Nukid101's Agent Carter Season One Review

Those who know me well will know that I absolutely adore the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It thrills me every day that this massive gamble – a series of films telling multiple stories, sharing the same universe and plot points and occasionally teaming up was unheard of before this film – paid off as well as it has and it’s safe to say that the MCU has changed modern Hollywood. Unlike some people I’ve yet to get bored of their stuff and watching new MCU work is a distinct pleasure every year.

However…it is always important to be critical of everything we see and be willing to acknowledge faults, especially when it comes to stuff we adore. It is even more important when important topics such as gender and race – because to me they ARE important issues – come up and if there’s a criticism to be made. In other words, time for me to get meh SJW on!

As much as I may love the MCU films…there’s no getting around the fact that the main character of every film has been a white male. Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Starlord, all beefy white dudes in costumes ripped from the comics. Some would argue The Avengers doesn’t count because there’s not a main character and Black Widow is a member, and I guess technically that’s true, but that just means the only exemption is the films without a real main character. Not…the best counter-argument I’d say.

Now before some of you start ranting to me about the ‘feminist agenda’ or how I’m a ‘race traitor’ I’m not saying things aren’t gonna get better. We will be getting a Black Panther and a Ms. Marvel film in the future and on TV we’re getting a Luke Cage & Jessica Jones Netflix series too. Good stuff, can’t wait for it all, but for now we must look at what we’ve already got; the MCU’s first real feminist addition to the franchise.

So after that overly long prologue and my required daily pissing off of 50% of the internet, let us begin my review of Agent Carter!

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Agent Carter Season 1 Review

Studio(s): ABC Studios, Marvel Television

January 6th 2015 – February 24th 2015



It is 1946, a year after the end of World War II and the disappearance of Captain America. Thousands of trained men and women have come home from fighting, looking for a new place to use their skills. One of those is Peggy, still despondent after the loss of Steve and hampered from getting a better job by the misogyny of the times.

But in between tedious office work for the S.S.R, Peggy is contacted by her old friend Howard Stark, eventual father of Tony Stark, who needs her help in clearing his name and finding whoever is stealing his restricted weapons. Accompanied by his butler Edwin Jarvis, Peggy puts her skills to the test, beating up bad guys and laying the foundation of S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. – (summary taken from TVTropes).

One of the best parts of Captain America: The First Avenger was the glorious setting designs. Being ostensibly a period drama the film’s presentation of WWII America and war-torn Europe was utterly spell binding, being able to capture the look of the period while still leaving room for the oddities of the comic books to fit in. I bring this up because this TV series was gifted with many of the people who worked on that film and luckily for us the entire series crafts that same vintage glory of 1940s period drama.

Agent Carter looks fantastic. I have no reservations saying that it’s the best looking MCU TV series to date. Everything from the set designs to the clothes to the hairstyles fit perfectly within the shows time period and frankly it had a quality to it I usually see exclusive to films. However what made it even more impressive was how it never got in the way of any of the comic book elements the film threw in, like superhuman-like spies and many of Howard Stark’s bizarre contraptions. It’s not only a lovely looking show but it also fits perfectly within the MCU.



This fantastic production is also applied to the shows casting, which was utterly phenomenal. I literally have no complaints about the casting, which was nothing short of impeccable. Returning from The First Avenger is Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter and Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, and with the Cap no longer taking the spotlight I feel terrible that I didn’t notice just how great these two are in The First Avenger.

Hayley is absolute dynamite as Peggy; mixing bold determination and moral integrity with genuine compassion and hidden pain, along with a dash of sly wit. Peggy is portrayed as women still mourning the (supposed) death of her lover along with the frustrations of working with her chauvinistic colleagues, and she DOES show actual sadness and frustration, but that never stops her from getting up every day, going to work and not quitting, making new friends and making jokes and it certainly doesn’t stop her from at least trying to move on with her. Dominic’s Howard Stark does not quite the bold impression, but as the son of Tony Stark we saw where the qualities that would make Tony the man he was came from. Adventurous, flirtatious, always got a quick quip ready to fly and never completely being honest, Howard Stark in this series is so much like his son it’s frightening, but as we do see that genuine desire to do right and fix his own mistakes is another welcome similarity they share.



The new additions to the MCU all very welcomed. Shea Whigham, Enver Gjokaj & Chad Michael Murray all play S.S.R agents who each came off as flawed men and very performances. They’re all broken men in some form – one is disabled from the war, another has guilt over an act he committed during the war, while another’s workaholic tendencies has turned his marriage into shambles. They each have moments where they’re utterly unlikeable but by the end of the series they each became incredibly sympathetic characters, and it’s their individual acknowledgements of Peggy – after various forms of doubt – that signs them off as great supporting characters.

The true star revelation of the show however is James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark’s butler and the figure that would inspire Tony Stark’s J.A.R.V.I.S Intelligence System. He is played as the bumbly, posh Brit but the acting is so fantastic and funny that even a bumbly, posh Brit like me can have no issue with it. Jarvis is constantly put in situations out of his comfort zone and put in awkward situations by both Peggy and Howard, but his constant loyalty to both of them and the times when he feels it necessary to call them out on something wrong makes him the shows moral centre. He is more or less the shows comic relief, but I’d also say that he and Peggy are the heart of the show, and it helps that he’s not the only source of comedy in the show so he never feels jarring (something Daredevil had issues with).



Agent Carter is easily one of the most ambitious shows I’ve watched this year, just for how much it tried to do in 8 episodes. It’s one part post-war action romp, one part mystery, one part feminist piece and one part universe build-up for the much of the MCU. That’s a lot to be in one miniseries, which honestly makes it all the more impressive how genuinely well it was all done by the end, though not perfect, as we’ll discuss later. To focus on the latter, if it wasn’t already obvious with characters like the original Edwin Jarvis showing up Agent Carter is a series filled with references and build up for events in the future films, many of which I genuinely can’t talk about due to their spoilery nature. Suffice to say if you’re like me – i.e. has a massive fangasm at every little continuity nod in MCU stuff – you’ll absolutely adore this.

The rest comes well under the shows setting. World War 2 has only just finished but ultimately the season’s antagonists serve as a reminder that things in the world were far from resolved. Both the motivations of the antagonists and the inner turmoil of many of the shows characters stem from injustices and mistakes made during those events and it truly conveys the horrors those years had on some many. On the lighter side the action and classic spy mystery story is reminiscent of pulpy novels of the time, beautifully come to life with the aforementioned excellent recreation of 1940s America. While there is so much to talk about with this series, I can absolutely confirm that watching Agent Carter is such delicious fun you’ll just eat up.

Time to get to the nitty gritty though. As I’ve banged on about the show is a feminist piece, in the same vintage of Mad Men’s handling of feminist themes; in other words highlighting the gross yet institutionalised injustice and disrespect that women were put through on a regular basis. Part of the reason I adore the MCU is how much the events of its world mirror our own, and the scenario Peggy finds herself in here is a direct reference to the position many women found themselves post-WW2. World War 2 was a period where everyone had to play their part, gender be damned, but once the war was over it was genuinely expected for all women to return to their kitchens whilst the men came back from the war and back to being the families sole breadwinner.



Peggy’s situation during the series is a blatant depiction of this. Despite having fought side by side with Captain America and taken on the Red Skull Peggy is shunned by most of her colleagues and treated as a glorified tea lady. She has to work twice as hard to earn half as much respect and it’s even said that her boss had to practically beg to his superiors to get her this job. It’s not subtle, which it certainly shouldn’t be, but the sexism presented throughout the series is presented as institutionalised and often without any real malice, which makes it all the more grotesque. I will admit there are occasions where it gets a bit too thick (with one particularly poorly handled speech about how women are inferior, and it was a PROTAGONIST saying this) but the majority is done very believably and gets across just how common such mindsets were back then.

Not that the show is sexists towards men. A lot of this misogyny is present only with the S.R.R. – which is fitting considering the kind of work they are engaged in – but characters like Howard and Jarvis have complete faith in Peggy, and we even get to see Captain America’s old Howling Commandos group who Peggy fought beside with. Going back the S.R.R. characters as mentioned they are all ultimately presented as good but flawed individuals who by the end recognise Peggy as an equal, but it must be noted that despite any misogyny on their part they are never portrayed as anything but highly competent at their jobs who do all contribute in some form to the series plot.

So there’s a ton of wonderful things about this series, and it should go without saying that the series gets a glowing recommendation by me, but sadly Agent Carter has one big issue that’s very hard to ignore. To be accurate the issue is an episode sized problem because the problem IS the shows final episode. The pacing of the show for the first 7 episodes was perfectly fine. There was nary a dull moment with something always going on and it did feel like every episode built off the events of the last episode, but sadly the show does fall apart in its final episode. Granted there were warning bells when I learnt the 8th episode was the last because the ending of episode 7 felt like a mid-season shocker, not the second to last episode.



It’s not an awful last episode, but it feels like two to three episodes forced into one, and while some moments of it were perfectly enjoyable I couldn’t help but feel that a better experience overall would’ve been achieved had it all been spread out.  Agent Carter was clearly a series that needed 10 or even 13 episodes, and sadly its 8 episode length proved to be its biggest enemy. To exasperate issues the events of that last episode to me didn’t tie well with the story that was being built during the series. Not to give anything away but the show builds up this secret organisation as the baddies but by the end we’re ultimately just dealing with two characters by the end. It’s debatably justified well enough but again more episodes may have made it much less jarring.

So that sucks, but don’t let that turn you away from this show. Agent Carter may slip on the landing but the journey to it was utterly enjoyable. With loving detail to recreating the time period and the MCU’s infamous penchant for being fun AND smart Agent Carter is a legitimately great series well worth your time. It’s honestly a must see for dedicated MCU fans like me, especially if the Captain America instalments are personal favourites, just for the world building and clever references it makes to the universe in general. It’s one of this year finest revelations and it has made me very excited for the coming season 2.



And yes, Agent Carter does give the MCU’s white male main character dominated scene a bit of needed diversity and a Feminist backbone, and whether that matters or not depends on each of you individually, I am by no means judging those who aren’t bothered. You can enjoy this show for its pro-feminism, you can enjoy it for its excellent rendition of 1940s America, you can enjoy it for its story or its character, or you can enjoy it for being such bloody fun.

Me? I love this show for ALL of those reasons.