Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Take Three: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Season 1, Episode 3 “Power Broker” (B)

I’ll confess something that will surely make diehard Marvel Cinematic Universe fans shiver. I’m not sure what was happening in 2016, but for some reason I never managed to see “Captain America: Civil War.” I didn’t go back to watch it at any point, and eventually just opted to screen both “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War” months after they were first released, presuming I could piece together what I had missed, which I think I largely did. Evidently, that gap in knowledge is presenting itself as most problematic here, since there are probably many more cues that I’m supposed to be getting which I’m not. One such character was Zemo, who made sense to me mostly because of the quality of Daniel Brühl’s performance. He’s an actor I’ve always found to be terrific, most memorably in films like “Inglourious Basterds” and “Rush.” Zemo’s eagerness to cause chaos while theoretically helping the good guys was entertaining and very watchable. We also met someone else I was supposed to know, Sharon Carter, played by Emily Van Camp, who I remember from one of the first TV series I regularly watched, “Glory Days,” which came before “Everwood,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Revenge,” and now “The Resident.” There’s plenty going on and it’s not all that easy to keep up, but the Sam-Bucky duo continues to be fun to watch, and this show is not at all short on action, even if it’s not always clear who’s fighting for what and why certain characters are mad at others.

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