Helmed by Jessica Gao, Kat Coiro, and Anu Valia, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law follows Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) who after getting in a car accident with her cousin, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), is contaminated by his blood, causing her to transform into a Hulk. Now known as She-Hulk, Jennifer tries to navigate her new complicated life that involves being a lawyer specializing in cases involving superhumans and being a future superhero, all while desiring a normal life.
She-Hulk has always been one of the coolest and funniest characters from Marvel’s endless library but admittedly I wasn’t sure what exactly the series was going to be like given the bizarre yet unique nature of the character and her stories. Despite this, I believe the show makers were able to make a great adaptation of She-Hulk in this self-contained series that takes a very different and drastic direction from previous MCU show entries. Rather than taking a similar route that other characters have taken in their own shows, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is a full-on 4th-wall-breaking workplace antics comedy but with superheroes. It finds its footing as a fun, effective, and extremely self-aware show that follows the chaotic life and development of Jennifer Walters with big surprises and inclusions.
This isn’t your typical action-driven superhero show that has the hero go on some intense adventure or mission to save the world, which I think was what people were expecting, and is part of the reason it’s faced a lot of scrutiny on top of the ridiculous reasons that people like to make up on a daily basis. But I expected it to be different based on what was shown in the trailers as well as discussed by the show makers and that was what I got. I really loved how it not only embraced so much from its comic book roots but how it managed to be so funny and absolutely insane with its self-awareness and 4th-wall-breaking humor that is by far the show’s strongest element.
This is by no means a perfect series as I believe there is a lot they could improve on going forward, but I do not believe for a second that it deserves any of the massive hate it’s received, especially for the dumbest reasons.
Let’s start off with our titular character. We get yet another perfect comic book character casting with Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters, fulling embracing all aspects of She-Hulk from comics including the comedy. Like Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, she is a natural with the 4th-wall-breaking humor, switching in and out of it with ease and always being consistently funny. But unlike Deadpool, her character has a very different development and a different journey that she goes through in the series, even with all the craziness that occurs.
From the start when Jen shows that, despite her becoming a hulk, she refuses her calling as a superhero and just wants to be a normal person with a normal life. But she quickly comes to realize that is not possible, despite her best attempts, and has continuous struggles involving her public image as a lawyer and personal elements in her life. But as the series progresses Jen gains more confidence and therefore leans more towards being She-Hulk in her daily life, embracing both sides and creating a really great emotional arc of acceptance that is honestly done brilliantly and can be relatable to a lot of people.
Even with all the wacky lawyer show antics and personal life stuff she deals with as a woman of her generation, you have a character with an investing journey at the center that takes some surprising and even serious turns.
Like many of the newer Phase 4 characters I am eager to see more of her going forward in the MCU and watch her interact with other heroes, especially since she manages to share great chemistry with the ones that appear in this series. There are some new lovable supporting characters like Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) and Pug (Josh Segarra) who match the energy of the show and deliver great stand-out performances.
Another notable stand out was Mallory Book, played by Renee Elise Goldsberry, who is pretty much the only serious character in the show yet works perfectly because of the way her seriousness is handled. She doesn’t take away from the comedy but instead enhances it with her more mature personality and presence, similar to Cable in Deadpool 2.
There are other supporting characters here and there that are given good performances by their respective actors and actresses but they aren’t the main part of the series. The main part is all the super-powered characters that make their appearances throughout the series that have a connection to our lead through her personal life and her job as a lawyer representing the superhuman law division of her firm.
Let’s begin with some familiar faces who make their mark in the show. We obviously have the return of Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, aka Hulk, who is once again awesome in terms of performance. His role in the series is unfortunately shorter than expected but he does manage to be a great addition to the show and he has some interesting developments that impact his future in the MCU. He and Jen work great as cousins, having the perfect family chemistry between them as well as showing how different both of them are as people and as hulks. There is an obvious generational gap between them and both have had way different experiences which affect the way they control their other sides.
Bruce has lots of unresolved trauma from his past, and he’s not able to truly control his Hulk side, while Jen on the other hand has never had to deal with any of those traumas and is able to control her Hulk side more easily, just like in the comics. It was very interesting to see them dedicate a whole episode to this and part of me wishes we had more of this throughout the series but there are always opportunities to expand that in the future. And based on the massive bombshell reveal that happens near the end of the series relating to Banner it’s clear his story in the MCU is going to take a very interesting path.
Then we get the return of Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky, aka Abomination, whose role in this series was honestly unexpected. Tim Roth gets to breathe new life into the character after his many-year absence, showing a changed version of him through a delightfully fun performance. This isn’t the villainous one-dimensional soldier from before but a reformed yet still suspicious character who Tim Roth gets to have a great time with in a different setting. He’s enjoyable to watch every time he’s on screen and the way things go allows his character to be taken in multiple directions in future installments, thanks to the clean slate he’s been given. Will he be a villain again or not? The answer is left largely ambiguous.
Everyone’s favorite Sorcerer Supreme Wong, reprised by Benedict Wong, is also a fun inclusion that shares hilarious interactions with Jen as two superheroes who are on completely different spectrums, with each showing the difference between a more grounded lower stakes hero and a hero who has been involved in high multidimensional reality bending stakes.
These are major familiar faces you get to see in the series but there are also a number of new superhuman characters from the pages of comics that get included as part of a running gag of introducing extremely obscure comic characters into the MCU canon. This is similar to the Peacemaker series casually name-dropping obscure characters into DCEU’s canon but She-Hulk goes further by actually showing the characters and tying them in with Jen’s story. It leads to a lot of bizarre but hilarious situations in the series that include Jen forming a rivalry with her foe from comics, Titania, played by Jameela Jamil. I do wish this character was expanded to be more than a massive thorn in Jen’s life as the character does have more to her story from the source material, but I will admit seeing her adapted the way she is in this series was hilarious and she does make for a perfect love to hate character that represents certain individuals we know in real life.
There isn’t really a major compelling villain built up in this season but there is a group introduced that presents a very realistic threat to Jen in the series in the most unexpected way, which I thought was handled really well in some areas and could have been improved in others.
The narrative of this series is very different in comparison to the other shows in that it’s more of a series of multiple events Jen goes through that are lightly connected to each other rather than being one big superhero story.
It’s very much in the style of some sitcom comedy shows which don’t necessarily have an overarching narrative and are very self-contained, which may not be for everyone. But for me personally, I found this to be a unique direction to take the show. Each episode had something enjoyable and fun for me to be invested in, thanks largely to Jen’s character development in each episode and the 4th wall humor that really was brilliant every single episode. Now granted not all of the humor and writing worked for me as I feel there was a lot more they could have done with some characters and situations they had going here.
There is also not that much action present in the series and while the scenes we got were good I was wanting a bit more. It really needed something to kick it into higher gear which is where the final two episodes come in. The final two episodes are absolutely phenomenal with the crazy shit they pull in both of them.
Episode 8 features the long-awaited return of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in a more proper debut into the MCU and he is handled beautifully. Even in a lighter-toned series he is still the same Matt Murdock we know and love who gets to share the spotlight with She-Hulk in the best ways possible. Cox’s performance is perfect and he shares electrifying chemistry on screen with Tatiana’s Jen, making for a perfect dynamic duo none of us knew we needed.
Episode 8 also ends on a major high note after a major build-up across the series, paying off with one of the most shocking moments that gets expanded on more in the following episode.
But as if that wasn’t enough the final episode of the season kicks things up further with an absolutely bat shit crazy finale that completely threw me off guard and does the unimaginable. I seriously couldn’t believe what I was witnessing as it goes full-on She-Hulk comic territory and delivers the most insane finale of all the Marvel shows. The self-awareness really reaches its peak in this finale in the best possible way and manages to completely avoid many of the issues I was worried were going to occur. There’s so much I wish I could say about it but honestly, it’s best to witness it for yourself. A fitting finale for a truly bonkers series.
In regards to the technical elements of this series there is not too much to talk about as this is visually the weakest MCU project to date. It’s not terrible by any means but there’s nothing that stands out about it on the technical side compared to other projects. The cinematography and editing are good for the most part, especially in certain episodes, but in previous MCU installments nearly every shot felt like it had something beautiful and powerful to tell while this one only had a select number of shots that were impactful.
Now in regards to VFX, which has been the subject of controversy, I honestly thought that most of it in this series looked fine. She-Hulk’s look is way better in the series itself than it was in the trailers but there were a couple of occasions where she looked off in some scenes but good in others. Other effects that were not related to She-Hulk actually looked really good even for the restricted budget but I do hope that when it comes to She-Hulk appearing in films they could further improve her design.
As for music, this series does have a solid score and a solid theme of its own but I feel it doesn’t stand out as much as other themes from other MCU installments.
This series is very much in a wild league of its own compared to most of the MCU and while it definitely needs improvement going forward, I still had a great time with it and I do wish to see what comes next for the character of She=Hulk and the other opportunities this series has presented that are waiting to be explored. I’m going to give She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1 a B+ = 87.
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