Marvel fans out all of the live action shows that Marvel have produced there is always one that alot of people forgot about which is a shame because out of all the live action shows that are set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this is one of the better ones. Hell until yesterday I myself forgot all about this show which is a shame because i've just re-watched the first episode and it's so good here is my review of the first episode of the Agent Carter TV show called " Now Is Not The End" enjoy the review everyone.
The plot of the episode is a formular that Howard Stark was working on has been stolen and he tasks friend and secret agent Peggy Carter to find it before he's arrested and before something life devastating happens because of it being used. The story in my opinion was alot better then it really had any right to be since with this being a TV show set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe no one would have blamed them if the story wasn't that good but nope the story in this episode was shockingly good and was honestly really well told in my opinion.
Reprising their roles from Captain America: The First Avenger is Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter and Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark. Joining them are James D'Arcy as Edwin Jarvis , Chad Michael Murray as Jack Thompson , Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa , Shea Whigham as Roger Dooley , Lyndsy Fonseca as Angie Martinelli , Kyle Bornheimer as Agent Ray Krzeminski , Alexander Carroll as Agent Yauch , James Frain as Leet Brannis , James Hebert as Sasha Demidov and Ashley Hinshaw as Colleen O'Brien.
The acting just like the story is alot better then it really had any right but not by much since some of the actors don't do a good job in this episode. Of course both Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper do a really good job since there characters have already been established and so they already know how best to play certain scenes but the new actors while alot of them do a really good job there's a fair few that bring the quality of the acting down just because they don't know how seriously to treat the material that there being given which is a shame because like I said the acting in the episode is alot better then it really has any right to be.
Doing the CGI for this is Base FX , DNegTV , Double Negative (DNEG) and I wish I was making this up but Industrial Light & Magic. Yeah i'm honestly as surprised as you guys are because I had no idea that Industrial Light & Magic worked on this episode but that does explain why the CGI in this episode is honestly really good and even tho there's not alot of CGI in this episode in fact I only counted one or two CGI shots in the whole episode it's still a great thing that the makers of this show chose to make that effects in those shot really good.
This TV show is actually prequel to the Marvel One Shot film also called Agent Carter when ends with Peggy and Howard forming what would become SHIELD. Which honestly makes this series redundant since you already know that both Peggy and Howard are going to make it out alive and well and so any tension that might have been there is now gone because of the fact they show u alive and well in a short film that was made and released before this series was made and released.
Honestly I do feel that out of all the live action Marvel shows that aired on network TV this is one of the better ones. Since as this episode shows it takes on a different genre and does it really well it would have been super easy to make Agent Carter another superhero based show but no they went the other route and made it more of a spy show which honestly works because spy work is honestly something that is dangerous and exciting all on it's own and the fact that this episode showcased that really well is in my opinion what helps this show standout.
Now that I have your attention with a picture of Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter looking hot as all hell in that dress. I want to talk about how well written the character is since for me it would have been super easy to use this character to force an agenda down our throats but they don't do that instead they go the opposite route and write her really well and they do that by showing her grieving over the supposed death of Steve Rogers and the fact that she strongly believes that she gets people killed all of this makes her a really complex character and honestly characters like the film version of Captain Marvel or Rey from the Star Wars sequel trilogy can learn a thing or two from this show because the treated her as an actual character.
Staying with the character of Peggy Carter who as mentioned is played by the stunning Hayley Atwell I honestly liked the fact that they showed her dealing with sexism at work. Simply because that's something that alot of women in the early to mid 1940's would have had to deal with it and while it would have been super easy to pretend that it didn't happen i'm glad that the makers of this show took the chance and say yes this did happen and the fact that it's still the same in the next episode and isn't resolved at all to me makes the episode and this show feel more real in my opinion.
There is a bad thing tho when it comes to the writing and that's the fact that the male characters aren't written as well as Peggy Carter is. Take for example any of the male colleagues that Peggy works with who are all written very one dimensionally in that they are there to act sexist around Peggy and nothing more which doesn't make them interesting characters it makes them boring to watch and the same could be said for Edwin Jarvis who is played by James D'Arcy who at least in this episode isn't given a personality but given that he's a main character that is something that gets added as this first season progresses.
Since this is technically an action show that means that I have to talk about the action that's in this episode. Which again is another let down for me not because there's not much action because there's plenty of it but rather you can hardly tell what's going on have of the time since either the editing is so fast that you can't make out what's happening or the screen is so dark that you can't see anything that's on the screen which for me at least is a bad thing.
Overall this was honestly a really good episode and I really cannot recommend this show to enough people because it is that good and yes I did see the show when it first being broadcast. As I covered in this review there are some bad things that are in this episode and it's those bad things that keep this episode from being perfect since they are things that could have been fixed but the makers of the show chose not to fix as such this episode gets an 8 out of 10 from this comic book fan.
All of the images that I used in this review were gathered from the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page and nowhere else. Since I only went one place to get the images that I used in this review I have no choice but to recommend that you use the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page for images from any Marvel Cinematic Universe film or TV show or even images from this show or episode.