Below is a spoiler review of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, which is streaming now on Disney+.
The penultimate episode of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law dropped a huge bomb on Jennifer Walters’ (Tatiana Maslany) life by having her attackers use revenge porn as a way to get her to Hulk out. It’s a dark place that we’ve never seen Marvel go to before. It was also a big surprise in what’s described as a half-hour legal comedy, and for the studio as a whole. The question immediately became whether or not She-Hulk could do that storyline justice with only 30 minutes left in the season. And, unfortunately, that answer is “no.” But there’s still a lot to like along the way.
With Jen’s life in shambles, Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) and Pug (Josh Segarra) are given the opportunity to step up in a big way. This does end up highlighting how criminally underused the remarkable Renee Elise Goldsberry’s Mallory was, but it’s nice to see those two shine all the same. The underuse of Mallory is tragic, but it’s not the episode’s greatest sin. That disappointing reward goes to Jen herself. Or, at least it goes to Jen’s story, Tatiana Maslany’s performance remains impeccable.
The series turns its meta comedy up to 11 in the finale. Huge swings are taken at Marvel’s expense, algorithm’s are made fun of, tropes are read to filth… it’s a list of things that would be quite enjoyable if it were in a lengthier episode. Yeah, yeah, “30-minute legal comedy,” I hear you. The thing is, this is a streaming series and there are no rules. If your show warrants a longer episode, you can do whatever you want, and a hour would have given the She-Hulk finale the opportunity to bring the laughs while still giving some kind of satisfying end to the extremely severe violation Jen experienced in the penultimate. Heck, it even may have been doable in the 30-minute constraint if less time was spent smashing the fourth wall to take Marvel’s previous story sins to task.
I’ve been a huge proponent for the sitcom format of this series from the jump, and I still think it was successful overall. The problem is the level of swing they decided to take in the last episode without reconciling with it in any kind of meaningful way in their story arc.
But let’s talk about the good things. The opening is delightful. (If you know, you know.) The series drops some huge bombs in the Season 1 finale — some fans were expecting (is there anyone who didn’t have Skaar on their bingo card at this point?), others less so (did they just lowkey confirm that She-Hulk will be getting a Season 2 while making fun of K.E.V.I.N?). And, even if the show’s handling of the situation could have been better, Jen does still manage to reclaim her agency and all the right folks have an accountability check. Oh, and there’s a music cue that is absolutely wonderful.
It’s a strong episode with meaningful moments! It just needed more on all fronts: more impact, more accountability, more engagement with Jen’s story. The laughs were there! Folks dying for cameos and overall ties to the MCU are going to get their wish through the World War Hulk tie-in and the cheeky Daredevil return (and let’s not forget that they just casually repealed the Sokovia Accords in an earlier episode). The real question now is whether or not Jennifer Walters will be visiting Hell’s Kitchen in Born Again because we obviously need more of these cuties!
The She-Hulk: Attorney At Law season finale highlights a real monkey’s paw of a conundrum in Jen’s life. She gets everything she’s claimed to want since the premiere, but was the cost worth it? Did she even want it in the end? In that respect, the series sticks the landing. Jennifer Walters gets a full superhero origin story that does its best to ignore all the old tropes, and She-Hulk successfully highlights that the worst monsters aren’t green. They’re usually just the “nice guys” down the street.
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