Eh—it’s okay.
I have little to say about this one; it’s just alright.
The action scenes were entertaining—Bucky and Sharon are popping off! Walker got less screen time in this one, and I’m okay with that. His big reaction is pretty amusing, though, and I hope they go somewhere with this. Karli is still uninteresting, and I still don’t understand her.
Overall, it’s a good ‘ol continuation, but with us being halfway into the series, I’m a little concerned our setups aren’t going to get any payoffs.
SCORE: 6/10
Ok, in order to turn my brain off and enjoy this episode I would have to suspend my disbelieve... twice. And forgive one hell of convenient appearance to boot. That just too much. Also why do you need Sam for this specific part of the mission?
Would be nice if "terrorist group" continued to be depicted as misguided group of cosmopolitans who fights for the right cause.. Karli's actions aside. Action works, but that about it this time.
p.s. And most unforgivable sin of course is the accent) Bruhl did a pretty good job in Civil War he butchered like one word but this time around only subs will help you.
[8.0/10] The thing that stuck out to me in this episode was its influences. The visit to a criminal club felt like something out of a Michael Mann film (chiefly Collateral). Sharon Carter’s long-take, shakycam, bone-bruising fights with various bounty hunters reminded me of The Bourne Identity and similar films. And the globetrotting spy business with a political bent reminded me of Homeland. That’s not to say the creators of the series necessarily had these touchstones in mind when they made “Power Broker”, but it does mean that they’re taking stylistic cues from some strong contenders and melding them with the world of the show in an exciting way.
That said, I can see how this one might leave the nitpickers and plausibility experts bristling. It strains credulity more than a little bit that it’s as easy as it is to break an international supervillain like Zemo out of a high security prison. His status as a baron granting our heroes instant access to private jets and disguises and high priced cars is pretty convenient. And introducing Sharon Carter as a stolen art mogul in a pirate city scans as a little out there, to say the least.
But it all works on a moment-to-moment basis. Sam and Bucky wanting to get to the bottom of how the Flag Smashers found themselves with super soldier serum and hunting for leads is a good story engine for the episode. Likewise, the scenes we get of John Walker and Battlestar hunting similar leads and coming up empty, with Walker increasingly flying off the handle and failing to live up to Steve’s ideals, makes for a nice counterpoint between that duo and our main characters.
The results require you to turn your brain off a bit, especially with how readily they make Zemo a silent partner in all of this. But the style is so good, the interactions so alternatingly tense and chummy, that I was hard-pressed to care.
Watching the trio infiltrate a neon-drenched pirate island while playing roles not to arouse suspicion is cool as hell. The crew interrogating a post-Hydra scientist who engaged in an Operation Paperclip-like effort to recreate the serum for the CIA, and eventually for the highest bidder, both works as some down home spy shit and some ethics-questioning looks at power and hypocrisy. Watching Bucky take down a bar full of toughs, or Sharon Carter neutralize a shipping yard full of bounty hunters, gives you those action thrills while at the same time making you a little leery about good people falling back into violence and old habits.
To be frank, there’s more going on under the hood in “Power Broker” than I really expected and am qualified to unpack. You have the discussion of the American government experimenting on Isaiah and treating him like chattel, something that makes Sam wonder if Cap’s shield, and all it represents, is a symbol worth preserving. You have Sharon, a CIA agent who did what she thought was right, having to stay on the run, be separated from her family, and not get the welcome or pardon that the others did. You even have Zemo, near single-minded in his efforts to ensure that no more super soldiers emerge, at the same time those newly-minted super soldiers seem to be trying to make opportunities for their communities that are being denied them by the slick but jack-booted GRC.
Maybe the answer is that we just get the patina of broader social and political subtext to this episode and there’s not much else there. But I think the show is at least toying with some legitimately complicated ideas, in legitimately complex ways, and I’m here for it.
“Power Broker” is also just a neat episode to watch from a pure visual style standpoint. The hyperrealism of the Captain America films translates well to this type of chapter, with a grittiness mixed with sharpness that pays off in Madripoor. There’s some cool costuming, not just with the road trip trio’s getups for the visit to Southeast Asia, but with the various baddies they encounter there. And the episode delivers combat in both darkness and daylight with aplomb.
On the whole, I’m much more on board with where The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is going after three episodes than I was after one. The show is making use of the characters and lingering threads from the Captain America movies, while also taking advantage of the post-Blip environment of the MCU to say something. Coupling that with good character dynamics between the title characters and their former enemies/allies, plus the steadily more interesting forces working against them makes for compelling weekly viewing.
We can't end every episode with a character reveal. All the people who hated WandaVision for "being so slow". Well this is the show for you because it's basically a marvel movie without any of the recap. If you don't know who everyone is before you started episode one this series is just a mess. SO many people wanted to know if they could watch WandaVision without seeing Marvel movies first and it's so doable with so little information. "She's a witch, he's an android" that's it. TFatWS is so far the opposite. I've seen every MCU property and I'm still barely keeping it straight. I'm sure this will be the most fun for the people who do the entire MCU marathon and having just watched 15 movies going right into this it will feel great but watching it live is still not that good. It's just so hard to care about anything or anyone in this series.
People complained Wandavision episodes were too short. Well, doing too much isn't a good thing either. This episode was overstuffed.
So far this show failed spectacularly to catch my attention and I don't even know why.
Another episode that was "meh" at best.
Unpopular Opinion: The least interesting things about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Emily VanCamp kicked so much ass here. Zemo and John Walker aren’t exactly people to root for, but I find their arcs interesting. And I love that Wakanda is coming into play.
But Bucky is wayyy too emo. So much so, and so often, that it leaves him devoid of any personality. We get it, you’re tortured. And the Lethal Weapon act between him and Sam just feels forced to me.
I was really hoping to love these two characters more, with the spotlight shining brightly on them for once, but there’s barely been a glimmer of anything remotely compelling.
While I gave it the same rating, I want to say that this episode was much more tightly plotted and coherent than the last one. It didn't feel like a bunch of isolated good scenes like the last, it felt like a straightforward narrative. Loved the action scenes with Sharon Carter. And the plot definitly seems to be moving.
I really need to complain about the Flag Smashers again though. It really would have been better, I think, to just have them be people displaced by people returning after the Blip who are angry about it, rather than include the anarchism/no borders bit. Because these two different motives are just not linking together well or making much sense. This is my main complaint so far in this.
OK, this episode was enjoyable.
The phone call at an inopportune time made my day :)
it's a good show by now. I just don't get the cinematic aspect ratio.... are we supposed to feel something there?
This episode is way better than the first two but still I am not into this show much. Wandavision was way better. But Zemo and Sharon were a great addition. Falcon and Winter Soldier are really boring characters. Winter Soldier was only great when he was Winter soldier with that badass horror, mystic theme soundtrack in Winter Soldier movie. After that well not so much. Falcon is plain boring. I am also glad Wakanda is getting into play.
This one was alright. Way better than the first 2.
I don’t oppose Zemo stopping that scientist cause like there can’t be hundreds of super soldiers running around! At least Karli and her team have some sense of right and wrong or a true cause but imagine that on the wrong hands.
Also Sharon is still being so underused! But I’m glad she’s at least doing financially okay, and I don’t know if I’m used to obvious twists and bad reveals but what if she is Power Broker? Would that make sense? I don’t read the comics and if I google who that is probably I’ll find a lot of spoilers.
And HOW DARE THEM PUT THEIR HANDS ON THE DORA MILAJE???? Are they stupid?? Like that’s on John Walker if he wants to try and fight them but that wasn’t Sam nor Bucky’s fight.
Love Zemo as an addition to the duo (now trio)!
Let's get the obvious out of the way - writer Derek Kolstad borrows a lot from John Wick here, though this isn't inherently a bad thing. Instead it highlights the spectacular new location of Madripoor, which outside of being our first glimpse into section of the Marvel universe that still haven't been touched, it's also a spectacular locale in it's own right. The gorgeous neon lighting, the shadows - it's all great to look at, continuing the MCU's trek into more bold visual storytelling.
The character work is equally bold and fierce here as well, especially with the reintroduction of Zemo who is simply a delight here. Sharon Carter is recharacterized in unexpected ways as well that make the best she has ever been in the MCU, and her action scene is a series highlight. And while most of the themes take a backseat here for plot purposes, it does rear it's head at the end in a way that's poignant and powerful, while also questioning the role of icons in the modern era. Really smart stuff from a show that just continues to deliver on all fronts.
The show is definitely getting better but for some reason I‘m still not that into it. I loved that we finally got to see Emily Vancamp as Sharon Carter though.
This is actually getting better.
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Sorry to tell you but you have got the show timings wrong.. The show premiered 3 hours earlier..
Not a bad show by any means but if I'm honest I liked WandaVision more. I feel like I am missing a lot of background.
I find this incredibly boring…
i still don't understand why these people kill so many people like why??????
Got some real Night City vibes from Madripoor.
teaming up with a nazi to stop anarchists is a really bad take
Even better than the first two chapters, i have to accept the show is really weel written, and directed too. When you watch this kind of stuff you need to know you aint going to watch an apocalypsis now kind of movie, but i think the best part of this is how well developed characters are, Zemo enters the show and demostrates at the first seconds he is going to be a great anti hero, same probably with captain America. The only thing of the show i dont like is the redhead girl, her character is kind of weird and she is surely not good at acting, but its not a big problem considering how good the show is
While a bit lacking in some of the aspects I found the first two episodes more engaging, this episode boasts a super impressive bit of action choreography when Sharon is fighting in the shipping yard.
Otherwise, I felt like the plot here was less mining the subtext than I would have liked and instead was more content to go from point A to point B. This is a more business forward episode, likely to get back to some of the really good stuff in the next one.
The plot of the third episode was a bit predictable. When the second one ended, I knew which direction it was heading towards, not that I’m complaining. I thought it was still pretty solid.
The whole episode felt like a vibe that I was Vibing along. The costumes were spectacular, and the city was breathtaking. I'm not sure if the town itself is an Easter egg or if there's more to come, but I'm hoping they'll make use of it in the future since I enjoyed the atmosphere of it.
A pretty decent episode that fills in the back story and moves the plot along at the same time.
More conveniences and even more terrible dialogue. I guess Zemo's shlockiness is something entertaining at least.
i see three man and i want some mlm relationship!!!do i have right for it YES I HAVE:man_raising_hand::monkey::frog::laughing::pray::disappointed::heart_eyes::pray::place_of_worship::frog::monkey::place_of_worship:
Disappointed, sorry cannot get use to a captain America with no strength. If you can’t get the real thing better to leave him out of the script.
I have a few problems with this show. Who is/are the Villain/s? The Flag Smashers? The Power Broker? Why?
Bucky, still under government control, makes Baron Zemo escape from prison. Really? Falcon, the new would be Cap, helps him?
In Madripoor everything goes wrong and lot of people are being killed....
I like this more than WandaVision but, for me, Marvel's tv shows are not there perhaps it's better if they stick to films.
This episode feels like a complete mess
Bucky: You okay?
Sam: Yeah. Just thinking about all the shit Sharon had to go through. And Nagel referring to the American test subject like Isaiah wasn't even a real person. It just makes me wonder how many people have to get steamrolled to make way for this hunk of metal.
Bucky: Well, it depends on who you ask. That hunk of metal saved a lot of lives.
Sam: Yeah, I get that, all right. Maybe I made a mistake.
Bucky: You did.
Sam: Yeah. Maybe I shouldn't have put it in a museum. Maybe I should have destroyed it.
Bucky: Look, that shield represents a lot of things to a lot of people, including me. The world is upside down, and we need a new Cap, and it ain't gonna be Walker. So before you go and destroy it, I'm gonna take it from him myself.
All in all I don’t mind this show, and definitely gives the feeling of where things left off from Endgame. However, I’m not loving how this show is telling us that everyone is a “super soldier” not just Steve Rogers and Bucky. It also lets people see that Marvel has had so many people play Captain America. I personally hate that idea, Steve Rogers is the only who should have been Captain America. When he quit/died whatever, that’s it...move on to a new superhero.
Shout by MichelleBlockedParent2021-04-02T07:58:28Z
I love this show. It just keeps getting better and better. World building for everyone, actual personalities for everyone. Just please keep it up for the rest of the show, I'm beggin' you, Marvel.