‘She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’ Is Fun But Needs To Move Quicker
by Frank Martin
Three episodes in and it has become increasingly clear what type of show She-Hulk: Attorney At Law wants to be. The great thing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that it spans a wide breath of genres; it doesn’t try too hard to stay on point in both brand and tone. There has certainly been comedy before in the MCU. Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ms. Marvel can certainly be described as comedic superhero stories. But She-Hulk is something different. Her tendency to be meta and break the fourth wall leans heavily into comedy, to say nothing of certain post credit scenes. Unfortunately, three episodes in and this attempt to be something different is starting to take a toll on the overall plotline.
This week’s episode continues where the previous episode left off as Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) works Emil Blonksy’s (Tim Roth) parole hearing. Wong (Benedict Wong) makes an appearance to justify the Abomination’s cameo in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Also, a separate storyline involving a shape shifting Light Elf from Asgard unfolds alongside the parole hearing. Aside from the first episode, the show is leaning heavily into its place as a courtroom comedy and it has been quite successful in that regard thus far.
The problem comes when She-Hulk is put up against the larger MCU as a whole. The cameos have done a great job to tie the series into the universe, but it is still unclear as to exactly how and where it will fit as a superhero story. A clear villain has yet to emerge, and with a relatively short season, the pacing for that tension needs to picked. An appearance from the Wrecking Crew certainly helped, but it was just a small glimpse as to where the rest of the show is headed. No doubt, future episodes will expand upon this budding storyline, but it should definitely be further along at this point than it is.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law streams Thursdays on Disney+.
