Ms. Marvel
Such a strong start, kicking off the most well directed MCU show since… maybe the entire enterprise. It was alive with fun characters and an interesting story that felt primed to be the best show of the bunch. Then, the villains were introduced and all sense of character work and plotting were shoved aside.
It really is a shame how rushed the latter half feels in comparison to how well they do the set up. The the fun is quickly lost when the Clandestines decide to turn evil on a dime, and the rest of the show sort of rushes to the finish line, only pausing to give us (albeit interesting) cultural context for these events. Kamala gets lost in a narrative that shepherds her from place to place, constantly on the run from a group who ultimately proves to be little threat at all.
It manages to get back on its feet for an okay finale, but by then, all of the interesting plot points have happened, and so the last episode feels extremely perfunctory. Every villain is hoisted by their own petard, and Kamala ends the show having basically only helped three people not get injured as much as they could have.
I really wanted to like this one more. The family and community aspects work great, providing a crucial element that’s been missing from Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies, and Kamala is genuinely a tremendous addition to the MCU. I’m excited to see more of her. I just wish they had crafted a plot more worthy of the character.