The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series was the Marvel content we all needed right now, however it fell short of my expectations and was not executed to the level of quality we are used to. The series is generally enjoyable and I love Sam and Bucky so I was happy to see them get to lead their own show. Compared to Marvel’s first series WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is kind of average. I think this one should have been released first because I was expecting too much from it. WandaVision felt like one big mind game and was fun to pick apart whereas The Falcon and The Winter Soldier doesn’t have that as much, they kind of reveal everything right away.


The pacing for the series is really slow and then the last episode is extremely rushed. The last episode is definitely my favourite episode and it pretty much saved the series for me. Otherwise, I got bored a lot with the slow plotline. I feel like they had so much time to really develop the characters more especially background characters and they sort of wasted it on filler.


I really liked the characters in this show, like Carly and Zemo. I thought bringing Sharon Carter back was unnecessary, I never loved her character and thought she was kind of pointless. Although, they have set her up as having a deeper role in the future so maybe that will change my mind about her. I liked having Zemo back even though again it seemed unnecessary. It felt like they were trying to bring as many people back from Captain America Civil War for the sole purpose of reminding people it's connected. Zemo is just a great character and the banter between him, Sam and Bucky is fun to watch, so to me, his return is more justified. I also really liked the Wakandan warriors making an appearance.


Carly’s character is interesting because she is so young, so a part of you wants to root for her or see her have a happy ending. In the end, they kind of got rid of a character I think had the potential to be a real player in future films or possibly another season. I think they took her down too soon before she could really turn things around and have that realization moment. We see flickers of her seeing what she has done as wrong but she never truly accepts it at all. Especially when in the last episode we see her ready to go too far by killing hostages, which didn’t give her room to change too much.


Bucky and Sam’s friendship or friendly banter has always been fun to watch in the movies, so it was nice to see that throughout the series. We got to see more of Bucky and how far he has come and less of as an assassin or fighting off the thoughts in his head. He is finally ending that chapter in his life and able to move on. I liked the scene when Bucky came to help Sam with the boat and later when he plays with Sam’s nephews at the end of the last episode.


I am very happy that our new Captain America is Sam Wilson. I think that is the best choice for passing the shield on and I love the political, social, and emotional aspects of it all. I cried. It was amazing and I love everything about it. I mean aside from the suit it's a little too much white on the top and looks a little weird. But when he came up in the building in the new suit with the shield it was incredible and we were jumping up off the couch. It was a great moment. In the end, when he takes Isaiah to the Captain America museum and there is a whole section to tribute to him, it was really special. It is cool to see Marvel take on an issue like this and take inspiration from what was happening in the real world.


Although it is not my favourite of the two Marvel series we have seen so far, I still enjoyed it and in the end, was very happy with it. I loved absolutely hating John Walker and I loved watching characters I am already familiar with grow and come to terms with a world without Steve Rogers. If you are unfamiliar with the MCU this series would be super confusing and hard to follow because there are a lot of references to other movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame. In comparison to WandaVision, where you could still watch even if you were not a die-hard fan and still be able to follow along for the most part. The series is available on Disney plus and every Marvel fan should definitely give it a watch.