'Agent Carter'? Marvelous
"Captain America" spinoff is a fun period piece.
* MARVEL'S AGENT CARTER
8 tonight, 6ABC.
If there's overlap between fans of PBS' "The Bletchley Circle" and Marvel's "Avengers," I hope it finds its way to ABC's new "Marvel's Agent Carter," whose two-hour premiere tonight is actually pretty marvelous.
Set in 1946, the "Captain America" spinoff stars Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, a secret agent still in mourning for her presumably lost love, Steve "Captain America" Rogers (Chris Evans) and dealing with some of the same adjustments as the "Bletchley" cryptographers (and a lot of other women who found their talents pushed aside once World War II was over).
Not that that stops her.
Dominic Cooper reprises his role as the arms dealer Howard Stark, who requests Peggy's help when he's accused of selling some of his "bad babies" abroad, but it's James D'Arcy, who plays Stark's routine-loving butler, who'll be her true sidekick.
The show has fun with the "Captain America" mythology - cutting to a radio program in which Peggy hears herself portrayed as a damsel in frequent distress - yet is more accessible to newbies than "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD."
ABC's employing "Agent Carter" as a seven-episode fill-in for "SHIELD," but this kick-ass heroine deserves an hour of her own.
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