You'll like her when she's angry.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is a 2022 superhero comedy series directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia, created by Jessica Gao, produced by Marvel Studios, and distributed by Disney Platform Distribution. It is based off of various She-Hulk comics by Marvel Comics. The show stars Tatiana Maslany and Ginger Gonzaga. This is the thirty-seventh project in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being the eighth TV show. It acts as a sequel to The Incredible Hulk, Avengers: Endgame, Daredevil, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Ms. Marvel and will be followed by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Secret Invasion.
"Just remember whose show this actually is." - Jennifer Walters
Plot
After publicly coming out as She-Hulk, Jen Walters manages her new position as head of superhuman law while also encountering new challenges, such as defending Emil Blonsky, a mess with the Sorcerer Supreme, and a mysterious group of super-powered villains known as the Wrecking Crew.
Tatiana Maslany / Good Ideas with Abomination / Silliness / Absolutely Horrific Writing / Lapses in Logic / Dumb Feminist Message / Megan Thee Stallion? / Ruining the MCU
The Sweet
Whoo.
The one thing that I look forward to seeing whenever I turn on She-Hulk is Tatiana Maslany. Somehow, she manages to make the insanely cringe dialogue sound genuine. The dialogue is terrible, but Maslany is able to make you not notice it whenever She-Hulk herself is talking. If you are looking for one reason to watch this show, I'd say Maslany is good enough. She's charming and just has a magnetic presence on screen.
They also subtly touched on some interesting things with Abomination. Unfortunately, they decided to make him super goofy and couldn't keep him serious, but he hints at his motivations involving the super soldier serum. He says he thought he was going to be the next Captain America, but was turned into a monster instead, which made him upset. That's actually a really good idea, and I'm so, so disappointed that they didn't explore that more.
And, on that note, this show is the worst.
The Sour
Thor is currently my least favorite project in the MCU. I really, really don't like that movie.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is on track to be my least favorite thing ever to come from the MCU...by far. I despise this show.
Thor: Love and Thunder was too goofy, but some of its goofiness was actually funny and it had its moments of darkness with Gorr and had some interesting characters and plot beats. She-Hulk is all cringe, goofy comedy. The funny thing about She-Hulk is that I don't think I've actually laughed once. This show doesn't feel like the MCU. It doesn't feel like the comics. It feels like a really crappy CW comedy. It's horrendous.
The writing is honestly some of the worst in any show or movie I've ever seen. Characters make ridiculously stupid decisions to benefit the plot. Wong is acting so strange and so out of character. Once again, none of the comedy is funny. The story is going nowhere. I'm completely baffled by how terrible these scripts are. It's truly insane. I'm terrified for Daredevil to show up, because he's just going to be a goofball. A prime example of terrible writing is this: in episode four, they introduce a character named DONNY Blaze. For those of you who don't know, JOHNNY Blaze is Ghost Rider. So, for some stupid f**king reason, Jessica Gao decided to make an idiotic magician with a name that rhymes with Ghost Rider's. WHY??????
On that same note, some of the logic of this show makes no sense. Once again, in episode four, Wong and She-Hulk are battling these bat-demons. After five minutes, they're having some trouble taking them out. All of the sudden, Wong decides to do this whirlpool thing that sucks all of the demon bats into this one portal. And there's no reason given why he didn't do this at the beginning of the fight. That's just one of many examples of terrible, terrible writing and storytelling.
I know the link to this section sounds aggressive. But She-Hulk forces its feminist message into a place where it doesn't belong. They have so many overly misogynistic men that are written to be such cliche, dumb perverts. They try to be empowering by having Jen stand up to these douchebags, but it just rings so hollow. They didn't need to make this horrible feminist message that feels so forced and out of place in the MCU. I'm not saying I hate this show because it's feminist. If the feminine message felt genuine or fit within the story, I'd be all for it. But it doesn't. It sucks.
And, I'm sorry. What? Megan Thee frickin' Stallion? Are you joking right now? I don't know what the creators of this show were thinking. This is the universe where Thanos snapped and destroyed half of all life. While writing this review, I have to continue to remind myself that this is my favorite film franchise ever. But She-Hulk is testing me. The twerking scene is one of the worst things I have ever seen in the MCU. Like, you've got to be kidding me. We don't need Megan Thee Stallion to exist in the MCU. This is just terrible.
As you can see through this whole section, I hate this series. I'm in awe at how bad it is. And, to me, it feels like it's ruining the MCU a little bit. I saw a meme on Twitter that summed it up perfectly. It was a "How it started vs. how it's going" meme. On the left side, it shows Captain America's inspirational speech outing S.H.I.E.L.D. as secretly being HYDRA in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It then showed Jen's goofy, dumb speech to Bruce in She-Hulk. It made me so sad. After every episode ends, Disney+ suggests Infinity War, and I always think "God. These two projects take place in the same universe." This is just killing my faith in the MCU. Phase Four has been really up and down, and She-Hulk is absolute rock bottom.
Final Thoughts
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is absolutely terrible. I hate it so much. I cannot believe that this show takes place in the MCU, and it makes me so sad that we've gone from Endgame to this in three years.
Fun Factor: 4/10
Acting: 7/10
Story: 1.5/10
Characters: 3.5/10
Quality: 2/10
"She-Hulk: Attorney at Law"
"Superhuman Law"
"The People vs. Emil Blonsky"
"Is This Not Real Magic?"
Directed by Kat Coiro
Rated TV-14 for superhero violence and action, language, suggestive content, thematic elements
Premiered on August 17, 2022
Episode runtime: 35 minutes
Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk
Ginger Gonzaga as Nikki Ramos
Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky / Abomination
Benedict Wong as Wong
Jameela Jamil as Mary MacPherran / Titania
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / The Hulk
Josh Segarra as Augustus "Pug" Pugliese
Rhys Coiro as Donny Blaze
Peg O'Keef as Runa
David Otunga as Derek
Megan Thee Stallion as Herself
Steve Coulter as Holden Holliway
Tess Malis Kincaid as Elaine Walters
Mark Linn-Baker as Morris Walters
Drew Matthews as Dennis Bukowski