The Falcon and the Winter Soldier:

With Sara Roger-Gordon and Elleigh Todd:

Rating: 8.7/10

Summary (without spoilers):

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is Disney Plus’ newest Marvel series that premiered on March 19th. If you have watched the Marvel movies I definitely recommend this show to watch and if you haven’t, here’s what you need to know before watching. 

SAM: The series stars two characters from the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Sam Wilson aka The Falcon, pictured on the left hand side, and Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, pictured on the right hand side. Sam was introduced in the movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014 as Captain America’s ally who helped Cap and Black Widow take down Hydra. After Sam helped Steve Rogers aka Captain America take down Hydra, he traveled with Steve for two years to help him look for the Winter Soldier and also stood by his side when the Avengers split up because of the Sokovia Accords. The Sokovia Accords were a list of laws created after the battle of Sokovia, where the country was destroyed by Ultron, Steve wasn’t in favor of the accords because he didn’t want politicians dictating what missions they went on. Sam supported Steve every step of the way, and he even got thrown in prison because of his support. 

BUCKY: Now Bucky Barnes was introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011 as Steve’s childhood friend who fought with him in WWII. Bucky falls off of a train car, leaving everyone to think he is dead when in reality he was kidnapped by Hydra and brainwashed to become the Winter Soldier, an assassin for Hydra. Because Bucky was brainwashed, he didn’t remember Steve until he was given a mission to kill him, Black Widow and Sam. After Hydra fell, Bucky was on the run for two years until the dispute over the Sokovia Accords came to light after Bucky was accused of bombing the UN. Later on, Bucky went to Wakanda to try and get the Winter Soldier removed from his brain so he wouldn’t be used as a weapon anymore. It ended up working and he joined the rest of the avengers to battle Thanos in Wakanda, but he got blipped away. Five years later, they returned to fight Thanos again and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier started a couple of months later. 

Favorite Episode:

Sara: The last episode of the series was undeniably the most outstanding. It carried so much action, and It didn’t leave me bored at certain parts the same way other episodes did. They packed so much comedy, friendship and war into one episode, it nearly brought me to tears. But what really stuck with me about this episode was the classic Marvel ending. They left the main conflict mostly resolved, but they leave the viewers with a million more questions in anticipation for the future!

Elleigh:

My favorite episode from this series would have to be Episode 5, titled “Truth”. Episode 5 was really special because we finally get to see Sam take the mantle of Captain America and start to practice with the shield. Even though we knew that this was going to eventually happen it was still so amazing to see it on screen. It was also a great episode for Bucky and Sam to bond, particularly with Bucky helping Sam repair his family’s boat. Seeing Bucky and Sarah meet for the first time was very cute as well! 

Favorite character:

Sara: BUCKY! I love how much Bucky changed over the series and I think he had one of the most drastic character developments I’ve ever seen. A lot of the other characters in series like The Avengers will stick with their morals and generally stay the same regardless of the traumatic events they’ve been through. However Bucky was completely turned upside down. Because of Hydra, he was forced to become another person, and from then on his mindset was in constant conflict with his instincts. Because of this, I think it’s really interesting how marvel showed a complete range of personality in just one character. Bucky goes from the charming and happy best friend of Steve Rogers, to Hydra’s killing machine, and then with another full 180, he goes back to being a hero. 

 Elleigh: 

My favorite character from this series would probably have to be Sam Wilson. It was so exciting to finally see Sam get some screen time without Steve in it (at least not directly). Watching Sam interact with his family further showed the loyalty and dedication that was established in previous films. Overall it was also great to see how the show tackled race and Sam’s new role as the first Black Captain America. It really hurt to see how much Sam was struggling to take up this mantle despite how America has treated Black people over the hundreds of years since its founding. The show was consistent with how Sam thought that giving up the shield was the right thing to do despite the fact that he ended up taking back the shield.