Agent Carter (TV Series) Valediction (2015) User Reviews

I Know My Value

[ThomasDrufke · 8/10 · 24 February 2015]

So here we have it, the season finale of the 8 episode arc of the first (and hopefully not last) season of Agent Carter. Come to think of it, the show didn't really have it's ups and downs. It was very consistently good. I think I would have changed a few things in the series but for what it was, it was pretty sweet.

Howard Stark is back and is ready to reveal all to help save the city. I liked seeing Stark back, but I do feel like having the focus be on him after following all of the other characters felt a bit off. We did get a lot of Peggy but I think if Stark's screen time would have been given to the Doctor and Dottie it could have built up the tension a little more. I also feel like showing more effects of the gas, and not the doctor's manipulation, would have been an improvement. But I really did love Dottie's scenes. Regan brings so many layers to a pretty one note character, if that makes any sense. Simply by changing her smile and voice it created such a disturbing character, and she will be welcomed back come next season. Speaking of which how about Arnim Zola?! Sure, maybe it seems like fan service, but it was pretty cool seeing him pop up in the doctors cell.

Peggy's arc this season was really satisfying. She is finally gaining respect from the SSR, even if not all of it's members are ready to give credit, they at least acknowledge how great she is. It's one of the reasons why I wished the Dottie-Peggy dynamic would have been explored further early on this season. Lyndsay Fonseca's character got lost in the shuffle a bit later on and perhaps that could have been an area where you pull the bait and switch. I'm glad to see Dottie didn't die. Falling out of a window seemed like nothing compared to jumping down several flights of stairs (ahem, last episode). It was also nice to see Peggy have some closure on Steve's death. Even if it seemed shoehorned into the plot, I think it was very important to her character.

+Peggy gaining respect

+Regan as Dottie

+Closure on Cap

+Arnim Zola

-Stark's presence overshadowed everything else

8.3/10

America is the land of opportunity

[jhudson-11704 · 8/10 · 25 July 2017]

The finale is here and it wrapped up the season well but I do still have my complaints about it. Good things first.

Everyone's performance was great. Atwell, well I don't think she had a bad performance yet and she is still great in her performance from her action to her emotional scenes. Jarvis is great too as he had to choose between loyalty to his friend and employer and the good he had to do for the city. Dottie was great again as she still seemed sweet and yet savage. Thompson was also very good and he showed his leadership skills in the SSR and when he was congratulated over Carter at the end I can understand why he didn't give it to Carter as he knew that the time they live in wouldn't accept it so he did. Sousa was also great as the nice guy who anyone would want in their corner. And Stark made another appearance and he still is his womanizing, egotistical self yet still knows that what he does will haunt him. Another great part of this episode is how both Stark and, especially, Carter had to let go of Captain America. While both were powerful, Carter was even more so because she threw away the last bit of him she had, his blood. Also, because of this she basically invented the Hulk and other superheroes who tried to replicate the super serum so that is interesting. Ivchenko's (or Fenhoff's) story to Stark about how he saw people kill each other and even came upon his brother, brutally killed was well acted but in the end he was kind of disappointing.

Which brings me to my biggest complaint of the finale. We got the warning in the second last episode that Leviathan is coming. While their plan to release a gas upon the city that will cause mass hysteria and homocide, Leviathan was underwhelming as it was just Dottie and Fenhoff in the end.

Also, in the end, with Fenhoff in prison, his cellmate is Arnim Zola, which I don't think is a coincidence. However, it is a great nod as to how Zola continues HYDRA's work.

+ Entire cast performances + Stark surprise + Zola + Farewell, Captain - Leviathan wasn't monstrously huge

Final Score: 8.8/10

Season One Review

[southdavid · 8/10 · 12 August 2020]

Inspired both by its position near the top of an alphabetical list of Disney Plus shows - and a desire to watch it again, knowing the heavy involvement of Markus and McFeely in its production, I've rewatched "Agent Carter" for the first time since its initial airing.

Following the war, despite her heroics, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) finds herself judged more for her gender than her experience, and is given little to do at the S.S.R. When her old friend Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) is accused of selling weapons to foreign agents, he approaches Peggy to ask for her help. Going against her colleagues, Peggy undertakes an investigation of her own, and discovers that an evil organisation - Leviathan - is behind a robbery of Stark's private armoury.

The first attempt that Marvel had to integrate TV shows alongside the movies came here, with "Agent Carter" and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D"; taking characters established in the movies and spinning them off into their own adventures. This show had it easier than "S.H.I.E.L.D" as the period setting meant that they didn't have to deal with contemporary movie-based interaction, instead Hayley Atwell returns as Peggy Carter, still reeling emotionally from losing her love though just as strong and capable as ever, but the rest of the show largely establishes its own identity. It does further rely on MCU a little though, with Dominic Cooper returning as Howard Stark and Neal McDonough as Dum-Dum Dugan. This series also introduces James D'Arcy as the character of Jarvis, who remains important in wider universe.

It's a good story. I appreciate it a little more watching it quicker than one a week, as I saw it last time and I feel like you can see Markus and McFeely's planning, not only with aspects of what happened in "The First Avenger" but also what we'd see in "The Winter's Soldier". The characters are universally good, even the initially one note ones like Agent Thompson open up as the series runs on and find some depth.

It's a good series, and I'm glad I took the opportunity to watch it again.

[7.6] Blood loss!

[cjonesas · 8/10 · 3 September 2021]

A generic comics book season one finale with some cheesy thrilling moments and emotional acting. It just doesn't feel serious, maybe that's the whole point of it, but if they just step on the real suspense on season 2, it'd do more justice to the series IMO.