New Disney+ show bringing MCU action to small screen
If you sat down for the first episode of Disney+’s “WandaVision” in January expecting something a lot like the action-packed fare the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been bringing to the big screen for years, you were in for a surprise.
While the tremendously crafted limited series did eventually offer some of that, it spent much of its time paying tribute to several decades of TV sitcoms with a thoughtful and highly artistic touch.
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” has no similar ambitions.
This second MCU series for Disney+, debuting this week with the first of six weekly episodes, brings the action almost from the jump.
And we mean jump literally.
Before he falls backward out of a U.S. military plane that shouldn’t be approaching Tunisian airspace, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) — better known to the world as The Falcon, a member of super-team the Avengers who soars through the air via state-of-the-art mechanical wings — he’s told he needs to be subtle in his handling of a delicate mission.
“Subtle,” he says. “Got it.”
What follows is, of course, not subtle, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” delivering an action sequence involving Sam dealing with helicopters, machine-gun fire and even missiles.
Before that, though, we see Sam with the star-emblazoned shield synonymous with Captain America, passed on to him by an aged Steve Rogers in the waning moments of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.”
Sam seems as reluctant about possessing it as he did about accepting it from the man the world knew as Cap.
The other namesake character of this limited series, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes — aka The Winter Soldier — is having issues of his own. He is in government-mandated therapy and trying to make amends for lives he took during the events of 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” He’s doing the best he can with all of it, but it’s a struggle.
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is set a few months after the Blip, which saw half of the earth’s population reappear after vanishing for five years, Sam and Bucky counted among the returned. Like so many others, they’re trying to find their places in a world that moved on from them.
For Sam, that involves fighting with the Air Force. He’s also determined to help his sister, Sarah (Adepero Oduye), save their family business — even if she doesn’t want that help and has decided to let the fishing operation die.
“To the rescue, huh?” she says as he promises he can use his celebrity status to secure a bank loan.
“Always,” he says confidently.
Sam and Bucky are allies who have shared a little bit of time on screen in the films, but they’re not particularly close friends. And while we know they’ll team up for what surely will prove to be an actionpacked adventure, they do not do so in the first episode, so it’s hard to get all that much of a feel for the series’ core dynamic.
We also can’t say for sure who the series’ big bad will be, but production notes do reveal Daniel Bruhl will reprise the role of Zemo, the villain he portrayed in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.”
We can say that, at about 45 minutes, the reasonably entertaining first episode suggests beefier installments of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” than we typically got with “WandaVision” — or for that matter hit Disney+ “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian” — which is nice.
The series’ head writer is Malcolm Spellman (“Empire,” “Our Family Wedding”), who’s also credited as its creator.
All episodes are directed by TV veteran Kari Skogland, whose myriad credits include several episodes of Hulu’s acclaimed series “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Based only on the early action sequence featuring The Falcon, she seems up to the task of bringing the highoctane thrills fans will expect here.
While it surely will be a more conventional ride than “WandaVision,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” leaves you with a little nugget at the end of Episode One bound to have fans wishing they could go right into the next installment.