DIRECTOR: Kat Coiro
CAST: Tatiana Maslany, Jameela Jamil, Ginger Gonzaga, Tim Roth, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Segarra, Mark Linn-Baker, Tess Malis Kincaid, Nicholas Cirillo, Steve Coulter, Drew Matthews
RUNNING TIME: 31 mins
PREVIOUSLY, ON SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW: Jennifer Walters (Maslany), a lawyer who is also the cousin of Bruce Banner (Ruffalo), is involved in a car accident which results in her blood being contaminated with his, turning her into a giant green Hulk-like creature. Banner helps Walters to harness her newfound abilities, but she refuses to give up her job as a lawyer in order to become a superhero. However, her powers are eventually revealed to the world when she stops a superpowered threat (Jamil) in a courtroom.
IN THIS EPISODE: Jennifer deals with the public and personal consequences of her new superhero identity, and she receives a tempting new job offer…
NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
They really weren’t kidding when it was announced that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was going to be much more of a half-hour comedy show, instead of the usual 45-plus minute episode serials we’ve become used to with other Marvel series. That half-hour – actually, it’s more like twenty minutes, not including credits – zooms by fast, especially in this second episode titled Superhuman Law, where you feel as though hardly anything has really happened, or at least not enough to warrant a full review of it.
I’ll do my best to try and find things to talk about, though, because there are a few which are probably worthy of some type of discussion, but the good news is that this second episode does continue the overall likeability that was present and correct in last week’s debut entry. However, a lot like that first episode, there’s a lot of foundation still being laid, so don’t expect the ball to be completely rolling just yet in terms of overall plot or even character development.
Superhuman Law picks up shortly after the end of the previous episode, where Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) was forced to transform into her new Hulk-like persona to defeat a superpowered adversary (Jameela Jamil) in a courtroom. Despite her newfound popularity, and the unwanted new nickname of “She-Hulk”, Jennifer is fired from her law firm since her actions caused them to lose the case, and to make matters worse she can’t seem to find work elsewhere because of her distracting abilities. All hope seems lost, until she is recruited by high-end firm GLK&H to front a new superhuman law division, but not only will she have to frequently become She-Hulk in order to work there, but her first case isn’t exactly a doozy: she’ll have to argue for the parole of Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), the former solider who fought her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) as the mutated Abomination, all the way back in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk when he still looked like Edward Norton for some reason – and yes, they do make a deliberately on-the-nose gag about that here.
While Roth’s return as the character has long been expected, being announced around the same time that Maslany herself was confirmed as the titular hero, it’s still a nice surprise to see him back in Marvel territory, especially given the time that’s passed since he last showed up (does this mean a return for Tim Blake Nelson is also on the cards? We never did find out what happened to him after the events of that movie, where he was last seen mutating from his own exposure to Banner’s blood). While he isn’t in this episode much, and even then never as his Abomination alter-ego, Roth’s presence does set up an interesting dynamic with Maslany’s Jennifer which may or may not mutually benefit one another in the episodes to come, and Roth does seem to be having fun in his very Hannibal Lecter get-up (characters even make direct references to The Silence of the Lambs, in case the comparison wasn’t blatant enough).
Honestly, though, Roth’s return as Blonsky/Abomination is probably the most significant detail to talk about with this episode, which is once again pretty light on a lot of things such as story and character. So far, there’s no real indication of what direction this series is headed, or what plot strands are being introduced that will be developed further in future episodes, and beyond Maslany there’s not enough time spent with supporting characters such as her paralegal pal Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) or her well-meaning parents to get as good a read on them as we probably ought to have by this point. Right now, what’s carrying these episodes is showrunner Jessica Gao’s funny writing that knows not to take itself too seriously, and of course Maslany’s charming lead turn which makes her a hero worth following through this irreverent journey of hers. Hopefully, though, the series will get itself firmly on track, because while She-Hulk: Attorney at Law certainly isn’t bad so far, there’s very little being offered to give itself the urgency of other Marvel shows before it.
On a side-note, it also looks like Bruce really did look into that whole Sakaarian spaceship confusion, and where it’s apparently led to is sure to make fans excited over a possible, long-awaited Hulk adaptation.
SO, TO SUM UP…
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Episode 2 – Superhuman Law crams in as much as it can into its rather quick twenty-minute runtime, including a welcome return for Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/Abomination, but while this episode still carries the charm and likeability of last week’s debut episode, its lighter approach to both story and character development makes it hard to determine the direction in which this series is headed.
