 |
| Hayley Atwell |
Welcome to a new column called Channel Surfing, in which I sporadically look at current TV shows and talk about them. These are not ones that I care to write weekly recaps for and are instead reflections either on the episode, the series, or particular moments. This will hopefully help to share personal opinions as well as discover entertainment on the outer pantheon that I feel is well worth checking out, or in some cases, shows that are weird enough to talk about, but should never be seen.
Agent Carter is a show that exists solely for an unnecessary reason: equal opportunity. For years now, at least in the time frame of Marvel's choke hold on pop culture, there have been diversity complaints. Why aren't there more women or minorities in major roles? Yes, these are major problems, some even indicative of a larger picture of media. As society grows, diversity is being asked to represent the reality. Thus, Agent Carter was born almost as a gimmick from the Marvel studios who wished to appease those calling them sexist. This latest ABC series will be held up as the defining evidence that yes, women can be the lead of a show. However, that is all that the show feels like it has done. Everything around it feels forced, never once feeling sincere.
To the credit of Marvel, Captain America: The First Avenger was an enjoyable film that played on Americana and nostalgia for 1940's culture, largely thanks to director Joe Johnston's penchant for period piece action films. In fact, it's where Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) made her debut with ferocity and a sharp tongue. Sure, it wasn't her film entirely, but she left a worthy impression that made a show seem plausible. Of course, it would have to grow organically and not from the dulling landscape of cross promotion tools that include the halfhearted Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series which did nothing but milk the dregs of the franchise until the next movie came out.
Instead of creating a series to care for, Agent Carter exists almost as a marketing tool, or better yet a mislead to those wanting an interesting Marvel universe populated by compelling characters. Instead, it is world building at its least interesting. They don't coexist so much as get jammed together for one parenthetical thesis every few years. While there's still hope that Agent Carter would have broken the mold, it simply follows suit while waving the banner that Marvel is not sexist. Please, don't get wrapped up in the terrible mislead. Agent Carter isn't progressive or regressive. It is just pointless.
Given the benefit of the doubt, watching the first episode starts off fine. For those out of the know, flashbacks to Captain America are warranted, even if they create an overall jarring revelation in how lower budget the show is. Still, for the majority of the first episode, Carter isn't so much the butt kicking bad girl so much as she is an embodiment of cliches of what a male gaze thinks would pass. In fact, the show's initial flaw is actually tone, as the characters have no memorable lines or personality and the 40's aspect feels immediately dropped after the first 20 minutes to focus on a more stock version of a spy show.
Then there's the issue of Carter. Yes, we know that Carter can be interesting. We saw so in Captain America. We're reminded in the first minutes of this show. However, she is removed of anything interesting and instead plays a less interesting role of proving herself in a man's world. Is it true to the times? Sure. However, the many reasons for why it doesn't work are clear. For starters, she feels inessential to the Marvel world as a female character. She is doing grunt work that if replaced with a man wouldn't seem all that suspicious. She is a spy that doesn't really have an excuse to promote a pro-feminine approach to action tropes. Also, despite being that radiant independent woman with curves to kill, she essentially is working for a man to stop bad men that other incompetent men couldn't defeat. She is tough by design but not by logic.
This would all be fine if the show felt in any way competent or interesting. However, Carter lacks any personality to make her worth rooting for. Much like The Mysteries of Laura, her image is what sells part of her success. She has to be a cliche woman doing cliche seduction in order to get half of her needs. In fact, there's nothing really feminine about her that warrants a "you go girl" attitude. She punches, talks and performs just like every male Marvel character that has been slapped onto a screen in the past few years. She doesn't even have sass. All she has is a shell of something that could be interesting.
While this is allegedly a seven week miniseries, it does feel halfhearted intentionally meant to prove that Marvel is an equal opportunity employer. It isn't that a woman leading a Marvel show can't be interesting, it's just that she isn't allowed to have personality outside of the masculine design that the studio has built since 2008 with Iron Man. At most, there's an attempt to be diverse by a passerby complimenting her wardrobe. It is fine, but to suggest that this makes her authentic is to entirely miss the point. If you're going to make her cliche, at least give her good dialogue and make the show actually feel like the 40's noir you claim to aspire to be. Go back and watch some old John Huston. If you're going screwball, check out Howard Hawks. Just because they're old doesn't mean that they can't give your show a beneficial tonal upgrade.
Agent Carter is a show designed as nothing more than an apology to fans who wanted more dominant women. Instead, Carter seems submissive and uninteresting in a lot of major ways being forced to do uninteresting case work. Along with not feeling at all like a kitschy period piece, the show feels rushed and without any deeper purpose. It is thankful that it has yet to feel like a whack on the head connection to a grander Marvel vision for whatever film is next. That is the one benefit. Still, there is no point for the show and had the word Marvel been excised from this picture, nobody would care. As it stands, the show seemed more interested in pushing the Ant-Man trailer at the end of the two hour premiere.
It is a shame that Marvel cannot work on its own anymore. Guardians of the Galaxy failed to feel like more than a spin-off for a later crossover. Agent Carter feels like an answer to sexism. Even news about black characters later down the line feel like embarrassing cues from the complaints office. They are building a world, but it's to a singular vision that I don't care about. Why not let each property live on its own with occasional cameos? This has long been problematic, ruining their sequels and turning decent stories into garbage. I cannot attest to Agent Carter falling into this line, at least immediately, but it doesn't give me a reason to care.
For the sake of comparison, let's go back to 2007 with Knocked Up. Director Judd Apatow received countless complains that he only created male-centric entertainment. Considering his rise as a comedy guru since, he has since made reprimands for this complain by producing Emmy-nominated Girls and Oscar-nominated Bridesmaids. These were essential in making women-centric entertainment more noteworthy. Do they feel like apologies to the complaints? Yes. However, they have exceeded those by actually being independent and in many respects feminine products that appeal to us all. Agent Carter doesn't warrant its existence and is still stuck in being the male gaze of what superhero woman want to be. As the show suggests, just watch Captain America and you'll have a far more interesting take on Peggy Carter from a time when she wasn't shoehorned into a plot simply to appease the complaints office.
Comments
Post a Comment