Been watching Falcon and the Winter Soldier since it came out and now that we’re two episodes from the ending. I have thoughts and a nearly complete opinion on it.
There might be some spoilers so I’ll hold off on making those till after the picture I posed which is also a minor spoiler if you feel like you don’t want to know any joke made in the show either.
So my biggest take is the show is at odds with itself. It wants to say very smart things about Race, inequality and make statements that can be seen as a political overview of the last four years. I credit the writers for this because it mostly operates as a subplot and in quiet moments of dialogue that seems to be pleading for Disney plus to give it more than 6 episodes (or at least a second season) to tell the story it wants to tell.
This is about all I’ll say that’s nice about the show. The rest is criticism so if you just want to like the show and just go ahead and do that. Thanks for reading! If you’re gonna keep going…well thanks for reading that too.
The bigger issue is obviously still the work of the same writers but seems more in line with a Disney expectation of the show. It gives off an all-lives matter vibe and has Antifa supersoldiers. The villains are making “compelling arguments” but also the show is quick to emphasize that “the tactics are wrong”. I mostly blame Disney for this because the show is 6 episodes and is about trying to tie the story into the greater franchise without giving thought to the story that the characters are actually telling themselves. The dialogue here almost shifts in moments where Zemo says things like, “She’s a supremacist. It’s that warped aspiration that led to Nazis, to Ultron, to the Avengers. The desire to become superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideas.” This sorta statement captures what I am saying very well. When you read it sorta makes sense, it sounds cool but when you dissect it, it feels like something you’d hear somebody say who almost read philosophy books and regurgitates these ideas online. In a world, where there are supervillains, alien invasions, and a belief in trickle-down economics talking about the sheer ego one must have to assume they are the ones to protect others would come across as a very shrewd perception…but first one must ask, what’s a supremacist? It’s a word that denotes a specific race/ethnicity (species if there are aliens), class, or gender. But this is Disney and white supremacists buy tickets to movies too. So it can’t be that.
Instead, it’s a vague dig that’s both meant to parallel events that have happened. The Flag Smashers are open borders they have good points but they are better than others and really it’s about the marketplace of ideas with their presentation! This is why the show must illustrate them bombing innocents because they must be wrong. The plot demands it to be so and the universe must fold itself to make it true. This is why the show is “bad” despite itself.
In contrast to Flag Smashers killings, in this last episode we watched a Captain America (not the once and future Cap) murder an opponent asking for mercy (this reminded me of extrajudicial killings we’ve seen in America). The blood on the shield should be seen as a tainted reflection of our history, how we treat our “enemies” both abroad and at home but we know the comic episodes will focus on why this was too much and that we are simply “better” than this. The Disney/Marvel Universe will demand it and fold itself to make it true.