Agent Carter

Agent Carter, if you don’t know, follows Peggy Carter, Captain America’s Best Girl (when did we stop referring to people as the best girl? I like the ranking system this label implies), as she works for SSR which is some branch of the United States Intelligence community, maybe similar to the CIA?

The show itself is pretty intriguing for a number of reasons so let’s go through them in alphabetical order (beware: I take it as my duty as a writer to break the alphabet atleast once a day, so I hope you aren’t expecting anything other than a random assortment of pros and cons.

1) Agent Carter tackles the topic of gender equality in the 1940’s/50’s which, if you didn’t know, weren’t so good. Take for instance the fact that in the office Peggy works in there is a fella named Sousa who got shot in the leg (actually I don’t know if he got shot, fell down stairs, or just has a really bad muscle cramp, but he does perambulate with a crutch so deduce from that what you will).

But anyways, there is what everybody refers to as a handicapped individual in the ranks of SSR and the general thought process during that time period was he was intrinsically less valuable than a fully-able bodied individual. That carries it’s own questions of normative perspective for the time but lets focus on Peggy, because poor Peggy, in the eyes of the others, is worth less than even Sousa.

She’s good for getting sandwiches and coffee, but not much beyond that. It’s almost painfully offensive at times, but I think that’s a good thing. As a society we shouldn’t be able to forget our close-mindedness so quickly (it’s only been 60 years after all). There are still many groups out there who are treated as women were in the ’40’s and I imagine in 60 years our grandkids will be watching shows that don’t cast us in entirely pleasant light.

Eh, we’ll call that generational drift.

Anyways, what’s so great about Peggy Carter is that she doesn’t complain about being treated differently, doesn’t throw a fit and say “this isn’t fair” even when those open-minded males in her life adamentally point out that the men in her office will never take her seriously.

Peggy’s inevitable response is, “Well then it’s my job to change that.” As a character, Peggy is oozing “agentcy” (<–eh, that’s really bad wordplay and I apologize. I will self-administer fifty lashings now). Even in situations where Peggy has been stripped of power and control, somehow she wrestles it back without a word of complaint.

I love this type of character and I love this type of mindset. So, things aren’t going your way, bitching will change nothing, do something about it. Even if you fail atleast you gave the effort, and in many cases, that is enough.

2) I love the 1940’s authentic feel of the show. They take much liberty with technologies (which we’ll get into later) but as a whole, from costuming to props, the show just has this stylized vibe I’ve really been enjoying, which is unique because typically I’m not terribly fond of anything pre-1980’s stylistically speaking. But hey, that’s a reflection of when I was born more so than anything else.

3) Why am I numbering things again? I thought we were alphabetizing?

C) One of the things that this show wasn’t doing for me, however, was hitting me on an emotional level. They killed off a fairly prominent character after a couple episodes in and truth be told I had zero emotional reaction to it. He died in the line of duty which is usually enough to get me teary-eyed (what can I say, I’m a sucker for people suffering when they’re just doing their jobs), but this time? Nothing, zero, zilch.

And this isn’t an isolated incident, unfortunately. Throughout the show I’ve had a hard time connecting emotionally with any of the characters, Peggy Carter included. They allude to the fact that she misses Captain America and, what with being a strong willed woman in a male dominated profession, she can’t afford to let any emotion show lest she be labeled an “overly emotional woman”. I sympathize with that plight, but ultimately I have a hard time caring about most of the characters.

Now, let me do the old switcheroo and say this: Jarvis, the butler (who is from an acting standpoint the star of the show I think) has succeeded in getting me to care about his character, so there’s that.

Oof, that man makes a mean sandwich.

Also, Agent Thompson who up until the last episode was the biggest bigot of bigots has confessed some things, and done some things in the last episode, that make him entirely sympathetic and relatable. That they’ve taken the biggest jerk and done this is both interesting, and impressive. I’m excited to see how they develop this dynamic in the future.

Okay, I lied, Agent Sousa, the guy with a really bad leg cramp, also tugs on my heartstrings a bit, so maybe I was being a bit disingenuous when I said I was having a hard time connecting with any characters. I’m wishy-washy, leave me alone!

Please, don’t leave me! I need you!

Um…*cough cough*, okay forget that blatant display of male emotional fragility and lets move on.

My big complaint about this show, if there is one, is the technology. I like fantastical technology as much as the next guy, but some of these things are downright ludicrous. Now, to explain for those who have not watched the show, this is because Howard Stark, Tony Stark aka Iron Man’s dad, has had his cache of super-top-secret technological gizmos stolen. Every episode, therefore, deals with the quest to return this devices before they can usher in the next cold age or whatever.

Okay, fine, I’ll let this slide because it add to the drama, gives a sense of story and purpose, and who doesn’t like shiny, new toys.

So, what do you think? Have you watched Agent Carter and, if so, what are your thoughts? Get down to the comments and whisper some sweet-digital nothings into my cyber-ear.

Anthony