Spoiler Free ‘She-Hulk’ Episode 6 Review: An Inconvenient Wedding
Image Source: Wallpapers Den
Over the past few weeks, She-Hulk has had more competition for streaming between The Rings of Power, House of The Dragon, and now Andor. Last week’s episode was a bit of a step back, so I looked forward to this week’s to see if it would rebound strongly to prove it could earn the stream time. While it was the shortest episode so far (coming in at just under half an hour with credits), it was an overall strong but rushed entry to this season.
Without spoiling anything, this episode was a wedding episode. The trick with wedding episodes is can you make them fresh, or will they fall into the same patterns that almost every other sitcom wedding episode does? Well, She-Hulk handled this with mixed results. There were some of the standard clichés, but they weren’t emphasized a whole lot. Some clichés were used but had a bit of spin thrown on them (usually making them more awkward), but not a lot fresh outside the premise of having She-Hulk at a wedding.
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The part that wasn’t handled well was how murky the passage of time was. We were at the rehearsal dinner and then the wedding reception but without seeing any of the wedding ceremony or acknowledging it happened. You could kind of put things together, but it just felt a bit muddled, and honestly, it didn’t feel like they did enough from a plot or comedy perspective to justify having a wedding episode.
The other plot (hopefully on purpose) revolved around divorce. Or divorces. Sort of. Well, this is that sweet spot where superhero logistics meets daily law. This was handled much better. We’ve seen heroes get powers, villains get powers, villains get powers and then become good, and vice versa; people get powers and decide not to use them. You get the point. However, I have yet to see someone get such fantastic powers but use them in a mundane and ridiculous way. Not a genuinely evil or heroic way, just how a guy would use their abilities in day-to-day life.
I really enjoyed pretty much this whole little arc. It was great to see Mallory back, and she’s quickly becoming someone that I wished had been highlighted earlier. One of the downfalls of this series, especially this episode, is that many good things are happening, but not enough room to let them breathe and fully develop. I think a longer series order might have helped to not have to cram so much stuff between the meta-arc and all the in-episode ridiculous situations that they do so well.
On the smaller scale side, the changing title cards over the past couple of weeks have been a nice touch. I found the episode to be funny, but it doesn’t quite get as over the top or hit its stride quite the same way as episodes 3 and 4. Especially on the wedding side, it felt like they were playing it a bit too safe and were holding back. However, there were some good moments of social commentary. One of my favorites was Jen getting asked how she was doing. Instead of feeling bad about coming there single, she was excited to talk about all the other great things in her life.
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This was followed by showing the expectations and the standards for success some people have that revolve around relationship status, especially for women. They’ve also shown the women as strong and independent without making it painfully obvious or forcing the characters to discuss it awkwardly. They did fall into the making the sleazy guy pay trope, but it wasn’t too egregious, so I’ll give them a pass.
Overall, it was a good episode that just ran out of time. The meta-arcs feel like afterthoughts, and throwing subplots in (no matter how much I enjoy them) has left the show feeling rushed. There is a lot of good content that can be unlocked, but it needs either a longer runtime (I understand it’s shorter because it’s a sitcom) or more episodes to give some space to flesh out the characters, arcs, and situations. This episode was the most obvious example of it. It was good, but their talent, style, and characters could’ve made it better had they not run out of room.
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Source(s): Disney+