DIRECTOR: Kat Coiro
CAST: Tatiana Maslany, Ginger Gonzaga, Josh Segarra, Drew Matthews, Steve Coulter, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Tim Roth, Benedict Wong, Megan Thee Stallion
RUNNING TIME: 35 mins
PREVIOUSLY, ON SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW: Jennifer Walters (Maslany) has begun working for law firm GLK&H, heading its new superhero law division. Her first case is to represent Emil Blonsky (Roth), imprisoned for his violent rampage as the Abomination, at his upcoming parole. At first apprehensive about defending her cousin Bruce Banner’s former adversary, she is given Bruce’s blessing to proceed with the case – only to learn that evidence has emerged of Blonsky fighting in an underground club against the Sorcerer Supreme, Wong (Wong).
IN THIS EPISODE: Walters attempts to turn the new evidence against Blonsky in her favour, while one of her former co-workers approaches GLK&H for a catfishing case…
NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
Sure, there’s a new Lord of the Rings series that’s just released its first two episodes on Prime Video (and are, by the way, very much worth your time), but I highly doubt that anywhere in Middle-Earth you will find a giant green CGI female lawyer twerking with none other than music sensation Megan Thee Stallion.
Yes, that’s basically the kind of show that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law pretty much identifies as now: a silly, light-hearted and occasionally inspired half-hour comedy series that has no false pretences about itself, and embraces its outlandishness almost to a fault. Three episodes in, and is this one of Marvel’s top Disney+ series? Hell no, but it is an amusing way to spend half an hour all the same, even when not everything about it works as well as it perhaps should.
Episode three, titled The People vs. Emil Blonsky, focuses mostly on that titular parole case, which has been compromised by surfaced footage of Blonsky (Tim Roth), in full Abomination mode, fighting Wong (Benedict Wong) in that underground fight club we saw in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Frustrated by this development, his lawyer Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) struggles to turn the situation around, including getting the Sorcerer Supreme himself to testify that he forced Blonsky to participate against his free will, while also convincing the parole board that Blonsky, despite what was captured on camera, has been rehabilitated and does not intend to transform into the Abomination again. On top of that, Jennifer’s cartoonishly misogynistic former co-worker Dennis (Drew Matthews) has approached GLK&H with a case of his own: he claims to have been scammed by a New Asgardian shape-shifter, who has been impersonating Megan Thee Stallion (who, of course, cameos as herself) to con him out of an extortionate amount.
The A and B plots of this episode certainly compliment each other (to a point where, in one of her fourth wall-breaking asides, Jennifer herself comments on the merging of both plots) in the sense that they’re equally reliant on heavily comedic plotting and some over-the-top performances to achieve that heightened tone it’s been aiming for. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, as per most of Marvel’s humour as of late, but She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is hardly the type of show that seems concerned with sticking to the familiar Marvel Studios formula so closely, and instead styles itself after the likes of Ally McBeal where there seems to be an even enough balance of hefty legal procedural and light-hearted comedy. So far, this episode included, it hits that tone dead-on, and for what it is it still feels fun enough to enjoy as something you don’t have to think about too hard, making it a nice change of pace from some of the other Marvel shows.
What it isn’t, though, is focused. After three episodes, there’s still not yet a clear indication of what the overall arc of this series is, and whether there’s going to be any real sense of development with this plot and these characters, who despite their clear likeability and charm – yes, even love-to-hate misogynist Dennis, who’s such a cartoon that you can’t help but be amused by his awfulness – haven’t quite broken free from their assigned one-note personalities. While there’s definitely seeds still being planted (what exactly are Blonsky’s plans post-prison? How does Wong fit into all this? And will Hamilton alumni Renée Elise Goldsberry, finally introduced here for one scene, have a much bigger part to play going forward?), there’s clear signs that overall development is at snail’s pace, indulging itself perhaps a bit too much in comic-book silliness to approach the point faster. I am certain that everything will start to come together further down the line (at least, I hope it does), but for now it’s starting to get too comfortable in its own big green skin, and not enough with establishing its own story and characters.
But hey, at least Megan Thee Stallion die-hards will get more than they bargained for this week – who needs Tolkien when you have her and She-Hulk booty-shaking to “Body”?
SO, TO SUM UP…
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Episode 3 – The People vs. Emil Blonsky continues to indulge in light-hearted comic-book silliness, which generates some decent laughs here and there, but is starting to show a lack of development in the overall series arc and many of its characters.
