Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is our new Captain America. We knew that from the ending of Avengers: Endgame and unfortunately, if you don't watch this show, you probably won't miss much in the general MCU plotline, but it is still a good show. It’s not crazy out there, but it has the same tone of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It even has a struggling Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in it. Despite all of the Marvel craziness it feels very grounded.
The show follows Wilson as he struggles with his new role of being a symbol, while the world itself struggles after the blip. Forget the positive and happy reunion that we saw at the end of Avengers: Endgame, some people are really unhappy about the change and the return of the world to the way it was. They make a better point for Thanos than Thanos did for himself. Yes, Zemo is part of the bad guys, but not in the way you would expect. Suddenly he is mister lovable villain and Daniel Brühl does a great job depicting him. Sharon Carter is also back, but I didn't like her at all. She is back in her not interesting supporting role, which has expanded. The show suffers from mostly boring bad guys, but it has excellent world building.
The show doesn't avoid dealing with the implications of having a black Captain America. One of the best parts of the show is that it touches on racism in the U.S.A. which gives Sam an opportunity to give some amazing speeches of his own. What is Captain America without inspiring dialogue?
The other best part of the show are the small characters moments that Sam and Bucky have and character development. Sam bonding with Bucky and helping him deal with his troubled past is pretty amazing. I mean he is a grief counselor who worked with soldiers with P.T.S.D. so this fits him perfectly. From being barley able to stand each other they become really close friends. They have great chemistry so I am not surprised that now people want Sam and Bucky to be couple and not Steve and Bucky. They go through a journey together and come out different at the other end and stronger.
Sam also struggles to find his place in the world post blip and we know from WandaVision that it was a hard world for the people who were left behind so this new world has some serious adjusting to do. Spider-Man made a joke about the new situation after the blip, but this show goes into the harsh details of the daily reality and I have to say that Marvel went dark. Now it is dark enough for the mutants to show up and be hated. Even with the way the show ended. There is no bow ending everything is great.
The action and the villains were just ok. Zemo shined, but he made no sense. The flag smashers didn't make a lot of sense either in my opinion and the end of their plot was unsatisfying in my opinion. John Walker (the brilliant Wyatt Russell), U.S. Agent for you, was the main character we loved to hate. You will hate him so much that at times he even reminded me of Joffrey from Game of Thrones. That level of hate. There is also a brilliant cameo towards the end of the show that probably does set up some future Marvel plotlines. There is no villain that will rock your world here.
At the end of the day it was an excellent show. Like WandaVision it has minimal implications for the greater MCU. It had fun moments and it had too long moments. The relationship between Bucky and Sam hold this show together and elevate it. The plot is good and more comic book accurate then WandaVision. Lots of cool Easter eggs that do payoff. But at the end of the day I felt like the show could do better with the ending. Not action wise, because that was great, but the logical conclusion of the end of the main plotline. Oh well, no one will remember that in the end anyway. This show is about Sam and Bucky's journey and it was a great journey.
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