Rambling commentary: she hulk episode two

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: season one episode two: superhuman Law

Directed by: Kat Coiro

Written by: Jessica Gao

Starring:

Tatiana Maslany; Jen Walters/ She hulk

Mark Ruffalo: Hulk 

Ginger Gonzaga: Nikki Romos

Steve Coulter: holden Houldsworth

Jameela Jamil: I Titania

Drew Matthews Dennis Bukowsk

Tim Roth: email Blonsky/the abomination

Benedict Wong: Wong 

Recap

Even the recap is clever!

*News*

Pretty typical superhero new stuff interviews and what not.

Interesting spin that long time she hulk villain Titania was described by a news anchor as a influencer!

*Theodore in public and the not so adoring Law firms*

Jenn takes A Reluctant victory lap at a bar and finds out the DA can’t employer because. There was a lot of interesting stuff here.

Even if it was unintentional being punished for doing the right thing is very relevant in today’s climate. As business is rule more and the infrastructure gets more and more conservative the quickest way to become a villain is to be a hero.

Then there’s a pretty typical montage which consists of multiple businesses not wanting to hire her

*Dinner*

Jenn‘s dad is cousin Larry!!!!!!!!

her family is full of pretty typical jokes. A bit disappoing. I guess Ridin short hand is the quickest way to get a lot of this stuff out of the way.

It’s also interesting that Jen will never be the worst Hulk in the family.

“ at least you didn’t destroy a city”

*Bawling on a budget*

Again the sad sack at the bar is pretty Cliché Stuff.

She gets hired by the guy who she hired her.

Her new gig

Super fun paradox! She’s excited for her job but bitter that She was only hired to be off hulk her lawyer skills don’t matter. It’s sort of similar to what business hiring somebody because they’re famous or attractive regardless of how qualified they are.. Antao cruddy it must be have something 

Negate  your skills. That’s a super interesting spin with a lot of cool possibilities. She finds out her new boss wants her to represent the abomination who almost killed her cousin this too is also very interesting and intriguing!! We meet the handsome coworker who is super helpful like we’ve seen 1 million times in this sort of entering  a Corporate environment  this episode is leaving no cliché unturned!

Buuuuut we do you get more Jenn talking to us breaking the third wall and that adds a touch of unique to very familiar sitcom romcom tropes

Jail

She shows up for her new client  Emil Blonksy, a.k.a. the Abomination played by the amazing Tim Roth, which means that the acting in the show has just gotten raised by 1,000,000%

The abominations argument is super interesting.. yeah I’ll think about it so far where the first episode had super interesting well written comedy the webs the characters are weaving around each other super super interesting!

Also only in a superhero show could a lawyer be put in such a conflict of interest that is interesting as this.

The phone call!

Easter egg*

When Jen is calling Bruce to try to explain how she’s defending one of his enemies 

“ that fight was so long ago I’m a totally different person now. Literally..” this is an obvious funny inside joke to the fact that our car talk was not the first actor to play the hulk in the MCU.

We also get a Sheng Chi abomination fight club call back ! Awesome! 

Oh yea… one more thing

Headline

“Man fights with metal claws in bar brawl.”

BOOOM

End credits

Court drawings still awesome

After credit scene

Her dad is making her do strong people chores around the house!! A+++

Now that’s funny.

Ending thoughts

Not as great as the first episode. And while I understand why they used so much pop culture shorthand to get all the formali out of the way.  it still wasn’t especially interesting. But I can’t fully heat on it because it got a lot of stuff established at a breakneck speed. And in reality that’s what shorthand is for in art. Giving us familiar situations and circumstances so we understand the situation and environment. Not everyone has a high ranking corporate job in a skyscraper but we’ve seen a lot of these things in so many other movies or shows we have a artificial memory and understanding of them. But again regardless of why it’s there it still is what it is and it’s not that interesting… but now we’re past it and I’m excited for what’s going on. 

A lot of these interactions and dynamics are very interesting and I’m totally there for all that

But Jen is so charming in the performance is so good that it’s rising above the (intentional) middling writing of this episode