After the success of Marvel’s Agent Carter in January last year, can it repeat the same trick second time around? In short, yes it can. It won’t better their Netflix output but Marvel have a knack for broad appeal and knockabout fun as shown here brilliantly.
The times they-are-a-changin’ for our titular hero. She’s barely had five minutes to pull a shotgun on last season’s dastardly villain Dottie Underwood before she’s being shipped out to Los Angeles. She’s being sent to assist Agent Daniel Sousa, the now chief of the new west coast division of the SSR, to help in a bizarre murder case of a woman found frozen in a lake at the height of the Californian summer.
Carter thinks she’s moved from her New York base because her stock has considerably risen after her heroics in defeating the threat of Leviathan from last season. But, in actuality, it’s because Jack Thompson, former teammate but now boss, wants her out of the Big Apple so he won’t feel as threatened by her meteoric rise through the rankings. Sexism and Peggy’s fight against it still playing a huge part from last season, so it would seem.
It’s not all about Peggy’s struggles against the patriarchy though. The aforementioned lady in the lake is puzzling the LAPD, in particular Detective Andrew Henry who finds our Jane Doe, and the SSR have been called in to help understand the strange circumstances behind her death, and whether she’s the handiwork of a serial killer at large, or something much worse.
The victim is frozen solid inside and out we discover during the autopsy to their and our bemusement. This leads Agents Carter and Sousa to check on her place of work at Isodyne labs (where there seems to be more going on than its appearance lets on), where they have a run-in with an overly-friendly scientist called Dr Wilkes who seems eager to help the duo solve his colleague’s murder. Then it’s on to a racetrack to question the lab’s untrustworthy chief, Calvin Chadwick, who seems to have plenty secrets of his own. From here a conspiracy unravels involving Chadwick, Detective Henry and a biological agent that seems to infect the blood of those that are too close to it freezing them and their surroundings solid.
This season opener was a great start for Agent Carter MKII. The plot is goofy without losing its dramatic appeal and it tees up the rest of the season quite well in the characters of Dr Wilkes and Calvin Chadwick. Plus, this new biological phenomenon that’s freezing anybody and anything that gets too close to it could be a recurring threat to be feared. After Marvel’s runaway successes of Daredevil and Jessica Jones on Netflix, due in part to their grittier and more adult themes, it would be easy to dismiss Agent Carter as lightweight fluff. But If anything its lighter tone is its greatest strength undoubtedly. It’s not going to ask you the hard questions that the Netflix duo are going to press, but Agent Carter will certainly entertain you for an hour and give you quality performances.
Of those performances, it’s Britain’s own Hayley Atwell who is by far the strongest. She’s a great performer and utilises her talent well in the role of Agent Carter, mixing an action heroine turn with a wonderful comedic timing that the punchy script requires. She’s chipper without being annoying (plus her momentary use of an American accent is great too). James D’Arcy is great as comedic foil for Atwell in his role as posh chauffeur Jarvis and Enver Gjokaj does well as straight man Agent Sousa.
Season 2 is off to a great start. It lays down the foundations for the next nine episodes, gives us some new characters to be wary of and still maintains the rip-roaring retro yarn that last season built up so well. Agent Carter may have changed location, but it’s not changed what we loved about season 1.
It seems Hollywood won’t ruin this starlet anytime soon.
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
