She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Superhuman Law
August 25, 2022 7:12 AM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe

In the aftermath of Titania's defeat, Walters gains reputation as a new superhero dubbed "She-Hulk" by the public, much to her dismay.

Jennifer is fired from the district attorney's office for losing the case, which their opponent Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway (GLK&H) declared as a mistrial. After several failed attempts at finding new work, Walters is offered by Holden Holliway to work at GLK&H as the head of their new Superhuman Law Division. Walters accepts on the condition that they also hire her best friend Nikki Ramos as her paralegal. On her first day, Walters learns that Holliway wants her to work as She-Hulk full-time, and her first case is to represent Emil Blonsky for his parole. Though initially reluctant to take on the case, due to Blonsky's past attempt to kill Banner,[a] Walters agrees to meet with Blonsky in prison to hear his plea. She later contacts Banner and also receives his blessing to represent Blonsky, unaware that Banner is traveling in space in the Sakaaran spaceship. Walters calls Holliway to accept the case, but then learns from a news report about leaked footage of Blonsky participating in an underground fight club as the Abomination with Wong.

Episode summary from Wikipedia
posted by Fleebnork (56 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
I am really enjoying this show. It's a lighter tone for the MCU, but it's nice to see some of the world beyond the immediate action of what the heroes are doing.

I particularly liked how they made a reference to the "why is her hair different?" complaint and then immediately dropped it.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:14 AM on August 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


Yes, I like the way the show doesn't take itself seriously and also the way it blows right past verisimilitude, e.g., Smart Hulk's mobile network extends into Space.
posted by kingless at 8:24 AM on August 25, 2022


I love it that, right after I thought "Oh, so they're doing a Silence of the Lambs bit," Jen decided to lampshade it.

I liked the fourth-wall-breaking more here, esp. the time which was also her internal monologue complaining about the situation she's been hired into, preventing her from hearing what Holloway was saying. That felt real, but no less amusing for it.

Still good fun.
posted by johnofjack at 10:18 AM on August 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


I hope she will eventually push back against staying in Hulk form all the time. I also spent a lot of time wondering how she was going to handle professional dress that fits her in two very different sizes so she can transform back and forth. Maybe she can get something tailored that has drawstrings or zippers or velcro to let in and out? That's a heck of a costuming challenge. Hulk never had to worry about corporate dress codes.

I guess now we know why Wong turns up in the previews, we know he was involved in Blonsky doing unauthorized fights from Shang-Chi.

Sending him to outer space is a convenient way to get rid of Bruce. And it's good to know he's ok with her job.

So who are the "7 soul mates" of Blonsky? And where exactly is he planning to go? I feel like a lawyer would have had more questions about that. Maybe we just didn't see them.
posted by emjaybee at 11:47 AM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


I thought i heard soulmates too but i was just watching screencrush and they're saying it's "cellmates". I don't want to let go of that polyamory ref, even if it was a gag!

But in any case it seems likely it's a reference to the Thunderbolts?
posted by cendawanita at 12:33 PM on August 25, 2022


No, it has to be soulmates. He met them through a pen pal program.

Also -- "I'm a completely different person now." Heh.
posted by kyrademon at 1:40 PM on August 25, 2022 [10 favorites]


I hope she will eventually push back against staying in Hulk form all the time.

She almost certainly will. One of her personal struggles from the comics is wanting to be seen as Jennifer and not just She Hulk all the time, both personally and professionally.
posted by Fleebnork at 2:32 PM on August 25, 2022


I loved the little bit in the bar when she de-hulked and was immediately falling-down drunk.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:41 PM on August 25, 2022 [9 favorites]




Jen referenced Batman ("adult orphans") of all people.
posted by SPrintF at 4:48 PM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


Well, I mean, also Daredevil, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Jessica Jones, Elektra, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, a few dozen others in the Marvel Universe alone...

It's a Thing.
posted by kyrademon at 5:17 PM on August 25, 2022 [12 favorites]


(And come to think of it, The Thing is also an adult orphan.)
posted by kyrademon at 5:19 PM on August 25, 2022 [11 favorites]


Tatiana Maslany remains the most adorable and she's having the most fun. I love Jen's tendency to just keep talking because she just needs to dump all the things in her brain onto whoever she's talking to. I get it and I love it.

I do forgive the sitcom-y things because it's a sitcom! And wow, I didn't know I needed "legal sitcom with superheroes" in my life but I absolutely did. I wish every episode was longer because I love it.

I like how grounded it feels in a lot of ways -- Jen's just normal and has a job and friends and family and oh yeah, she's a superhero. Ms. Marvel did some of that too, absolutely, but I love the idea that superheroes are a part of life now. It can be messy and weird but as her dad (MARK LINN-BAKER!) told her, she's not the first Hulk in the family. (I also like the speculation about if Avengers pays or has health insurance.)

I love seeing Jen navigating this new world and I have liked the fourth-wall breaking more than I expected. It works.

This show is a delight and I'm bracing myself for the inevitable stupid 3rd-act battle but whatever. I like it. It's fun and I hope it continues to be fun.
posted by edencosmic at 6:32 PM on August 25, 2022 [5 favorites]


I really need to see her win a case, though I'm skeptical she'll get Blonsky his parole. She might be able to do some fancy lawyering to get him out of trouble in proving that he never technically broke out of his cell and the law has no rules around mystic portals (yet).

The questions with him are, why is Wong helping him with this at all? Does Wong need the cash to fix up the Sanctum?

Also: the bar TV was showing Ally McBeal the second time she was there.
posted by emjaybee at 6:42 PM on August 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


She might be able to do some fancy lawyering to get him out of trouble

I was reminded of a story in Kurt Busiek's Astro City. How do you confidently establish that it was actually Blonsky that Wong was fighting? We already have shapechanging Skrulls and multiversal doppelgangers in the Marvel Universe. Did someone else receive the Abomination treatment? C'mon, we already have two Hulks, Bruce and Jen. Has General Ross been messing about trying to create a Red Hulk serum? Is another Abomination really out of the question? In other words, is there room for "reasonable doubt"?
posted by SPrintF at 6:59 PM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


[stage whisper] Lawyer Show!

Why am I growing suspicious of Nikki?

For those who are into Workplace Sitcom in a World with Background Superheroes: the short-lived Powerless, about being the enthusiastic new hire at Wayne Enterprises, was very cute.
posted by bartleby at 7:02 PM on August 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


This show continues to be a fun delight. I laughed and laughed. Superhero law seems like quite a valid thing and what I'd hire her for even before the Hulkiness.

I don't know how you'd do tailored suit crap (or any suit crap) because that stuff has NO spandex.

Haiku....?!?!
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:14 PM on August 25, 2022


Loving this show. My three favorite bits this week:

1. The montage of Jen not getting jobs: The background image showing that the law firm was getting lower and lower rent every time.

2. Jen calling Bruce and refusing to listen to him or let him talk because she had an endpoint in mind, just as he did to her last episode.

3. MARK LINN-BAKER!!!
posted by ejs at 7:47 PM on August 25, 2022 [10 favorites]


If you give us Josh Segarra in a superhero show, you'd better at least throw a bone in the direction of an Arrowverse crossover. Yes, I know it won't happen. Yes, his Arrowverse character was truly terrible, but maybe they can show us a brief clip of Jen defending a blond archer with very distinctive facial hair.
posted by sardonyx at 8:33 PM on August 25, 2022


Loved seeing that Shulkie was carrying Jen’s shoes (which looked like Barbie-sized heels in her hands).

But later, Jen shifts down and walks in wearing the shoes that Shulkie was… so, one-way stretch?
posted by sixswitch at 9:01 PM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


Maybe she can get something tailored that has drawstrings or zippers or velcro to let in and out? That's a heck of a costuming challenge.

Pleats. Pleats for days. Since her boss is requiring her to Hulk out for work, maybe he'll spring for a tailor that can put in pleats without making her look like an accordion.

With Blonsky in play, I'm wondering if there will be other people from the "Ed Norton" Hulk movie brought in as well. Thunderbolt Ross could speak for him, but they'd have to recast the actor, of course.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:24 PM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


Emil Blonsky in Crocs was a nice touch. "Russian-born, British-raised, Royal Marines commando, on loan to the US government." What could be simpler?
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:56 PM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


I really need to see her win a case, though I'm skeptical she'll get Blonsky his parole.

I have a hunch that the finale will be some kind of mirror version of the trial in the first episode, only this time she purposely does something (de-hulks? hulks-up?) to force a mistrial (or, whatever it takes to sway a parole board)

I’m up-in-the-air over whether Blonsky deserves parole or not. I mean, how in the hell did he (apparently) escape that place? That his escape happens after she visits him in the prison makes me feel like she’s being set-up in some way.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 AM on August 26, 2022


The "escape" happened before the events in this episode; that's how the Abomination showed up in the underground fight club in Shang-Chi. (And although it hasn't been said yet, probably the only feasible way for Blonsky to have gotten out of his cell was with someone who had a sling ring, which sure makes Wong's upcoming appearance... interesting.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:27 AM on August 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


Thunderbolt Ross could speak for him, but they'd have to recast the actor, of course.

Sam Elliott, obvsly
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:45 AM on August 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


I mean, how in the hell did he (apparently) escape that place?

This is the second time in the MCU we have visited this prison. The first time was in Ms. Marvel, when the Clandestines escaped in their first scene there.

I’m just saying that a thorough review of their security procedures would be in order.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:47 AM on August 26, 2022 [7 favorites]


Can confirm that “my client did a silly and reckless thing, and now I need to clean up the mess” is a universal lawyer experience. This is a very good and accurate “lawyer show.”
posted by Mr. Excellent at 6:44 AM on August 26, 2022 [9 favorites]


I had totally missed that "Emil" in the fight club in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings" was this guy! Mostly because I saw the Hulk movie but it's been a while and it's barely listed as MCU these days.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:09 AM on August 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


The "escape" happened before the events in this episode; that's how the Abomination showed up in the underground fight club in Shang-Chi.

Ah. Thanks. Was a bit confused (obviously). I haven’t seen Shang-Chi.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:06 AM on August 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


COUSIN LARRY! I lit up when I recognized Mark Linn-Baker. So good to see him again.

the short-lived Powerless, about being the enthusiastic new hire at Wayne Enterprises, was very cute.

Some of the writers and actors have moved on to Harley Quinn if you want more of the same flavor of humor.
posted by Servo5678 at 8:47 AM on August 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


I knew it was Mark Linn-Baker the instant he spoke - which is weird because I didn't really think of him as an actor I had on my top shelf of brain cells. Might have something to do with the fact I recently re-watched My Favorite Year.

Our Resident Teen Critic has some quibbles with the CGI ("she moves like a SIM") but we're really enjoying it nonetheless. Hell, "The Hulk" when I was was growing up was just a bodybuilder painted green, so... I have no complaints, really.

Wondering when we're going to intersect with Matt Murdock.
posted by jzb at 8:53 AM on August 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


If you give us Josh Segarra in a superhero show, you'd better at least throw a bone in the direction of an Arrowverse crossover.

I would rather have an Electric Company (2009 version) crossover.
posted by eckeric at 8:54 AM on August 26, 2022


I'd like to take a moment to appreciate that the home screen on Jennifer's phone is a photo of Captain America's ass.
posted by castlebravo at 9:32 AM on August 26, 2022 [13 favorites]


That's America's ass, for sure. It can do this all day.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:17 PM on August 26, 2022 [5 favorites]


I did think a couple of instances of cgi'd people looked really off in this. Hand movements and some speaking bits. I assume it's a constraint on the current state of the art coupled with how much Marvel is pushing their CGI teams.
posted by rmd1023 at 3:02 PM on August 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


I wonder if people making this kind of stuff also just have an idea of the pipeline of AI-enabled CGI advances. Maybe they know that in a few years it will be super easy to just re-render it in a way that looks much better. Like, they will be able to drop the source files into some engine and it will output a better version. Actually, I suppose when that is possible, you could probably drop all the source files into a computer and have it make a goth version or change the actors or make all the characters dogs, etc. I guess we’ll find out.
posted by snofoam at 3:18 PM on August 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


How do you confidently establish that it was actually Blonsky that Wong was fighting?

On the one hand, it clearly is, since Wong calls him "Blonsky."

On the other hand, it clearly is not, since the Abomination in the video has the classic comic book creature-from-the-black-lagoon look with fish ears, but when Blonsky smashed up Harlem, he had almost no ears and looked more like a green Freddy Krueger with spinal problems.
posted by straight at 7:04 PM on August 26, 2022


One of her personal struggles from the comics is wanting to be seen as Jennifer and not just She Hulk all the time, both personally and professionally.

In a lot of her comic book stories, Jennifer almost never changes back from the She Hulk, deciding that the She Hulk version of herself is just better—stronger, more beautiful, more confident—and saying lots of negative things about her normal "mousey" Jennifer self. She supposedly has the same persona in both forms, but often ends up sounding like a more sophisticated version of the Hulk talking about how much he hates "puny Banner."
posted by straight at 7:18 PM on August 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Yes, the best example of this was when she was put on the stand during a case and required to list her sexual partners in each form. Jen had 3. SH had….more.

Reference
posted by bq at 7:30 PM on August 26, 2022


I think if you could bottle the sheer adorableness that she's bringing to Jennifer Walters, I think you could solve a lot of the world's problems. (I'm digging the show so far)
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:25 PM on August 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


Just rewatched the bit at the end of this episode with Abomination fighting; he seems to be fighting Wong, or at least some magic user with similar spells. I also rewatched the scene in Shang-Chi, and
after Wong beats Emil, there's a brief bit where he sling-rings both of them away, and you can see Blonsky's cell in the background.
There might be more than one fight that Emil got out for, but it looks like the same fight.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:03 PM on August 26, 2022


Yeah I was waiting/hoping for a good explanation for Wong & Blonsky.
But now given this show, I'll settle for a sufficiently amusing explanation.
posted by straight at 10:14 PM on August 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Enjoying it muchly but BOY DOES JEN NOT EXAMINE CONTRACTS (verbal and written) AT ALL, WHICH FOR A LAWYER IS - SHEESH..
posted by Faintdreams at 4:54 AM on August 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


The "escape" happened before the events in this episode; that's how the Abomination showed up in the underground fight club in Shang-Chi.

I re-watched the episode yesterday, and this doesn’t seem correct. Clearly, the flow of events in this episode goes like this:

Jennifer visits Blonsky in prison > Jennifer accepts case on phone with Holliway > Holliway tells Jennifer to turn on the news > TV news is showing breaking news of video showing Abomination at a fight club > News person clearly says this is video after Blonsky “somehow escaped” from the prison, implying this is something that just happened, and not older video of a past, pre-imprisonment, event.

I would assume that Abomination fighting at the fight club would have been a “known thing” before Blonsky was put in prison, and Jennifer would have knowledge of it (case files?)

Now, if this is merely a deliberate mis-direct on the part of the writers (i.e. old, pre-imprisonment, video of fight club leaked to tv news, which misinterprets it as breaking news of an escape) and, in the next episode, we get a hand-wavey “Nevermind. TV made a mistake. It’s all good” resolution, I’m gonna be very disappointed.

Or, if I’ve somehow missed a detail here, I’ll be disappointed in myself ;)
posted by Thorzdad at 4:58 AM on August 27, 2022


Blonsky was put in prison in 2010 during the week that Thor/Hulk/Iron Man 2 all took place, immediately after becoming abomination; the underground criminal fight ring video happened in 2023, when Shang Chi is set, just after Avengers Endgame; the footage of the secret darknet crime fight leaked a few months later, in 2024.

The fight was only a known thing for, like, the shadow broker and a few other weird supercrimals.
posted by fomhar at 6:24 AM on August 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


Heh/gah, Jennifer has an eyelid twitch sometimes when she talks about She-Hulk.

I enjoy that Ched, the "other genius in the family" Bruce mentioned in episode 1, works at Best Buy.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:23 PM on August 27, 2022


"when she was put on the stand during a case and required to list her sexual partners"
I think that cringe got retconned as "She-Hulk from alt universe was messing up Jen's life'" .

Beloved Spouse and I are still liking this show. Between this and Ms Marvel, our summer has been notably brightened by Marvel shows with a decent sense of humor about the MCU.
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 3:15 PM on August 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


I loved the scene where Jen is drinking and Pedro, the bartender asks if she wants another pint and she declines since she's "balling on a budget", and then Holliway comes in and asks if he can buy her a drink and Pedro holds up the Pappy Van Winkle Special Reserve for Holliway's approval ($100 - $200 a pour...)
posted by mikelieman at 4:15 PM on August 27, 2022 [6 favorites]


I enjoy that Ched, the "other genius in the family" Bruce mentioned in episode 1, works at Best Buy.

Excuse me, but I think you’ll find he was just promoted to manager over at Best Buy.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:45 PM on August 27, 2022 [9 favorites]


eyelid twitch
I caught that too.

Remote possibility? Having recently learned that there are people who do not have an inner monologue*, I wonder if the Jen/Hulk identity split's only manifestation is as 'I talk to an imaginary audience now'?

*I know, I was shocked too. Like meeting someone who doesn't speak to their pets.
posted by bartleby at 5:55 PM on August 27, 2022


Maybe twenty years ago I recall a standup comic speculating that all the homeless guys walking the streets apparently talking to themselves are hooked up to a vast network, and that a guy stumbling down a street in Brooklyn muttering, “... so I told him that no one says that shit to a Navy man!” is being answered by a guy in LA who says, “Dude, you were never in the navy.”

Maybe she is talking to Deadpool.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:46 PM on August 27, 2022 [4 favorites]


Having recently learned that there are people who do not have an inner monologue*, I wonder if the Jen/Hulk identity split's only manifestation is as 'I talk to an imaginary audience now'?

She was in Jen mode in the first episode when she first broke the fourth wall. "Yeah, about that. Um, it's true. I am a Hulk."
posted by Etrigan at 7:26 PM on August 27, 2022


Possible somebody found out Blonsky was up for parole and leaked the fight video to mess with that
posted by straight at 7:52 PM on August 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


OK, after really not liking the first episode, this one (and the next one) totally turned it around for me. That is all.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:36 PM on September 1, 2022


The humor worked, the humanity was there in a way that it wasn't in the pilot, the plot is rollicking along, and MARK LINN-BAKER! (I realized while watching this how much I want to see Baker and Brent Spiner play brothers in something or other. Make it happen, cowards!)
posted by Navelgazer at 7:41 PM on September 1, 2022


Finally catching up, & also recognized Linn-Baker from voice alone!
I love that the bar is "Legal Ease."
ricochet biscuit, that comic was Dana Gould.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:43 PM on September 19, 2022


« Older Mystery Science Theater 3000: ...   |  Movie: Monty Python and the Ho... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster