When it comes to TV dramas, there are two ends of the spectrum. On one end, you've got the hard-hitting, ultra-serious, and usual pretty dour, high-minded hour-long. On the other end, you've got the TV equivalent of a popcorn movie: a fun diversion that's wildly entertaining but doesn't take itself too seriously.
Marvel's Agent Carter is a romp — an hour of forget-your-troubles fun that occasionally dips a toe or two into more serious dramatic waters. It hits every note perfectly, and it's even better than fans dared to hope for. Hayley Atwell, reprising her role as British-born, tough-as-nails U.S. secret agent Peggy Carter from Captain America: The First Avenger, made such a strong impression in that movie that Marvel commissioned a "One-Shot" that gave fans a taste of what became of her after the events of that movie. That One-Shot proved so popular that Marvel was able to sweet-talk ABC into producing a series based on the character as a complement to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The story picks up in 1946, not long after the end of World War II, with Peggy still working for the U.S. government — albeit sidelined by her chauvinist male coworkers — and mourning the loss of her great love, Steve Rogers. (He's not dead, of course, just on ice. But nobody will figure that out for another 60 years or so.) But Peggy is far too tough a customer to sit and sulk; there's a world always in need of saving, and her no-nonsense nerves of steel are up to the task.
Despite her impressive skills, she's always fighting an uphill battle to be taken seriously in a man's world. The show's opening shot perfectly symbolizes this, with a bright red clad Peggy walking down the street against the flow of a huge stream of drab, suit-wearing men.
It seems that someone has broken into Howard Stark's vault (yep, that's Iron Man's dad) and stolen some of his biggest and baddest weapon ideas, and now those ideas are being sold on the black market. Stark is framed for the weapon sales himself, so he goes off the grid and drafts Peggy to clear his name. So begins what will be an eight-part serialized story that makes up Agent Carter's first season.
And that's just one of many things to like about the show: it's not another boring case-of-the-week procedural. Marvel is using these eight hours to tell a single story, and it's not hard to guess that its resolution will likely tie into upcoming events from other Marvel properties like Avengers: Age of Ultron or maybe Ant-Man. Plenty of references are dropped to Marvel mainstays like corrupt oil company Roxxon, yet all of the Marvel continuity is just the icing on the cake. Agent Carter would stand just as brilliantly on its own.
The description I keep coming back to is "Alias in the '40s," as that's exactly what it feels like. Atwell goes undercover much like Sydney Bristow did regularly, using her feminine charms, excellent improvisational skills, and some nifty gadgets to adapt to any situation on the fly. This strong, confident one-woman-army is lent an unwanted hand in the form of Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy), Stark's stuffy butler who frequently shows up to demonstrate his endless supply of dry wit.
If you're going to have a series that revolves around a single character (as opposed to a S.H.I.E.L.D.-sized team), then your star better be crazy talented. Appearing in almost every scene of the two-hour premiere, Hayley Atwell is a dynamo, electrifying the screen and effortlessly reminding viewers why we already adored her. Peggy radiates confidence and intelligence thanks to Atwell's magnetic screen presence.
The dialogue frequently crackles in that rapid-fire, 1940s kind of way, and the show's entire look and feel is far more romantic and stylized than S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, filmed with soft lenses and dull hues so that the bright colors Peggy wears pop on the screen. Big band music is used in place of a traditional orchestral score, underlining the era where the story takes place.
It's hard to say where Agent Carter is going or where things will wind up by the end of this first season, but it's going to be one heck of a ride getting there. Filled with ongoing mysteries (What's Leviathan? Who was Jarvis talking to on the phone? Who was replying on the Mystical Fringe Typewriter?), snappy writing, killer fight scenes, and a compelling heroine, this kind of escapism is much too rare on television these days, and Atwell's talents make it an adventure that's not to be missed.
Tech Times score:
★★★★½
