Agent Carter 2.09 Review: “A Little Song and Dance”
Agent Carter has put together another very fun season with a solid story arc that has kept me interested in the characters. For me, the show is very charming and delivers a completely fresh side to the MCU that we don’t get to see anywhere else. I love that it gives this semi-origin story to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Peggy to add more depth to all of the modern era shows. This season has continued to give us a mysterious story, but last night’s episode got pretty deep at points and really displayed why the show is so good and charming.
The opening scene from last night’s episode was perfect. A song and dance dream sequence that captured the essence of the time period and showed off some singing and dancing skills of the cast. It’s things like this that Agent Carter can pull off so well, and while it is a random occurrence, it is refreshing and something that wouldn’t pop up in the Netflix shows or movies.
While I thought the episode started off really strong, it eventually turned into an episode full of mixed moments, both good and bad. The plot with Dr. Wilkes being sucked into the zero matter was pretty interesting and when he came back out, I was curious what we would see as a result of that. I loved that all of the time in the desert led to the serious discussion between Peggy and Jarvis about the result of his wife being shot. When he breaks down and admits he’s a coward for not being able to confront his wife about their new found inability to have children, it really shows off the true chemistry that Atwell and D’Arcy have with one another.
Personally, those two are what carry the show for me, and the supporting cast is really hit or miss. It was really nice to see Peggy and Jarvis butt heads for a quick moment before quickly re-connecting over the sad news. The story around Jarvis was a very good emotional center for the plot, but it felt very disjointed with no payoff of the actual conversation between him and his wife; however, I loved all of the moments where she knew he was lying despite his best efforts to mask his emotions.
My biggest problem with this episode was the confusing nature of Thompson’s intentions and the inclusion of Vernon Masters to the initial plan. I really like that Agent Carter has given us this tight knit group of Peggy and Jarvis with Sousa and Thompson (and Wilkes in this season) always being involved. I think it feels a lot more personal when it seems like this small group of characters is getting into shenanigans and solving problems in unconventional ways. Last night was doing that, until all of the different who’s working for who complicated things. I thought that it was an unnecessary over complication that didn’t bring too much to the table.
On top of this, my other problem is the lack of use that Dr. Wilkes received in last night’s episode. Wilkes has been a solid character and I think the show has handled the love triangle for Peggy very well. I like Dr. Wilkes’ character a lot and think he has brought a great touch of diversity to Agent Carter. I thought his struggle with the unknown consequences of the zero matter have been great so far, but last night he felt really underused. The poor guy gets completely consumed by the zero matter and spends the rest of the episode tied to a surgery table helpless. While I’m overly curious to see what happens after the cliffhanger, I just would have liked to have seen the series use him a little better during the final episodes instead of making him feel set in the background.
By the end of “A Little Song and Dance,” I had mixed emotions. While I feel that certain elements were handled really well, like the connection between certain characters, the episode had a weird story organization that felt somewhat jumpy and disjointed. The great thing about Agent Carter though, is that being a mini-series, it keeps things short and sweet. What I mean is that the good completely outweighs the bad. “A Little Song and Dance,” was a great episode with a great cliffhanger, and my complaints are mere knit picks in the grand scheme. I cannot wait to see how this strong second season finishes up and would love if Agent Carter could somehow return for a third installment!
Agent Carter airs Tuesday nights, 9/8c on ABC.