Alright fellow nerds, the second Disney+ entry into the MCU is officially done. While WandaVision came out of left-field for many with it’s unique narrative and surprising twists (much to our delight), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier gets things back to formula with the MCU action we all know and love.

Six months after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) hands over the Captain America shield to the Smithsonian Museum, while the rest of the world is suffering from the societal and economic repercussions of The Blip. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is trying to make amends for his actions as the Winter Soldier. A new anti-patriotism group is raising up, The Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman), who has come in contact with a new recreation of the super soldier serum. This causes the Falcon and Winter Soldier to work together and with old acquaintances like Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) and old enemies like Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl), while the United States government counteracts by introducing John Walker (Wyatt Russell) as our new Captain America.

The MCU continued their reputation of giving individuals chances. This time, we got the writer and first time showrunner Malcolm Spellman (Empire, Hip Hop Uncovered) and singular directorial duties to veteran director Kari Skogland (The Walking Dead, The Handmaid’s Tale). The reason why I included Kari Skogland there is because while she has directed some very impressive works, mostly she’s only directed one or two episodes of said shows. Disney gave her the entirety of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to direct and mold to her vision. Henry Jackson is back as composer (Captain American: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War) while P.J Dillon (Game of Thrones, Vikings) serves as cinematographer.

I can definitely say that while WandaVision felt like a television show (and rightfully so, as it was a loving homage to tv in general) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier somehow didn’t. Not that that’s a compliment or complaint. Something about the pacing of this series just didn’t feel as episodic as your average Marvel (or otherwise) superhero show. And this is coming from someone who didn’t binge it. This show just has this very limbo quality of not quite a show, and not quite a long movie. Again, it’s not a major complaint, but they attempted to throw in quite a lot of subplot for such a short series.

And you know what? Most of it worked. While I enjoy some well written subplots and side character arcs, too many in too condensed amounts of time can be exhausting, if not annoying. What’s more frustrating in a show than the main plot being delayed for 5 different points of diversion, only to have many of those subplots never even go anywhere? But as much as the pacing of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier felt different to me, they somehow managed to address and resolve quite a few issues in the time they were given. I actually did find myself caring about Sam’s sister and their struggles to save the family fishing boat, Bucky’s interactions with people in his goal for self atonement, and even what Sharon Carter has been doing in this time. I can even say my favorite moment was in episode 5, “Truth”, in which Sam and Bucky stop bickering for once and work together to fix Sam’s boat.

I would like to give a special shout-out to Wyatt Russell in his portrayal of John Walker. It’s rare that I encounter a character I want to punch in the face that badly, but also kind of feel really bad for as well. It would have been easy for anyone to go full jerkass with this character and make him completely hateable, but Russell managed to add just enough vulnerability and conflict in his performance to where I only 85% dislike him. Hey that’s quite generous given the absolute prat John Walker is written to be.

Another thing about this series that may throw people off is the amount of social commentary it contains. Yes, I’ll admit much of the social commentary in the media is forced, irrelevant, and cringey (see my review of The Craft: Legacy.) But in this story, it was absolutely necessary. And also yes, the moral lessons of this story were not delivered subtly. For once, I’m glad they weren’t. It would have been willfully ignorant to gloss over the internal struggles of Sam, a black American, as he wonders how the nation can accept anything other than a white, blue-eyed, blonde haired Captain America. I’ll save most of my sermon as the show does a much better job conveying this point, but I absolutely love it’s driving message: even if you are a sympathetic person, you’ll never fully be able to understand someone else’s struggles –because you aren’t them.

While it didn’t fully immerse me as much as WandaVison, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a very satisfying second entry into Disney+’s MCU lineup. The one thing it did even better than WandaVison was renue my interest in a post Avengers: Endgame MCU world, hyping me up for the next generation of Avengers and the new challenges that await them.