Image copyright Disney
Look, I'm excited for this show, but before I go in on Episode 1, I have notes:
Can we just agree that the title is the worst thing ever? “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”? Six words, three of which are articles or conjunctions. Every creative writing teacher is fishing for their red pen, shaking their head sadly. Let me throw some ideas out here:
“Falcon & Friends”
“Wintery Mix”
“Lethal Weapon(s)”
“The Winterese Falcon”
Or you could smash their two names together, like... I don’t know. It reminds me of something I Ioved once, which now is over.
2. If I’m being honest, I am here because I am overly invested in the hot, yet damaged, Bucky. I guess you could say I am a Sebastian... stan.
Okay, I’m glad we got that excessive punnage out of the way. I am ten seconds in to Episode 1 and it appears Sam Wilson (aka Falcon) is getting ready for a funeral. No one puts on a suit and dress shirt in Marvelworld unless there is a funeral. He is also doing the sad gazey face thing. Oh, it’s Captain America’s shield! Aw, the shield has its own bag. Do you think the bag is comic book canon? I bet at least twelve (12) videos on YouTube can provide me guidance on this question, and I guarantee you that, due to my MDD (Marvel Disarrangement Disorder), I will eventually watch all of them. But I digress.
We immediately cut to a military plane, where some military dude is explaining to Military Mackie about some terrorists called LAF and you know what? I immediately don’t care. Sam/Mackie falls dramatically backwards out of the plane’s cargo door and flies away on his awesome mechanical wings. I also wish to exit expository dialogue about vague terrorists in a dramatic yet insouciant way, so we’re on the same page here, Sam.
There is a high speed air chase involving: the titular Falcon, one hostage, one plane, two helicopters, a bunch of bad guys in flying squirrel outfits (just go with it), ground support, and torpedoes. I am not exactly clear what happened because whenever there are too many quick cuts in action sequences, my brain finally decides it is indeed middle-aged, but clearly the day was won.
Then this dialogue happens between Sam and his new military pal, regarding the vague terrorists:
MilitaryPal: “They call themselves the Flag Smashers.”
Sam: “Is that a new thing? Bad guys give themselves bad names?”
MiliPal: “There’s a lot worse names than that one.”’
Me: “Yeah, like ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier??’ “
Thanks for the shout-out, show. I’m glad you’re hearing my concerns.
Back in Washington-DC-by-way-of-a-Vancouver-set, it turns out that Sam was not in fact going to a funeral, but to a dedication ceremony to turn over Captain America’s shield to the Air and Space Museum. I spent my childhood in and out of this museum, the literal most boring museum on earth for a small girl interested in geology, dolphins, and sorcery, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, this room is not in the Air and Space Museum. Don Cheadle (Rhodey/War Machine) and Anthony Mackie (Sam/Falcon) then have a conversation about the legacy of Captain America, and how Sam doesn’t feel worthy to carry the shield, and it is apparent to me that everyone on this show is suffering from clinical depression, and I get it, far too intimately, I just don’t want to live it via other people as well, you know? Regardless, this convo will prove important later.
We now switch over to StanLand, where Bucky is having a flashback/nightmare to his Winter Soldier days, and he wakes up in a cold sweat on the floor of a furniture-free apartment. First of all, furniture-free apartment is shorthand for “psychologically fucked-up character.” And second, I cannot help but notice he’s hot.
In the next scene, we learn that Bucky is a terrible therapeutic patient, but it’s okay because his therapist is also kind of terrible? But they both killed people during war times so they bond over that. Healthy! Bucky then takes therapist-soldier’s advice to connect with people more, and goes to dinner with an elderly Japanese friend and it’s kind of adorable, and then the friend starts reminiscing about his (missing? dead?) son and it’s extremely sad but also GUESS WHAT HIS SON IS THE MAN WHOMST BRAINWASHED-BUCKY KILLED IN THE FLASHBACK. Well that’s awkward.
So one thing to know about this episode is it’s basically two separate half-hour shows about Sam and Bucky, and you can stop waiting for them to meet up because that’s not going to happen yet. Sam comes across as a bit smug in his hero-mode but then it turns out he’s struggling to save both his relationship with his sister and the family business. Unfortunately he has no money because he literally stopped existing for five years, heroism pays nothing, and the bank is racist and won’t give them a loan. Plus I bet when Sam got back from not-existing, his iPhone had like, 300 updates all in a row. iOS 673. I’d be like “FML” too.
Bucky has woes too, but his woes are more I-was-a-stone-cold-murderer-and-I-am-making-amends-but-with-the-worst-boundaries-imaginable. My money is on Sam for coming out of this as a functioning adult.
Fun fact, this show was supposed to come out before WandaVision did, but the pandemic threw the plans into disarray. As a consequence, it’s kind of impossible to watch Falcon/Winter Soldier without comparing it to WandaVision, which seemed to polarize my social circle – people were either fascinated or infuriated by it. So even though the two shows aren’t making reference to each other, I find it impossible not to consider them in relationship. If WandaVision was inadvertently an allegory for life in the pandemic bubble, where the historical moment left us disoriented and estranged, then Falcon/Winter Soldier may end up being the allegory for life after the bubble, or after the “blip” if you like. The world has been damaged, we have to get on with life, but the losses don’t feel adequately acknowledged or mourned. Even though we’re “free” to return to “normal,” a certain low-grade depression persists. The question is, do we even want to return to normal? Both Sam and Bucky have clear motivation to get back into the superhero business, but the first episode leaves me wondering if they even should. (Stay in therapy, Bucky!)
The episode ends by setting up two Big Bads, as the world fumbles blindly for leadership now that many of their heroes are dead or retired, and the ones who are left only halfway have their shit together.
So how do I wrap this up? Well, two things to love: 1. There’s a scene where Bucky is sitting in the Japanese restaurant and tries to pause the swinging arm on the maneki-neko (lucky cat figurine) and then the arm just keeps swinging anyway. It’s a nice little call-back to both his own artificial arm and his character’s robotic inability to just rest. 2. With regard to Sam’s identity as a superhero, it is not lost on me that the Black man who has already proven himself feels unworthy of the Captain America role, whereas the white guy selected by the US government is happy to take the job, no problemo. I feel like the show has thought about what it’s doing with these characters, and deserves the six episodes to flesh that out.
Plus, let’s be real: it’s a lot more fun than the Snyder cut.