'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' – Episode One, 'New World Order'


What a great time to be a fan of the MCU... Well, it's always been a great time (apart from that brief interlude for 'Thor 2'...) but now the TV shows are starting to hit Disney Plus, it's great isn't it? No more hanging around waiting :o)

And so, after a quick break, we're leaving 'WandaVision' and moving on to 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'. I'll be honest, this is the show I was probably looking forward to the most; just because I had no idea what to expect from 'WandaVision'. 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' just felt (to me) like it would be a bit more straightforward, Sam flies loads and looks really cool while Bucky beats people up; oh yes, and some kind of mystery to be solved through a combination of flying and beating stuff up ;o)

This is only the first episode so way too early to say one way, or the other, if that's the way it'll be. There's still a far bit to discuss though so lets talk about it, shall we? I'm going to try and avoid specific spoilers but there will be little hints about the general direction of the episode. That's you warned, now is the time to drop out if you haven't seen 'New World Order'. If you're still here, lets go...

I'll be honest... Given the way 'New World Order' goes, you can't help but wonder how much story there is to be told here. Don't get me wrong, what it does do is done well but there's a lot of scene setting going on here with not a lot of actual story being told. And that's ok up to a point, we do get a good look at where Sam and Bucky are at after the events of 'Endgame'; Sam flying missions for the US military and Bucky taking on the role of 'Man Out Of Time' (and trying to make amends for his past as a Hydra agent). There's a lot of good stuff here that builds up, and fleshes out, our two main characters, I'm just left wondering how much of it was actually necessary. Sam's backstory definitely needs filling and we get a lot of that. I loved the little journey he goes through, with the shield, and where it leads him to by the end of the episode. You can feel the betrayal hit him, poor guy... Bucky though... We're not told an awful lot that's new (although his attitude towards his therapy session was brilliant), the bottom line is that we already knew he was a Hydra agent (which has to leave a mark), did we need to be told again? Maybe we did, but not that much.

We do get an extended burst of Sam being cool while flying, and a brief return of an old(ish) enemy, which was a great way to open the series. We also get a little hint of what's coming down the line, just not enough at this point. What's more interesting is the continued exploration of the world ever since half the population returned from being 'dusted' by Thanos, especially in the relationship between Sam and his sister. I'm wondering, does she even know that Sam was one of the 'dusted' (I'm calling them 'dusted', not sure what else to call them)? It doesn't seem like she does (with some of the things that she says). 

'New World Order' opens with a big burst of action then but kind of meanders along to it's conclusion (although is that US Agent though? Please let it be him) and I'm not sure how I feel about that. And do we really need several minutes worth of credits? I'm not sure how I feel about that either. Lets see how it all goes next week because of course I'm going to keep watching.

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