Spoiler-Free ‘She-Hulk’ Episode 3 Review: ‘She-Hulk’ Finds Her Groove
Image source: Cinema Blend
Welcome back to our ongoing review of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. As I mentioned last week, episode 2 felt like mostly a setup episode after episode 1’s prequel origin story feel. Episode 3 felt like the episode where She-Hulk finally found its rhythm and style. This was my favorite episode so far. I know that’s not saying much after 3 episodes, but it definitely improved the first 2 episodes in several ways.
This episode was where the comedy side of She-Hulk showed through. There was a lot more consistent and organic humor from scene to scene. There was still a joke here or there that felt a little forced or would have relied on a laugh track, but overall, the comedy was more like it was a part of the show’s DNA. Previously, it was as though the jokes relied on a setup or a situation that distracted from the direction and purpose of the rest of the scene. But in episode 3, the jokes seemed to flow out of the scene. One of the best examples of this was the breaking of the 4th wall.
RELATED:
This episode employed it more and much more successfully. There was one towards the start on the subject of cameos that was perfect and captured the meta feel by truly feeling current and like she was speaking directly to us. I know they’re trying to be conscious of overutilizing it, but I don’t think they’re anywhere near in danger of that, and I hope we see more of it.
On the subject of speaking to us, this episode built on the previous episode’s ability to get across the points it wanted to, without feeling preachy or taking us out of the scene. There was another meta scene without breaking the 4th wall where there was some sexist criticism and comments with privileged male undertones that worked for the scene but also came out of real-world criticism of She-Hulk and other female-led sci-fi projects.
The three-episode saga of Dennis Bukowski came to a fulfilling, fitting, and hilarious end. Now we can hopefully move on to the feeling of institutionalized sexism and privilege (like the end of her interview) instead of trying to sum it up in a person. We also got to see Jen Walters be a competent lawyer and had some female empowerment vibes with the best cameo of the episode (there were multiple) without coming across as overly sappy or out of place. Also, Pug is great. I’m glad we’re getting more Pug and more complex male characters.
There were more minor points that didn’t deserve their own paragraph. First, I know I said I would stop talking about it last week, but I figured out what makes the CGI so noticeable. Tatiana Maslany plays She-Hulk with so much quirky energy, and she moves so quickly. The CGI just doesn’t keep up with her, so we feel like we are losing something in the performance, and therefore She-Hulk doesn’t feel like Jennifer Walters as much. It was interesting to see more of the legal side of the MCU. It’s a fun juxtaposition to see these fantastical people and situations handled in such a grounded and mundane setting as a courtroom. I talked about the humor before, but it felt most like a sitcom this week.
Image credit: Game Spot
There were times when there was so much tension of something going wrong until I remembered that this was supposed to be a comedy, so maybe not everything was a setup for conflict. I also noticed this episode didn’t feel like there was any pressure or need for a meta-arc like most other MCU and Disney+ shows and could just be content with week-to-week plots. That doesn’t mean we’re not getting a meta-arc, but I don’t want to wreck anything for you by spoiling something.
Overall, I enjoyed this episode a lot, and it put to rest any doubts or criticism I had about the previous 2 episodes (except the CGI). It was a funny, compelling, and entertaining episode that still felt like it had something to say. I hope this is the show’s turning point, and they can keep rolling the rest of the way.
READ NEXT:
Source(s): Disney+