In the penultimate episode of the polarizing series, it feels like we’re only just getting to the meat of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed SHE-HULK thus far. Even though individual episodes are hit-or-miss, they’re mostly hits. The series has been poorly advertised, creating false expectations for Marvel fans. Despite its inconsistencies, it’s refreshing to see a different kind of Marvel show.
This week Jennifer meets her match both in and out of the courtroom in a fun, clever character reveal. We get some fun action, but as with every action scene in this series, it’s over almost as soon as it’s begun. Still, there are a couple of cute moments between Jennifer and said surprise guest—maybe that’s the thing: the show moves from cute to action and back to cute at a jarring pace. While this setup seems to work for some, it’s certainly not what many fans want out of a comic book adaptation. I wish it hadn’t taken SHE-HULK this long to feel like it knows what it is—or for me to know what it is.
The problem is that there’s only one episode left of the season, and I still, honestly, don’t really know what the stakes are. The final moments of the episode lay the groundwork for the finale, and while it doesn’t come completely out of nowhere, it also doesn’t seem consistent with the events leading up to it. The show seems to be trying to be so clever that it’s lost track of its pacing. I love that the writers anticipated all the chauvinistic hate it would get online and wrote responses into the script, but we’re eight episodes in, and now there’s finally a real conflict. The episode’s surprising final moments are jarring, as they should be, but I worry that it came too late for it to have made any sense. I hope next week’s finale will provide us with a surprising reveal or twist. Or maybe not–honestly, it could go either way.
All this to say, I still really like the show and am excited about the finale. I just wish I were more excited.
SHE-HULK is available to stream on Disney+.
