Saturday 10 February 2018

Agent Carter 1x01 'Now is Not the End' TV TALK

I was sceptical when starting this series because... there are a lot of mixed opinions on it. There are only two series because it got cancelled pretty quickly and all this made me worry that it'd be completely rubbish but (surprise, surprise) I really enjoyed it. Honestly, I'm not that hard to please and, while I could blatantly see the flaws in this pilot episode, it didn't affect my enjoyment and the fact that I had fun watching this.
Agent Carter follows Peggy Carter who is (for lack of a better word), Captain America's 'sidekick' in the movie, Captain America: the First Avenger. It's obviously set in the 1940s and follows Peggy Carter after Cap's 'death' and the end of the war. We also see a bit of Howard Stark which is always fun.
I loved the small nods and references to the original Captain America movie and I love the focus on Peggy's character because she is pretty bad-ass and Hayley Atwell plays her brilliantly.

Captain America: The First Avenger Movie Talk

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
The whole disruption this series is following is Stark's weapons being sold on the black market. I was a little disappointed with how much Howard Stark appeared because it was much less than I thought it'd be... maybe five minutes screen time? But, that's not too bad, because I like that show really focuses on Peggy's story line and how awesome she is.

Seeing more of Peggy's life was interesting and we quickly met her (obviously expendable) roommate who manages to die by the end of the first episode. Well done. We also begin the episode with a quick introduction to what Peggy's normal, every day life is like. She goes into the cafe multiple times and is fairly chummy with that cafe girl (Angie) who I think will be a lot more important as the series goes on.
It was interesting going back into this time setting because women are severely objectified and underestimated which makes Peggy's job that much harder. It was interesting to see how she deals with being mistreated at work but, let's face it, she holds her own pretty well. And I thought it was just brilliant when she used 'lady problems' as an excuse for a day off work... that always makes me laugh.
Stark quickly showed up to ask Peggy if she could clear his name which I love because she is certainly the best person for the job. We also meet Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis! I repeat... Jarvis! I love these minor details that really link into Tony Stark's life and why he calls his computer technology Jarvis.
I really liked Edwin Jarvis. He was definitely a prim and proper bloke but he had real moments of humour and was just a likeable guy.
The main section of this episode was the ball where Peggy was tracking down this super bomb that was being sold on the black market. She donned a fancy blonde hair do and an elaborate (albeit ugly) dress to go all kinds of undercover. I love that she was bold enough to do this but I did dislike the fact that she had to pretend to be ditsy and 'up for it' in order to get anywhere close to men. (Though, I suppose that's my issue with the time period, not the show).
She gets the super bomb hecka quickly and I'm feeling super excited. She goes home to conveniently have all the ingredients needed to counteract the bomb in her kitchen cupboard... because why not? She completes the whole thing fairly easily in her bathroom and... everything was easy.   
But, when she comes out, her expendable roommate is dead (oh, the tears were falling...) and we had a great fight scene with the man that did it... again, I'm a little sketchy on names so far. I really loved the fight sequence here and, again, Peggy holds her own like a bad-ass.
With the help of Jarvis, she tracks down the source of those super bombs and barely escapes. This was a good sequence but there were times when it went a bit cheesy and predictable.
We see her lamenting over Cap and one of her co-agents, Daniel (yay! I got someone's name!) comes in to see if she's okay. I quite like Daniel- he did stand up for her even though she didn't need it- and he seems like a decent guy. Maybe a potential love interest? Who knows?
And, finally, we had a weird phone call at the end between Jarvis and Stark... and it sounded scarily like they were betraying Peggy or something. I really hope that's not true...

Overall, I can see that there were a few flaws but that didn't ruin my enjoyment and I'll happily continue this series for my Marvel fix.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe

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