Marvel's Agent Carter

I liked the first season better than the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Carter has, in my opinion, a much better and more confident start, the clichés that appear here and there can be forgiven thanks to the retro atmosphere, the ratio of investigation and action is just right... And Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell, is simply a great woman, although the show isn't just based on her, but also on the great James D'Arcy and Dominic Cooper, who clearly enjoys every moment he appears in (including the one with Stan Lee). But those who didn't like the first Captain America probably won't be overly impressed. (22/03/2015)

The makers of Agent Carter could not have chosen a better space-time for an outwardly feminist series than post-war America, where the “feminine myth” was born (each episode begins with an allusion to women gaining a more dignified status during the war). However, the advocacy for feminist ideas is really very much external and what the characters say does not entirely correspond to their narrative functions. Especially during the last few episodes, it is impossible to shake off the impression that the series revolves more around Howard Stark (on whose authorisation Peggy acts) and (the absent) Captain America. The frozen Steve Rogers, to whom the heroine is eternally devoted, also serves as a measure against the objections that Peggy does not have a relationship and lives only for her work. She mostly achieves success by, in the manner of men, putting her profession above her feelings and family (which she apparently doesn’t have at all, or at least we don’t learn anything about them). As if an intelligent, always perfectly groomed and sexy woman of action couldn’t simultaneously be a woman with a rich inner life (which is what most of society actually thought at the time, but in this case it is the attitude of the series rather than a reflection of society’s attitude). Paradoxically, it was only in the army and when she was at Rogers’s side that Peggy could be herself and not pretend to be a silly secretary. The nostalgia for old values such as honour and justice is also a yearning for the ideal man, who is unmatched by any of the cowardly drones who surround the protagonist through most of the series. Peggy’s exceptionalism thus partly arises from the ineptitude of the men she collaborates with. Compared to the extremely compliant Jarvis, an exception is the crutch-bound Agent Sousa, whose parallel story of gaining respect makes it apparent that womanhood was previously – and still is – perceived as its own kind of handicap. The elevation of aggression, a typically masculine character trait, to the main threat in the last episode, or the drawing of attention to the common practice of giving men most of the credit for a job successfully done, can also be taken as a subversive innuendo. These small details, however, do not salvage the clumsy attempt to incorporate feminist ideas into a macho superhero narrative. If Peggy had been rewritten as a man, it wouldn’t even have been necessary to make any major changes to the plot (we would perhaps only be more surprised by the shoddy characterisation of the protagonist and the flawless nature of the character), which I believe is not indicative of any great perceptiveness toward the “plight of women” on the part of the creators. 70% (27/04/2015)

I said goodbye to Bomb Girls last year, so the transition to 1946 couldn't have been more natural. And, of course, I really only love the first Cap movie out of the entire MCU, so it's no surprise that Marvel's Agent Carter is the right series for me. (13/01/2015)

A movie that, with regard to its setting and style, should be based primarily on retro cheap poetics, which, however, is sadly not present here. The rest is a typical product of the Marvel production line, with no plot, basically nothing is at stake and the whole thing holds together only thanks to the rapid popcorn pace and the fact that Peggy and Jarvis are messing with each other all the time. (08/03/2015)

Pilot: Classic Marvel. A shame that Peggy didn’t set off immediately after Captain America, that way first episode lost some of it attraction. The topic has quite a lot of potential, but I was hoping for discovering the genesis of SHIELD and it seems there is no time for that... In the end I would say it’s a chance lost. Carter doesn’t offer anything what would make it worth watching, but just entertainment slightly above the average in period costume. If the season two involved something interesting then why not, but otherwise these 8 episodes are more than enough. (08/01/2015)