The live-action She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series had plenty of potential, but for everyone else, the introduction of Bruce Banner's superhero cousin appeared to be a mistake. It doesn't take long for the new Disney+ series to make it clear that there is a need for a green-skinned character.
In She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Maslany plays Walters, an ambitious lawyer whose professional ambitions are seemingly derailed when an accidental blood transfusion with her cousin, Bruce Banner, gives her powers similar to those of her mother. She-Hulk is able to control both her transformation and her mental state. As she tries to get her life back on track, she finds herself dealing with a lot of problems she didn't ask for, including a new job at a legal firm specializing in cases involving superpowers.
Most of the first season of the series was directed by Kat Coiro. The first four episodes of She-Hulk are fun, but never frenetic. There is a lot of call-out to the greater MCU, as well as cameos from established characters in the live-action universe, fourth wall-breaking asides, and story arcs that explore the effects of her newfound fame.
She-Hulk juggles it all with ease and with plenty of humor.
She-Hulk has one of Hollywood's most impressive, criminally underappreciated actresses leading the series, who makes everything it tries to deliver a lot easier to manage. Like many other women, Maslany was forced to put on a public face and be the person others wanted her to be because of her professional ambitions. The attention her She-Hulk garners with the sense of personal accomplishment she'd been chasing before she accidentally inherited powers makes her struggle to reconcile it.
Maslany has a gift for playing multiple roles in a single show, which was on display throughout her five-season run of the show. In She-Hulk, her pivots are more subtle when it comes to the different ways that she interacts with her family, friends, colleagues, and clients. The series would have been in trouble if it weren't for Maslany's performance keeping the character together.
The screen time her counterpart takes in the series is more grounded.
The digital effects used to blend Maslany's face and performance with She-Hulk's larger-than-life form caused a lot of criticism. It is not clear whether that is the result of some late-stage tweaking of the visual effects or a result of seeing the character in context.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law manages to avoid nearly all of the pitfalls the series could have fallen into on its way to the screen, thanks to its mix of self-awareness humor, balanced storytellers, and brilliant performance from its lead actress. Maslany, the show's creative team, and the supporting cast keep the human heart of She-Hulk in a universe filled with fantastic, superhuman elements, and deliver a series that's distinct within the MCU.
There are new episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law every week.
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