Falcon and the Winter Soldier

[CharlesPhipps]

Who was boycotting the most popular company in the world?

A bunch of people who weren't happy about Gina Carano being fired.

Wow, I'm sure that will work. Reminds me of when the Southern Baptists tried it and found they couldn't give up their child pacification tools.

[BBally81]

Some good news for Marvel and Disney+ https://www.mediaplaynews.com/wandavisi ... mand-list/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmende ... fcf3ec4ec7

[BBally81]

Word is that Falcon and The Winter Soldier was the third most streamed show among all platforms at the end of March.
https://patch.com/california/los-angele ... al-watches

[Rocketboy1313]

I was pleased with several aspects of the series,
1) I totally called the presence of Isaiah Bradley and the question of "A Black Captain America" being the core narrative thrust. I am glad they managed it so well, I love Bradley's portrayal and how much his presence in the narrative ties into countless issues related to Non-Whites being experimented on by the US government.
2) I was delighted by Zemo. He is consistently SHOWN to be an intelligent villain with a coherent worldview. Rather than so many bad guys we are told are smart and have plan, but neither thing is shown in the narrative. Marvel is good at this.
3) Loved US Agent and Battlestar. They are shown to be that classic Marvel-Flawed kind of hero. John WANTS to be THE GUY, but is unable to measure up to the impossible standard he has set for himself and is shown to be a guy who is unable to keep his cool. When he is carrying the bloody shield he is a perfect walking metaphor for American Imperialism.
4) Shocked at how good Sam's new Captain America suit looks. I saw that in the comic, thought it was too much, but on screen it looks good. I am looking forward to some smart ass hero like Ant-Man asking him how he keeps it clean with all the white material.

I have some quibbles, like how when Sam is knocked down in the final fight and Kylie tells him to "Stay Down!"... Sam replies, "no." He clearly should have said, "I could do this all day."
Pretty clear Sharon Carter is a character they have no clue what to do with. She was in the comics, she was a possible romantic ending for Steve... Now she is just hanging around. I thought she would be Bucky's romantic option (taking over for Black Widow who was that in the comic) but that seems unnecessary even if it were narratively possible.
I found the cries of, "Uncle Sam" from his nephews to either be the most on the nose "He is an american icon" hinting to the audience... or it could be super subtle as I have seen no one else commenting on it... I don't know.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

3) Loved US Agent and Battlestar. They are shown to be that classic Marvel-Flawed kind of hero. John WANTS to be THE GUY, but is unable to measure up to the impossible standard he has set for himself and is shown to be a guy who is unable to keep his cool. When he is carrying the bloody shield he is a perfect walking metaphor for American Imperialism.

It was pretty stark when he said that he was blindly trying to make up for what he did in battle.

Pretty clear Sharon Carter is a character they have no clue what to do with. She was in the comics, she was a possible romantic ending for Steve... Now she is just hanging around. I thought she would be Bucky's romantic option (taking over for Black Widow who was that in the comic) but that seems unnecessary even if it were narratively possible.

Unless she's mind controlled and he's gonna have insight into her condition. Duh.

[BBally81]

According to Nielsen, during the first two episodes the show was the top original streaming series.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live- ... ing-series

[BBally81]

FATWS is number 1 according to Parrot Analytics’ Digital Streaming Charts.

https://www.mediaplaynews.com/the-falco ... and-chart/

[CharlesPhipps]

Hopefully this means that we can finally lay to rest the idea of shows tackling complex political issues = financial disaster.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Winter Soldier is regarded as a grounded espionage movie, but plot-wise just relies mostly on the drama between Captain America and Bucky. Takedown of shield is mostly just universe development, and the whole MCU movies and shows could have done better with it as an organization.

This movie might be following that same structure but instead of it being about Steve Rogers and a mute assassin, they've decided to blossom an under spoken character in Sam and pick up where Mangold's Logan left off in Bucky. Not only that, but they have two adversarial folds, that don't come together for one big dilemma the best, but complement the heroes' struggle nicely.

[Rocketboy1313]

I find is sad how much the discussion has to do with the numbers and viewers.

Like, the show has lots of really loaded imagery and clearly has a message, and we are talking about the ratings.

I don't work for Disney, I don't care about this beyond, "oh good, the thing I liked did well, which means I will get more of it." But this meta-discussion not about the show's message, but how that message makes money is kind of sickening.