Script
[Intro]
Lily Kate Witcher: Hi, my name is Lily Kate Witcher.
Nellie Errett: And I’m Nellie Errett.
Lily Kate Witcher: And we are staff writers for the Northwood Omniscient.
Nellie Errett: In today’s podcast we will be discussing a new hit tv show in the Marvel franchise: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. We both watched the show in full length and would like to share our opinions. Warning- There will be spoilers!
Lily Kate Witcher: Okay, so the first episode of the show feels mainly like exposition, so I think we can use that plotline to explain what is going on in the show. The last time we saw these characters was in Avengers: Endgame which came out back in 2019. For context, in Avengers: Endgame, half the population was snapped out of existence in an event called “The Blip”. Luckily, the Avengers were able to bring back everyone, but as we will see in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it’s not without unforeseen difficulties.
Nellie Errett: The first episode opens with Sam Wilson, who is the Falcon. Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, has decided to give up the mantle of Captain America that was passed onto him by Steve Rogers. The Falcon is beginning a new story, assisting the U.S. Military on missions and struggling to work with his sister Sarah to overcome financial troubles.
Lily Kate Witcher: Now for the other half of the titular duo: the Winter Soldier. Bucky Barnes, played by Sebastian Stan, was formerly a brainwashed assassin known as the Winter Soldier for the evil group HYDRA, but he has now overcome that brainwashing. However, he is still dealing with the trauma and nightmares from his years of killing. He was court-ordered to see a therapist, and that isn’t going well, to say the least. His attempts to make amends are falling short, and he spends his days largely alone.
Nellie Errett: Throughout the show, we will see the Falcon and the Winter Soldier come together to fight the Flag-Smashers: a radical anti-nationalist group who want to form a world without borders. The Flag-Smashers take a violent approach to enforce their ideals, and Sam and Bucky are trying to stop them from hurting any more people.
Lily Kate Witcher: Now that we’ve sort of explained the premise of the show, let’s get into our opinions.
Nellie Errett: So, Lily Kate has seen pretty much all the Marvel movies, and then I’ve seen like two or three. Not seriously, I just watched them because people wanted to watch them with me.
Lily Kate Witcher: So you haven’t actually followed along with the Marvel universe that much?
Nellie Errett: Not really, no.
Lily Kate Witcher: So was this hard for you to follow along [with]? Could you understand what was happening?
Nellie Errett: I could tell there were questions. I came up to you, and I asked a bunch of questions, but the basic plot I could understand. But I’ve seen the first Captain America movie.
Lily Kate Witcher: Yeah, I feel like that and Avengers: Endgame were probably the most important ones to watch if you were going to know what was happening here. Obviously, a lot of Marvel movies don’t really have that much to do with this show in particular, so I feel like watching the Captain America movies and watching Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame would be a good way to set up if you haven’t watched the rest of the Marvel movies, and you wanted to watch this show.
Lily Kate Witcher: Okay, so who was your favorite character?
Nellie Errett: This is a hard one for me, but I definitely know everyone loved Sebastian Stan’s character [The Winter Soldier]. I did actually like the Falcon. There was a part where he talked to Karli, the lead Flag-Smasher, and he was being compassionate and empathetic. I actually really liked that.
Lily Kate Witcher: I agree. I love both the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I think watching this show actually made me like the Falcon more than I had before. I always liked him, but he was never a character that I could understand or connect to, and I think watching this show was a really good display of his character. I’ve always loved the Winter Soldier, so obviously I still liked him in this.
Nellie Errett: And I really liked the dynamic between the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. You could see their humor, like kind of bouncing off of each other.
Lily Kate Witcher: And that’s something we’ve seen in other Marvel movies, and you can tell the actors as well have such good chemistry when you watch their interviews and things. They do have such a good way of bouncing off of each other, and it’s so entertaining to watch. I think they did a good job of bringing it out in their characters as well. They can make jokes with each other and insult each other, but then they also have those deep heart-to-heart conversations where they help each other out.
Nellie Errett: Yeah, because they were making fun of each other at some points, like “Oh, he’s not my partner”, but by the end you’re sobbing for them. I cried quite a few times during this show, I’m not going to lie.
Lily Kate Witcher: Okay, so to branch off from that: the acting in this show, I thought was so good.
Nellie Errett: And what about the two scenes that you really liked?
Lily Kate Witcher: Yeah, there were two scenes in particular. The first one I want to talk about is a flashback scene, where the Winter Soldier is in Wakanda, and he is overcoming his brain-washing. Watching this scene, especially for a Marvel fan, is something we never saw before, and it was so interesting to watch. Sebastian Stan acting in that scene is so good. Another scene that I think you also mentioned, was the one where the Falcon (Sam) is talking to a Black super-soldier who no one knew existed, [named] Isaiah Bradley. So Sam is having this conversation with him about being a Black man in America, and about being Captain America when there are people who are going to hate him for it because he is Black. The way that scene was done, I thought it was very moving.
Nellie Errett: I think it kind of brings up the issues of being a Black man in America in the [20th Century] and the 21st Century, and the struggles with each of those.
Nellie Errett: I would definitely recommend this to anybody who wants to watch it. If you’ve seen Marvel movies beforehand though, that would probably make it easier for you to understand the different easter eggs or little hints throughout the show that Marvel fans would understand. But, I also really enjoyed it, having not seen much before, so I would recommend this to anybody.
Lily Kate Witcher: Yeah, and I would definitely recommend this to any Marvel fan who hasn’t already watched it. I think this is a great addition to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You get to see a lot from these characters that we already know and love and really just get to expand on their stories, and I think this show addresses some really important issues especially about race. And, yeah I would definitely recommend it.
Lily Kate Witcher: So feel free to check out the Falcon and the Winter Soldier out now on Disney Plus. Thanks for listening to our podcast on the newest Marvel show, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Be sure to check out nhsomniscient.com for more great content from our student staff.
[End Podcast]
