WIP - REVIEW: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Warning: This review contains spoilers for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier - All Episodes

I will be updating this blog each time I finish the next episode, it might take me a while to write about all of them so bear with me (This portion of the blog will be deleted once i finish the last episode and it's review)

Episode01: New World Order

"How does it feel?"
"Like it's someone else's."

The final words between Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson are a nice start for the not-new show that I just now started watching finally. The first episode kicks off with an action sequence that feels like it's straight out of a MCU prime-year film. While I do want to complain that we got a canyon fight scene as a first battle sequence. As much as I adore the fight itself, I hate canyon scenes for battles and I was hoping that Sam would maybe just fly over it instead of going straight after them through the tight spaces (also cue him getting his wings clipped BCS HE WENT STRAIGHT AFTER THEM) but let's not get hung up on the first battle scene.
The action itself was nicely paced and it reminded very much of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Speaking of that movie; both Cap and Sam are fighting Batroc at the start of their respective projects, which I think is very nice.

In a very unusual way, that fight sequence ends up being the only real one for the whole episode.
After that escapade in the middle east, Sam repairs his damaged tech and we get a somewhat off-hand introduction of who seems to be the series main antagonist (group). Following that he returns to Washington DC where he hands of Cap's shield to the US government, more specifically he hands it off to Rhodey with whom Sam has an important conversation about up the role of Captain America.
Just like in the very beginning, Sam is conflicted on his own worthiness of the shield and the title that comes with it. This internal conflict if perfect for a TV show, we only scratch at the surface of it now but I have very high hopes that this will be more deeply explored in the next episodes and maybe even resolved, if just partially.

The second Sam-centric Storyline that is being explored sadly didn't wow me as much as I would have wished. I'm very happy he's getting more characterization in this series than in his role in the the MCU films, but it almost feels rushed - it hasn't captivated me which is sad because I want to be very invested in his storyline.
His relationship with his sister and her children, the attempt to save the family business, the continued mentioning of the 5-missed-years for half of earth population, it was all so crammed into this portion and felt almost choppy at times. I ended up wondering where this suddenly very unadventurous plot point was going/how this will continue to be implemented in the later episodes and came up short for now. I do enjoy the uniqueness of taking an Avenger out of their public/superhero life in such a way though. We get to see Sam in a light in which we haven't really seen him before.

Meanwhile, just as the title of the show might suggest, the show also focuses on Bucky/The Winter Soldier. We see him, first of all, dealing with memories and the guilt of his past connected to Hydra. He wakes up from a dream in which he raided a public space, killing everyone there. We also see him talking to a therapist - again such a nice slow-paced point of normalcy for a superhero, and a glimpse for us in the more personal aspects of his life.

Later on in the episode we see him having befriended Yori Nakajima, an older man whose son Bucky had killed as the Winter Soldier, in the same scene we saw him having nightmares about earlier. You can see how heavy it still weighs on him and how much regret he feels for everything that happened, but also his inability to properly put into words what is weighing on him. As the audience, you really get to see Bucky's humanity in these first few scenes, you get to really get inside his head and roam around a bit almost.
Even just in the first episode it's obvious how hard Bucky is trying to make amends and deal with his guilt and inner conflict - it's better structured and hard to not find it more captivating than Sam's personal plot line which is really sad since I can see the thought that was put into the depiction of both of their personal stories.

Almost at the end there is a tease of what's to come, connected to the main antagonist group at least. We also see a the introduction of a new Captain America and a beautifully acted scene in which Anthony Mackie conveys all of Sam's complex amotions about the new Cap - the grief, loss, regret and fear of what comes now all captured in this scene without a single word spoken.

Verdict; 8/10

While the Episode does need a moment to find it's pacing and place, it is off to a good start and I'm excited to see what comes next. The reintroduction to Sam and Bucky were a nice way to setup the upcoming story and making me eager to continue with the next episode.