Perennial sidekicks Bucky and Sam are back from helping to defeat Thanos to remind us that… The Government didn’t financially take care of the human Avengers after they saved the world and brought billions of earth’s inhabitants back to life?
The pilot of THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER has some fun moments, but overall I wasn’t really sure what it was trying to do. After a strong opening action sequence, the rest felt like an overly long set-up to pair our titular characters together. My favorite scenes were smaller moments of Sam and Bucky away from the spotlight, getting to act like regular civilians. Even superheroes need some time off to chill.
Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are incredibly gifted actors and very likable in these roles, but is this iteration of Sam & Bucky together as interesting as it needs to be to carry this series? I guess time will tell. As a singular episode of television, especially a pilot, I was left wanting this story to get to the point a lot quicker than it did. And even as it finished, I’m still not sure what its purpose was.
THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER is streaming on Disney+ at about 43 minutes (minus credits) and there is no mid or end credits scene.
