In Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+, Sam Wilson/the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky (Sebastian Stan) go up against the terrorist organization the Flagsmashers. Out of the first three Marvel shows with trailers, the other two being WandaVision and Loki, this couldn't stand out as much compared to the more creative and unexpected paths the other two were taking. It seemed to be the most traditional of the Marvel shows. Well, the show's come out now, and it's definitely proved itself.
This may not be as original as Wandavision, but I think FatWS was the better scripted show. It really manages to keep the spyesque, political intrigue-light feel of the last two Captain America films. The show manages to incorporate heavy themes that include racism, PSTD, and sociological/political elements smoothly into the superhero world of Marvel.
The six-episode run times gives the characters more room to breathe than in the films resulting in a character piece with a nuanced, three-dimensional cast. None of the villains are straight up evil-for-the-sake-of-evil and you get where they're coming from.
You just get a great bunch of faces in this. Sam Wilson really is the successor to Steve Rogers/Captain America as the hero who's trying to do good for the sake of good. He realizes more than Steve that the world isn't perfect and has some compelling struggles. Still, he is the voice of reason and legitimately tries to talk things over with his opponents. Stan also does a great job as a brooding Bucky trying to recover from his horrible past.
This show brings the first live action appearance of John Walker (Wyatt Russell), who for a short period of time during the 80's was the bad boy/antihero Captain America. Walker's the competition to Sam and Bucky in taking down the threat, and he's one of the more intriguing parts of the show. He's a very complex fellow and a wild card.
Flagsmasher was the Captain America villain I've wanted to see adapted the most. Having the villains' motivation be pro-globalism, anti-nationalism, is a unique motive. Their leader Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) works, oozing self-righteousness.
The aforementioned characters are all good, but it's Daniel Bruhl as Zemo who steals the show. I feel that he was one of the best villains in the Marvel movies, but didn't get as much credit as he deserved, probably due to his plan in Winter Soldier being too complex and the large cast relegating him mostly to just enacting his plan. But, I'm glad to see that this show has gotten him quite a bit of buzz online. We're given more time to know Zemo, and he proves himself to be quite charming and a conversationalist. He remains the smartest guy in the room, you're left anticipating what his next move will be.
The one thing I don't love is that this is Sharon Carter's third appearance, and she still hasn't been given enough time to reach her full potential. Her actress Emily VanCamp was also filming her show The Resident at the same time as this, so it's understandable that they couldn't use her as much, and we're lucky they were filming in the same area and the two shows were able to work things out at all. I just find the character's MCU adaptation disappointing. In the comics, she's Captain America's main love interest and one of the more prominent characters. However, the films were too busy to squeeze her in more (early attempts were made to include her in Infinity War, but she got cut) and Peggy Carter resonated more as a love interest with the fans. She does get more to do here, but I guess it's just not what I wanted.
The show looks great. Like Wandavision, it is almost film quality. There are some impressive and at times creative fight scenes. Costume design works, too. They finally adapt Zemo's classic purple comics mask, and it works pretty well.
I highly recommend Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It's just really good.
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