The Falcon and The Winter Soldier final trailer

[Hector]

I enjoyed it. Yes, a tad preachy, but the action sequences were awesome. My favorite character remains John Walker.

[Nostalgiabuff]

watched is last night. i enjoyed it. the story line was building to this with the Isiah storyline. still, it was was light years better in how they addressed it than how Supergirl did things like this

[Earth 2 Chris]

I don't know what show some of you watched, but this series was amazing. The fact that the show was relevant and meaningful is something Marvel didn't have to do, but they did. Hiring a black showrunner, and mostly black writers to tell the story of a black man who was handed the shield in the last Avengers movie seems like a "duh" thing to do, but again, they didn't have to.

And I agree this didn't come across as ham-fisted and preachy as Supergirl usually does. The characters and situations felt real. Relevant to the post-snap/blip MCU, but also to the world outside our door...which Marvel has ALWAYS done. When DC had it's head in the sand in the 60s, Stan and co. met these issues, if not head on, then at least part of the way. And what about Stan's Soap Box? Even if the stories weren't talking equality, then Stan was in the editorial pages.

Marvel "woke" up in the 60s.

And besides all of that, all the story threads converged and were either wrapped up, or set up to continue down the line. A thoroughly satisfying series, and I can't wait for Captain America 4.

Chris

[PNGwynne]

Well said, Chris.

[drquest]

I enjoyed the series and Bucky and John Walker were my favorites I think and probably Zemo (who got taken out of the story too early).

I will say the Flag Smasher narrative was not compelling at all. The writers spent a lot of time trying to get the audience to care for what they were trying to do and what they stood for and it just fell flat IMO. I was rooting for John Walker to wipe the floor with them, and he's pretty unstable, LOL.

The Sharon story was telegraphed in pretty early, so that wasn't exactly a surprise. I did like Sam and his sister's story and most of the Isaiah story was good, but needed a better payoff than what happened.

The writer's were going for timely and compelling, and to me it was status quo and preachy, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.

[YoungOnce]

Yeah... I know what some are saying. But this show really turned a corner for Marvel as far as being more “real world” and “relevant”. You’ll either like that or you won’t and it doesn’t necessarily have to do with anything political.

The “preaching” aside, the whole palette and tone felt just gritty and dark. This show would have fit in tonally with all the Marvel Netflix series, more so than the previous Marvel movies. Again, some people will love that. They may even be able to get Zack Snyder to work in this new sandbox... ha!

As far as what I liked... the reveal of Sam in the new Captain America costume was AWESOME. That headpiece immediately made me think of his Mego counterpart. I think Sam will make a great Cap. His arc was evident; Bucky’s was kinda weak imo... the Sharon story seemed totally unearned to me... that bad turn came out of nowhere.

But honestly, I liked WandaVision much better. It had the Marvel whimsy and colorful comic book fun. This felt, like I said before, a turn toward the Snyder-verse or something. I don’t want gritty real-world problems for escapism... I can watch the news for all of that.

That said, all of the action sequences were just awesome.

[Nostalgiabuff]

i'm not familiar with the Julia Louis Dreyfus character, but as an actress she does not come across as villainous. i mean i like, her, always have, but she is just not villain material. i don't know, maybe she will prove me wrong when she appears in further movies and we see what her character is all about.

[thunderbolt]

i'm not familiar with the Julia Louis Dreyfus character, but as an actress she does not come across as villainous. i mean i like, her, always have, but she is just not villain material. i don't know, maybe she will prove me wrong when she appears in further movies and we see what her character is all about.

Her character was a SHIELD agent in the comics that was very very friendly with Nick, not sure what the angle here is, maybe she's recruiting new operatives for Fury to rebuild SHIELD?

[Nostalgiabuff]

yeah, but isn't she madame Hydra or something like that?

[Earth 2 Chris]

^I think they retconned that retcon to her only PRETENDING to be Madame Hydra. Val was Nick's love interest fellow spy in Steranko's original SHIELD run.

I, like a lot of folks, think she's building the Thunderbolts, or something equivalent, maybe for Thunderbolt Ross.

Chris

[Wee67]

Chris really summed up a lot of my reaction to the show. I don't know I would call it amazing, however, but it was pretty darn good.

I would only add I think this reaffirms Marvel as a place for great stories, all kinds of stories. I enjoyed this and the very different story style of WandaVision. But that's really the point- Marvel adjusts the storytelling to the story. It doesn't apply the same dark, gritty style to all of its stories. Though ultimately about grief, WandaVision's story had a lot of room to be brighter, funnier and more hopeful. Falcon and Winter Soldier is a different type of hopeful. I think a story about a black man wrestling with the contradictions of America before embracing it is better told through realism. I'm looking forward to Loki!

I don't know what show some of you watched, but this series was amazing. The fact that the show was relevant and meaningful is something Marvel didn't have to do, but they did. Hiring a black showrunner, and mostly black writers to tell the story of a black man who was handed the shield in the last Avengers movie seems like a "duh" thing to do, but again, they didn't have to.

And I agree this didn't come across as ham-fisted and preachy as Supergirl usually does. The characters and situations felt real. Relevant to the post-snap/blip MCU, but also to the world outside our door...which Marvel has ALWAYS done. When DC had it's head in the sand in the 60s, Stan and co. met these issues, if not head on, then at least part of the way. And what about Stan's Soap Box? Even if the stories weren't talking equality, then Stan was in the editorial pages.

Marvel "woke" up in the 60s.

And besides all of that, all the story threads converged and were either wrapped up, or set up to continue down the line. A thoroughly satisfying series, and I can't wait for Captain America 4.

Chris

[palitoy]

Yeah, count me in the folks that thought it was good, yes it got a little heavy-handed towards the end but not addressing that elephant in the room and making it a straight-up superhero punch-up would have made it hollow and juvenile. Comics have been used for better storytelling for over 60 years and its message was important. Any casual fan of Marvel would know that.

One factor I really enjoyed that was underexplored was the world after the blip and the (completely believable) skirmishes and problems that would occur after, the world would be a disaster! I hope they circle back to that in future endeavors.

[Earth 2 Chris]

If you want to hear me and two other white (but "woke") podcasters talk about the show, we recorded an impromptu review about it:

http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/fw-presents-the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-review/

Chris

[TRDouble]

I finished it last night. Thoroughly enjoyed it, right down to the "preachy" end. Thank you, Disney.

[LonnieFisher]

I never liked the guy they picked for Falcon. The guy that played Lamar, he would have been a great pick for Falcon!