The fight isn’t even particularly good, but it just needs to be there. Jen still has to fight her way through a hallway of goons like Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in Iron Man 2. When Jen wants to confront “Kevin,” the episode still feels obligated to deliver a generic action set piece to get her there. Unlike in something like, say, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Jen’s writers don’t play themselves. Notably, Jen doesn’t actually engage with any of her writers. There is a sense that Marvel Studios isn’t actually interested in engaging in this sort of discussion, but instead just acknowledging it as a get-out-of-jail-free card. However, there is only so far that She-Hulk can push this particular button. Jen even gets to make some very valid criticisms, pointing out the way that having Bruce show up would undermine her story, the franchise’s over-reliance on “super soldier serum,” and how the payoff with Todd is an idea lifted “from every other superhero story ever.” Jen gets to visit her writers’ room and engage in a critique of the kind of storytelling that turns so many of these shows into generic content soup. While the She-Hulk comics have frequently had the character break the fourth wall, it’s arguably closest to that issue of Animal Man that had the superhero confront writer Grant Morrison about their scripting of him. She pushes the show out into the Disney+ menu and climbs into Marvel Studios Assembled to get access to the behind-the-scenes team working on She-Hulk. The episode’s opening is a loving homage to the original Incredible Hulk television show, and it is frankly a much more compelling way of explaining “ who (she) is and how (she) came to be” than the dramatically inert extended flashbacks in “ A Normal Amount of Rage.” Why hasn’t She-Hulk been this playful from the start? Why hasn’t it been willing to exploit the potential of its central conceit?Īs the episode’s climax threatens to devolve into chaos, Jen again breaks the fourth wall. “Whose Show Is This?” is fun and playful in a way that She-Hulk really should have been from the start. Is this what you guys want?” Like a lot of fourth-wall breaking, it’s interesting how Jen’s asides implicitly implicate the audience. “This isn’t even a reluctant superhero story,” Jen complains to the camera. “Whose Show Is This?” leans into that tension, to the point that the season’s big conflict seems to have little to do with either Titania or Todd Phelps, but instead She-Hulk itself wrestling with the rules that govern these streaming shows. Emil Blonsky,” when Jen warned the viewer, “Just remember whose show this actually is.” The title of the finale alludes to one such aside in “ The People vs. A surprising amount of these fourth-wall asides have effectively been Jen voicing her none-too-subtle complaints about the ways in which She-Hulk is beholden to the continuity, production logistics, and cross-promotion of the shared universe. Jen has spent a significant portion of She-Hulk directly addressing the audience. None of these storylines make any sense.” She directly asks the viewer, “Is this working for you?” “This can’t possibly be where this season was going,” she complains, clearly having failed to binge The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Deeply frustrated, Jen breaks the fourth wall to directly address the audience. None of this makes any sense, but it’s also somewhat typical of the way that these sorts of shows end, from WandaVision through to Moon Knight. Then Jennifer’s cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) breaks through the ceiling, fresh from his trip to Sakaar and ready for a long overdue rematch against Blonsky as the Abomination. Jennifer’s arch-enemy Titania (Jameela Jamil) smashes through the wall, ready for action. Tying the various plot elements together, Phelps has decided to hold a meet up at the retreat owned by Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), who is delivering a special guest speech in his monstrous form. “I didn’t just get handed superpowers,” he opines as someone literally hands him a syringe that will give him superpowers. Todd Phelps (Jon Bass) is revealed as the online poster known as “HulkKing,” responsible for both the public shaming of Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) and stealing her blood in an effort to turn himself into a superhero. “Whose Show Is This?” builds to a conventional action climax, populated by all of the elements seeded to this point. In its season finale, “Whose Show Is This?,” She-Hulk discovers that the rules of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) can bend, but they won’t break. This discussion and review contains spoilers for She-Hulk episode 9, the season finale, “Whose Show Is This?”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |