The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV)
I like that “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” continues to operate in a Marvel world of grey areas, which began in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War,” rather than the black-and-white morality of Captain America himself. Right at the outset, we see Sam Wilson give up the shield Steve Rogers gave him at the end of “Avengers: Endgame,” feeling like he could never live up to the model Steve was. As the series continues, we see that is less of a reflection on who Sam is, but of how he views the world. Without the man who made the name iconic, who can possibly hold that ideal in a world thrown into chaos after “The Blip,” when half the world came back after five years to an Earth that had moved on? Does all of this mean that the series is successful in these grey areas? Not necessarily- some of the episodes are more accessible than others, but on the whole, it’s another entertaining entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Given the protagonists it revolves around are Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), it’s no surprise that one of the fundamental ideas behind this film is the responsibility that goes with being Captain America. We got an entire film surrounding Steve Rogers making his case for why he should be the embodiment of American ideals in “The First Avenger”; based on what we see of Wilson from his entrance in “The Winter Soldier,” he is the natural successor, but he has doubts about whether he would be accepted in the same way as Rogers is. Unlike Bucky, we don’t see his handing the shield to the Smithsonian as a sign of disrespect to Steve, but the acknowledgement that nobody can really embody those ideals for America quite like Steve- for Sam, that means the likelihood that a black Captain America is not something America could live with, and it’s hard to argue with that logic. When we see John Walker (played by the excellent Wyatt Russell) donning the stars and stripes as the government-sanctioned Captain America at the end of the first episode, it’s a genuinely surprising moment that catches us off guard, and a further catalyst for Bucky to give Sam a hard time for giving the shield up. For Sam, the sight of Walker with Steve’s shield is uncomfortable, but it’s not until Walker crosses a line Steve never would that Sam begins to transform himself into the Captain America Steve saw in him. Mackie does strong work in the limelight for the first time as Sam Wilson, and he earns the end of his arc throughout these six episodes.
In the comics, Bucky has donned the shield and mantle of Captain America, but his frustration with Sam isn’t that he should be Captain America instead. Bucky’s story is very different. This is his first time reckoning with his past as the Winter Soldier. Now, he has been deprogrammed by the Wakandans, and after the events of “Civil War,” and he is working through nightmares of things he did during that time. He is having to go to therapy as part of his pardon and release, and he has been visiting the father of one of his victims, building a friendship, and getting to know him on a personal level. When Sam puts the shield in the museum, we start to get a glimpse of the tenuous partnership to come when a terrorist organization known as Flag Smashers makes their presence felt, especially when it appears that they have super soldiers among them.
There’s a lot of plot threads and ideas that are introduced and worked through in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s” six episodes. In addition to the arcs for Sam and Bucky I laid out above, we have Sam’s sister, who operates the family fishing boat, but is having financial hardships; I could have a movie just about Sam and Sarah (Adepero Oduye) and the struggles they have in this series- this arc gives us insight into Sam’s family, and seeing him and Sarah try to contend with the realities they face- Mackie and Oduye play to the truth of the situation in a way the screenplays only hint at. Sam and Bucky need to approach Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl), still in prison for his actions in “Civil War,” as they try to hunt down the Flag Smashers, and he makes for an interesting foil for the two, especially when they have to meet up with Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) in a crime-filled city on their hunt for the super serum. Zemo being out of prison brings the attention of Wakanda, and Ayo (Florence Kasumba) and more of the Royal Guard come to make sure Zemo sees justice after he helps Sam and Bucky. We get glimpses of Walker and his partner, Battlestar (Clé Bennett), and seeing how they are together gives them an arc that allows for us to see Walker’s arc with having the weight of the shield and its expectations, and what happens to him when he fails. I feel like this is an awful lot of story for six episodes, and some of it works better than others; maybe if the series was shorter with more focus on character than action- especially since much of the action feels underwhelming and repetitive- or a few episodes longer to give these arcs their full due (and I haven’t even mentioned Isiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), who might know more about being a super soldier than we initially think). That the series feels less structured in its storytelling is one of the reasons it doesn’t feel as successful as “WandaVision” was, but the ideas it has make it more than serviceable as a Marvel series.
For many, the “villains” of the series- the Flag Smashers- are fairly weak, and if you’re referring to what obstacles they put in Sam and Bucky’s way as fighters, it’s a very fair criticism. But I think a terrorist organization whose MO revolves around how complicated the world became after “The Blip,” and Bruce Banner’s snap to return the half of the population that Thanos snapped away, and how they want to open borders rather than return to how it was before Thanos’s initial snapped, is an interesting moral dilemma for the series to explore. As Karli, this is Erin Kellyman’s second time playing a rebel who isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty after her role in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” and she projects confidence and leadership that makes her a formidable opponent intellectually. When she is faced with moral challenges of her cause, whether it’s by her own people or by Sam, Kellyman really shines, and I hope we might get more of her character down the road.
With their second series for Disney+, Marvel rolls the dice with something less suited for short-series television than “WandaVision,” and I’m not sure that it entirely succeeds. But, while it was clear that “WandaVision” would be a limited series event, given what we know of Scarlet Witch’s arc moving forward by the end, I would like to see more of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” if only because I like what we get of Sam and Bucky in these six episodes, and there’s more room for them to exist on a parallel timeline with the movies, without going directly back to movies after this story. Hopefully, they learned from the uneven nature of these first six episodes, and would come back stronger, and more confident.
