**This review contains some SPOILERS**
Watch the SPOILER review on YouTube
With likable characters and a lighthearted approach, “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” suffers from not being able to decide what type of show it should be, not to mention the hindrance of often distractingly-bad CG.
In its pilot episode, the show bills itself as a fun, lawyer comedy. But it then quickly jumps into a superhero origin tale. While showing how Jennifer Walters becomes She-Hulk is important to establish right of the bat, the series takes a while to get into a groove after this as it tries to find the balance between the journey to become a hero, the lawyer stuff and settling-up a threat that will need to be vanquished. After a few episodes, the show seems to focus on the wacky court case of the week and it feels like it’s all starting to gel. Unfortunately, Jennifer’s convoluted social life mostly falls flat. While it would be expected that her becoming She-Hulk would open up all kinds of doors for her and allow her to take advantage of her new-found confidence, she struggles just as much in her bombshell green form as her regular human guise. (Not to mention the superhero storyline just never really gets going or earns what little payoff is given.) And while the “big threat” story arc brewing behind the scenes is compelling, it’s a little too sporadic and really doesn’t stick the landing. For the most part, the show entertains because the humor works, especially the more meta moments, and the cast is strong.
Titiana Mislany nails it in the lead role. She has a likability factor that works the humorous scenes and the drams, not to mention addressing the audience directly. Of the supporting cast, both Nikki and Pug are likable and have great chemistry with each other and with Jennifer. While Nikki gets a decent amount of time to shine, Pug isn’t in the show all that much. (Which is disappointing because he adds a fun dynamic to the group.) The rest of the cast is mostly guest characters. Some are awesome, like Wong and Daredevil, and others just never really amount to much, like Titania and the Wrecking Crew.
Despite the series leaning towards comedy, there’s some decent action sequences. But what hurts these, and the show overall, is the visual effects. I know they did the best they could delivering a fully-CG character for a nine-episode TV series, but it was on the level of video game cutscenes. While it’s more excusable when showing She-Hulk’s face, which is supposed to show a beautiful woman with green skin (as opposed to more masculine characters that can rely on wrinkles and stubble to help sell the illusion), it’s also the clothing and the character movements that look fake. Quite often it’s bad enough to completely take you out of a scene because you know that the character isn’t there. (They do get it right sometimes, so it’s not all bad.)
Overall, She-Hulk is best when it’s not taken seriously, with some strong humor and likable characters dealing with wacky superhero-involved court cases. But poorly realized CG and both the superhero story and the “big bad” story falling flat keep the entire series feeling just average.
** out of *****