Last week there was no Agent Carter review. This is specifically because when I switched my TV over from the CW to ABC, I was greeted by the visage of Bernie Sanders hanging out with all his friends in New Hampshire, rather than the regularly scheduled adventures of Hayley Atwell as everyone’s favorite secret agent.
So today I make up for the lack of review last week by reviewing two new episodes this — and still only with 5 whole thoughts. What a bargain!
1. Dottie
Tonight’s double-feature brought back Peggy’s on-again, off-again nemesis Dottie. Dottie started off our season with some fun break-in shenanigans after being a real thorn in everyone’s side all of last season, but to that end there wasn’t much character development; Dottie simply… was. She was a foil to Peggy, certainly, and a proto-Black Widow, but other than that we didn’t really get to know her. While we still don’t see much under her veil here, we’re getting to know a bit more about Dottie beyond “psychopath,” and the more we see the more intriguing she becomes. She really is the Joker to Peggy’s Batman in many aspects, and while her appearance appears to be fleeting I’d be hard-pressed to believe that this is the last we’ve seen of her.
2. Whitney Frost
Whitney really upped the ante on the whole Big Bad This Season role that is her lot in life. What was interesting about Whitney Frost in the beginning of the season is that we always knew she was destined for greatness, that she would become Madame Masque somehow. While she has not quite yet earned that official title or role, we can really see it happening now; she’s taking over the Council, she’s owning the whole Zero Matter thing and allowing her machinations to move away from the background and to the forefront. It’s interesting because obviously the show tries to cater to the time period where it was okay to disrespect women (ugh), but that makes the overall empowerment of a character like Frost interesting to watch as it evolves. The more the other characters fear her, the more her power shines through — and it really helps to define her as a unique villain, as opposed to the show’s other Big Bad:
3. Vernon Masters
Look, I’m as fond of That 70’s Show as the next guy (well, probably not that fond), but Kurtwood Smith as Vernon Masters is the most boring aspect to this show. They could literally have a loaf of white bread replace him with CGI and it would make no difference. Masters is as cookie-cutter as they come; part of the whole cabal of powerful white guys that run the world, Masters is basically a few steps from being the proponent of McCarthyism on the show; his character does nothing but smile creepily at everyone and otherwise throw quiet tantrums when things don’t go his way. I know people have complains about Marvel villains being one-dimensional in their films and programs, but Masters is by far one of the worst examples of this I’ve seen so far — something that’s made more egregious by how better suited Whitney Frost is as a villain for Carter. Vernon Masters is literally just The Man.
4. Jason Wilkes
Wilkes presents the interesting and perhaps only debatable talking point of this latest batch of episodes. While everyone on the show has pretty well-defined roles, Wilkes has always been up in the air for me. I was unsure of him at first, and now after tonight’s episode I’m unsure of him again; Wilkes is being torn between worlds in more ways than one, and it makes it hard to assess how we should feel about him. Should we feel bad about his trauma from the Zero Matter realm? Or should we rally against him now that he’s allowed Whitney Frost to abduct him? Is he Peggy’s love interest, or is he someone she’s going to have to work against now? I like Wilkes, but I fear my liking him will turn sour on me in the latter half of this season.
5. Changes
At the end of tonight’s double-stint of episodes, there are quite a few changes: Whitney is in charge of the Council, Masters is in charge of the SSR, and Peggy’s world is being rocked — she’s losing allies (Wilkes is with Frost, Rose is gone, Mrs. Jarvis is in the hospital, Sousa is being decommissioned) and there are too many people out to get her (Jack Thompson gives her a pretty stern warning). Not only that, but if she’s going to save the world, she’s going to have to go against an atom bomb and unexplainable dark matter from another dimension. What’s a secret agent to do?
Continued belowI like where the show is at currently, though it’s definitely been a rocky season. I feel like the stakes where they are now are currently high enough to have some tension, while also leaving some room for unpredictable events — or rather, while we assume the good guys will win, it’s unclear what the cost will be on that front. The scale of this season is much higher than last, which is nice to see, and we’ve also moved away from the trope-y, riff-y sentiments of the first half of the season. The show is definitely struggling to have a definitive identity, but with Hayley Atwell in the lead role and all the charisma she brings to the small screen, Agent Carter is definitely still a fun show to watch every Tuesday.
My only bit of constructive criticism at this point, and to basically give myself a bit more space to write since there was no review last week, is that the show needs to go a bit further in terms of really having the audience care. Right now I feel like the show is in a nice, safe popcorn-munching zone — and what I mean by that is, I can kick my feet up, have a snack, watch the show and move on with my life knowing that I got some good quality entertainment. Am I super invested in the events of the show beyond seeing what Peggy gets up to? No, not really; it’s not The Flash. But it has that potential — and I’m hoping that as the season really enters into its third act now that all the tables have been set, it can really nail the final few episodes.
Fingers crossed.
Come back next week when ABC and Brian make me review another two episodes back to back. No rest for the wicked, as they say.
