Well, my father served in WWII and my mother was just two year younger than him, so they were of that generation, so I have some idea how people of that generation thought.
Also, a bunch of scientists at Los Alamos are likely to be a bit more open-minded about women’s roles when brainpower is the most important part of their job, as opposed to a bunch of government agents who spend an unrealistic amount of time getting into fights and shootouts.
My mom lost her family at a young age, went through some shit, got her nurse’s license and joined the military as a lieutenant just a few years after this show’s time period. She never bitched about sexism. She did regret smoking like a fiend for awhile. The sexism wasn’t a big deal to her, and she negotiated it just fine. It was an exciting time where she could go out and do what she wanted, like a big girl. Go mom.
Mom wasn’t the “poor me I’m a victim” type.
Constructed? Yes. Howard Hughes engineered a bra for Jane Russell in The Outlaw (1943) that made her a star. Padded? Um, use Google. Neither Russell nor Atwell need any padding. At all.
“Now is Not the End”
Directed by Louis D’Esposito
Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
The episode/series opens with the closing scenes of Captain America: The First Avenger. (Nice job, Markus and McFeely, getting paid twice for writing that!). Another scene (re)introducing Howard Stark flies past as Agent Carter prepares her breakfast. Carter has finished her breakfast and is folding up the Murphy Bed as her roommate comes in talking about the returning GIs taking over jobs in her factory.
Every time someone coughs in the ‘40s they have TB. That’s a statistical truth. Just look at the roommate - she announces the obvious after her cough. If I were to make a prediction I would say this entire series will revolve around Agent Carter caring for her TB infected roommate, while fending off chauvinists.
Agent Carter goes to work at NY Bell CO. looking badass and stylish with Captain America colored outfit. She stands out a bit amongst the throngs of Men in Gray Flannel Suits.
There is a red alert out of DC at SSR. The boss tries to keep Carter answering phones, but she cleverly outsmarts him by having the calls rerouted to the briefing room. It turns out the red alert involves watching a newsreel about Howard Stark and then discussing the fact that he has become a fugitive. I’m not sure that the newsreel was especially informative - I have to think they have files with more information - but it sure was entertaining!
After the meeting Agent Krzeminski has something lewd to say about Carter, Agent Souza attempts to defend her. Krzeminski proves that he is both sexist and not very sensitive to war heroes with crippled legs. But, it gives Carter and Sousa a minute to bond. Of course, that makes us all feel worse when Sousa is led the wrong way on cases by Carter.
Carter goes to an automat and meets up with Angie, a fast talking waitress who is not her roommate (I was confused at first glance. I hope I’m not the only one. It took me a second to realize they were different people.) Why does an automat need a waitress? I guess it was half diner. half automat. I didn’t know that’s how those things worked. Anyway, while there, she is called to the alley by a note written on a napkin. Listen. It turns out to be Jarvis, Howard Stark’s butler and for some reason he introduces himself in the creepiest way possible (he makes up for it later with perfect butler formality, and descriptions of a stodgy home life). Stark wants Carter to help him prove his innocence, and find all of the bad weapons that were stolen from him. Her first mission is to get the formula for an inventive explosive that can blow up entire city in little cool looking bomb globes. The Green Goblin would be proud. Oh yeah, never mind, that’s Sony.
Carter goes into work and misleads Souza into thinking that that his perfectly brilliant and reasonable way to hunt down Stark is wrong. Poor Carter having to lie to her only friend, poor Sousa could be a hero! She eavesdrops on a meeting amongst the slovenly chauvinists and finds out who is buying Stark’s secrets.
A blonde haired non accented Carter shows up at the weapon buyer’s club. She applies special agent lipstick and goes in to talk to Raymond. The lipstick works well. While he is knocked out she uses another neat spy gadget to open the safe and find the bomb globe. (Which, judging from the glowing light might be what was in the briefcase from Pulp Fiction.) She calls Jarvis to find out what to do with the bomb. He’s cooking dinner and listening to Benny Goodman, but takes a second to read Stark’s notes to her. He gives her the formula to stop the explosion, and hangs up to greet his wife. Meanwhile, the chauvinist posse has entered the club to do their own investigation, at the same time as a mysterious assassin. Carter uses a stapler to make a quick getaway and dances with a lech to avoid her coworkers.
Carter rushes home to find her TB infected roommate sleeping. After a short conversation she foreshadows Magyver and deactivates the bomb with common household ingredients found in any single woman’s bathroom. Unfortunately, Miss TB dies prematurely of her terrible disease by being shot in the head and a fight with the assassin from the nightclub ensues. (We find out in this fun fight, that the assassin has had his voice box cut out, and he can survive falls out of buildings.)
After Jarvis commiserates with Carter about her roommate at the automat/diner they go to Stark Industries to talk to Dr. Vanko about the bomb. This leads Carter back to work to look at an old filebox and reminisce about Captain America (or Steve, if you’re nasty). She picks up a vita ray detector in the Captain America file box.
The mute assassin uses a super cool typewriter/razor internet device to communicate with his boss, Leviathan. His orders are to kill Agent Carter. I’m guessing he didn’t wait to kill her roommate, he didn’t want to risk catching TB, apparently.
In the Roxxon Refinery Carter has Jarvis’ limited help to find the source of the globe bombs. She fights her way thorugh the factory and comes across the scientist in charge, and another person without the use of a voice box. This guy has a device that allows him to talk. He chooses to talk after opening the dairy truck filled with globe bombs. He uses the threat of those bombs to escape, and Carter is left to run away into Jarvis’ speeding car. They escape the factory just as it blows up.
Back at work Carter’s boss and the head chauvinist are discussing the fact that there was a blonde at the nightclub (Carter) who is responsible for everything. Looks like they will be searching for the blonde (Carter) all season long.
A rude diner patron abuses Carter’s waitress friend, and Carter takes her righteous anger out on him. Answering his rudeness with a well aimed fork, and even better aimed threats. He takes the message as intended, exiting quickly while leaving a large tip. Jarvis watches Carter leave as he talks Stark through making a martini, and adds that Stark is up to something bigger (more sinister? Probably not.) than Carter knows about.
The first half of the premier was really good. I liked the casting, each actor was terrific. I don’t think any of them put in a bad performance, they even wasted the always delightful James Urbaniak in a small role. I think Hayley Atwell is more than strong enough to carry the show successfully, and Kyle Bornheimer is charming enough to pull off the sexist lout character, without hating him. And, Jarvis? Perfectly cast. Can’t wait to see where that character goes. I also like how effetively the show was able to use the 1940s setting, but never in distracting ways. Everything was really well done, dialog, cars, architecture, language, even the high tech gadgets were very 1940ish.
I liked the opening episodes a lot. I’m really happy that they made this a limited series; this really allows them the freedom to create a tight short season where every moment matters. I think over the course of a long season the novelty of a show set in the past might wear past it’s welcome. I doubt I will have a chance to post a recap of the second episode, or the third one; I’m about to take a vacation.
[ul]
[li]“You’re really so much better at this sort of thing.” “What sort of thing is that, Agent Thompson, the alphabet? I can teach you. Let’s start with words beginning with A”[/li][li]“You’re new to espionage aren’t you?” “Far from it. last summer I found the cook pocketing the good spoons”[/li][li]Carter is not above using the hint of mensturation to advance her goals.[/li][li]Maybe we shouldn’t have spent all of that time changing our clothes. [/li][li]Jarvis handing Carter a handkerchief from his booth.[/li][li]“I’m taking a pretty big risk doing this. The least you could do is smile.”[/li][/ul]
My great uncle when I was growing up didn’t have a voicebox because he’d had throat cancer (from all the smoking back to the WWII era). His voder thingy had a plastic tube or extension he put into his mouth to supply vibration which he modulated with his tongue position and mouth shape. It was pretty hard to understand him, especially when I was a kid. I actually think the press-against-the-voicebox model like the guy here was using is more recent technology (that apparently creates a more understandable voice).
Agree to disagree on Atwell for now, but I’m with you on this. Have fun with the timeframe, and force yourself to get creative with the restrictions therein!
So I went back and watched the “Agent Carter” One-shot over the weekend, which must take place in the same time frame as this series (in fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if they air it as the finale of the series), and two opinions held by the other agents were very clearly stated:
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The kind of fieldwork agents did was not suitable for women, so whenever a call came in for agents, Carter got left behind. They did let her do decryption and analysis work.
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The only reason she was still an agent at all was because she had been Cap’s girlfriend. The head agent clearly thought she wasn’t qualified for the job.
Electrolarynx - apparently developed in the 1940s, so it’s at lease plausible in the show. We had a neighbor who had one when I was a kid, and it was pretty much as understandable as Leet Brannis was.
I was just thinking, if they decide to do a 2nd season full series or mini-series like this one–I’d really like for them to do 50s Cap–the commie-buster angry flawed version. Carter would obviously be interested in them mucking around with Cap’s legacy.
That was Lyndsy Fonseca’s role in Nikita.
That would actually be a good way to get Patriot into the movies. Most of the other Young Avengers could be slid right in (Stature even shows up in Ant-Man as a kid), but “Captain America: the First Avenger” didn’t leave much space to squeeze in a secret supersoldier program tested on black men. Having 50s Cap be a black guy would be quite interesting, too.
I think in practice “Truth” was a TERRIBLE story, but the concept was great. I REALLY wanted Agents of Shield to deal with that and thought James Gunn’s character was going to be a “Josiah X” MCU stand-in. It could still work in the MCU though.
Made it weird to hear he had a wife here whereas in the comics he was boning Aunt May for a while. :eek:
I get it, different universes and all, it just was a weird change for him to be husbandly. Not as weird as for him to be an AI, though. 
I think “Jarvis’” wife may become a running gag like Norm’s wife, where we never see her. Or a “wife” is just part of his cover.
It’s Maris!