Romance Is a Broken Numbers Game – newsdubai
The most confusing thing Hollywood has ever done is take people who are kind and objectively good-looking and try to convince us that there is something wrong with them. They work too hard – in a quirky way without any of the annoying side effects on their health – or they’re clumsy or they’re just undesirable in some way. This is something She-Hulk: Lawyer have flirted with in the past when it comes to Jen Walters (Tatiana Maslany), but it’s episode 4, “Is This Not Real Magic?” from the director Cat Coiro and author Melissa Hunterit’s finally going right.
Unlike previous weeks, this one feels more like an episode of a conventional legal comedy, with an A, B, and C storyline all nicely interwoven and mostly entirely contained within this episode. Yes, Wong (Benedict Wong) is back and seeks Jen’s help again, but this is where the connections to the greater MCU end, making “Is This Not Real Magic?” feels like a return to light-hearted form.
The episode shows that Jen has mostly recovered from her encounter with the Wrecking Crew last week and is looking forward to moving on. With Emil Blonsky’s (Tim Roth) With everything taken care of, her workload seems relatively light until Wong shows up looking to take on a magician—and expelled Kamar-Taj student—named Donny Blaze (Rhys Coiro) to trial for abuse of the Mystic Arts. Blaze has opened portals to other dimensions during his sparsely attended shows, one of which drew unsuspecting party girl Madisynn (Patty Guggenheim), who was then dropped off into Wong’s custody by a talking goat. That in itself isn’t too bad, but the fact that it ruined Wong’s TV night when Madisynn accidentally spoiled The sopranos? Unforgivable.
The case against Donny Blaze itself is pretty straightforward, and it’s a clear sign that Jen, and not the interdimensional ramifications of portal opening, is the main focus as the final battle against the demons crossing into our world takes a single scene and is not even the climax of the episode. That honor instead goes to Jen’s personal life.
After Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) finds out that Jen has made herself an online dating profile, she tries to help her best friend out by swiping right on every single man, claiming that when the matches come in, that’s where the real filtering begins. Which begs the question: If everyone is playing the “numbers game,” as Nikki put it, how effective is this system really? Not particularly, as it turns out, when Jen goes on a date with an inattentive “entrepreneur” with a grossly inflated sense of self (ah, dating in the 30s). Nikki suggests that Jen try making a profile as She-Hulk instead, but Jen rightly says that she’s had enough of playing She-Hulk at work and wants to be herself in her dating life.
This brings me back to my first point. I simply cannot fathom a world where I am expected to believe that an educated woman with a caring personality and a sharp sense of humor similar to what Maslany does is somehow undesirable. Three drops of blood for a shallow cut that turns a woman into a green giant, I would think. But this? My disbelief doesn’t stop there.
There is of course some truth to Nikki’s suggestion as Jen caves and creates a She-Hulk dating profile. The numbers game starts to work in her favor and Jen goes on a series of dates that range from bad, to worse, to suddenly too good to be true. The last of these is a pediatric oncologist (Michel Curiel), who is sweet, a good listener, and even patient enough to wait for Jen at her apartment when she leaves to help Wong put the visiting demons back where they belong. No matter how good a night they had together, when he’s faced with the sight of normal Jen in the morning, the hot doctor can’t get out of her apartment fast enough. Somehow, this rejection feels bleaker than half the life-or-death circumstances the MCU throws up on screen.
But Wong and Madisynn give us all hope, the unlikely friendship that could. When she shows up in the courtroom to help Jen stop Donny Blaze, she reacts so enthusiastically to the “Wongers” that it’s clear she’s bonded with the grumpy wizard. The feeling is clearly mutual when the two go out for frozen yogurt when court adjourns, and then later during the post-credits scene when she visits Kamar-Taj for TV night (This is usprobably because she keeps spoiling The sopranos).
The main plot ends with Titania (Jameela Jamil) is suing Jen for use of the name She-Hulk, which the superpowered influencer has trademarked, so this will likely come up next week. With things heading back to the world of superheroes, it was nice to take a short break for a more procedural episode — even if it does confirm the too-real awfulness of trying to date in your 30s.
Evaluation: ONE-
The first four episodes of She-Hulk: Lawyer now streaming on Disney+.