Think back to the worst, most haphazardly-made, monetary glue trap you saw that also cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. Chances are, you’re landing on something in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The latest Thor entry was middling; Ms. Marvel squandered a promisingly progressive tale; Eternals was a visually bland superhero link-up; and Black Widow was a confoundingly boring letdown that arrived long after its star hero was already dead.
The MCU has garnered a sour reputation for following the same pattern: films and television shows are announced at flashy conventions, with an increased move toward diversity and stories that will broaden the universe past the thousandth Avengers expansion. Then, all of that is almost always sacrificed for the same rote twists and humor tropes. We should be used to this betrayal by now.
Still, when it was announced that She-Hulk would be the next hero to enter the MCU, there was an inkling of promise. She-Hulk is inherently silly, as is any superhero that has a hyphen in their name. But this wasn’t just to be She-Hulk, oh no. The eighth series from Marvel Studios was properly titled She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and it would be lead by Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters, the genetically-mutated green woman just trying to make it in the cutthroat world of law.
Just by concept alone, this was a chance for Marvel to lean into the campiness that’s always lingering on the fringes of everything they do, an opportunity to actually surprise us with an appropriately cartoonish superhero outing.
That’s why it stings so acutely seeing that, once again, She-Hulk’s potential is entirely wasted.
The show’s premise is undeniably strong, which is proven immediately as the series opens, showing Maslany as Jennifer Walters trying a case in court. Maslany is as watchable as ever in her few human moments before she transforms into her Hulk half when Titania (Jameela Jamil), a Big-Bird-esque supervillain, crashes into the courtroom.
“Do it, do the thing!” Jennifer’s paralegal best friend Ginger begs her. Suddenly, Jennifer is a 6-foot-7 green mutation who can no longer fit into her smart blazer and sensible pumps. She knocks Titania out of the courtroom to the applause of the jury and delivers a smirk-inducing line about being ready to give her closing statements. It’s fun, it’s pretty gloriously stupid, and it’s even kind of exciting. And it’s all downhill from there.
I should be clear here: only the first four of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s nine episodes were provided for press. There’s a chance that things could pick up by the time the show rounds out its first season in mid-October. But what I did see only got progressively worse, so much so that I wondered if there was a gas leak in my apartment.
After a dragging but necessary amount of flashback exposition that finds Jennifer and her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in Mexico trying to ascertain the level of Jennifer’s newfound powers—Hulkability is apparently a bloodborne genetic disease, who knew!—the show throws her back into the world of Los Angeles law. Except that, after her little courtroom stunt, she’s become a liability to her firm and is cut loose.
Not long after she’s fired,…
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