Season 1

The first season of Ms. Marvel is... frustrating. The series is blessed with high energy, high concept visuals and writing. The cast comprises of charismatic, top notch performers, blessed with refreshing cultural backdrop.

So what went wrong?

The lack of clarity. For me, one consistent problem with most "Phase Four" Marvel Cinematic Universal series is that they try to be too clever and mysterious. The side effect is a villain arc that doesn't get the time to fully develop. On Ms. Marvel, I am not even sure who the villain is. I am guessing it's Najma, a mother of Kamala's crush, Kamran, but she is given so little air time and is dismissed relatively early that I would dismiss her as the season's primary antagonist/villain. The series suggests her son could become a villain, but the idea is not fully explored. It might also be the government (Damage Control), but they are just so comically inept. Maybe it's no one and it's a story about Kamala discovering her root and embracing herself, a shade of Pixar's Turning Red?

Having said that, the Khan family is an infectious bunch. Everything from their appearances, their voices, and their characterization is just so lovable that I found myself tuning in just to be a part of the family for about an hour. And their friends are equally and uniformly charming. This is just one attractive show!

Ultimately, however, I need more substance and there's nothing for me to hold on to, nothing to root for.

This is a tough show to rate. Would probably place it somewhere between a 6 and 7 but giving it a 7 to be a little generous. I actually really liked what they did with a lot of elements of this show. Especially early on it was a lighthearted and fun teenage story about family and culture which was really enjoyable and fresh for the MCU. The middle episodes then took a bit of a different turn and the show morphed into something else that was much larger in scale and a lot more complex. I actually enjoyed a lot of this stuff too as it spent even more time diving deep into the cultural elements and even a lot of history, but it was also at this point that the MCU formula took over a little bit by turning the show into so much larger in scale than it needed to be. And again, like most other marvel shows, the story came to a screeching halt in the fifth episode right before the finale as it spent a ton of time in flashbacks away from the main characters and just threw the pacing way off. Then all of this larger scale historical and cultural stuff was pretty much resolved by the end of episode five and for the finale the show went back to what it was in the first few episodes of a much more contained story with Kamala's character development at the center. Which again, I really liked, but it didn't match the middle episodes. When I look at the details of this show I enjoy pretty much all of it, but it feels like they made two different shows and sandwiched them together. A fun teenage superhero story at the beginning and end, but a large scale globetrotting historical exploration in the middle. Therefore as a whole, the themes felt somewhat inconsistent and like a lot of the themes that were set up at the start of the show were abandoned in the middle then brought back in at the very end. Therefore some of the character arcs and dynamics feel like they're missing a little more development. A true instance of the individual parts being greater than the whole. I'll choose to focus on the fun parts and the cool exploration of culture and visual style.

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What a tough show to rate or even to review. There's a lot to like about Ms. Marvel. It's great to see the MCU slowly expand their cultural horizon and it is fantastic they're adding more representation, especially with a young female muslime superhero. The show dives into Kamala's cultural background and goes further with it during Nakia's storyline and it elevates the show so much.

The characters are likeable. Kamala, Bruno, Nakia, Aamir - so easy to root for and the overall acting on the show is mostly done well. Iman Vellani especially hopefully will go places. She is talented and charming and a great addition to the MCU.

Ms. Marvel is a show that has all the ingredients for greatness. However, it doesn't really deliver on them.

First off, Marvel and Disney need to stop squishing their TV shows into the 6-episode formular. It is hurting them more than benefiting them because right now they are writing stories to fill into an episode order when really the should order episodes fitting to the story. I am all for short seasons, I don't need dragged out 22-episode shows with plenty of filler, however, some shows can go by with only 6 episodes, others need 8 or 10. Ms. Marvel was a pacing mess. I have barely seen a show paced this horribly and everything else suffered for it.

The villains were laughably bad. No matter if it were the Clandestines or Damage Control. I know the MCU doesn't have the best track record when it comes to villains but this set the bar to a new low we haven't had in a while. Backstories were awkwardly cramed in, characters changed motivations left and ride, relationships developed because they had to, not because it felt organic.

I sadly found myself so taken out of it and frankly bored most of the time, despite really wanting to like it. It left me with a feeling of indifference and that is never a good sign.

The one criticism I don't share, but I solely blame that on not having any kind of previous knowledge on Ms. Marvel, is that I couldn't care less if she is a mutant or an Inhuman. I'm fine either way. If that's how they introduce the X-Men (though technically that first step was Professor X in Multiverse of Madness) then so be it.

I really hope Kamala and her supporting characters get to shine on the upcoming film The Marvels, because they sure deserve better than this messy storytelling.

Ms. Marvel is a great down to Earth origin story that is able to resonate with a large variety of audiences, but when the story delves into the cosmic realm it drowns under the weight of underdeveloped villains and poor writing choices.

At first, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed Ms. Marvel. The high school setting was really refreshing to see, as we really only have one hero in the MCU that is in that age range. I felt as if Kamala Khan was an extension of the audience, a mega super fan whose lifelong dream was to become a hero herself. The interactions with her family and friends as she was trying to fit into the popular clique of school while dodging the overprotection of her parents were fantastic to see. I did find that her parents were a bit over exaggerated and did not really seem genuine in their worries, as Kamala was a very respectful daughter who was being open and honest with them initially. Despite that, there are plenty of scenes throughout the series of heart-to-heart conversations with her family that feel extremely genuine and pure. My heart melted whenever her father spoke, he had such a calming presence on the entire family.

After the first two episodes is when the show started to go off the rails for me. The Karachi episodes are extremely disjointed. The connections and conversations Kamala makes with her mother and grandmother are incredible and a real turning point for the character. But the introduction of the Red Daggers was half baked and extremely corny. The villains introduced during this episode stretch were not all that compelling as there was a very limited lead up to the conflict. They essentially just get thrown in a third of the way into show and give a massive exposition dumb on why they are after Kamala. The audience never gets to form a connection with them or understand them deeper than surface level. This problem is only compounded in the finale when the villain changes at the last minute and left me scratching my head.

The acting in the show was fairly adequate. Iman Velani is marvelous as Ms. Marvel; I found her excitement and connection with the character extremely authentic and any complaints I have of this show have nothing to do with her; she was great. Yasmeen Fletcher, Zenobia Shroff, and Mohan Kapur were amazing as well, they all gave really touching and emotional performances that really worked for me. The conversations they all shared with Kamala that helped guide her throughout her journey were gripping and at times made me tear up. Matt Lintz and all the villains were extremely average though. There were far too many lines that were delivered awkwardly, and even though some of that had to do with bad writing (as all actors had some lines that felt off), these characters felt that it happened multiple times per episode.

The action is pretty average as well, there are a few scenes with Kamala that are very obviously CGI that look like they were straight out of a late 2000’s video game. I cannot help but wonder why they could not have done it in live action with green screen boxes that they could cut out in editing. However, there were a few scenes that had interesting angles with few cuts that I definitely appreciated.

Ms. Marvel is a really great introduction to Kamala Khan as a character and although the journey has major dip after episode two it still finishes somewhat strong, leaving me excited for what's to come in The Marvels.

Score: 65%
Verdict: Decent