After playing the supporting characters in Steve Rogers' story throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) take center stage in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The TV show was originally meant to be Marvel Studios' first foray into television, initially planned to air on Disney+ in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays and Marvel rearranged their schedule so it's now coming second after WandaVision - for better or for worse. Malcolm Spellman (Empire) serves as head writer on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with Kari Skogland (The Handmaid's Tale) directing all six of the season's episodes. Falcon and the Winter Soldier feels like a Marvel movie with its action, but has more nuanced and deeper exploration of its characters than the films.
In the first episode, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier story largely works to catch viewers up on where both Sam and Bucky are six months following the events of Avengers: Endgame. While Sam is working with the U.S. military and coming to a decision about what to do with being handed Captain America's shield, Bucky is focused on atoning for the sins he committed as a brainwashed Hydra assassin. There's a bit of disjointedness to the episode as Sam and Bucky remain largely apart, forcing the focus to jump back and forth between the disparate lives of the show's two heroes. That said, the themes of their stories as military men who are struggling to find their place in the world not only after the war against Thanos, but after being blipped out of existence for five years, manages to create a throughline that effectively ties Sam and Bucky together enough to form a cohesive tale.
Further, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finally takes the opportunity to dig deep into who Sam and Bucky are as men, with the first episode alone offering more development of their characters than in their entire MCU film runs prior. This is done through showcasing Sam's military missions - which also allows for Skogland to show off some of the Marvel movie-level action the series has in store - as well as Sam's relationship with his family, particularly his sister Sarah (Adepero Oduye) and two nephews. The episode offers much more insight into who Sam is, expanding on the character, which allows Mackie time to really settle into the role, and it's fantastic to see him showcase all the multifaceted sides of Sam Wilson. For Bucky, it's much more about his internal life as he struggles to work through the trauma of being at war and his time as the Winter Soldier, with Skoglund using more dramatic closeups on Stan to showcase the emotional journey. And, to be sure, Stan plays Bucky with heartbreaking finesse, offering hints to the charming soldier he was in the 1940s but layering on the weight of the emotional burdens he carries. Both Mackie and Stan are leading men in their own right, and watching them lead their own stories in the MCU is a delight.
But, for all the nuanced character development Spellman includes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series premiere, the episode takes a little while to really get going. Like many Marvel movies (and action movies in general), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier features an early action sequence that, while it does feel on par with the films, comes off more as Marvel Studios boasting they can still do movie-level action in a TV show than anything else. Had The Falcon and the Winter Soldier been the first Marvel Studios series to release on Disney+, this action scene, and the overall episode, would have worked as essentially a proof-of-concept for MCU shows. But after the riskiness of WandaVision's first few episodes, which were so far removed from standard MCU fare, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's premiere feels like a bit of a backslide - but only until it starts really digging in to Sam and Bucky's characters. Once the episode hits its stride of prioritizing character development over action, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier becomes another example of just how special these Marvel shows can be.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiere also works to set up the larger conflicts of the show, including (but not limited to) the violent group known as the Flag-Smashers. Spellman and Skoglund drop some breadcrumbs amidst the episode about the Flag-Smashers that point to a story deeply entrenched in the mythology of the MCU and, especially, the Captain America films. Falcon and the Winter Soldier as a whole feels very much like a sequel to the Captain America movies, particularly 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, posing the question of what not only Sam Wilson would do with the shield, but what the U.S. government would do without Steve Rogers as their poster boy. This all leads to an emotional gut-punch of a climactic moment in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiere episode that promises a blunt examination of what Captain America as a symbol means in a modern, post-blip world. All this is to say, many exciting threads are established in the series premiere, but it remains to be seen how Spellman and Skoglund will tie them together.
As such, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is undoubtedly worth checking out for fans of the MCU who want to see what's next Sam, Bucky and the Captain America mantle. The series premiere feels comfortably in line with Marvel Studios films, but uses the expanded time allowed by the TV format to really focus on character, while still providing the action fans have come to expect. Diehard and casual MCU fans alike will find plenty to love in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiere episode, though anyone who has grown weary of the MCU formula may not be as won over. Still, with the combination of action, character development and expansion of the Captain America mythos promised by the series premiere, all signs point to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier being a thrilling and poignant entry in the MCU.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premieres Friday, March 19 on Disney+.
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