new normal having become a Hulk. This episode is her point of no return, she lost her job and is given an opportunity with a catch, to get a new job, she has to agree to represent the man who tried to murder her cousin. This pattern looks to continue throughout the season, given that they have 9 total episodes to fill. Here’s hoping that they have enough interesting filler to maintain interest for the longest Disney+/ Marvel series to date or they are going to have some Hulk-sized problems.