
I really leaned into my love of comics right around the same time I also fell in love with Legally Blonde. Legalese wasn’t something I ever thought could be funny, but Reese Witherspoon and Brusier made me change my tune. Because of that, I decided to be very hesitantly excited for She-Hulk being billed as a courthouse comedy. I hoped that Jennifer Walters would have the snark and the passion present in her comics, and that would translate from the page to the screen.
The first episode didn’t fully pay out that hesitant hope.
As far as first episodes go, Jennifer’s background and transformation to the Hulk was solid. The nuts and bolts of how she was exposed to Gamma Radiation was all there. But the courthouse drama was really left out, as well as a strong establishment to the scope of time we were talking about. Did Jennifer really learn how to control her Hulk powers so much faster because women have to control their emotions all the time? It’s an interesting thought and premise but completely glossed over, especially when contrasted with the mansplaining from a male lawyer to start the episode. How did Nicki respond to finding out her best friend is now a Hulk? And what about Jen’s career pre-Hulk? Was she actually a good lawyer?

Instead, it was forty minutes of jolly Green Giant sibling spats. But that’s not a total criticism. It was really fun to get to see Mark Ruffalo being a little goofier and more relaxed than his previous characterizations. But at times it felt like it was out-of-character behavior.
And then there’s Titania. Shown briefly causing havoc and destruction, I’m already worried about how her portrayal will end up. I loved Jameela Jamil in The Good Place, but I’m nervous that her portrayal of Titania will be focused as a farce of social media influencers. It’s a great idea, but if not very properly executed, one that could fall flat and just feel too much like mean-girl behavior.
All-in-all, the first episode of She-Hulk was okay. It’s not enough to get me to turn off the show, but it’s not doing much to combat the Marvel overload from this phase’s constant streaming releases.
New Episodes of She-Hulk drop Wednesdays on Disney+.
Note: All thoughts and opinions are my own and not necessarily representative of the Walt Disney Company or Marvel.

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