Main cast: Samuel L Jackson (Nick Fury), Ben Mendelsohn (Talos), Kingsley Ben-Adir (Gravik), Charlayne Woodard (Priscilla), Killian Scott (Pagon), Samuel Adewunmi (Beto), Christopher McDonald (Chris Stearns), Katie Finneran (Rosa), Emilia Clarke (G’iah), Olivia Colman (Sonya Falsworth), and Don Cheadle (James Rhodes/War Machine)
Director: Ali Selim
Promises begins with a recap of the whole scenario, probably because the screenwriters realize too late that not everyone of the 29 people tuning in had watched and remembered every detail of that Captain Marvel movie.
Basically, Nick promised the Skrull refugees on Earth that he and Captain Marvel would find a world to relocate them to, but in the meantime, they will assume new human identities and help keep Earth safe. Safe from whom? When is it a great idea to recruit aliens that morph into and steal the memories of anyone they come across when these people barely know anything about those aliens?
Ah yes, the state of present day MCU, people.
Now with Captain Marvel doing who knows what because nobody cares about her character at all, and Nick did who knows what else in the last 20 years, these days some disillusioned Skrulls under the leadership of Gravik plan to do their “I’ll pose as everyone!” thing and create enough havoc to cause humans to wipe out one another and let them take over.
Believe it or not, in this episode, these people are still doing the back story exposition thing while moving the plot by an inch, or maybe two. Yup, I guess these people are going to draw things out to fill up six episodes, even when the draggy pace and tone and even plot elements all make Secret Invasion feel like a low budget callback to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Still, the pace may be slow, but I still feel interested to find out what happens next. This is a refreshing 180 from the previous Disney+ MCU abomination, Disney’s valiant effort to demonstrate why overturning Roe v Wade would be a dire mistake, as I already wanted the POS show to end 30 minutes into the first episode.
Also, there is a villain, an arc, and hopefully, maybe there will be a decent character journey for Nick Fury down the line—things that keep me somewhat interested to keep watching even if what I see here isn’t anything particularly memorable or exciting or even new.
Oh, and Nick Fury gets some nookie, so… yay?
At any rate, the bar has been set so low for the current day MCU that an otherwise forgettable-so-far series appear awesome in comparison to the recent dung shows that stunk up the MCU brand. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I suppose I’ll find out as the season continues.
