It is often said that writing a second act can be a real ordeal that would resemble a journey through the desert. A journey through a huge void to fill with scenes, subplots and conflicts with which to keep the attention of the respectable and to occupy at least two quarters of a story that can easily fall into the territories of monotony.
Why on earth am I telling you this in a recap from ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer She-Hulk’? Well. because, precisely, the Marvel Studios series is giving me the feeling of to be wandering in an uninteresting wasteland after of a most interesting and promising start that has been progressively deflating in its episodes 3 and 4 until causing me a certain indifference.
Unfortunately, this week I also bring bad news, because the fifth chapter, entitled ‘Bad, greenish and, in jeans, a goddess’, repeats the trend of its two predecessors; offering another procedure lacking plot appeal in the horizontal plot —if it has one, because at this point I begin to seriously doubt it— of a sitcom whose sense of humor I’m having a hard time connecting with.
- From these lines there will be spoilers for chapter 5 of ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’.
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This week, the adventures and misadventures of our favorite green lawyer pick up where last week’s breaking cliffhanger left off. Titania has decided to register and use She-Hulk’s man to create a cosmetic brand and has reported Jen Walters for improper use of her brand, resulting in a legal battle that will be resolved in less than a rooster sings.
After an unsuccessful verbal confrontation with her new archenemy, the law firm where Jen works decides to take legal action against Titania considering that the name of She-Hulk is a claim and almost a banner for the company, so our She-Hulk, defended by her colleague Mallory Book, goes through a first session in court in which they cannot prove that Walter used his alias before registration by the influencer.
But, when everything seems lost, lawyer and client find a strategy, which is none other than use as witnesses the group of jerks that She-Hulk dated in the previous episode. A public humiliation that pays off, because it makes the judge rule in favor of the plaintiff, forcing Titania to stop using the She-Hulk name as a trademark.
On the other hand, the subplot of the week seems to be outlined solely to be able to show a wink that anticipates the return of one of the great Marvel characters to the small screenand stars Nikki and Pug, who go on a quest to find a superhero clothing designer to tailor a suit for Jennifer.
After finding him, who, of course, turns out to be an eccentric egomaniac, the couturier agrees to create a piece for the superheroine, only to see, in the last scene of the episode in which She-Hulk goes to pick up her clothes, a Daredevil helmet in a box that reads “for pickup”. Short of a proper dramatic cliffhanger before cutting to black, the easter-eggs are good. Indeed, nothing has been heard of the attempted blood draw.
It is clear that a series with a sitcom format can “be of no use”, and there are television milestones like ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Frasier’ to corroborate it; but if this is going to be played, what less than to have charismatic characters, minimally sharp humor and vertical plots that, even for twenty minutes, keep you glued to the screen. That of ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’, for the moment, is still not the case.