Flying High With THE FALCON & THE WINTER SOLDIER (Patreon)

“I didn’t have a moment to deal with anything…

… I just went from one fight to another for 90 years.”

It’s only a few scenes into The Falcon & The Winter Soldier that his thoughtful insight from Bucky himself. It comes during a therapy session, of all things (which I could be wrong, but is this the first we’ve seen in the MCU?) and this insight is something that is indelibly true for his character. But it also doubles as a pertinent question for the writers and creators of this show. Why? Because the MCU has rarely stopped for a moment’s notice to actually deal with anything (at least when it comes dramatic catharsis). Sure, things get brought up sometimes. But there’s always been another fight, another obstacle, another distraction that moves the goal posts on the audience. Thus these character conflicts are never resolved through catharsis, it’s more that those conflicts just tend to fade into the background. And it’s honestly been one of their semi-fatal flaws.

But the entire allure of these television shows is that they, almost by their very nature, give you more room for you to explore. At least theoretically. I already spoke a great deal  about the character explorations Wandavision, which were well-aimed in intention, hit-and-miss in effect, perhaps misguided in its very approach of conceit, often ignoring the very things it needs to deal with, and ultimately left me with a series of pointed questions over its contradictions. So, the same questions essentially remain: how do you tell a story that isn’t jumping from conflict to conflict and ignoring what it needs to face? How do you actually tell a story when the fighting is paused?

The first episode of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier from writer / creator Malcolm Spellman is similarly well-aimed. For it wants us to genuinely find footing with two characters who have mostly existed on the sidelines. For Sam, he’s someone still living in the shadow of Steve Rogers. He’s enthusiastic and loyal, but the shield gifted to him more feels like albatross, thus he gives it to the museum. What does he want? Well, he spends most of his time dealing with his sister, putting his faith in the good will of the system to try and get them loan (needless to say, it does not pan out). What I like is that the show is clearly unafraid to point at things, whether it’s him literally being “Uncle Sam,” or the way black celebrities are treated with public veneration and yet still hit with the same systematic injustices, or even the fact that it’s bringing up the whole “how do you avengers make money, anyway?” Because everyone assuming Stark pays them is both assumptive and, like, a really good fucking point about what’s at the center of this shit.

Again, I like Spellman’s instincts with all of this, because there is a forthrightness that feels refreshing, even if its execution sometimes gets a little garbled in the dramatic back and forth of stake-setting. I mean, the five years later / boat / house / not wanting helping stuff all feels a bit off in the way it’s defining the sister’s motivations? It’s not a critical thing, but it’s just one of those things that fails to really hammer home on the crux of the conflict between them. But similar to the wishy-washy execution of the bank scene, it doesn’t fully hit home. Almost like it want anything to really cut like a dagger for these characters (as I said before, the MCU is never ACTUALLY comfortable breaking your heart), but we’ll see.

The conflict with Bucky at least feels a bit more urgent. For all his many appearances since Captain America: The First Avenger (a film I really love), the truth is that Winty’s barely gotten to do anything but punch and wallow. As such, I’ve always joked that it was such a bizarre choice for him to be the “Helen of Troy” behind the so-called civil war. So let’s just say I’m glad we’re finally getting back to him. And I love that we’re finally dealing with the fact he’s a 106 (but I want it to go deeper than jokes). I also like that we’re letting Stan actually play the difficulties of what he’s feeling in clear way. Because he’s outright dealing with the adverse effects of being a brainwashed super-soldier assassin for Hydra, which of course is just a heightened comic metaphor for the real-life effects of PTSD. And specifically, regretting the things you’ve done in that violent service (the set up with the guy going to the hotel room was done really well). It also takes care to paint the fact that he is now targeting the nazis fucks who brainwashed him, but it’s clear that he’s still being evasive with his anger and the things that haunt him.

But it comes to a crux we just have to talk about. Because this, along with Sam’s opening attack scene, shine a direct light on the MCU’s troubling relationship with the American Military. It’s something I haven’t written much, but mostly because I worry that I’m out of my depth and will talk about clumsily. Which is why I utterly recommend Siddhant Adlakha’s series “road to endgame” and this one which speaks to the issues clearly, particularly this entry. Unfortunately, the influence of the military on Hollywood is something so common that most people don’t even blink at. Really. ANYTIME you see military stuff appear in a movie it’s because they, you know, got script-approved by the military for being a good PR venture. Which means, you know, you literally can’t make a big anti-military movie with military shit it in it. This should obviously be something more prudent given America’s history of brutal military action, imperialism, colonialism, and you fucking name it. But thanks to this troubling intersection, it keeps being propagated and un-thought-about for the most part.

But some MCU entries make it so much harder NOT to notice it. Here is no exception. The scene where the man thanks Falcon for saving his wife? The way it dances around border issues with Libya as if directly invoking the history with Benghazi? YIKES. You even feel it in the way that all of Bucky’s worst Winter Soldier crimes from the past get fully associated with his quasi-Russian Hydra affiliation and *never* the dark fascistic side of America’s CIA operations during the same time period. In other words, they’re dancing around the biggest issues of worry. But perhaps it says so much about the troubling nature of things on the whole that the MCU couldn’t possibly make a film that doesn’t have one foot in this world at all. And perhaps the only way they can even function is to dance around the most troubling aspects of this stuff. Bringing it up in earnest? It stops the whole party. And that’s sort of what worries me most of all…

But outside of the endless problems of American foreign policy, we come more to the issue of structural writing by episodes end. Because after fifty minutes of these introductory scenes, the episode finally drops two actual nuggets in the form of inciting incidents. Bucky will investigate the mysterious death of the son of his friend. (EDIT: I COMPLETE MISSED THAT THIS IS THE PERSON HE KILLED EARLY ON, JEEZY PETES- HOLD ON RE-ADDRESSING BELOW). And Sam finds that the shield he wasn’t ready for has been given to a new Captain American. Which took me by surprise, because it’s something we have no insight to with regards to how or why it’s being done. Like, who is this guy making the presentation? And then we’re mostly left to wonder when seeing the new Captain America: “who the hell is this dingus?”

I get that we’re supposed to wonder, but it still leaves me with a feeling of pause. Because yes, we’re on more solid footing with these two characters, but again the question of “is this what to do with 50 minutes of screen time?” really hit me dead on.

Because this has been 1/6 of our overall story and we’re just getting to inciting incidents now? And the characters are all still apart? And there’s no real conflict between them either other than the implication one isn’t returning the others texts? For a show that’s meant to really dive deep into what happens between the action, I feel like watching something made by people who are forgetting the critical lessons of chamber dramas (which really shouldn’t feel that way, given that Spellman cut his teeth on Empire?). I mean, you watch a show like The Good Wife, Better Call Saul, Scandal, or especially an underrated show like The Unit (which actually would fit the DNA of this show nicely) and you get a quick lesson in understanding the way dramatic urgency can fill the space of narrative between the *action.* It’s the Mamet rules for a given scene: Who wants what? What happens if they don’t get it? Why now? And when you answer these questions with clarity, the critical moments of introspection with characters aren’t ignored, but instead integrated directly into the drama of what’s happening on screen.

But for the millionth time I’m hit with this vague feeling of lack of concern from the MCU, specifically in it’s insistence that it can take on genres without using the dramatic mechanisms that power them. Wandavision was supposedly an ode to sitcoms, but it so often just aped the texture and completely nuked the critical of baseline reality they require. It’s just like when they called Captain America: The Winter Solider a paranoid 70’s thriller, but really it’s straight up action film with one scene where Nick Fury shows up quietly and says they can’t talk on the phone. These allusions just always gets folded into their own we-need-you-to-punch-a-bad-guy proceedings. Which is why so many entries always feel off, but the best entries eschew those worries through basic function (like the way the Guardians films understand character conflicts. Or the way Black Panther was literally good at everything). In the end, it’s just about creating good set-ups to reach the desired catharsis, along with the way you control moments and create feeling of growth en route to transcendence (honestly, watch a film like Minari for a pitch-perfect lesson in quiet stakes building). For engineering an arc with the audience is about a different three questions…

What do you (the audience) want? What is going to prevent that from happening? And what is the most cathartic way to get there to make it feel great?

And those are my 10,000 dollar questions fort the first episode of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. What does it want? It wants us to root for this duo to come together, but there’s no real introduction this being the story’s prerogative, other than it’s the name of the show and these two are getting the most screen-time. What is preventing that from happening? Well, it seems the only thing that’s preventing it from happening is some closed off feelings and the fact the overarching plot (something created by writers) hasn’t made it happen yet? And what is the most cathartic way to get there to make it feel great? Well, we’re in buddy-cop adjacent territory so we want to see them get thrust together and bicker through meaningful conflict and solve those problems as they investigate something we’re actually interested in. And ultimately we want this journey to lead to the catharsis in their relationship.

But is this pilot really setting any of that up? We’re taking time with characters, sure. And yes the MCU nails their usual ability of “I like these actors, I like these people,” which is something that’s easy to take for granted (can you tell I just spent a lot of time watching that other franchise). But we can’t help but still feel like the show is so, so far away from really engaging any of the core driving forces of its own narrative (especially if we’re 1/6 of the way into our story). Once again, I can’t help but worry MCU seems to be confusing delay with character-building and those two things could not more different. Still, I’m undeniably liking the fact that the show is still coming at those bits of character-building earnestly and with clarity. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with liking something for being good enough.

Just as there’s nothing wrong with also wanting it to be better.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

-EDIT: SO. Missing things is an unfortunate and irrevocable part of criticism. I like the fact I have a good track record when it comes to this stuff. I love to notice and really press details. But missing the fact that the person Bucky killed is the dudes son is, quite frankly, egregious in this really specific way (It was two AM by then and I watched the four hour Justice League cut before this, please have mercy).  It's egregious because undermines the intent and care of the work and what people put in it. Now, when it comes to how this detail effects the overall shape of the narrative, my points about time and the six hours thankfully still stand. But it absolutely sharpens the point of the story about the very particular way that Bucky is haunted. In a way, it makes the episode feel like a tighter closed loop in this thoughtful thematic way, in another way, my misunderstanding through to a different sense of propulsion. So it's interesting. But either,  I'm keeping it as a note here to preserve the kinds of thoughts that DO happen when you utterly mess up. I'd rather it be forthright.

-I get that you get to be more aggressive in TV therapy session because dRaMa, but that seemed too aggressive even for TV standards (it also always makes me wonder if those writing it have actually been to therapy? I dunno). I mean she willfully misunderstands what he means by “peace” and it’s kinda messed up.

-I like calling them Falco and Winty. I just do.

-How do slavic people like being Hollywood’s new “generic demonized foreign bad guys that are picked because it feels less-racially charged than older candidates?” I don’t say this glibly. It’s just one of those things where you realize how much ALL these optics are fucked.

-The bad guys having wingsuits was so funny to me and I enjoyed it.

-I love that Bucky hangs out with old guys. I want more of this and for them to talk about old guy things.

-Once again we bring up the blip, but there’s no real depth or exploration with Sam here? At least Monica seemed devastated and I genuinely wish there was more to this part. Again, it feels like a thing the MCU knows how to bring up and invoke, but not explored. It’s stuff that just gets dropped (and I’m worried the reason is always because they think stuff like this is a drag).

-That other dude is really bad at undercover spy stuff?????? Also, when it comes to the “actually mystery” part of your show you really gotta do a better job making that stuff more. mysterious. Like HERE is the kind of place you lay all that stuff Wandavision was doing 24/7, but he robbery dude / cryptic organization right now just kind of… exists.

-At one point above I wrote “Steven Rogers” and I keep finding it so damn funny and giggling to myself and wanting a character to talk down to him and call him Steven.

-Speaking of that dude, his back-in-time ending with Peggy in Endgame is so dang cathartic, but it’s of course invites all sorts of conjecture about what the heck he was doing all that time. There’s a scene that coyly brings it up, but it’s perhaps best embodied by the insensitive popular meme of Cap’s old smiling face with “I let 9/11 happen” written underneath. Absurd of course, but like many things, it’s one of those choices where the more attention you call to it the harder it is reckon with. Then again I also completely forget the time-travel rules form Endgame because of course I do.

-Hey Winty, internalize what she said all you want, but do you really need to be rudely rushing out on a fucking date? I don’t like this choice.

-I genuinely don’t know how people watch a lot of different things all in a row. I’m someone who really needs to watch something, think on it, write about it, then let go. But in the last chunk of condensed time I had stuff pile up so I’ve watched Minari, Shin Godzilla, Batman V Superman, Zack’s Justice League, and then this episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the emotional whiplash has been far, far too much. I feel utterly dysfunctional.

-Ok, the “unified borders” angle with the bad guys really gives me pause. Especially because I worry that the criticism of that group is going to be is going to make the “good guys” come of like the neighbor in Robert Frost’s Mending Wall … That’s a weird reference, but it’s the first thing I thought of so I’ll just share it in case you’ve never read it…

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

<3HULK