REVIEW: The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Season 1 Episode One 'New World Order'

 REVIEW: The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Season 1 Episode One 'New World Order'

In a Post-WandaVision world, it's weird to think that The Falcon And The Winter Soldier was originally intended to be the start of Disney's Marvel Studios Disney Plus Shows. As an online community, we have all got so used to the fact that WandaVision kicked off the TV side of Phase Four, that we have forgotten that it wasn't the original plan. Finally, however, we can see how Phase Four's TV side of things was originally intended to begin.

Straight away you can see why Disney wanted to kick off the MCU side of Disney Plus with this show, as we are treated to perhaps the most typical 'Marvel Studios' scene on Disney Plus to date. The show straight up throws viewers into a nine minute sequence where Sam Wilson/The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) is fighting bad guys for the U.S. government, swooping through vast canyons and blowing up helicopters left, right and centre. It's an exhilarating sequence, and makes full use of the cinematic budget allocated to these shows.

This episode, simply put, is like the opening twenty minutes to a Marvel Studios film, albeit stretched out to fit a forty five minute runtime. It does such an amazing job of providing the set-up for the future episodes, establishing who these characters are, and what the series is about.

Take Sam, for instance. Here, we are shown clearly his views towards his role within the Avengers and the duty that Captain America bestowed on him. He feels the shield does not truly belong to him, and struggles with how his family life has changed since the five year 'blip'. Returning after the snap, his sister Sarah's (Adeporo Oduye) kids have grown since they were babies, and their family business is struggling. I like how both this show and WandaVision explore the ramifications of the snap, and the way life has changed within those five years. It's good to see Marvel acknowledge the huge changes an event of that size would cause to an individual's private life.

Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), on the other hand, is struggling with the trauma he feels from his time as a brainwashed assassin for Hydra. He's having regular meetings with a psychiatrist (Amy Aquino), and feeling this immense sense of guilt for the atrocities he committed. The nightmare sequence from a past memory is so stunningly directed by Karl Skogland, it feels so rough and raw, like a sequence from a Paul Greengrass film, and it adds to this real sense of grit akin to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The way the first thing we see is Bucky's metal arm shooting through the wall is extremely effective, and conveys this sense of a man who has been turned into a human killing machine.

I really hope the sushi bar waitress Leah (Mia Ishikawa) becomes a regular romantic interest throughout this series for Bucky. I really like their dynamic together. They have so much chemistry, whether they are having a conversation or playing Battleships, and I would absolutely love to see more of those two together.

As I would the friendship between Sam and his army friend Torres (Danny Ramirez). These two feel like a friendship that has been lived in; it's like they have this previously untapped relationship that we are only just getting to see, and I like this sense that he's a bit rogueish in his attitude and behaviour. He seems like someone who acts rash, and takes all these unnecessary risks, such as going undercover at the Flag Smashers meeting, which are not very wise, and that's a very interesting sort of character to watch.

Speaking of the Flag Smashers, they seem like an intriguing idea. We are told by Torries that these are people who believe the world was better during the snap, and this could be something that allows for some really deep commentary within the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the series goes on, perhaps exploring a viewpoint that Thanos was right to snap away half of existence, as it opened up a greater number of resources for those left behind.

I certainly was not expecting that surprise cameo during Captain America's memorial service. His appearance makes perfect sense, but I like that this wasn't leaked prior to his showing in the episode. It's nice to have a surprise, and I'm astonished it hasn't been mentioned more across the internet.

Speaking of astonishment, Bucky was certainly surprised to see the new Captain America (Wyatt Russell) on the TV. I don't like the look of him one bit; he seems more than a little like he could end up being Marvel's answer to Homelander. My only real disappointment with this opener was that we never actually got to see Sam and Bucky together. For a series called 'The Falcon And The Winter Soldier', it's weird how we instead only get them operating independently from one another. It would have been nice to have seen them at least meet up at the end of the episode, rather than keeping them strictly apart. Overall, this was a strong opening instalment of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. This episode contains some excellent character development for Sam and Bucky, and a mind-blowing action sequence. It's just a shame that the two leads are kept apart for the episode's entire runtime. Would it really have been too much to ask for the pair to at least reunite by the end of the episode?

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What are your thoughts on The Falcon And The Winter Soldier's first episode? Let me know in the comments section.