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Conveniently, there are
9 weeks left before Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns, and there are eight
episodes of Agent Carter season 1. So since I’m done reviewing Daredevil, I’m
going to replace Daredevil (and other assorted Netflix-related articles)
with Agent Carter reviews on Mondays!
Simply put, Agent
Carter may be one of the most underappreciated installments in the
MCU. It is not an action series—I
don’t expect there to be too many sequences on Agent Carter that rival
the best of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
What it is instead is a very strong character-driven series. The plot and character development are the
most important elements of the series, and the pilot episode, “Now is Not the
End,” does an excellent job of setting everything up for the season. Most of the characters fall into somewhat
stereotypical roles in this episode—Thompson and Krzeminski as the tough guys
who underestimate/don’t appreciate women, Dooley as the boss who doesn’t
appreciate Peggy’s talents and relegates her to a secretary, Sousa as the only
man in the office who sees Peggy as more than just a woman in a man’s
role. However, these stereotypes do not
carry through the entire season; the characters become much more defined over
time as their relationships with Peggy become more defined.
Additionally, Agent
Carter very much benefits from having the same budget as a full 22-episode
season on network TV: this allows them
to put a lot of detail into the setting of the series as well as bringing in
special guests like Dominic Cooper reprising his role as Howard Stark from Captain
America: The First Avenger. The
scenery is very well done in my opinion, and I really like how they use the
color palette to set Peggy apart in some scenes as the most colorful element in
the shot. Overall, the period elements
of the series are very well done.
However, by far the
best aspect of this season is how strong and cohesive the plot is. There are a few twists and turns, but everything
holds together very well. You can really
see the progression not only for Peggy but also for the other main characters
as they all try to unravel the mystery of Howard Stark’s inventions which got
into the wrong hands.
Reminder: These Retro-Reviews will contain spoilers for all of Agent Carter season 1.
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The episode begins
with clips of Captain America: The First Avenger interspersed with clips
of Peggy reminiscing while getting ready for her work at the “phone company.” I did feel like there were a lot of Captain
America clips in this episode, but the way that they were worked into the
plot made it feel natural: essentially,
every clip is part of Peggy’s grieving process as she deals with the loss of
Steve Rogers. Never having experienced
that kind of loss, I can’t say that that’s how people normally grieve, but from
my (limited) counseling training it is accurate to say that grieving is not a
simple process. And so Peggy’s grief for
Steve Rogers is a major factor in Agent Carter season 1.
Side Note: While going through her morning routine,
Peggy also has some memories of her missions, including the Zodiac mission from
the “Agent Carter” One-Shot, which opens very similarly to the series. However, it’s not entirely clear where the
One-Shot fits into the continuity of the series. The One-Shot opens by stating that it is 1
year after Steve Rogers’ death, 3 months after either the end of the war or her
last field assignment (which would theoretically be Agent Carter season
1). The series opens by dating itself to
1946, which would also be about a year after Steve Rogers’ death. I remember the show runners explaining that
the One-Shot takes place after season 1, and that could work, but it still
raises questions like how she is having a memory of a mission she hasn’t yet
gone on.
However that may be,
Peggy does not get much time to reminisce and grieve. She reports for work just in time to sit in
on a briefing about Howard Stark, who is the S.S.R.’s new mission. Howard has been accused of selling weapons to
enemies of the United States, and because he fled before his last day of
testimony before Congress, the S.S.R. is tasked with bringing him in to answer
for his treason. Naturally, Peggy stands
up for him—and equally naturally Chief Dooley shuts her down, calling her “Captain
America’s liaison” in a tone which suggests that he thinks they were
sleeping together. Throughout the
episode, Dooley and the rest of the S.S.R. consistently underestimate Peggy,
assuming that she is only there because during the war she served with Captain
America and has no other qualifications for her position. And in the context you can actually see their
point: they have relatively little experience
with women in the workplace as anything more than a secretary or clerical
assistant, so why should they assume that she is as capable as they are
themselves? The episode also accurately
depicts the situation of women in the workforce who were let go as soon as the
men returned from the war. For a woman
like Peggy Carter who is used to being capable and having “a sense of purpose,”
being shunted aside is difficult to accept.
This is why she leaps at the opportunity to be needed again when Howard
approaches her to help clear his name.
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The Automat is one of
the main set pieces for the season, serving as Jarvis and Peggy’s main meeting
location for part of the season, as well as Angie’s employer. I actually like the way that we are
introduced to it because they take the time to set the mood and create that
period atmosphere. We get to see Peggy
and Angie chatting. There’s a
particularly rude patron (and anyone who’s worked in food services knows that
such patrons are not uncommon) who treats Angie terribly—more terribly than you
would expect today. And then Peggy finds
a note to meet someone in the alleyway behind the Automat, which leads to one
of the funniest meetings on the series.
I loved how Jarvis
walked up to Peggy, didn’t introduce himself, and just told her that “You are
coming with me.” And no sooner had he
said that than Peggy knocked him down and ran to escape before shooting out one
of the tires on Howard Stark’s car! I think
this is our first indicator that Jarvis is new to the whole espionage business. The rest of the episode just goes to drive
the point home, particularly when he shows more interest in baking a soufflé for
his wife than helping Peggy defuse a bomb!
The rest of the
episode is fairly straightforward.
Howard enlists Peggy to help him track down all of his “Bad Babies”—the
inventions which were stolen from the vault inside his mansion—and clear his
name. Peggy tracks down the first of the
“Bad Babies,” the formula for something called “nitramine,” at a club owned by
a man named Spider Raymond thanks to a tip she overheard from Thompson at the office. Conveniently, Thompson and Dooley allowed her
to eavesdrop on their mission brief because they did not think of her as
anything more than the woman who brings them coffee. She used the information to infiltrate the
club and make it all the way to Spider Raymond’s office disguised as a blonde
(he has a thing for blondes… and sexual harassment). Being a beautiful woman entices Spider to
open up to her right away, though he tries to kiss her almost immediately and
gets knocked unconscious by her special lipstick. Again, Spider conveniently underestimates a
pretty face because Peggy is a woman. Peggy
uses a trick watch to crack the safe in his office and discovers that someone
had weaponized the nitramine and turned it into a bomb. She takes the bomb and escapes from the club,
but is followed by Spider’s buyer, who breaks into her apartment while she is
defusing the bomb, kills her roommate, Colleen, and nearly kills Peggy before
she succeeds in overpowering him and throwing him out the window. For as much fun as the action scenes and old-school
spy gadgets are, I think the best parts of this episode are all of the little
character moments, such as Peggy sitting next to Colleen’s body and crying,
followed by her conversation with Jarvis in the Automat about how she seems to
get the people closest to her killed.
This is a good reminder that what makes Peggy a strong woman is not her
spycraft or fighting prowess, but her strength of character: she can show emotions and even cry for a
friend… but then she can move on and avenger her friend’s death.
Thanks to a tip from
one of Howard Stark’s scientists—Anton Vanko, who made his first MCU appearance
in Iron Man 2—Peggy and Jarvis deduce that the bomb was synthesized at
the Roxxon Oil refinery (Amazing: 2 MCU
tie-ins in a single sentence!). Peggy
and Jarvis go to the refinery, where Peggy goes in and discovers the
manufacturing operation along with a man named Leet Brannis, who is working to
synthesize a lot of these bombs, presumably to sell them for profit. Peggy shuts down the manufacturing operation
by blinding the scientist in charge of it and chasing down Brannis, who sets
off a bomb, giving both himself and Peggy 30 seconds to escape from the
refinery. Peggy and Jarvis do succeed in
escaping, but the car’s fender gets sucked into the ensuing implosion. This implosion draws the attention of the
S.S.R., putting them on Peggy’s trail.
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This episode also
introduces us to the main villainous organization for the season: Leviathan, which in the comics serves as the
Soviet equivalent of Hydra or S.H.I.E.L.D.
The main Leviathan representative for the episode is the silent buyer
who killed Colleen. However, we learn
very quickly that he’s not working alone and that Leviathan has unique ways of
communicating. Specifically, the man
sets up a wireless receiver which attaches to a typewriter and gives him the
ability to send and receive messages. I like
all of these spy gadgets, though some of them (like the typewriter and
safe-cracking watch) seem a little farfetched and a little too convenient.
All told, “Now is Not
the End” set the tone for the season very well:
This is a character-driven series which incorporates action/adventure
elements. This series fits very well
into the spy-thriller genre. Sexism is
one of the key factors in the series, but it is something which will be affected
by the rest of the story. As a matter of
fact, Peggy succeeds in using her gender to her advantage by allowing men to
underestimate her—something that I really like from this series. And of course, Peggy’s struggle to overcome
her grief over Steve Rogers will play a major role in this first season. I have some nitpicks with the show, but for
the most part it lives up to and even exceeds my expectations.
What did you think of Agent
Carter? What was your favorite part
of the first season?
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