She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e09 – Whose Show Is This?

“She-Hulk” does not end with a second season announcement, which is—possibly reasonably, possibly not—heartbreaking. Especially since the mid-credit sequence erases one of the episode’s “wins.”

Because even though “She-Hulk” is a Marvel show in an MCU, the show and its star—Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk gets significantly less to do this episode)—would rather be a superhero legal comedy than set up Planet Hulk for 2033 or whenever. And Maslany tells the head honcho at Marvel Studios as much after she does a major wall break to plead the show’s case.

There are a handful of surprise guest stars, several twists, and another good subplot for Ginger Gonzaga and Josh Segarra. The show does a rapid-fire cliffhanger resolution, with Maslany ending up back at home with parents Mark Linn-Baker and Tess Malis Kincaid. Kincaid’s finally distinct, opposite Gonzaga; there’s potential there. There’s potential all over the place for “She-Hulk,” including a move to New York City or at least a guest appearance in a sequel to a particular Netflix Marvel show. Not to mention the big MCU reveal, stealing Maslany’s last scene from her like it’s a Robert Downey Jr. cameo.

The episode starts with some inspired franchise homage, then destroys the fourth wall to save Maslany from having to do just another Marvel movie resolution, only to leave her in limbo. The episode wraps things up, including some solidly acerbic observations about the Marvel Studios creative process, but it doesn’t take the show anywhere new. It just doesn’t take it anywhere old.

And if “She-Hulk” doesn’t continue, if Maslany just gets wrapped into the occasional guest spot, it won’t get to go anywhere. The second season tag would at least acknowledge they know what they’ve got here. The show’s incredibly aware of what it’s done, what it’s accomplished, and what it’s whiffed on, but it also says those things might not matter.

The finale’s not disappointing or even underwhelming. It’s also not the home run I’d been hoping for.

If they don’t do a season two, I hope they’ve better plans for Maslany than costarring in Fantastic Four and guesting on “Daredevil” as the love interest. I feel like “She-Hulk” knows better, but does Marvel?

The season’s an incredible success for Maslany, who took the show over from big-name guest stars and CGI twerking, and there have been some excellent scripts throughout the season.

I want more “She-Hulk.” I’m glad we got any at all. I hope we get some more.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e08 – Ribbit and Rip It

A couple things to get out of the way again for this episode. During Tatiana Maslany’s perfect beyond words Ferris Bueller “go home already” fourth wall breaking (she’d already inhabited the part, now it’s time for her to bend the devices to her will), she says next episode is the “finale.” They’re doing another scene to get them there. And the hook for next episode’s good. It’s not perfect, but it’s coming at the end of a transcendent accomplishment: “She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law” just perfected the superhero show crossover episode.

Well. Sort of. I mean, I think they did it once before, and I think it involved the same other half of the crossover, “Daredevil” Charlie Cox, making his big return to the proverbial tights after showing up in the latest Spider-Man, answering the question of whether or not the Netflix Marvel shows “count.” They do for Cox, anyway.

And it’s no surprise why. It’s a magnificent return, starting with him and Maslany facing off in court. Her client (Brandon Stanley playing the perfect dipshit) is suing superhero fashion designer Griffin Matthews for faulty jet boots. Even though Maslany also frequents Matthews’s establishment (he’s designing her lawyers’ gala dress, in fact), she’s stuck trying to case. She wasn’t expecting a New York City lawyer who can tell when people lie just from their heartbeats.

It gets more complicated after Maslany and Cox have drinks—I’d forgotten how wonderfully slutty Cox plays the part, seducing Maslany with the potential of using her powers for good. Between that soulful moment and Cox saying “Sokovia Accords,” the MCU suddenly gets that “street level” thoughtfulness it’s been missing since… well, always, actually. At least outside Netflix.

Anyway.

Because it’s a crossover, they’ll have to costume up at some point, but because it’s a first-time crossover, they’ll have to be enemies at the start.

It’s glorious, even if director Kat Coiro should’ve done at least one bad-ass “Daredevil” long fight instead of just joking about them.

The next episode’s going to be a whopper based on the cliffhanger, but between this episode and the last, “She-Hulk”’s earned itself all the seasons. Though the four-minute setup should’ve been a mid-credits sequence; someone needs to rethink the MCU show’s lengthy end titles.

It had so better end with “She-Hulk Will Return in She-Hulk: Season Two.” It so better.

She could also move to New York and do a season with Cox. Whatever. But they’ve finally hit that sincere and unique sitcom level; they need to keep it going.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e04 – Is This Not Real Magic?

This episode down-shifts the action a little, leveraging returning guest star Benedict Wong—who star Tatiana Maslany frequently breaks the fourth wall to comment on appearing—without moving any of the subplots forward. Other than Mark Linn-Baker’s too understated sitcom dad in the real world bit. He shows up for a scene to Wrecking Crew-proof Maslany’s apartment after the attempted assault last episode. No straight-to-the-heart and twist zingers for the incel bros this episode, but Maslany does get in a fun “what’s Twitter complaining about?” comment in.

Is that Earth-616 Twitter, Earth-199999 Twitter, or our Earth Twitter? I really want to know the rules behind references in the MCU; I hope we find out all the twists, turns, and hurdles someday.

A bad (as in, bad at his job) stage magician named Donny Blaze (unclear if he’s Johnny’s brother) has been using actual magic to add some oomph to his shows. He starts teleporting random audience members, usually women in short skirts, into other dimensions. One, played by Patty Guggenheim, fights her way through a demon dimension while making bargains and having adventures, escaping to Wong’s living room just in time to spoil “Sopranos” for him.

Rhys Coiro (director Kat Coiro’s husband) plays Blaze. He’s a complete dipshit, which is one of those strange casting choices. Leon Lamar plays his enabling sidekick. They’re both fine but somewhat lackluster compared to Wong and Guggenheim. Guggenheim’s hilarious as a party girl with a heart of gold; she ought to get a spin-off. They should at least do a special about her fighting her way through Hell, Vormir, or wherever.

Wong does a lot with a little; he’s mostly reacting to Guggenheim being fabulous and Rhys Coiro being scummy.

The subplot has Maslany reluctantly starting to date in her big green persona, which proves to attract a different caliber of Tinder match. Michel Curiel plays her dreamiest match. They have a wild night out.

“She-Hulk” is on entirely solid ground now, but—even more than “Ms. Marvel”—it feels like they’re making a TV show here, meaning a second season should be in order, especially if the MCU movie guest stars are going to do two-episode arcs. At the same time, the guest stars—even the tangential ones—are distracting from the regular law firm cast. Ginger Gonzaga’s the only one to show up here, again entirely support for Maslany, with no one else making the cut.

It’d just be such a perfect way to comment on the overall MCU (Wong makes a good Spider-Man: No Way Home reference at one point).

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e03 – The People vs. Emil Blonsky

I’m pretty sure this episode of “She-Hulk” is the first time the MCU has acknowledged white males aged eighteen to thirty-four are entirely pieces of shit. There’s a bit with the news showing Twitter posts complaining about She-Hulk, then the MCU version of the Wrecking Crew is a bunch of Trump voters who’ve decided to finally commit to just assaulting women. It’s a fantastic flex from the show, and watching CGI She-Hulk beat the shit out of the Wrecking Crew, who seem like they’ll be back, is going to be great.

This episode’s where the show finally delivers on all fronts—there’s legal comedy-drama, there’s MCU business, there’s fourth wall breaking, there’s a celebrity cameo. The show takes several shortcuts to get there, including B plot protagonist Josh Segarra. Segarra plays Pug, who’s from the comics, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t in the last episode. He certainly didn’t talk or get introduced. In fact, when he shows up in this episode, the focus is on returning guest star Drew Matthews.

Matthews is an assistant district attorney shit-bag Maslany and Ginger Gonzaga used to work with; he needs their new firm’s help with a matter involving a New Asgardian shapeshifter. It’s a lot of… not MCU workplace jabs and jokes. The MCU got over the Blip faster than real life got over lockdown. It’s a bit disconcerting seeing “She-Hulk” comment on workplace harassment fifteen minutes after Tatiana Maslany broke the fourth wall to assure viewers the show’s not just about returning MCU guest stars (no Mark Ruffalo this episode, but Tim Roth and Benedict Wong).

Roth and Wong are in the A plot—we can call them A and B plots with “She-Hulk,” Maslany broke the wall to talk to us about how they work—spinning out of their adventures in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It’d be fascinating to see the Disney+ numbers to see if “She-Hulk”’s an entry to Shang-Chi or vice versa.

Anyway. Maslany’s still trying to get Roth out on parole, and Wong seems to be the key, only Wong’s the Sorcerer Supreme, and he’s got things to do. It’s an excellent sequence and a wonderful comic adaptation; they’ve cracked “She-Hulk.” Unfortunately, it does seem like there’s been a lot left on the cutting room floor—Segarra’s introduction, Gonzaga and Maslany being besties, Gonzaga having a part—but the show delivers. Roth, a stunt cast back in Incredible Hulk, finally gets to loose himself in the part.

And Wong’s a delight.

And Maslany’s a delight. “She-Hulk”’s loads of—surprisingly grounded—fun.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e02 – Superhuman Law

This episode runs an incredibly (no pun) brief twenty-two minutes. There are end credits and a mid-credits sequence (which belongs in the episode proper) but also a long re-cap, so twenty-two minutes. Sitcom-length. Only “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” doesn’t feel like a sitcom. It does at times, and it’s definitely a comedy, but it needs space to stretch.

There’s also the on-release versus binging viewing experience. Waiting week after week for truncated episodes—this episode finishes up the pilot responsibilities of last episode and then sets up next episode; if “She-Hulk” was always supposed to be sitcom-length, it’s concerning. But, binging, it’ll probably run great. Depending on how the second half of the season goes.

The pilot wrap-up involves Tatiana Maslany losing her job for saving the jury’s lives as She-Hulk and not being able to find another lawyer gig. She has to put up with shit from her loser cousin Nicholas Cirillo at a family dinner where Mark Linn-Baker plays Maslany’s dad.

Linn-Baker’s a muted stunt cast, with mom Tess Malis Kincaid then not a stunt cast, which is… peculiar. They should’ve done Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt.

Anyway, pretty soon, the rest of the pilot’s over, and Steve Coulter offers Maslany a job so the show can fulfill its title.

Coulter doesn’t want human Maslany working for him; he wants She-Hulk Maslany working for him. While Maslany does get to bring sidekick Ginger Gonzaga along (who has zero character so far, another side effect of the sitcom-length), the other deal-breaker is her first case: she needs to defend Tim Roth. Roth’s been in prison since the first Incredible Hulk movie (the only Incredible Hulk movie) fourteen years ago. It’s nice to see Roth get to have fun in the role since he didn’t in the movie so much.

Maslany doesn’t want to represent Roth because he tried to kill her cousin in that movie, back when he was Edward Norton. Mark Ruffalo has a brief scene explaining he doesn’t care about the Incredible Hulk movie, it’s Universal, anyway, and he was a different person back then—the first time the MCU has acknowledged the recasting. Though wouldn’t Ed Norton just be a variant? #BringBackEdwardNortonYouCowards

Anyway.

It’s a good episode, Maslany continues to be great and just what the MCU needed in 2012, but damn, it’s too short.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e01 – A Normal Amount of Rage

It’s too bad the special effects weren’t affordable in 2013 because “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” seems like it could’ve changed the outcome of the early Marvel Studios TV offerings if they’d been able to make it happen. The show’s fun, easy, and accessible, with lead Tatiana Maslany providing just the right combination of snark and exasperation as she finds herself stuck in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The show adopts the comic’s fourth wall breaking, which—it immediately shows—should’ve long been a standard in superhero movies and TV. The episode starts with Maslany doing boring lawyer stuff with her able assistant Ginger Gonzaga and the shitty white male second chair, Drew Matthews. Gonzaga comments about She-Hulk, leading to Maslany breaking the wall and giving us the flashback origin.

Maslany is Mark Ruffalo’s cousin, which will explain why they share the strange genetic mutation (get it, mutation, get it) to allow them to turn gramma radiation overdoses into golly green giants and not disintegrate into flesh soup. It’s important because, after an unexpected alien spaceship crashes into them while they’re on a bonding car trip, Maslany gets exposed to Ruffalo’s blood and immediately hulks out.

The comic origin involves mobsters. The show’s origin has Ruffalo trying to mansplain Hulking to Maslany in a tropical paradise and getting shown up, scene after scene, to comic effect. Sometimes with action-comedy, special effects set pieces.

The special effects on Ruffalo Hulk are really impressive. Unfortunately, the special effects on Maslany She-Hulk aren’t. She-Hulk isn’t running any scenes yet, but hopefully, they get better. I’m assuming they won’t. At least, not for a few years until Disney+ updates them on the sly.

There’s a lot of humor, including making Brodie Bruce jokes about a particularly well-butted superhero friend of Ruffalo. Ruffalo’s quite good this time out; he’s doing an Uncle Hulk thing, the latest Dad Avenger, but they give him post-Avengers: Endgame material. Timeline-wise, he’s finally getting his hand healed after his Snap.

Good direction from Kat Coiro. Maslany’s a delightful lead. “She-Hulk” sure seems like it ought to be swell, though this episode doesn’t give away anything about the subsequent series. It’s very much an origin story pilot episode.

But, again, sure seems like they’ve got this one figured out.

Dead to Me (2019) s01e08 – Try to Stop Me

Early on in the episode, there’s this shot looking through the skylight at Judy (Linda Cardellini) after she’s had a fainting sell and friends Christina Applegate and Brandon Scott have brought her home. They were out investigating the list of 1966 Mustang owners Scott procured (Applegate’s husband was run down by a 1966 Mustang).

It’s a really good shot and I thought for a second I’d be talking at length about how Kat Coiro is the best director on the series. But then the crappy one shot composition comes back with a vengeance and it’s a nope.

Anyway. The episode’s about two things—Cardellini thinking she’s pregnant again (it’s amazing how little her repeated miscarriages have played into the character arc)—and Applegate investigating the car owners. Initially, Applegate is going up to the houses and pretending to be interested in selling them because the block’s taking off while Scott and Cardellini wait in the car.

It’s really kind of dangerous behavior—especially if she found the hit and runner—and you’d think Scott would know it’s dangerous because he’s a cop (albeit on leave) but he’s too busy mooning over Cardellini to worry about Applegate. Or the legality of their private investigation.

So when Applegate decides to investigate the prime suspect Rick Holmes on her own… it’s concerning no one has thought maybe she shouldn’t be doing it. In fact, Scott sends her off with his blessing. So when Holmes tries to get Applegate drunk and make time with her–she rebuffs him, violently—there’s then this weird self-victim blaming from Applegate. But it’s complicated because she did lead him on in hopes of seeing his murder car? Like… okay. Weird.

Not as weird as when Cardellini and Applegate have the “you’re not a real woman if you don’t have a baby” talk. I guess I should just take God not figuring in as a win.

Big developments for James Marsden and Cardellini’s relationship—or lack thereof—and the finale with Scott stumbling onto a big piece of evidence you’d think a continuously covering up manslaughter-er would think about before putting themselves out in public but whatever. “Dead to Me” exists in a universe where people can’t Google each other, apparently.

Dead to Me (2019) s01e07 – I Can Handle It

In a somewhat incredible turn, the episode opens with Christina Applegate and investigator—I guess—Brandon Scott going to cop Diana Maria Riva and telling her about the evidence they found. Riva doesn’t seem to care much about the evidence and seems ready to throw it away; it’s incredible Applegate doesn’t ask to speak to her manager.

And unrealistic, frankly.

Also unrealistic is lawyer James Marsden and Linda Cardellini bonding over a new felony for their eventual prosecution. They’re great together—it’s a damn shame Marsden didn’t get a better career (he should’ve said no to X-Men back in the day, though it’s not like the early aughts did much good for a lot of Gen-x actors)—but… they’re sociopaths. Like. Does the show not realize they’re sociopaths? “Dead to Me” doesn’t seem to understand itself… which, yeah, it’s taken a big bite and doesn’t seem to know how to chew through it.

Anyway, the episode is split between Applegate freaking out after seeing pictures of her dead husband—which Riva didn’t want to show her but Scott thought she should see—and her Realtor partner dumping her. Because Jenkins is a prick. Though his excuse is Applegate’s an asshole and has been for years and not just since the husband died.

There’s also a bit in their breakup where Jenkins says it’s okay for old White people to be racist and Applegate disagreeing makes her the bad guy, in case you’re wondering where the show comes down on that one. Also Jenkins says a little prayer before shitting all over Applegate, which seems to be a way of empowering a casually Christian viewership to be un-Christian to one another.

So later on, when Applegate’s having a weird scene with Ed Asner (because they need an exposition dump scene—it’s concerning episode writer Emma Rathbone is also the executive story editor), we find out Applegate’s had “a shitty few years,” which seems to be her saying there’s a reason for the husband stepping out with the teenager.

And then even later she lies to Scott about her husband’s shoes because we’re going to find out he walked out on her the night he got killed, which was implied back in the second or third episode but has been forgotten since. Also forgotten is Jenkins is directing Applegate’s son in church choir, so things might be awkward. Maybe?

Finally, there’s the big cliffhanger with life coming at Cardellini hard and you realize no one thought enough about the ground situation when they wrote the pilot. Shrug emoji.

Kidnapping Caitlynn (2009, Kat Coiro)

Kidnapping Caitlynn is a couples’ film and not just because it’s about a woman breaking into her ex-boyfriend’s house. Stars Jenny Mollen and Jason Biggs, who concocted the story together, are married (Mollen scripted). Director Coiro is married to supporting actor Rhys Coiro.

If it were just four people making some stupid home movie because they got bored on a Saturday night, it might be all right. As an actual effort, however, Kidnapping Caitlynn is horrific. Either Mollen is intentionally emulating stupid Hollywood comedies or she’s just a terrible writer—her performance is awful, so I’m guessing the latter.

Biggs spends most of his time mugging for the camera, which is an odd use of him. When he does talk, he can’t overcome the script.

Coiro’s direction is adequate; the film’s not her fault. Wait, Rhys Coiro’s performance is awful… did she cast him?

Julie Benz doesn’t embarrass herself.

1/3 Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Kat Coiro; screenplay by Jenny Mollen, based on a story by Mollen and Jason Biggs; director of photography, Paula Huidobro; edited by Adam Catino; music by Bret Johnson; produced by Lauren Bratman and Coiro.

Starring Jenny Mollen (Emily), Jason Biggs (Max), Julie Benz (Caitlynn) and Rhys Coiro (Daniel).


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