The She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Pilot is Marvel's Weakest Premiere Yet
What promised to be a genuine shake-up to the Marvel mold begins with a contrived premiere succumbing to its own franchise's fatigue.
As critical as I have been about much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s episodic output, they all at least started strong. Regardless of where they ended up, I bought into their potential for success. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is a first in this regard.
Sure, pilots are always a bit rocky, especially given that She-Hulk is the MCU’s first straightforward television series from the get-go. But even with that caveat, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s premiere episode charts a rocky course for what was promised to be a genuine shake-up to the Marvel mold. Aside from brief allusions to Captain America being a virgin (“irreverent,” they said), there’s little here that doesn’t feel like a product of a media empire inside of another media empire that, more often than not, struggles to shake off its own fatigue.
The show begins with Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany, seen here just barely carrying this show on charm alone) explicitly reciting the show’s theme as she practices her closing remarks for a case. Her friend, Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga, featured minimally here), knows she’s going to nail it. Just one thing: she happens to be a Hulk. Oh, you didn’t know?
Before we even see any evidence of her being a Hulk, before it even becomes relevant to anything, Jen insists we need to know the backstory of how she became a Hulk in order to enjoy the show! The palpable irony is that this is, in fact, exactly what test screening audiences indicated they wanted. In equally palpable tragedy, it plays out as the absolute wrong choice.
After a road trip with her cousin, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo, especially awkward in this appearance), is cut short by a nasty car accident, Bruce’s blood drips into one of Jennifer’s wounds, exposing her to gamma radiation and imbuing her with Hulk abilities. She’s got super strength, but because of her experiences as a woman in the workplace, she is not predisposed to Hulking out the same way Bruce does. She’s learned to manage her emotions her entire life. In a way, she’s always angry.
This is actually an inspired subversion of the character, one of the few comedic beats that actually lands. The problem is that they continue to land it four or five additional times, and it overstays its welcome real fast. Bruce takes Jennifer to his Mexico hideaway to practice controlling her Hulk abilities, but after a certain point, we already get what’s happening. There’s zero narrative progression. Bruce and Jennifer’s dynamic is cute, if relatively uninspired, but it isn’t enough to warrant an entire episode of focus when the story is completely devoid of dramatic tension.
Bruce and Jennifer engage in a fight, him insisting she needs to stay and hone her skills. It’s a complete plot diversion that feels lifeless and contrived—it lasts maybe a few minutes and afterwards, nothing has been added that we couldn’t have already deciphered from their previous five or six interactions.
Time skip to the beginning of the episode, where now Jennifer is ready to win her case. However, the proceedings are interrupted by a mysterious superhuman decked in fringe. This will eventually be revealed as Titania (portrayed by Jameela Jamil), but this episode isn’t concerned with introductions or context; it’s concerned with She-Hulk smashing. Jennifer transforms into her Hulk form, shocking the courtroom, and proceeds to engage in one of the most abrupt, sloppily edited fight sequences Marvel has ever put on public display.
It’s a shockingly forced cliffhanger that feels like it would’ve been better served as a cold open. But even as a sequence, in and of itself, it is laughably rushed through. We don’t even get a genuine finishing blow, as She-Hulk’s punch is performed in a cutaway, presumably not included over a lack of budget and time for the show’s heavy implementation of CGI. I could be wrong, but that’s what feels the most likely—and generous—explanation.
This show has already been lambasted for its descent into the Uncanny Valley, but even as a defender of those initial trailers, She-Hulk is a sign that the bough is breaking. She-Hulk, as a character, is significantly lacking texture and expression; certain moments in this pilot felt like an incredibly well-dubbed NPC, lifeless eyes staring right through you. Bruce Banner’s Smart Hulk design has always felt just a bit off, but at least Avengers: Endgame used that to its advantage. Here, all it does is stifle Mark Ruffalo, who has proven he can provide the laughs with this character under the right leadership. If recent reports are any indication, the extreme bottlenecking in Marvel’s post-production pipeline is providing severe diminishing returns.
The pilot’s entire aesthetic is lifeless, taking Marvel’s insistence on bare minimum camera coverage and lighting design but now poorly translating it to a studio sitcom script. Unlike Ms. Marvel, which found stylistic flare in an otherwise traditional coming-of-age story (especially in the pilot!!), She-Hulk’s pilot feels artistically empty. There is a sincere lack of energy on all fronts, which leaves a nasty first impression for this fan-favorite character’s long-awaited entry into the studio’s beloved modern canon. As someone who found their love of Marvel reignited just one show prior, that injection of goodwill is already dwindling.
Episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law air Thursdays on Disney+.
Hey, it’s been a minute since I last posted. I actually write for Geek Vibes Nation and /Film now and it’s going really well! I also produce a podcast which takes up most of my life right now but that’s a whole other thing. Sometimes I feel inspired to write stuff outside of my assignments, so I figured I would cautiously revive this page for whenever I write something purely for myself. I just so happened to have…ahem, strong feelings about She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and so I ran with it. Enjoy, and maybe expect more? I dunno!