This show would be much better without the Hulk-sized chip on the main character's shoulder.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is the latest MCU television show to be released on Disney+. The story revolves around Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) the cousin of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). At the beginning of the series, she gets into a car accident with Bruce and their blood mixes. As a result, she can transform into a She-Hulk. Most of the first episode involves Bruce helping train Jen and attempting to have her come to terms with her new situation. The second episode looks at what Jen's life is like back in the real world, where she tries to maintain a law career while navigating her newfound powers and fame.
Tonally, this is meant to be the most comic of any previous MCU story. Jen will often break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience like Deadpool. The situations she finds herself in are awkward and absurd and the supporting characters are flat comedy tropes.
The concept of the show is not a bad one. I am not opposed to a comedy show set in the MCU and it could be mined with great reward. The main conceit of the show is that it is a legal procedural comedy involving super powers. That could lead to some fun and fascinating stories.
The main problem revolves around Jen herself and the worldview she brings you into. At her introduction, she is not very likable. This is a common trope in the hero's journey. Tony Stark is a jerk at the beginning of his movie and Loki starts his show as a unrepentant villain. Part of the problem with Jen is the fourth-wall break. When Tony or Loki behave badly, we feel like we some moral distance from them. But Jen talks to us like we are best friends and confidants. She assumes that I, the viewer, look at the world the same way.
The problem is that I don't.
In the trailers, the played a clip where she said that fear and rage are the baseline emotions of every woman. This is an incredibly dour world-view. As a man, I acknowledge that there is something to female experience that is different for me. But even this seemed a bit much. I asked my wife if Jen's perspective was universal to women. She said that it was the view of certain types of women.
That is where the problem rests: it assumes the universal of something particular. There are many women whose lives are peace and joy. There are also many men whose lives are marred by fear and rage. Jen seems to want to monopolize her negative emotions on behalf of her gender. IMDB recently shared out the clip of Jen yelling at Bruce telling him that she is great at controlling her anger because she does it "infinitely more" than him. This makes Jen seem very self-centered and lacking empathy. Bruce saw father murder his mother, he has loved two women with whom he was separated, and he spent years on the run from the military. The writers of the show want to say something about the differing experiences of men and women, but it feels awkwardly plastered on the characters.
In the course of the episodes, I hope Jen grows as a character. She seems constantly green (pun intended) with envy. She is hired at a law firm that requires her to appear as She-Hulk. She is understandably concerned with how people will think she was hired for her immutable qualities and not her skills. But then she complains about how a bunch of men in a nearby conference room never had to feel the way she does. How does she know this? I don't know. She assumes that none of them can relate to her struggle. This robs some of the audience of the chance to see themselves in what she is going through. If the character explicitly says that certain types of people are cut off from her experience, then this cuts off the certain members of the audience. This is not simply a matter of the gulf between men and women.
Think about how different that is from the presentation of Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs: she is a female navigating the male-dominated world of law-enforcement where she deals with subtle and not-so-subtle sexism. And yet all audience members, male and female, can place themselves in her shoes and empathize with her feeling like an outsider. Jen does not invite you to empathy. Instead, she invites you to greater disdain for the things that annoy her.
Jen is also vulgar in a way that is off-putting. Deadpool is also like this and is also distasteful at times, but Maslany does not have the charisma of Ryan Reynolds. I found it particularly galling the way Jen was obsessed with the sex life of Captain America. She seemed to take glee in dragging down one of the most morally virtuous MCU characters in a way that just seemed mean-spirited. Bruce is also cut down to size. At one point, Jen is able to push him with a Jeep. This may seem like a small point, but that is a horrible subversion of his power levels. It feels like they need to bring Bruce low to raise Jen up.
As I said, most of the characters are flat. As I wrote, Maslany is no Reynolds, but she is not bad. Ruffalo's performance as Banner/Hulk has deteriorated a great deal since his first great take on the character in Avengers. Tim Roth seems to be having a lot of fun as Emil Blondsky/Abomination. And veteran comic actor Mark Linn-Baker is pitch-perfect as Jen's doting father.
I have not given up on the show, though my optimism is waning. There is still a great deal of room for character growth. I like the drama of Jen being hired to defend the villain who tried to kill Bruce. I am very curious as to the MCU's legal philosophy.
But if the quality does not improve from the first two episodes, then this will be the worse MCU movie or show to date.
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