A History of Confusion

Last night's new Ms. Marvel bit off way more than it could chew, essentially trying to be Doctor Zhivago in the space of about thirty-five minutes. The resulting blend of political drama, romance, and bildungsroman ended up feeling more like an outline or trailer than a proper story in itself, an all too common problem with Disney+ shows.

The previous episode ended with Kamala, having travelled to the past, finding herself stranded amid a sea of refugees amid the British partition of India and Pakistan in the 1940s. Last night's episode backed up to give us a narration to explain how terrible the British were yet never actually managed to do so. The reality is much too complicated as the British departure occurred during a period of intense turmoil and tensions between Hindu and Muslim groups. We get some hint of this when we see Aisha (Mehwish Hayat) pleading with Hasan (Fawad Khan) to flee anti-Muslim bigots in India for the safety of Pakistan. So it was a choice, not a matter of the British forcing everyone onto trains?

The show starts to really stumble over itself, as though it doesn't quite know what it's passionate about, only knowing that it should be passionate, so we get a moment where Aisha is being chased by a British soldier for reasons that are never made clear. This is especially a problem because she kills him. When one of your heroines kills someone, you need to make it clear why. The moment feels like propaganda with its head cut off.

Then there's a meet-cute between Aisha and Hasan that accelerates quickly into their marriage. Both actors are attractive but come off as way too smarmy. There are too many close-ups and hardly any shots of the actors performing together in frame.

Hasan was also introduced trying to convince people that Gandhi wanted them to fight someone somehow, an especially unfortunate choice since the one thing everyone watching is likely to know about Gandhi is that he advocated methods of passive resistance. If this episode knew what it wanted to say, it would have felt really manipulative.

Finally, like a student cramming the night before the test, our star, Kamala, shows up and Iman Vellani once again seems bored and disengaged. The fairy tale at the train station is rushed through--somehow Kamala immediately identifies Aisha and knows where and when she is. Then she's inexplicably shot back to the present where she can speed through a resolution with her mother (Zenobia Shroff) who has no time to remember how she was afraid of her daughter getting involved in magic and fantasy.

What started as a charming series about a teenager getting superpowers seems to have been hijacked by too many big ideas competing for space. It's a shame because when this show was focused on Iman Vellani's earnest performance it was pretty good.

Ms. Marvel is available on Disney+.

Ms. Marvel Goes Casual

I wonder if the title of last night's new Ms. Marvel, "Seeing Red", was meant as a nod to all the show's similarities to Turning Red. But the episode actually had less in common with that Pixar movie than previous episodes did. At its best, "Seeing Red" is kind of cosy. At its lowest points, it was a bit muddled and inert.

And I'm really looking at you, action sequences. When the Clandestines show up during Kamala's meeting with the Red Daggers, director Shermeen Obaid-Chinoy showed no ability to keep the focus or clarity necessary to keep the audience engaged in an action sequence. Since it spilled out into the street and tried to incorporate a lot of elements, it seemed like maybe she was aiming for something like The Winter Soldier but it came off more like the infamously confusing fight scenes in Batman Begins. I guess Christopher Nolan is good company to be in.

Another problem with the episode is that the normally charming Iman Vellani seemed downright bored for most of it. She seemed about as engaged with the action as the audience. And, sure, you can blame Vellani for it. Maybe as a professional actress she should be able to use her imagination to get herself into any emotional state. But I blame the director. This was the first episode to be directed by Obaid-Chinoy whose extensive filmography is primarily composed of documentaries. Which would explain why she doesn't know how to work with actors. A young actress like Vellani might be particularly in need of guidance from a director.

At nineteen years of age, maybe Vellani's too old to be considered a child actor but I think she's young enough for some of the same issues to apply. The best child performances in films are from directors who manipulate children to get genuine reactions rather than leaving it up to their imaginations. Vellani may be something of a method performer who needs something tangible and familiar to work with and that's why she comes off as much more interesting chatting with a boy at school than running down a street in Thailand.

I mean Pakistan. But it's really Thailand because once again, despite trying to cache in on cultural identity, Disney has refused to use an actual location. It's not quite as bad as when they used Atlanta to stand in for Africa in Black Panther but it's still disappointing, particularly as part of a consistent pattern.

I did find some of the scenes with Kamala's family kind of cosy. It was nice after a busy day of work to watch a show that didn't want me to get too excited.

Ms. Marvel is available on Disney+.