Andrea and I have been following She-Hulk: Attorney At Law over on Disney+.
Now depending on who you ask, this is show is clever and entertaining or an unmitigated disaster.
No surprise here but the latter group are mostly dudes.
Personally, I think She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is clever and entertaining.
Unlike WandaVision which started off as a surreal parody of classic sitcoms, She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is, in fact, a situation comedy.
What happens when a young attorney named Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) gets infected with cousin Bruce Banner's gamma irradiated blood and turns into a tall, super strong green female Hulk?
For starters, her tall, super strong green female Hulk isn't a rampaging rage monster. She has a had a life time of being angry and learning how to control that anger just being a woman. The upshot is Jen is better at controlling her anger than Bruce ever was and can turn into her Hulk persona at will.
The media dubs this tall, super strong green female Hulk as "She-Hulk" which is a name Jen abolutely loathes but is forced to fight for it when super powered internet influencer Titania (Jameela Jamil) trademarks the "She-Hulk" name for her line of beauty products.
Jen is able to win back the rights to the "She-Hulk" name in court by proving she chose to use that name before Titania registered her trademark. Jen used She-Hulk for a dating app. Jen's witnesses for her defense are the scumbags she dated from that app as She-Hulk. It's humiliating but she wins the rights to a name she didn't want.
The only law firm willing to hire an attorney who can turn into a Hulk is Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway (GLK&H) but they don't want Jennifer Walters, they want She-Hulk to be the face of their superhuman division. All Jen wants to be is a lawyer but she has to be She-Hulk to do that?
As you can surmise, this is not a show that lends itself to super hero slug fest that some dude-bro fan boy might expect. (She-Hulk does kick Titania's ass in a brief bout in episode 6.)
But what drives this show are the characters forced into absurd situations. For example, Wong (from Dr. Strange) makes a memorable guest turn where he needs to sue a stage magician who is misusing a sling ring to make portals, one of which drops a tipsy party girl into Wong's home. Madisynn (yep, that's how she spells it) becomes Wong's girlfriend somehow. Her pet name for him? "Wongers."
The upshot is that She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is not for everyone. Me, I'm having fun watching this show having fun with the characters and situations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is it's own thing. If it's not your thing, then fine.
Meanwhile, Andrea and I are halfway through the 3rd season of Stargirl. The theme for season three is "Frenemies" as Courtney and the gang try to cope with the super villains in Blue Valley who may be actually trying to be better people or may be up to sketchy shit. Really, it could go either way.
The season opens with the return to Blue Valley of Steven Sharpe, AKA The Gambler. Sharpe says that he too is seeking to make amends for his criminal past and to make contact with his long lost daughter Rebecca. At the end of the season's opening episode, the Gambler has been murdered.
Whodunit?
Could it be Crusher Crock (Sportsmaster) or Paula Brooks (Tigress)? Both are living next door to Courtney living life like it's a "Leave It To Beaver" episode.
Could it be Cindy Burman (Shiv), daughter of the evil Dragon King and now allegedly trying to be a better person and member of Courtney's Justice Society?
Could it be Dragon King? Dude's supposed to be dead but c'mon, it's a TV show based on a comic book. Death is not necessarily the end when it comes to comic book characters.
Also not beyond suspicion is Sylvester Pemberton, the erstwhile Starman who was among the original Justice Society members massacred by the Injustice Society. Pemberton shows up alive on Courtney's doorstep and looking for his Cosmic Staff. Sometimes Pemberton seems like a good guy who only wants to do what's right; but there are other times when Pemberton is straight up "coo coo for Cocoa Puffs".
In some ways, Stargirl is suffering from the same pacing problems that plagued Naomi earlier this year, trying to sustain a plot threat over a season that should be resolved in a third of the time.
I just remembered Mr. Bones who made an unexpected appearance at the end of season 2 and threatening to be a force to be reckoned with hasn't been seen or referenced yet. The writers really need to move things along. I hope there isn't some expectation of holding things for a 4th season. Since Stargirl is a show on the CW, one should not assume there will be a 4th season. Or even a CW.
OK, that's a wrap for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Coming up in a future post, we'll take a look at Quantum Leap, both classic and new.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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