Marvel's Agent Carter: The Life of the Party

"You look terrible."

"Says the woman with the rebar through her abdomen..."

Taking a chance to catch up with Agent Carter; bear with me. My wife has already seen this and I'm not around much at home on my own these days. I'll get it all done, trust me.

Anyway, we get an entertaining episode, if a but perfunctory, as a still injured Peggy is forced to rely on the decidedly dodgy Dottie in order to get a dark matter-infused tissue sample from Whitney Frost, which is rather urgently needed if Jason is to avoid losing physical form completely. It's a funny and eventful episode, just one whose function in the arc is perhaps just a little too obvious. You can see the joins a bit.

Ominously, Peggy's boss is informed by the powers that be that he's not simply to sack her but to utterly destroy and discredit her; none too nice times are ahead. And Whitney's speech towards the council goes unexpectedly- their attempt to kidnap and use her utterly fails and she takes over, killing those who stand in her way- including her husband. The episode ends with the season's big bad looking frightfully powerful.

There's room for the human element, too, as a guilt-ridden Peggy learns why Sousa's engagement has been broken off. I suspect dark times lie ahead.

Marvel's Agent Carter: The Atomic Job

"I like pie. Pie is good."

This could be the best episode yet. The decision to up the comedy quotient for themselves season is really paying dividends, and it's mostly down to both the superb scripting and the excellent comedy acting from all involved.

We begin with the suggestion that possessing Jane Scott's body could help make him tangible and, given that we end with him less tangible than ever, I suspect that's where the next episode is headed.

This episode, though, begins with a rather sweet scene in which Sousa proposes to Violet- and she says yes. Which makes things rather bittersweet when she realises, at the end, that he moved to LA to get away from his feelings for Peggy. What will they do now?

But the episode, mostly, is a brilliantly designed and executed farce where Team Whitney and Team Peggy both race to get to some nukes, with the stakes being somewhat high. Along the way we get a nice bit of feminism from Peggy, showing that Rose, being fully trained, is better used in the field than as a receptionist. And the rather amusing trope of lab scientists with chips on shoulders continues. The best scene, though, involves Peggy, a memory inhibitor and a creepy old lecher.

The development of Whitney is interesting too; the dramatic showdown between her and Peggy makes clear that she doesn't want to be "cured", and her bullying of Cal begins to tip over into domestic abuse. Here we have an increasingly violent reaction against the tyranny of patriarchy. The themes add an extra level to an extraordinary series.

Marvel's Agent Carter: Smoke & Mirrors

"You can be whatever you want."

At last we have an episode which is directly, rather than implicitly, about the misogyny and glass ceilings present in 1947 and, let us not be complacent, today. It does this by means of a structural parallel between young Peggy (Margaret Elizabeth Carter!) and young Whitney Frost (Aggie) as they grow up as girls and young women in a man's world.

Peggy never was "ladylike" as a girl but learns to confirm, turning down the chance of a really cool job with the SOE to marry a dull bloke, be a housewife, be boring. It's her brother (Edward Seymour from The Tudors) who convinces her otherwise, albeit in large part by getting shot, and she never looks back.

Aggie grew up in much more humble circumstances, her genius-level intellect irrelevant as her mother shagged a creepy bloke ("Uncle Bud") in order to keep above watt. The harsh lesson she learns is that no one cares about women's' brains, just their looks, and she exploits this to become a Hollywood star.

Meanwhile, Sousa, Peggy and Jarvis discover that the whole conspiracy extends deep into the establishment, deep enough to (officially) stymie their investigation. Now it's just the three of them, although Sousa is justly annoyed at not being included from the start.

The attraction between Peggy and Wilkes continues to grow ("Still, it must be very... frustrating!") as the script acknowledges, without explaining, the mystery of how he can survive without food. He feel tired, drawn to give up and be taken to... where? Meanwhile, Whitney reveals to Calvin exactly what has happened to her. This season just gets better and better.

Marvel's Agent Carter: Better Angels

"Have you quite finished fannying about?"

So Dr. Jason Wilkes isn't dead after all. Oops. He merely lacks physical substance, which is concerning. How can he eat? Does he need to? Does he get hungry or thirsty? Does he get horny? He and Peggy are certainly getting on well these days, not good news for the very married Jarvis, who holds a torch for Peggy with his employer's blessing.

Ah yes, the magnificent Mr. Howard Stark, who turns up like a hurricane and immediately takes charge. Wit, ladies' man and scientific genius, he oozes charisma and coolness, effortlessly dispelling all by himself the trope that scientist are nerds. He is, in effect, exactly like his son but in the 1940s. He's also pleasingly non-racist, bonding very quickly with Jason.

Stark's cool cleverness allows Peggy to get very sneaky and cook inside a snooty and dodgy posh club, but her and Sousa's corrupted boss isn't having it. They're being taken off the case and Peggy summoned back to New York. Whitney isn't happy either: her infection is spreading and she's just killer her well-connected lover, Calvin. Oops. Another excellent episode.

Oh, and this episode's geekgasm is Kid Colt! All we need now is the Rawhide Kid and things will be perfect.

Grimm: Bears Will Be Bears

"The only stains we've come across are wine and whoopee..."

This episode is based on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, obviously, and the thought occurs to me: surely there are only so many Grimm's fairy tales, and just a handful of well-known ones? How will they avoid running out soon? It'll be interesting to follow this line of thought as the series goes on, methinks.

This episode is relatively meh; the couple's three teenage biker bear sons remind me of the wolf pack from Twilight: New Moon, especially with the Native American angle, and that's not a film I'm fond of. This is also the point where I'm beginning to notice the suspiciously large amount of product placement that there is for Apple stuff; the place seems to be drowning in iPods and iPhones.

The CGI bears are... interesting. The special effects in Grimm are nicely restrained and budget-friendly, though, with people's faces only briefly shown with CGI so we get the message about what they are, but that's it.

The backstory is interesting, though: Aunt Marie dies in only the second one. Our Luke Skywalker seems to have lost his Obi-Wan. And things are afoot: the police captain (American police ranks are so very military!) is plotting with the nasty woman from last episode. Two episodes in and we already have an arc.