Ten reasons I love Agent Carter
Jan. 28th, 2015 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lokifanOMG, you guys, Agent Carter.
I am going to have to do this in list form or risk babbling til the end of my days about how much I love everything.
PEGGY. Hayley Atwell is knocking it utterly out of the park, Peggy feels so authentic and true and richly textured, and I just love her to pieces. I love her dry wit, I love her stoicism, I love her piledriver approach to fighting. Something I always appreciate in the MCU is the very different styles of fighting each warrior character has: Natasha vs Steve vs Thor vs Loki vs Sam. Peggy’s blunt-force style is incredibly fun to watch (LOL @ her hitting Howard. This is not a woman who believes in slaps) and her resourcefulness in battle (which common household item will be used to stun a criminal into submission this week?) is such a cool thing about her character.
2. The lighting, the cinematography, the style. It’s beautiful and distinctive and lush, and it adds to the sense that Agent Carter has burst onto the scene knowing precisely what it wants to be.
3. The clothes, the make-up, the hair. Especially Peggy’s, of course - it’s really beautiful, and I love how she pops with colour amidst the grey SSR men. I love that iconic initial image, of her in red white and blue amidst the grey on the streets of New York. But everyone’s got colours and style associated with them and it’s all perfect and eye-catching.
4. The sharp dialogue and social commentary. There have been some great lines, and it all works towards character and sense of place. Id and ego as children’s characters - because Freud is a name, but not a universal one. The fact that Colleen talks about the effect of the end of the war on women’s employability (which is such an integral part of the set-up). Howard’s line about “when has the American military ever had a weapon it hasn’t used” - I love that, and I love it even more coming from him - he’s only going to get more compromised - and it’s so sharp in the immediate wake of WW2. Howard’s comments about class (and how an oppressive system breeds dishonesty) which are extra-great given I frankly don’t generally expect American TV to talk about class. And the fact that he brings up gender last, because it’s the least immediately relevant to him. (And it has interesting implications for his relationship with Tony I think, that Tony was born into circumstances so enormously different from Howard’s.)
5. INTRIGUE AND CONSPIRACY. I love me some intrigue and conspiracy, so I am fully on board for spy shenanigans, and I’m having a blast with that element of it all. The ninja next-door neighbour is fab.
6. The thread of how oppressive systems screw us all over. Something that comes through very strongly, I think, is that a system in which (straight-passing) white men get all the good jobs is by definition a system not using its full potential. It’s not that the agents they have are terribly incompetent, they’re just not as good as Peggy, so her abilities are wasted. And like Howard says, she ends up lying and betraying them, much as it’s ‘for their own good’. Because she wants to help, and she wants to feel useful.
6a. The specific ways the SSR are loathsome. To wit: beating suspects. Uggggggggh. The fact that this is done by an antagonist and not a ‘grey hero’, btw, is why I am so totally on board for Agent Carter and 1000% never watching Agents of SHIELD.
7. Lots of relationships between women. It’s been said already, but it would’ve been so easy to slip into Peggy being The Only Girl In The World, the only one super-special enough to play with the boys, and I’m so happy they haven’t done that. It sets up a really interesting contrast too, this all-male work environment versus the all-female home one, and how Peggy moves through different worlds. Also I love female heroes rescuing other women; it’s one of my favourite things about Max Guevara and Buffy Summers and comics!Natasha Romanoff, so Peggy getting rid of Awful Dude at the automat was perfect to me.
8. The memory of Steve. I always liked Steve/Peggy but now I am FULL OF FEELINGS. I love what they’re doing with it, not least because Steve is the dead, pure love interest who symbolises something greater for our stoic spy. I love it because we know Steve, of course, he’s a real person in a way that would be near-impossible for a series starting without the previous stuff. And this is murky, it’s pulp but with shades of noir, but Steve managed to grow up here. Also Steve’s blood: what he gave up for his country. SWEET METAPHOR SPEAK TO ME.
9. Peggy and Jarvis are fun - I am naturally all about the dry English wit show - but Peggy and Howard, man, they speak to me. Howard is so fun every time he appears (heeee at him cutting a totally predictable swathe through the Griffiths ladies) and I love their friendship, and I especially love Peggy cutting him down to size. She’s got a temper, which we knew - we all remember her shooting at Steve through the shield, yes? - and very rarely is safe enough to unleash it. But it’s also part of how the icky morality and corruption of war is right there on the surface. Also, the casting of Dominic West remains a stroke of genius; he’s so great, especially at tomcattish chancers. The way he looked down after Peggy viciously told him off, the long eyelashes, it kind of viscerally brought RDJ!Tony to mind for me. Which, given Tony’s Merchant of Death characteristics and tension with the state and the whole question of the line between military contractor and war profiteer - this whole programme is just really working for me.
10. Angie (and Angie/Peggy). Angie is delightful and charming and lovely, and also I ship her and Peggy like BURNING and I’m delighted the ship seems to be taking off. All the distance created by secrets, and OMG IF I GET TOO CLOSE I AM PUTTING HER IN DANGER, it’s such classic superhero/love interest conflict and I EAT IT UP WITH A SPOON. Moooooar.
C’mon Peggy. No gents in the joint, but we know you like the cute, mouthy blondes.
I am going to have to do this in list form or risk babbling til the end of my days about how much I love everything.
PEGGY. Hayley Atwell is knocking it utterly out of the park, Peggy feels so authentic and true and richly textured, and I just love her to pieces. I love her dry wit, I love her stoicism, I love her piledriver approach to fighting. Something I always appreciate in the MCU is the very different styles of fighting each warrior character has: Natasha vs Steve vs Thor vs Loki vs Sam. Peggy’s blunt-force style is incredibly fun to watch (LOL @ her hitting Howard. This is not a woman who believes in slaps) and her resourcefulness in battle (which common household item will be used to stun a criminal into submission this week?) is such a cool thing about her character.
2. The lighting, the cinematography, the style. It’s beautiful and distinctive and lush, and it adds to the sense that Agent Carter has burst onto the scene knowing precisely what it wants to be.
3. The clothes, the make-up, the hair. Especially Peggy’s, of course - it’s really beautiful, and I love how she pops with colour amidst the grey SSR men. I love that iconic initial image, of her in red white and blue amidst the grey on the streets of New York. But everyone’s got colours and style associated with them and it’s all perfect and eye-catching.
4. The sharp dialogue and social commentary. There have been some great lines, and it all works towards character and sense of place. Id and ego as children’s characters - because Freud is a name, but not a universal one. The fact that Colleen talks about the effect of the end of the war on women’s employability (which is such an integral part of the set-up). Howard’s line about “when has the American military ever had a weapon it hasn’t used” - I love that, and I love it even more coming from him - he’s only going to get more compromised - and it’s so sharp in the immediate wake of WW2. Howard’s comments about class (and how an oppressive system breeds dishonesty) which are extra-great given I frankly don’t generally expect American TV to talk about class. And the fact that he brings up gender last, because it’s the least immediately relevant to him. (And it has interesting implications for his relationship with Tony I think, that Tony was born into circumstances so enormously different from Howard’s.)
5. INTRIGUE AND CONSPIRACY. I love me some intrigue and conspiracy, so I am fully on board for spy shenanigans, and I’m having a blast with that element of it all. The ninja next-door neighbour is fab.
6. The thread of how oppressive systems screw us all over. Something that comes through very strongly, I think, is that a system in which (straight-passing) white men get all the good jobs is by definition a system not using its full potential. It’s not that the agents they have are terribly incompetent, they’re just not as good as Peggy, so her abilities are wasted. And like Howard says, she ends up lying and betraying them, much as it’s ‘for their own good’. Because she wants to help, and she wants to feel useful.
6a. The specific ways the SSR are loathsome. To wit: beating suspects. Uggggggggh. The fact that this is done by an antagonist and not a ‘grey hero’, btw, is why I am so totally on board for Agent Carter and 1000% never watching Agents of SHIELD.
7. Lots of relationships between women. It’s been said already, but it would’ve been so easy to slip into Peggy being The Only Girl In The World, the only one super-special enough to play with the boys, and I’m so happy they haven’t done that. It sets up a really interesting contrast too, this all-male work environment versus the all-female home one, and how Peggy moves through different worlds. Also I love female heroes rescuing other women; it’s one of my favourite things about Max Guevara and Buffy Summers and comics!Natasha Romanoff, so Peggy getting rid of Awful Dude at the automat was perfect to me.
8. The memory of Steve. I always liked Steve/Peggy but now I am FULL OF FEELINGS. I love what they’re doing with it, not least because Steve is the dead, pure love interest who symbolises something greater for our stoic spy. I love it because we know Steve, of course, he’s a real person in a way that would be near-impossible for a series starting without the previous stuff. And this is murky, it’s pulp but with shades of noir, but Steve managed to grow up here. Also Steve’s blood: what he gave up for his country. SWEET METAPHOR SPEAK TO ME.
9. Peggy and Jarvis are fun - I am naturally all about the dry English wit show - but Peggy and Howard, man, they speak to me. Howard is so fun every time he appears (heeee at him cutting a totally predictable swathe through the Griffiths ladies) and I love their friendship, and I especially love Peggy cutting him down to size. She’s got a temper, which we knew - we all remember her shooting at Steve through the shield, yes? - and very rarely is safe enough to unleash it. But it’s also part of how the icky morality and corruption of war is right there on the surface. Also, the casting of Dominic West remains a stroke of genius; he’s so great, especially at tomcattish chancers. The way he looked down after Peggy viciously told him off, the long eyelashes, it kind of viscerally brought RDJ!Tony to mind for me. Which, given Tony’s Merchant of Death characteristics and tension with the state and the whole question of the line between military contractor and war profiteer - this whole programme is just really working for me.
10. Angie (and Angie/Peggy). Angie is delightful and charming and lovely, and also I ship her and Peggy like BURNING and I’m delighted the ship seems to be taking off. All the distance created by secrets, and OMG IF I GET TOO CLOSE I AM PUTTING HER IN DANGER, it’s such classic superhero/love interest conflict and I EAT IT UP WITH A SPOON. Moooooar.
C’mon Peggy. No gents in the joint, but we know you like the cute, mouthy blondes.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-29 02:02 am (UTC)