SERIES REVIEW: THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER

 

SERIES REVIEW:  THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER

When Disney & Marvel launched their slated plans for Phase 4, THIS show was one that had REALLY caught my eye.  Reason why?   I expected it to be action packed, non-stop intrigue.  And I even told my friend that---with only SIX episodes---they're going to have to hit the ground sprinting for this show.  They did NOT disappoint.  They packed a TON in this six episode arc, and managed to tell an extremely good story that all sorts of little intrigue, character development, and even some surprises.  It gave me a lot of Jason Bourne vibes, what with the spy aspect and even the presence of political intrigue as well.  It also is a story of heart and destiny.  So, in this edition, we're going to recap the thriller that was The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

This series opens up with a bang, as Sam Wilson, the Falcon, is hot on the trail of Georges Batroc, whom he and his crew have hijacked a plane, and they're trying to get out of Tunisian airspace, but the Falcon saves the day.  Sam has a lot on his mind as of late---it's six months after the Blip, and while he and the Avengers restored the people of Earth who had disappeared when Thanos did The Snap, Steve Rogers bestowed upon him the shield of Captain America, thus passing the mantle.  But Sam struggles with this, and feels he isn't the man to be the face of a country, and thus gives up the Shield to the U.S. Government to put on permanent display.  Meanwhile, Bucky Barnes, having been pardoned, is trying to rectify his past sins as The Winter Soldier by trying to make amends, and has to see a therapist in the meantime.  Air Force Lieutenant Joaquin Torres, who works with Sam, comes across a group called the Flag Smashers, who thought life was better BEFORE the Blip, and gets tangled up and roughed up during his brief encounter with them, as they rob a bank in Switzerland.  He also discovers that they are super-powered beings.  He alerts Sam, who returns home to Delacroix, Louisiana to save the family business and fishing boat that his sister has run since he's been gone.  In a shocking turn of events, The U.S. Government has decided they need Captain America, and they've appointed a new man to carry the shield - a soldier named John Walker. 

In the 2nd epsiode, we see Walker getting ready for his grand appearance on national television, and says he hopes to live up to Steve Rogers' legacy.  Meanwhile, Bucky catches up with Sam, and isn't happy that he gave up the Shield.  He goes with Sam to Munich, where the Flag Smashers, led by a young woman named Karli Morgenthau, are stealing a large shipment of medicine.  Falcon and the Winter Soldier engage the group, and find out their super powered adversaries are tougher than they thought.  They're soon joined in the fight by the new Captain America, John Walker, and his partner, Lamar Hoskins.  However, the Flag Smashers prove to be too much, and they make their escape.  Walker thinks that they should all work together, but Sam and Bucky turn them down.  Back in the States, Bucky takes Sam to meet a man named Isaiah Bradley, who was a super soldier himself back in the day, but the Government turned on him, and sent him to prison.  He refuses to help Sam and Bucky with information about how many more super soldiers there are out there. Bradley was experimented on for 30 years by the Government AND Hyrda.  Bucky is arrested for missing a therapy session, but Walker helps get him out.  Again, Walker suggests teaming up, but they flat out refused.  He orders them to stay out of his way.  Sam and Bucky figure their best bet to get information about these super soldiers is to visit Helmut Zemo in prison.  

Episode 3 sees Sam and Bucky visit Zemo, and he offers to help them stop the Flag Smashers, and thus, Bucky breaks him out of prison to have him come along to assist.  They soon make their way to the Southeast Asian country of Madripoor, which is a criminal sanctuary (and for those who know the comics, Wolverine spent A LOT of time there).  Madripoor is run by a person only known as the Power Broker.  One high-ranking criminal says that the Power Broker hired a man known as Dr. Wilfred Nagel to reproduce the Super Soldier Formula.  Selby, the criminal they get this info from, is killed when Sam blows his cover.  They are rescued by noneother than Sharon Carter, who's been on the lam since the events of Civil War.  She hasn't been able to step foot on American soil, and believes that the old ways of the Avengers is garbage.  She decides to help Sam and Bucky, however, as Sam promises her that he can get her pardoned.  She helps them find Dr. Nagel, and when they find his lab, they find out that he's made 20 doses of the serum, which Karli stole.  Bounty hunters come at the trio of Wilson, Barnes, and Zemo, and they have to fight their way out...with Carter's help...as Zemo had killed Nagel, and his lab is destroyed.  Carter decides to stay in Madripoor and help out when she can.  In Lithuania, the Flag Smashers raid and blow up a Global Repartiration Council storage facility.  While Zemo, Barnes, and Wilson try to find them in Latvia, Bucky's approached by Ayo of Wakanda's Dora Milaje.

Things REALLY pick up in Episode 4, as Ayo has given Bucky 8 hours to have Zemo help them with the situation with the Flag Smashers, before the Wakandans take him.  After all, he was the culprit that killed their king, T'Chaka.  They find Karli at the funeral for her adoptive mother.  But Walker and Hoskins intercept them, but they hold off long enough for Sam, as he tries to persuade Karli to give up and find another way to get her message across.  He wants to do this peacefully and without anymore violence.  But Walker is impatient, and interrupts the conversation, and things get out of hand. Zemo manages to destroy most of the Super Soldier serum before he's captured by Walker.  Walker, however, managed to snag the last vial for himself before Zemo finished them off.  The Dora Milaje humiliate Walker before trying to take Zemo, and in the fracas, Zemo escapes.  Karli takes things to a personal level with Sam, as she treatens Sarah, drawing Sam's attention, and trying to convince him to join her.  Yet another fight breaks out, and Walker and Hoskins engage the Flag Smashers, but unfortunately, Hoskins is killed in battle.  Walker, outraged by what transpires, snaps, and goes after one of the members of the Flag Smashers.  And---having taken the serum---captures the agent, and viciously kills him with the Shield.  Meamwhile, everyone in the crowd has their cell phones up, and taking pictures of the incident, with Sam and Bucky arriving too late to see Walker with the Shield tainted in blood. 

The 5th episode sees Walker battling Sam and Bucky, as they take him down, and get the Shield from him, breaking his arm in the process.  Walker is then put before a Government committee, and is stripped of his role as Captain America for his actions. Contessa Valentina de la Fontaine shows up to tell John to keep his chin up.  Bucky manages to find Zermo in Sokovia, and turns him over to the Wakandans.  Sam leaves his Falcon wings with Torres, saying he doesn't need them.  Sam then goes to visit Isaiah Bradley, who tells him that a black man cannot---and SHOULD NOT---be Captain America.  Sam then returns home to fix the family boat with this sister, who's been looking to sell it, and get out of the business.  But the locals...and Bucky, who shows up later...to help out get the boat back in shape.  Bucky and Sam talk, and Sam tells him that if he wants redemption and forgiveness...start with one person, and go from there.  Do the work.  Sam begins training with the Shield to get used to it.  Karli has the Flag Smashers ready to attack the GRC Conference in New York City.  Sam readies himself  by opening a case that Bucky delivered to him, courtesy of the Wakandans, whom Bucky asked a favor of.  We then see John Walker in the extra credits scene building a new shield using his war medals.  

In our final episode, Karli and the Flag Smashers make their move on the GRC conference, with the aid of Batroc.  With the aid of Sharon Carter and Bucky, Sam appears in a new suit...fully embracing his role as Captain America, and battles Batroc, while Bucky and Sharon try to save the GRC Conference leaders.  John shows up to try and battle Karli, but she beats him down, and then he tries to save the members of the Council by using his super strength to ensure that a truck doesn't fall off a building and kill the members trapped inside.  Cap comes in to help, and the members are safe.  Karli makes a run for it, and Captain America gives chase.  She runs into Sharon, and Batroc shows up, and we find out that Sharon is really the Power Broker.  Batroc threatens to expose her secret if he doesn't pay him more money, and she shoots him, saying she doesn't give in to blackmail.  Cap shows up to try and stop Karli, as Bucky and Walker manage to capture the rest of the Flag Smashers.  Sam bets Karli to give up, but she keeps attacking him, begging him to fight back.  But he refuses to.  Carter manages to kill Karli, and the threat is over.  Sam brings out the body of Morgenthau, and addresses the GRC and wants them to delay the forced relocation of those Karli died fighting for, and instead make efforts to HELP them.  All eyes are on Sam, as his speech is broadcast nationally.  The Flag Smashers captured by Bucky and Walker were killed on their way to the raft by Zemo's butler, Oeznik.  Zemo hears of it from his cell on the Raft, and smiles.  Valentina is with John, as he tries on his new uniform, and gets a new codename:  U.S.Agent.  Bucky goes and makes amends with everyone he ever hurt while he was the Winter Soldier.  Sam then shows Isaiah Bradley a statue and memorial to him in the Captain America exhibit, for his effrorts during the war, ensuring that the world knows that he was a hero for America.  Later on, we see Sharon Carter get a full pardon for the events of Civil War, and is welcomed back into the CIA.  Afterwards, we see her making a call, as she says that the Power Broker is back in business, and they're about to have access to all sorts of government weapons and secrets, ready to be sold to the highest bidder. 

As I said at the beginning, this show had to hit the ground sprinting, and it did.  The cinematography for the action sequences were spectacular, and some of the moves Sam made in flight were stunning.  The battles were intense, felt REAL, and gave us a great sense of danger, excitement, and intensity.  When Sam finally suited up as the new Captain America, the suit looked FABULOUS.  Other members of the cast also had tremendous fight scenes, including Karli, Bucky, and even Sharon, who just looked incredibly badass in her big fight scene.  Wonderful action that was balanced by a very well written story.  

We saw tremendous growth from Sam and Bucky in this series, and the chemistry both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan have is just off the charts.  They have impeccible comic timing, and their scenes are just worthwhile viewing no matter what.  We see these characters go through their personal labyrinths together, and come out the other side better people.  Daniel Bruhl was amazing once again as Zemo, as the guide for Sam and Bucky in their battle against Karli Morgenthau, but also ensuring that his own plans go the way he wants.  Biggest laugh I got this series was his dance moves in the club in Madripoor.  He managed to get what he wanted for the most part:  destruction of the Super Soldiers...though he DIDN'T get John Walker, who took the final serum to gain his metahuman status.  

Sharon was the character that had some of the best growth of anyone, as she "grew up", and became an underground dealer in Madripoor in order to make a living, since the intelligence community had pretty much black boxed her.  I did figure at the end of Episode 3 that she was the Power Broker.  This is an intriguing twist, considering that her Aunt Peggy was so highly revered, and one of the founders of SHIELD.  But to have Sharon...jaded by everything that transpired because of the Sokovian Accords, and having aided Cap and his crew to escape custody....was a marked woman.  Out in the cold, and no way home, she resorted to criminal activities to survive.  She built herself back up, not just as a real badass from a fighting standpoint, but very sneaky and manipulative as well.  To see her ready to sell out her own country for profit is very interesting, and I wonder if anyone will eventually expose her secret, and what she'll do to escape.  She's become a major player in the new Captain America universe.  

John Walker was pretty much everything I expected from his comic adaptation.  And, in a short time, things played out fairly like his comic version did.  Wyatt Russell did a VERY good job portraying John Walker, and is real curious to see how he fares as U.S.Agent.  The real surprise for ME was the appearance of Julia-Louis Dreyfus as Valentina de la Fontaine.  She was superb.  Bitchy, headstrong, confident, and still has an air of mystery around her.  I look forward to seeing more of her, and what the hell she's exactly got up her sleeve.  Was she or is she STILL Madame Hydra?  I have no idea, but I hope we learn more from her as we go along in this new Phase of the MCU.  

Overall, this show was freakin' AWESOME, and it never let up.  Even the down moments where we got more character development felt important, carried weight, and helped drive the story along.  Also, the quasi-poliical nature of the series can honestly be taken from the headlines of the world.  It also shed light on the treatment of minority soldiers, who didn't get the proper respect or treatment for the sacrifices THEY made for their country, as we got from Isaiah Bradley.  But I was GLAD he got some respect at the end.  The thing that made me pleased the most, was Sam's speech at the end, where he addressed the GRC.  He dropped some truth, as well as just looked INSPIRING as Captain America.  I would follow that man into any trench if he asked.  Mackie's performance this entire series was just epic...he owned every scene he was in, and he LOOKED the part of a superhero, and carried himself like one.  I can't wait to see a new Captain America movie with him as the star....it's going to be great!  And finally...I loved that at the end of this series...they made sure the change was official from The Falcon & the Winter Soldier to "Captain America & the Winter Soldier".  

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