Main cast: Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel), Matt Lintz (Bruno), Yasmeen Fletcher (Nakia), Zenobia Shroff (Muneeba), Rish Shah (Kamran), Samina Ahmed (Sana), Fawad Khan (Hasan), Nimra Bucha (Najma), Mehwish Hayat (Aisha), Adaku Ononogbo (Fariha), Farhan Akhtar (Waleed), and Aramis Knight (Red Dagger)
Director: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Seeing Red allows Ms. Marvel to pick up some steam again as Kamala goes for a change of scenery all the way to Karachi. It’s not full steam ahead, but at least it chugs along a little more compared to the previous standstill filler episode.

I personally find it odd how Kamala’s family wouldn’t even let her attend a party before, but now they are letting her and her perpetual Pikachu face run around wild in Karachi, but hey, it’s like how every self-declared progressive show these days need to have something, er, “ethnic” to show off how authentic the culture is being portrayed in it.

Hence, there are even more vibrant colors as these folks descend upon an ultra-shiny, super sparkling Karachi like it’s just been built a few days ago in a Hollywood back lot or something. We can’t portray non-American places as dusty or dirty after all, that will be so culturally insensitive to poor dark-skinned people that look to these Hollywood progressives for salvation and validation.

As expected, the local Tuxedo Rose wannabe Red Dagger gives the occasional finger to Kamala viewing Pakistan through Americanized lens, but Kamala defends herself because ultimately, the American viewpoint of the other cultures of the world is all that matters.

That explains why Indian actors like Farhan Akhtar are guest-starring in an episode set in Karachi, I suppose, and why some “Pakistani accents” sound suspiciously like Indian accents. Brown people, pshaw, they are all the same, right?

Also, the portrayal of “trendy” cultures of supposed present day Pakistan is pretty dated. The script seems to have been written by people that had never been to that country in the last 10 years!

Then the action kicks in during the second half and it’s low budget, cornball fight scenes that seem to made by and starring people that have never done such scenes before.

You know, this is probably unkind, but can Iman Vellani show any other facial expression aside from Pikachu? I know, she’s a newbie as far as acting is concerned, so there is always room to grow, but the directors of this show are not doing the poor dear any favors. Pretty much almost everyone else is acting rings around her, and I can only feel sorry for her.

The fifty shades of the same startled Pikachu face only makes Kamala feel like a one-note cartoon character, and also, someone should have provided the dear with a superhero outfit that isn’t just some super cheap Zorro mask probably lifted from the birthday party of a crew member’s toddler.

At any rate, oh yes, so we’re almost reaching the pinnacle of the season, when we finally acknowledge and understand that Kamala is the most awesome teen in the universe. At least it has been a colorful Bollywood ride, I suppose, even if the main character and her family are supposed to be Pakistani.