Weekend Watch: She-Hulk, House Of The Dragon

A meta Marvel character arrives on our TVs and we visit the earlier days of Westeros.

Image Credit: Disney+

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Marvel calls its new lawyer and HBO dances with dragons. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite.

How you respond to She-Hulk might depend on how much you’ve been appreciating Marvel’s output as a whole and particularly the current “phase” of the Disney-owned company’s sprawling, multi-venue cinematic universe.

After its hugely successful Infinity Saga, which wrapped up via Avengers: Endgame, and with the launch of its Disney+ series to bring its televisual side in line with the movies and under the control of boss Kevin Feige, Marvel has begun to leverage the kudos and box office earnings to start experimenting and expanding in exciting ways. And the latest example of that brings us to the story of Jennifer Walters, AKA the cousin of Bruce “The Hulk” Banner (Mark Ruffalo).

Created and run by Jessica Gao, with Kat Coiro directing the initial episodes, She-Hulk introduces us to legal eagle Walters, trying to find the right work-life balance just like the protagonists of many dramas and sitcoms before her.

Unlike them, she’s also been exposed to her cousin’s blood, and it causes her to transform into a seven-foot-tall, super strong green woman. Which, of course, puts a big strain on her life and career…

Tatiana Maslany, who was so superb in Orphan Black, has another chance to shine here – she’s a gifted actor who can juggle both comedy and drama (and mix the two into a potent cocktail when required) and shines as Jennifer Walters. Her comic chemistry with everyone else in the cast, particularly Ruffalo, makes this an easy sit. Though the show goes through some familiar motions early on introducing the world and explaining Walters’ origin as She-Hulk (a name given to her she thinks is dumb), it’s light on its feet and more akin to a blend of Ally McBeal and Fleabag (more in that in a moment) than your usual superhero show.

Like WandaVision, which played with the conventions of superhero stories, serving more as a sitcom than your usual bout of costumed chaos, She-Hulk has things to say about legal dramas, superheroes and women’s lives in general. Walters often breaks the fourth wall to comment on her own series, but lest you think this is diet Deadpool, this is something that the character has done for decades in the comics, where her meta-commentary pre-dates Wade Wilson’s. Maslany is entirely adept at making it all work, springboarding from the writers’ work to deliver the sly asides with aplomb.

It does also mean that, in the early going at least, it’s a lot lighter on action than some of its Marvel stablemates (even Ms Marvel, which I enjoyed and wrote about here). There are hints that bigger confrontations are coming down the line, but for now, I’m more than happy to hang out with Jen and her friends because they’re more than entertaining enough without world-ending drama landing every other episode.

Plus, it’s already plugged into the wider MCU, even going so far as to bring back a character from largely unloved early entry The Incredible Hulk, which allows for some zany zen energy from Tim Roth as Emily Blonsky, AKA The Abomination, the villain from that film. Roth leans into the craziness and plays well off Maslany. Ditto Benedict Wong, an MCU veteran since Doctor Strange, who brings his own comic energy to Sorcerer Supreme Wong who, while his authority is a tad undercut by the silliness he gets involved in, brings the comedy power. Particularly when paired in a later episode with Patty Guggenheim’s supremely spacey Madisynn (I won’t elaborate on quite how).

Though some of the Hulk effects on the show can’t match the level of, say, the Avengers movie, that’s more to do with time, budget and the overworked artists who have been voicing evidence-backed issues with how Marvel handles their effects work. But they’re not distracting enough to harm the series in any real way.

She-Hulk represents a bold, enjoyably different direction for a Marvel series. The experiment worked, and while I’m happy that Jennifer Walters inhabits her corner of the MCU for now, I’m also excited to see her sharing the screen with other characters down the line.

The first episode of She-Hulk is on Disney+ now. New episodes will drop every Thursday. I’ve seen the first four of nine.

Image Credit: HBO

No matter what you think of how it ended, Game Of Thrones has passed into history as one of the biggest and most popular sensations on recent TV, and a defining series for home base HBO.

Naturally, the company was not going to just let it flap off across the Narrow Sea like Drogon, looking to strike while the iron (throne) is still relatively hot. Yet after one false start and talk of a variety of spin-offs in development, we have the first prequel finally ready to arrive.

House Of The Dragon is set roughly 170 years before the events chronicled in the main show. Adapted from Thrones creator George RR Martin’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood, it’s the story of an internal struggle between members of House Targaryen for control of the throne. While GOT only boasted one remaining Targaryen (Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys), here there is a Red Keep full of them.

The focus, for now at least, is on a few, including King Viserys (Paddy Considine) who inherits his crown and throne mostly by being a man. Looking to eschew tyrannical power grabs, he aims to rule with wisdom and honour, which as anyone who has ever watched an episode of Thrones knows, rarely ends well.

Viserys has a daughter, the spirited, opinionated Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), but she, like her aunt before her, is being overlooked as a potential heir. Instead, the current favourite (though rarely in the king’s eyes) is his younger brother Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), who struts about under long blond tresses, eyes power ambitiously and enjoys orgies when he’s not showing how tough on crime he can be.

Then there are the likes of Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the Hand of the King, whose daughter Alicent (Emily Carey) will also factor into the story, particularly once in the initial episode, tragedy strikes the royal household.

As it kicks off, the show is all about setting up its world and briefly introducing each player in the story. We get a lot of the king, Otto, Daemon and the daughters, while others are reduced to quick sketches.

None of the characters is so far as compelling as several of Thrones’ heavy hitters, but perhaps that’s because they haven’t had a chance to shine yet. Alicent and Rhaenyra are destined to have much more important roles to play (and will age up as the season moves along, to be played by Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy respectively).

But for the most part, Dragon feels of a piece with Thrones in the early going – there is blood and sex everywhere, and a few effective scenes, such as crosscutting the violent birth of the king’s latest heir with even more brutal jousting combat.

Time will tell if the series rises to the pinnacles (and avoids the pitfalls) of its parent. But for now, Martin (who is credited as a creator and producer), Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik can be confident that it’s a solid if only occasionally spectacular start to the spin-off.

The first episode of House Of The Dragon airs on HBO (and HBO Max) On Sunday, 21 August. I’ve seen that initial instalment.