She-Hulk: Attorney At Law (TV series blu-ray review)
Trying to find disk version of ‘She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’ has been a pain in the whatsit. Putting a search on the auction website found this one from China. My first reaction was whether it was legal, although the box cover felt no. After that, language and zone. Once it arrived, it was definitely kosher, it runs in English with Chinese sub-titles and many other languages. Although I neutralised those with the blu-ray player’s controls, the third option on screen gives you full access to languages and sub-titles. Trying to turn off the latter was less successful, so rely on your machine control unless you can translate how it works.
I haven’t been keen on Marvel films since the Avengers attacked an unpowered alien farmer. He might be Thanos but he was hardly looking for a fight. So why ‘She-Hulk’? Anything with actress Titiana Maslany has to be worth a look and, in that respect, this is worth watching. Nine episodes with an enormous production unit, parallel to a film unit, is going to be an expensive proposition and there is no indication whether there is going to be a second season. From the looks of things these credits encase the whole nine episodes so they probably contributed to all of them. If they distributed the blu-ray release better then it would improve its chances. The credits are divided into two, after the art credits by Kagan McLeod and needs to be released as a book as new scenes from each episode are added, there was an extra scene for the first three and last episodes.
Jennifer Walters (actress Titiana Maslany) is with her cousin, Bruce Banner (actor Mark Ruffalo) in a car when it is attacked by an alien spacecraft. Both of them are injured in the crash and some of Banner’s blood falls into a serious cut on Jen’s arm. Banner has already changed back into his Hulk persona and she finds a nearby bar to clean up, helped by some women. Waiting for a car to pick her up, some men start getting fresh and she has her first transformation, body supplied by actress Malia Arrayah, an eighteen inches taller actress than Maslany.
Later, she wakes up in a New Mexico hideaway and meets the Smart Hulk, who is expecting Jen to have a personality change with her transformation but that doesn’t happen. Convincing Jen she has to become a super-hero falls on deaf ears, because she is a trained assistant district attorney and takes a bit of an argument to convince him. I do like the idea that she should be called Lady Hulk so hope someone takes that up something. Her original name in the 1980s comicbook largely came about as a copyright protection deal, although when you consider that even the title ‘The Savage She-Hulk’ and a take on ‘The Incredible Hulk’ TV series is done in the last episode, everything has had an acknowledgement.
Jen keeps her secret from all but a couple close friends, one of which is her paralegal Nikki Ramos (actress Ginger Gonzaga) as she goes back to work prosecuting a super-villain, except super-villainous Titania (actress Jameela Jamil) smashes the wall open and she has no choice but to transform into She-Hulk to stop her. Alas, it compromises her job for a retrial and she is out of a job and every firm she tries won’t hire her. That is until lawyer Holder Holliway (actor Steve Coulter) offers her the job as a defence lawyer for super-cases providing she goes in as She-Hulk and she can’t refuse her first case, Emil Bronsky (actor Tim Roth), the Abomination after getting a non-conflict clause covered.
How much more to say without going spoiler. Practically everything as there is a continuity across the stories, even if we don’t see how they stop Shulky in the eighth episode or how the anklet can stop a transformation or who will any gamma-based person from hulking out.
What it really is about is how does a super-heroine live her life wanting to do a job without getting into fights and how others are out to get her. The bigger surprise is why there hasn’t been a second season. Other than the Hulk and Daredevil, we haven’t really seen the She-Hulk interact with other super-heroes, let alone handle damages caused by fights.
The shoe is very funny and keeps the flavour from the Byrne days of Jen breaking the fifth wall and talking to the viewer. I like the way she gets her clothes capable of shifting into two sizes although a little perplexed on how many shoes she must be running out of.
The four extras after the ninth episode look like podcasts promoting the series. I might not be watching the Marvel films but this series is worth a look. Just because the show is on a digital channel doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be out on disk. Where’s my attorney?
GF Willmetts
January 2024
(pub: Marvel/Disney. 2 blu-ray disks 9 * 32 minute episodes and a few extras, Price: ??. ASIN:1-G-M2005)
cast: Tatiana Maslany, Ginger Gonzaga, Malia Arrayah, Mark Ruffalo, Tim Roth, Benedict Wong, Jameela Jamil and many others
