Agent Carter (2015)

love the hat

Hayley Atwell always seemed like a badass playing Peggy Carter who happened to be who Steve aka Captain America had a crush on. Not without reason of course, as shown when Agent Carter suddenly helms her own show by the same name. It's 1946 and Carter works with the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) who are out to get Howard Stark. Most of his 'equipment' got stolen right from under his nose and suddenly people are using it, bad people of course. He's suddenly under fire and accused of treachery. Stark requests Carter to find out who did it, and she turns into a double-agent for his sake.

Intrigue, spying, and of course - Carter keeping people at arms length. Usually the one who'd been leading this kind of show would - well be - James Bond. We've got the lost love, we've got the people advising her on opening up again, besides her trying to be the hero who works alone. One of the other notable leading characters is Edwin Jarvis, Stark's butler played by James D'Arcy and he's certainly fun, which is expected - Tony does name J.A.R.V.I.S after him after all (I'll sit here pretending that real-Jarvis ran after him when he grew up).

There's a whole host of different characters, but Jarvis really stands out for me. He's rather silly, and nice, but clearly a side-kick. The good thing is that there won't be any kind of tension between the pair, as well, which is a relief in a way (read: married).

This show is very much about breaking stereotypes.

Agent Carter addresses the sexism at the time and has Peggy use it to her advantage. She's doubted at her work-place, so, at every turn she keeps on using their assumptions of her against them. I do love the fact that despite her very rough fighting style etc, she's still got her nails done and her hair lovely. She's not an emotionless machine either, which is very typical the way strong female characters are depicted. They're badasses who never have anyone in their life and who never cry.

Writers seem to assume that strength means 'male masculinity', which frankly is a rather fragile thing, since being called a 'woman' is an insult. There are too many films where strong male characters have become angry due to being called a 'lady', a 'girl', or other things. What I enjoy about this show is that it says - fuck yeah - it's good to be a lady. Perhaps not in a time where people distrust your abilities and assume you're useful for filing and coffee, however. I don't know if their intent is to play out more than the eight episodes planned, though the show has already spun out three episodes of good fun.

There's another Marvel show out there as well, Shield, which I briefly lost interest in, but might pick up again. I could see Agent Carter continuing for a while, though it's hardly refreshing, despite being a breath of fresh air. It depends entirely on where they intend to go, and there's a lot that can be done.

For the time being I'm hopeful.

6/10