Round Two: Agent Carter

Agent Carter: Season 1, Episode 3 “Time and Tide” (C+)

Well, it didn’t take long for this show to become deathly boring. What might have been seen as fortifying Peggy’s character as an intellectual standout in the two-hour premiere has now become fully ridiculous, as all of the characters except for Sousa have absolutely no substance, and Peggy is reduced to playing dumb and pretending to make mistakes in order to actually accomplish anything. Things got a little too close for comfort with Jarvis being picked up by Peggy’s colleagues, and his treasonous past was revealed awfully quickly. You’d think that someone with Peggy’s training and experience might have researched her new colleague, even if he did come highly recommended by Howard Stark, who has inexplicably taken the blame in Roger’s mind for Ray’s death. As a person and a character, Ray didn’t have much going for him, and he’s sure to be more fondly recalled in death than in life because of how he went out. It’s going to motivate Ray, Jack, and Sousa to push harder to find Stark and to see justice served, and let’s hope Sousa’s cool head prevails and that he can manage to educate his colleagues a bit on the art of good policework. The subplot of no men being allowed in Peggy’s apartment building and one young woman being kicked out because she broke that rule is far from interesting, and I think we really need to see Peggy break out of her shell and kick some ass since the current setup isn’t allowing her to be nearly as terrific a character as she should be.