Hotstar's She-Hulk pilot episode review: Smart Hulk annoys while She-Hulk shines
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the new Marvel series on Disney+ Hotstar, just dropped its pilot episode and naturally, social media is abuzz with varying reactions. The 34-minute-long episode (minus 4-5 minutes that go in Marvel's extra-long credits) offers a promising start for the MCU show even though the fatal flaw lies in the multiple trailers that already exposed most of the episode.
The trailer gave away everything: Jennifer Walters is introduced as a lawyer who hides the secret that she can transform into a green beast. A flashback sequence establishes her as Bruce Banner's cousin whose radiated blood infects her after a car accident. As she becomes the She-Hulk, Banner tries educating her in the tenets of superhero responsibility even though Jennifer is in no mood to become an Avenger. What follows is a training montage between the two, accompanied by meditation, Hulk's babbling, and obviously a display of the 'thunderclap' (the destructive fighting move in which Hulk slaps both of his hands to create a sonic wave).
Back in the present, Jennifer visits the court for an ongoing case, only to be interrupted by Jameela Jamil's antagonistic Titiana. In less than a minute, Jennifer turns into She-Hulk and punches Titiana, followed by cops storming in to arrest her. The end.
Did I spoil the episode for you? No, blame it on Marvel, for the studio has no limits when it comes to pre-release exposition. The first trailer dropped three months ago, followed by an extended trailer three weeks back. Then, there are the multiple 'official clips' that Marvel Entertainment shared extensively on YouTube and social media. And without any spoiler alert, all of these uploads give away major plot points pertaining to the pilot episode.
This move was quite disappointing and leaves little to no room for surprises (a post-credits cameo discussing Captain America's virginity isn't strong enough to compensate). But this marketing blunder aside, the episode does offer potential.
Tatiana Maslany shines while Mark Ruffalo might get on your nerves: For all the runtime that she gets, Tatiana Maslany delivers an impressive performance while emulating the show's humorous tones (without overdoing it unlike some other Marvel productions). True to the comics, Maslany's She-Hulk often breaks character and talks directly to the audience. The Fleabag-style fourth-wall breaking is again hardly annoying as some cynical viewers might think.
Before bagging this Marvel role, Maslany broke out as the lead on the sci-fi thriller series Orphan Black. So, as Maslany gets introduced to a broader demographic thanks to Disney and Marvel's global control, it is also bound to drive some fans to check out her previous work. Unfortunately, ever since Netflix removed it, Orphan Black isn't available for streaming in India (at least on the legal sources).
The episode mostly centers on two people, Maslany's She-Hulk and Mark Ruffalo's Smart Hulk. Once the raging beast that was the Incredible Hulk has now been transformed into a more Zen-mode Goliath who sports nerdy glasses and talks like a preachy professor. While this transformation took place back in Avengers: Endgame, Ruffalo explores more traits of this Hulk persona in the pilot episode. But as he goes on talking about anger and superheroing, his jibber-jabber can be quite annoying in some moments. Further, most of his advice isn't even that useful given that She-Hulk is an all-new kind of Hulk. Unlike Bruce's initial struggles to get his angry personality under control, Jennifer retains her human consciousness even when her skin turns green.
It is uncertain in how many more episodes Ruffalo will appear, but given that he got credited as 'special guest star' in the pilot, chances are that he might just appear in the finale or a few other crucial episodes. Maybe, Smart Hulk might grow on MCU fans over time but for now, he doesn't add much depth and Maslany needs enough space to shine on her own.
Sympathy for Marvel's VFX artists: For a studio that offered The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, the quality of visual effects of the new-age Marvel productions is dropping to embarrassingly bad levels. There can be exceptions like Eternals but then there are also scenes like Yelena's death in Black Widow and the 'floating head' scene in Thor: Love and Thunder. Similarly, She-Hulk's character design was panned right upon the trailer's release.
But at this point, it feels even guilty trolling the work of Marvel's VFX artists given the burnout conditions they go through. Recently, several visual artists who have worked on previous Marvel movies have come out with their stories to explain how unpredictable and burdening Marvel's work culture can be. For a cinematic universe that is built on CGI costumes and green-screen environments, this is just saddening.
Maslany herself addressed the controversy by adding her sympathies. Variety quotes the actress as saying, "I feel incredibly like deferential to how talented these artists are and how quickly they have to work, obviously, like much quicker than probably should be given to them, in terms of like churning these things out."
Final thoughts and fears for future episodes: As a standalone pilot, She-Hulk's debut episode is indeed fresh and shows a conscious effort from Marvel to revamp its superhero comedy routine (with new elements of a legal workspace drama). Going by the approach the pilot seems to foreshadow, She-Hulk might focus more on the character-centric growth of Jennifer Walter's two identities instead of just focusing on just big-budget Hulk Smash-level action.
The problem with most of the Marvel shows on Disney+ Hotstar is that they have a promising start, but then most of the final episodes don't stick the landing. Acclaimed shows like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye drew polarising reactions as viewers approached the finale. In strictly personal opinion, even WandaVision, Ms Marvel and Moon Knight could have benefited from better finale episodes. Compared to the rest of the Marvel shows roster, She-Hulk's first season will include nine episodes instead of running on the usual six-episode formula.
Here's hoping that She-Hulk's later episodes do break the 'bad finale curse'.