Review - "Agent Carter" premiere! Does Marvel succeed again?

Agent Carter finally premiered on ABC and fans seem to be loving it! (And with good reason!) Agent Carter takes Marvel fans back to 1946 to reveal an untold chapter in Peggy Carter's (Haley Atwell) life as she works for the SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve) as an agent. Brilliantly, the show starts off with a brief glimpse of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, crashing the HYDRA plane as seen at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. At several points throughout the premiere the show flashes back to the film and although it wasn't always needed it was a nice touch for the fans to remind them how connected Agent Carter will be to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Everything that fans loved about Peggy Carter is present in this show. She's intelligent, tough, resourceful, and fully capable. The main pull of this show will be one single storyline which will revolve around Peggy Carter helping Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) clear his name of any wrong doing and to find certain weapons and weapon plans that were stolen from him and have made their way into the world and onto the black market.

The show's cast is rounded out with some solid actors and actresses including Shea Whigham (Broadwalk Empire), Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill), Kyle Bornheimer (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse), James D’Arcy (Cloud Atlas), and Lyndsy Fonseca (Nakita).

One surprising thing is that the male agents at the SSR seem to have fallen more into the sterotype of "dumb cop/detective" than skilled SSR agents. I know this is done to make Peggy Carter shine but it still feels a bit off. The only one who doesn't fall into this category is Enver Gjokaj who seems competent and wants to back up Peggy at the SSR. Lyndsy Fonseca does a marvelous job as Angie Martinelli, an endearing diner waitress who wants to become friends with Carter. James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis is a delight to watch. Fans will know that this is the butler that Tony Stark should have had in the MCU but Marvel didn't want him to appear so similar to Batman's Alfred. It is great that they gave him to Tony's dad and that could be why he named his computer Jarvis. Jarvis as Carter's partner in crime is proving to be a lot of fun.

A few mental notes that I made throughout the premiere was that at the beginning it was cool to see Carter walking through New York City in her blue coat and red hat among the sea of gray suits but it just seemed unrealistic that she was the only splash of color. Visually appealing, yes, but it took me out of the moment. Later on we get to hear Hayley Atwell do two different American accents (one in each episode) and when I heard the first accent I thought it was good for a cover but it did seem like she was doing an accent as opposed to it being her natural voice. You can hear the differences in some of the subtle tones in her voice. Her "r"s seem a little pushed rather than having a natural feel. However, then she did another accent in the second episode and it seemed a little smoother and more natural. Either she was actually trying to do a different voice or the accent just got a lot better with practice on set. All the same, it was still a good American accent. The one thing that I did think was a little "meh" upon watching was Atwell's crying at the death of her roommate. I don't know why but it didn't come across as realistic to me. I loved seeing actor Kevin Heffernan (Rod Farva from Super Troopers) in the show. That was a fun little appearance for him. Jarvis is becoming a fun character as he seems to be getting into the whole action packed life style that Carter has dragged him into and there's a good amount of humor coming from his character. We got a fun look at the actors and sound effects on radio shows of the time creating a Captain America radio show. However, I found it a little odd that they went back to it so many times throughout the premiere. Lastly, the show wraps up nicely in the premiere episode in what appears to be Jarvis watching Carter for Stark to possibly recruit her to help create S.H.I.E.L.D..

The Easter eggs in this series is going to be incredible and we have already seen many. The scientist Vanko of course if the father of Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, from Iron Man 2, Leviathon being a mysterious, villainous group, and references to Project Rebirth (the project that created Captain America). This of course will only be the start.

In the end I believe this show will be a complete success as it seems like it will have a very tight story with a superb cast. Deciding to make this a 8 part single story may be the best route for this show and it'll separate it from being compared to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. too much. I'm excited to see where this story goes and how it will all unfold. One thing is for sure, Peggy Carter is one badass character that is here to stay!