I have so little to say about this series I actually considered not even posting about it, but I figured I might as well have all my Marvel takes in the same place. I’ll keep this short and sweet. Maybe short and not so sweet. The discourse around this show has been overwhelmingly negative. I didn’t find this series to be so terrible as much as I really didn’t care about it at all. Which I guess, for me, is pretty terrible. The things I care about, I care about so much. So for me to not care at all says a lot. Especially in the world of Marvel that I have invested so much time and energy and passion into over the years.

When I initially heard about this show, I was definitely intrigued by the plot and star-studded cast. My interest level was where it usually is for a new MCU entry. But when I sat down to start watching, I found it just did not hold my attention. I was half-watching, uninterested, and not so eager to continue to watch as new episodes came out. Even in scenes that were intended to be emotionally impactful or hugely significant to the wider world, I felt nothing. None of it seemed to mean anything to me. At first I thought it might just be me. Maybe I was experiencing some Marvel/superhero fatigue. But seeing the reaction of others told me my feelings seemed to reflect the general consensus. I’ve never been one to scream that the sky is falling in the Marvel universe (as many have in this most recent phase of the MCU) but this has me concerned. I like to give the benefit of the doubt to these kinds of things and find myself able to care about worlds that I love, but this one just didn’t do it for me and that’s a problem.

I will say that the best parts of the show were the performances from Olivia Colman, who is great in every single thing she does, and Kingsley Ben-Adir. They managed to still be entertaining in a lackluster show. I’m not even fully sure I know or understand what happened in this series, but we can only hope it won’t be that important to the future of the MCU and that the upcoming movies manage to be way more captivating than this.

2023 Count: 19 seasons, 36 movies, 1 special