Agent Carter, season 1
Jan. 25th, 2020 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI recently finished rewatching season 1 of Agent Carter, and you guys, I had forgotten how completely fucking delightful this show is. Well, not forgotten, obviously, or I wouldn't have watched it again - but watching it again has reminded me of all of its wonderful qualities.
In no particular order:
The scene where Peggy and Jarvis beat up a whole bunch of SSR agents in the diner while cheery music plays is probably one of my favorite scenes in anything of all time. Followed by the bit where Daniel has her at gunpoint (after she's knocked Jack out cold!!) and then he can't shoot her... Ah, the glory.
In general, this show is really amazing at putting together these glorious set pieces that basically just let the characters show how awesome they are. This is most obvious with Peggy, as the protagonist - I am in awe of her strength as a rough-and-tumble fighter who can use whatever material comes to hand: the bit in the aircraft control tower where she fights Dottie using nothing but an aviator scarf!!!
But they have these showcase moments for other characters, too. Like the scene where Angie throws the SSR agents off the scent by sobbing into Jack Thompson's chest - especially impressive because we've seen aspiring actress Angie practice a few auditions in front of Peggy before, and she's not that good. Apparently she just needs the adrenaline of actual danger to get her going!
I will remain FOREVER SAD that the showrunners didn't follow up on this in season 2 by having Peggy recruit Angie to the SSR. Come on! She's just shown that she'd be amazing undercover! My God.
My feeling is that the showrunners got spooked by the popularity of Cartinelli, and while I don't ship it myself (Angie doesn't try to kill her even once and I guess that's what I like in a ship?), I am baffled by their surprise. They made Angie THAT emotionally invested in Peggy - personally offended when Peggy doesn't leap at the chance to move into her building - they have a dramatic reconciliation IN THE RAIN with ROMANTIC MUSIC playing - and they're surprised that people shipped that over Peggy/Daniel?
I like Peggy/Daniel fine, but surely someone involved in production noticed at some point that the show gave all the romantic beats in the first half of the season to Peggy/Angie? Surely.
I have a weakness for OT3s so I've read a certain amount of Peggy/Daniel/Jack Thompson fic, so it's been interesting to rewatch the show and remember what an absolute jerk show Jack Thompson is. I think fic tends to lean on his self-loathing aspects, which do exist, but so do his self-aggrandizing jerkface "Sure, I'm going to take credit for the case that Peggy just blew wide open" aspects, and the fact that he's probably going to torment himself about it the same way he torments himself about accepting a Medal of Honor he didn't deserve does not, in either case, substitute for actually not doing the thing.
...I still love the OT3, but it's definitely a case where I am also so so glad that the show never went there.
Going back to the way that this show gives everyone great character moments, though, I love the scene at the Black Widow training facility in Russia, where Thompson just freezes, and he's watching Peggy single-handedly hold off a whole bunch of guards to cover everyone else's escape (also an amazing moment for Peggy! The part where Dum Dum's all "What would Cap say if I left his best girl behind?" and Peggy's all "Cap would say 'Do as Peggy says,' MY HEART) - anyway, I'm pretty sure that's the moment when Thompson realizes that what he has previously considered a desire to do Peggy is in fact a desire to be Peggy, that Peggy is the person he would like to be and simply is not, and he's not too much of a misogynistic jerkface to recognize that fact. (But because he is a misogynistic jerkface, that fact makes him hate himself.)
ALSO SO HAPPY TO SEE THE HOWLING COMMANDOES, that whole episode is probably my favorite episode, I'm very happy with the show that we got but I'm also, let's be real, just a little sad about the imaginary show which is Peggy and the Howling Commandoes Kick Ass and Take Names. Mmm. That would have been beautiful.
But getting back to "Do I want to do her or be her? OR KILL HER?" - that brings me to Dottie Underwood, because GOSH I love the confused obsessive energy that she brings to her relationship with Peggy. This actually becomes much more prominent in the next season, but I was DELIGHTED to realize that it starts here, with the scene where Dottie sneaks into Peggy's room and looks in her mirror and pretends to be Peggy Carter. And also steals her knock out lipstick AND THEN KNOCKS HER OUT BY KISSING HER and look, we've seen Dottie's skillset, I think we can all agree that she could have incapacitated Peggy in MANY other ways, she just really really wanted to lay one on her, and I for one am DELIGHTED.
I also love that one of Dottie's go-to moves is to play the helpless fluttery female, both because she's SO good at it, but also because it establishes a connection between her character and Natasha's - because that's one of Nat's moves, too. It's nice to see that bit of continuity in Black Widow tactics over time (although I think that people often vastly overestimate how static the program would be: just because Stalinist-era Black Widows were handcuffed to their beds doesn't mean that Yeltsin-era Black Widows would be, for instance. The political situation is so different!)
I could go on (in fact, I may go on in another post at some point: I've barely touched on Jarvis, and not at all on Howard Stark, or the plotline about Peggy's grief over Steve, or...), but I think this is long enough for now.
In no particular order:
The scene where Peggy and Jarvis beat up a whole bunch of SSR agents in the diner while cheery music plays is probably one of my favorite scenes in anything of all time. Followed by the bit where Daniel has her at gunpoint (after she's knocked Jack out cold!!) and then he can't shoot her... Ah, the glory.
In general, this show is really amazing at putting together these glorious set pieces that basically just let the characters show how awesome they are. This is most obvious with Peggy, as the protagonist - I am in awe of her strength as a rough-and-tumble fighter who can use whatever material comes to hand: the bit in the aircraft control tower where she fights Dottie using nothing but an aviator scarf!!!
But they have these showcase moments for other characters, too. Like the scene where Angie throws the SSR agents off the scent by sobbing into Jack Thompson's chest - especially impressive because we've seen aspiring actress Angie practice a few auditions in front of Peggy before, and she's not that good. Apparently she just needs the adrenaline of actual danger to get her going!
I will remain FOREVER SAD that the showrunners didn't follow up on this in season 2 by having Peggy recruit Angie to the SSR. Come on! She's just shown that she'd be amazing undercover! My God.
My feeling is that the showrunners got spooked by the popularity of Cartinelli, and while I don't ship it myself (Angie doesn't try to kill her even once and I guess that's what I like in a ship?), I am baffled by their surprise. They made Angie THAT emotionally invested in Peggy - personally offended when Peggy doesn't leap at the chance to move into her building - they have a dramatic reconciliation IN THE RAIN with ROMANTIC MUSIC playing - and they're surprised that people shipped that over Peggy/Daniel?
I like Peggy/Daniel fine, but surely someone involved in production noticed at some point that the show gave all the romantic beats in the first half of the season to Peggy/Angie? Surely.
I have a weakness for OT3s so I've read a certain amount of Peggy/Daniel/Jack Thompson fic, so it's been interesting to rewatch the show and remember what an absolute jerk show Jack Thompson is. I think fic tends to lean on his self-loathing aspects, which do exist, but so do his self-aggrandizing jerkface "Sure, I'm going to take credit for the case that Peggy just blew wide open" aspects, and the fact that he's probably going to torment himself about it the same way he torments himself about accepting a Medal of Honor he didn't deserve does not, in either case, substitute for actually not doing the thing.
...I still love the OT3, but it's definitely a case where I am also so so glad that the show never went there.
Going back to the way that this show gives everyone great character moments, though, I love the scene at the Black Widow training facility in Russia, where Thompson just freezes, and he's watching Peggy single-handedly hold off a whole bunch of guards to cover everyone else's escape (also an amazing moment for Peggy! The part where Dum Dum's all "What would Cap say if I left his best girl behind?" and Peggy's all "Cap would say 'Do as Peggy says,' MY HEART) - anyway, I'm pretty sure that's the moment when Thompson realizes that what he has previously considered a desire to do Peggy is in fact a desire to be Peggy, that Peggy is the person he would like to be and simply is not, and he's not too much of a misogynistic jerkface to recognize that fact. (But because he is a misogynistic jerkface, that fact makes him hate himself.)
ALSO SO HAPPY TO SEE THE HOWLING COMMANDOES, that whole episode is probably my favorite episode, I'm very happy with the show that we got but I'm also, let's be real, just a little sad about the imaginary show which is Peggy and the Howling Commandoes Kick Ass and Take Names. Mmm. That would have been beautiful.
But getting back to "Do I want to do her or be her? OR KILL HER?" - that brings me to Dottie Underwood, because GOSH I love the confused obsessive energy that she brings to her relationship with Peggy. This actually becomes much more prominent in the next season, but I was DELIGHTED to realize that it starts here, with the scene where Dottie sneaks into Peggy's room and looks in her mirror and pretends to be Peggy Carter. And also steals her knock out lipstick AND THEN KNOCKS HER OUT BY KISSING HER and look, we've seen Dottie's skillset, I think we can all agree that she could have incapacitated Peggy in MANY other ways, she just really really wanted to lay one on her, and I for one am DELIGHTED.
I also love that one of Dottie's go-to moves is to play the helpless fluttery female, both because she's SO good at it, but also because it establishes a connection between her character and Natasha's - because that's one of Nat's moves, too. It's nice to see that bit of continuity in Black Widow tactics over time (although I think that people often vastly overestimate how static the program would be: just because Stalinist-era Black Widows were handcuffed to their beds doesn't mean that Yeltsin-era Black Widows would be, for instance. The political situation is so different!)
I could go on (in fact, I may go on in another post at some point: I've barely touched on Jarvis, and not at all on Howard Stark, or the plotline about Peggy's grief over Steve, or...), but I think this is long enough for now.
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Date: 2020-01-26 03:42 am (UTC)it's been interesting to rewatch the show and remember what an absolute jerk show Jack Thompson is
Yeah, there are a couple of excellent fic writers and I like Jack in their fic, but on the show he constantly makes me want to punch his lights out. It's better in S2, some, and I really like his confession scene to Peggy -- the actor does a great job. But good God, he's such a dickwad.
That is one of my VERY FAVOURITE SCENES in the ENTIRE show when Angie just PWNS Jack with her fake sobbing and gets him to admit his name for his own grandma is "Gam Gam." It's like the scene where Peggy kind of hints that she's having her period ("woman....things") and the men just flee the room. I was so bummed she wasn't in S2! But the Dottie/Peggy in S2 is so AWESOME (PEGGY RUNS BACK IN TO SAVE HER) it makes up for it a little bit.
ITA that just because the pre-Cold War Widows were handcuffed to beds doesn't mean it was done all the time -- for one thing, the scar is a dead giveaway, unless they smartened up and used padded cuffs later or something. I do have a secret headcanon that Dottie is Madame later, though, or at least Miss Underwood must do some training in later Red Rooms.
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Date: 2020-01-26 03:52 am (UTC)I loved this show's fight scenes from the minute Peggy punched a dude in the face with a stapler.
but I'm also, let's be real, just a little sad about the imaginary show which is Peggy and the Howling Commandoes Kick Ass and Take Names. Mmm. That would have been beautiful.
The Howling Commandos were one of the reasons I wanted about three more movies out of the middle of Captain America: The First Avenger. (Peggy was, of course, another.)
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Date: 2020-01-26 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-26 03:56 am (UTC)I would like to have had the chance to evaluate S2 in hindsight of a S3. It stopped so cold, I still haven't forgiven ABC/Marvel.
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Date: 2020-01-26 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-26 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-26 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-26 06:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-26 02:00 pm (UTC)The First Avenger is one of the MCU movies where the comic book roots show most clearly, IMO. You can see that they're telescoping tons of history down into one movie, and it mostly works, but there are also just moments when you're like "This montage could expand to fill six seasons and a movie without difficulty, couldn't it?"
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Date: 2020-01-26 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-26 02:08 pm (UTC)Yeah, the confession scene is so well-done, because he's been such a jerk up until then, and he's going to be (slightly less of a) jerk afterward... but the way Chad Michael Murray plays it nonetheless feels in character: he's been knocked off balance by the way he froze back there and it's opened up this brief window of vulnerability.
Also YES the moment when Peggy is like "woman... things!" Hayley Atwell just SELLS it, she's so amazing. Rewatching Agent Carter has reminded me that I've long meant to check out some more of her work. She starred in an adaptation of Howards End a couple of years ago.
And "Dottie becomes a Red Room trainer and trains Natasha" is one of my pet headcanons, too! It's too perfect.
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Date: 2020-01-27 12:01 am (UTC)I think someone also wrote meta that compared Peggy's fighting style to how Steve fights later, maybe -- I know diddly about fighting (my attempt to write fight scenes goes something like: "Steve punched the Nazi. The Nazi fell down"). Like, she's a total brawler but she also from what I can see REALLY compensates for her shortness and is able to weaponize nearly anything she has to hand (freezer door, stapler, perfume atomizer, a shoe....). (That latter to me also screams "person who was in the SIS/SSI/OSS/SOE/whatever")(in fact I have to wonder if Colonel Chester wasn't at least partly based on "Wild Bill" Donovan, altho the SSRC is way more rule-bound and bureaucratic, I guess because it's postwar? altho the early CIA didn't seem that bad? then again the early CIA also was kind of terrible at spywork.)
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Date: 2020-01-27 12:37 am (UTC)Yeah, I remember I was like "No Angie? LA?? But WHY is Jack there now?" and I don't think they wound up handling Jason or Whitney that well. (Not to mention ANA GETTING SHOT.*) But now that I know all that happens, I can be more prepared for it. I think someone at the time said that while S2 was more diverse in terms of characters, Peggy seemed to interact less with other women, and that seemed right. I know they liked the idea of different settings for each season -- NY, LA, and then I think S3 was supposed to be London (and involve Peggy's brother more) -- but I just love the postwar NY setting of S1 so much, and while S2 had a lot of fun sets and costumes, CA really didn't work as an espionage setting for me.
Also YES the moment when Peggy is like "woman... things!" Hayley Atwell just SELLS it, she's so amazing. Rewatching Agent Carter has reminded me that I've long meant to check out some more of her work. She starred in an adaptation of Howards End a couple of years ago.
I have been meaning to see that for forever! And she was in the Brideshead Revisited movie, I would want to see that just for her. She really just pops right off the screen, no wonder they wanted to build a series around her.
And "Dottie becomes a Red Room trainer and trains Natasha" is one of my pet headcanons, too! It's too perfect.
IT IS. Especially since Natasha struck me as so American in the MCU, and Dottie and the little girls are shown reciting along to Disney movies and that's also activation codes or something?? (need to rewatch) That was just a perfect detail.
*srsly all they would have had to do to fucking fix that, for me, would have Ana be a little more involved in what was going on -- designing spy stuff for Peggy! helping Jarvis even! -- and give her a version of what Jarvis says to Peggy in S1, essentially, I chose this, and you need support. I felt they really squandered her character in the service of some awful cliches. BUT ANYWAY.
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Date: 2020-01-27 02:05 am (UTC)...I would have super loved to see a season set in London, though, that would have been amazing, forever bitter that we didn't get season 3.
I saw the Brideshead Revisited movie a few years ago, before Captain America was even a thing, and IMO even Hayley Atwell couldn't save it: they went with the interpretation that Charles Ryder is straight straight straight and poor Sebastian is just hopelessly pining, and honestly if a Brideshead adaptation can't even leave room for Charles to be bi, then what's the point?
When Black Widow comes out, I'm going to be really interested if we see more of Natasha's Russian side once she's among Russian assassin friends. Maybe that's just something she strives super hard to hide when she's with SHIELD? Given SHIELD's... everything... I could see her feeling that it's just safer to act as American as possible.
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Date: 2020-01-27 05:28 am (UTC)You are so valid.
BUT SERIOUSLY Angie/Peggy... that was romance...
This is a beautiful post and I miss this show.
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Date: 2020-01-27 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-28 10:46 pm (UTC)Yeah, and I think that was even maybe deliberate, but that went a bit too meta for me. (gwyn wrote a brill series about Steve in wartime Hollywood that is just amazing.)
...I would have super loved to see a season set in London, though, that would have been amazing, forever bitter that we didn't get season 3.
SERIOUSLY. The Michael storyline was ehhhh (Steve had that one. Plus, don't make Peggy about men, show!) but post-war London? DAMN that could have been amazing. It might have been a bit Young Indiana Jones but I wanted Peggy to maybe meet some other female spies or codebreakers, not just other women undervalued by Jack and co. There weren't a ton of women, but they were there.
I saw the Brideshead Revisited movie a few years ago, before Captain America was even a thing, and IMO even Hayley Atwell couldn't save it
OH DEAR
....THEY STRAIGHTWASHED IT? Wow that is a, wow!
When Black Widow comes out, I'm going to be really interested if we see more of Natasha's Russian side once she's among Russian assassin friends. Maybe that's just something she strives super hard to hide when she's with SHIELD? Given SHIELD's... everything... I could see her feeling that it's just safer to act as American as possible.
Ooh I like that, yes. I don't think Nat is super-Russian in the comics, but it would be nice to see her encountering stuff (food even) that she remembers from her earlier life, and whether or not she chooses to include it. Like, remember Nat just casually had her ballet slippers on a chair in Endgame??
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Date: 2020-01-28 11:09 pm (UTC)And yes, I was so annoyed about the Michael storyline. They did such a good job in the first season about making Peggy's grief for Steve an important part of the story while still definitely focusing the story on Peggy, not Steve, and I felt like they actually lost ground on the "don't make Peggy all about men" front in season 2. But we'll see how I feel about it during the rewatch!
We just watched the first episode of season 2 last night - I still LOVE how Dottie's all about Peggy (that little pout when Jack tells her Peggy won't be interrogating her anymore! Followed by the moment when she nearly murders him with the table, because behind the little pout she's REAL mad. (And of course Jack sent Peggy away to get rid of the competition - he just can't stand the fact that she's truly not afraid of Dottie and he, in his heart of hearts, is.)
I wonder what Dottie's dream scenario for all of this was. Did she hope to bond with Peggy, or to outsmart and destroy her? (Or perhaps outsmart and kidnap and then bond with her?) Probably she didn't really know.
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Date: 2020-01-28 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-28 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-28 11:35 pm (UTC)THAT IS SO UTTERLY WHACK
What's even worse is that there's a series from the 1980s (with Jeremy Irons) that *didn't*
Aww I adore that one even if it now looks kinda dated (the BBC 1980 production teams went for a Look, didn't they) but yeah, that was just about perfect -- and the CAST! Claire Bloom! Gielgud! Diana Quick! They totally nailed (heh) the whole atmosphere of repression and renunciation and Waugh's glorious romanticization of it all. I think I have the videotapes somewhere, I have a whole ton of taped-from-PBS stuff I can't bear to toss (and some of it never got released, like Death of the Heart, which was also perfect).
And yes, I was so annoyed about the Michael storyline. They did such a good job in the first season about making Peggy's grief for Steve an important part of the story while still definitely focusing the story on Peggy, not Steve, and I felt like they actually lost ground on the "don't make Peggy all about men" front in season 2. But we'll see how I feel about it during the rewatch!
SERIOUSLY, I really loved that Peggy was so Not About Steve or Jack or Sousa in S1, she didn't need them. Whereas in S2 it didn't feel more like an ensemble, but really, the fiancee? Jack and proto-HYDRA? The big kiss with Daniel? Those are all so predictable. It felt like the Dottie and Whitney storylines were built around Peggy, but weirdly went almost parallel to her. But if we had seen Peggy given a file somehow on Dottie -- everything she'd done and that had been done to her -- and Dottie would have loved and hated it, because being Known is such a terrifying thing for her. (I think, anyway.) (And if they're going to do a Winter Soldier type storyline for Peggy with anyone, it needs to be Dottie.)
We just watched the first episode of season 2 last night - I still LOVE how Dottie's all about Peggy (that little pout when Jack tells her Peggy won't be interrogating her anymore!
That season started off SO WELL, with that bank robbery episode. DOTTIE IMPERSONATING PEGGY, FIGHT SCENE, INTERROGATION, OMFG. And it had such energy! The emphasis was all on Operation Paperclip and Zola, but what if Dottie told Peggy she was ready to talk and Peggy was in charge of the debriefing or whatever? I know they were really stuck on the idea that the END of the show would be Peggy leaving SSRC somehow and founding SHIELD, but....I was really interested in the possible postwar buildup from wartime espionage and sabotage to "peacetime" intelligence gathering and how spies became heroic in the context of WWII. (And SHIELD winds up being headquartered at first in the Jersey army base....A season set in Jersey doesn't sound that appetizing tho maybe.)
Followed by the moment when she nearly murders him with the table, because behind the little pout she's REAL mad. (And of course Jack sent Peggy away to get rid of the competition - he just can't stand the fact that she's truly not afraid of Dottie and he, in his heart of hearts, is.)
LOL and Dottie is NOT AFRAID of him at all either. I think it's been a while since Jack experienced that one. He's trying to throw his weight and privilege around like usual and she literally just turns it on him. (DOTTIE <33)
I wonder what Dottie's dream scenario for all of this was. Did she hope to bond with Peggy, or to outsmart and destroy her? (Or perhaps outsmart and kidnap and then bond with her?) Probably she didn't really know.
WHY NOT BOTH? I always think of Dottie offering Peggy that roll, and how it's such a loaded and tragic gesture for her. It's like there's still a fragment of personality and genuine affection in there, but it was so twisted. (Dottie would probably eat the liver of anyone who called her a victim, tho.)
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Date: 2020-01-31 12:32 am (UTC)It's so puzzling to me that the Agent Carter creative team looked at season one (which was so well-done, and is very little about romance) and went, "Let's make season 2 all about romance!" - not only by making Peggy & Daniel's relationship a big focus of the season, but ALSO by giving both of them a second love interest, just to make absolutely sure that the romances swallowed up all the air in the season. Why? Whyyyyyyyy. Surely if they needed an obstacle for Peggy & Daniel's romance, the SSR could have a "no intra-SSR dating" rule or something.
We just watched episode two and it has reminded me (1) how much I liked Daniel's girlfriend Violet, and (2) how utterly thankless her role in this season is. Good on them for making her likable, but how did they ever expect that storyline to work out in a satisfying manner?