TV Review: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Who will wield the shield?
Leaving behind the hexed sitcom world of WandaVision, the next Disney Plus foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks into the two complex figures of Captain America’s legacy: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Balancing out adrenaline-pumping action with quieter character moments, the series is surprisingly effective at tackling its themes of trauma, guilt, and patriotism in a post-Blip world. One episode watched for review. Minor spoilers ahead...
What does it mean to pick up Captain America’s shield? This is the question that Marvel’s newest streaming series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, attempts to answer. Switching gears completely from WandaVision’s magical corner in Westview, Disney Plus’s latest dives deep to flesh out the two heroes closest to Steve Rogers: best friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), and literal wingman Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), to whom Rogers bequeathed his shield at the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame. In the show’s first entry, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier don’t even cross paths, but in its 45-minute runtime, the episode does more to explore these two characters than the movies ever did.
Opening with a blitz of an aerial sequence pitting Sam against a certain, familiar, French-Algerian foe, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier immediately buttresses its action chops. But where the series will surprise you is in its quieter moments, with both of its protagonists carrying heavy emotional baggage that the show promises to explore. Sam, having been dusted by Thanos and returned to life in the Blip, is torn by Captain America’s heavy legacy and the forces of family and duty, continually echoing his response to Steve’s passing of the shield in Endgame: “It feels like it belongs to somebody else.” Can he live up to the symbol of justice that Steve Rogers was? Will the country - more broken than ever before with the sudden reappearance of half its population - accept a Black man as Captain America? In addition, Sam also grapples with the fact that his “death” and five-year absence have left his sister (Adepero Oduye) in the lurch and in debt - a relationship already strained by his Army career and his superheroics. Anthony Mackie comes out of the gate swinging with his performance, and the first episode balances the many facets of his internal conflict with a deft hand.
“But where the series will surprise you is in its quieter moments, with both of its protagonists carrying heavy emotional baggage that the show promises to explore.”
The other half of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, walks a narrower path, but one no less fraught with emotion. Also snapped out of existence and resurrected, the Winter Soldier has returned with a singular purpose: to make amends for his violent past as a brainwashed Hydra assassin. In government-sanctioned therapy, Barnes follows a strict set of rules to abet his rehabilitation, but that doesn’t deter him from his quest for redemption. Whether its sweeping up the remnants of Hydra or befriending an old victim’s grieving father, Bucky lives a lonely life of tortured reflection.
And although our two heroes don’t team up in the first episode, there is conflict brewing that is sure to put them on a collision course. It may be tough to top The Winter Soldier’s Hydra conspiracy or the hero-on-hero violence of Civil War, but the antagonist forces of The Falcon and Winter Soldier are shaping up to be fascinating challenges for Bucky and Sam. A new terrorist organization, monikered the Flag Smashers, has begun building momentum - anarchists that prefer the less-crowded post-Snap world, the Flag Smashers use violence and superpowered individuals to further their anti-nationalist agenda. On the home front, Sam continues to bristle against truly taking up the Captain America mantle, and while Steve Rogers named him as his successsor, the United States government has a different idea, unveiling a late-episode twist that will be sure to surprise spoiler-averse viewers.
Since only one episode was screened for critics, it’s too early to accurately judge The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but there’s something absolutely refreshing about the MCU returning to the down-and-dirty street-level, especially after the events of Infinity War, Endgame, and even the magical world of WandaVision. The series’ first episode is brimming with potential, but also dangerously balancing a lot of baggage. For now, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier catches every ball thrown in the air with great pacing, and hopefully it continues to do so with the re-introduction of two major characters in the coming episodes.
