Review 582: Agent Carter (Season 2)

 

Agent Carter

Dedicated to the fight against new Atomic Age threats in the wake of World War II, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) journeys from New York City to Los Angeles for her most dangerous – and bizarre – assignment yet. East Coast SSR Chief Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) sends Peggy to work with newly appointed West Coast SSR Chief Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) to explore a strange homicide involving a body that glows and emanates cold.

                                                                                                           Upon her arrival, Peggy reunites with Howard Stark’s (Dominic Cooper) butler and her loyal partner-in-crime, Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy), who welcomes her to the Hollywood life and sets her up at Stark’s mansion. There, Peggy meets Ana (Lotte Verbeek), Jarvis’ free-spirited and devoted wife to whom she takes an immediate liking.
                                                                                                                   Eventually, the odd investigation leads Peggy to quirky yet charming scientist Jason Wilkes (Reggie Austin), who quickly becomes an ally — and sparks fly. As Peggy continues to find clues in this peculiar case, she is introduced to the machinations of Whitney Frost (Wynn Everett), a movie starlet, brilliant physicist and the true power behind husband and senatorial candidate Calvin Chadwick (Currie Graham). Calvin, a politician who will do anything to get to the top, befriends Vernon Masters (Kurtwood Smith), a veteran of the War Department with a keen understanding of how to work the system. Peggy soon discovers that corruption seemingly runs deep, making it hard to distinguish the good versus the bad. 

Directors Lawrence Trilling, David Platt, Craig Zisk, Metin Huseyin & Jennifer Getzinger's direction is stylish, the cinematography is splendid and captures the majestic and resplendent look of 1947 LA. 

One of the seasons major improvements is arguably in the "Big Bad" Most people pursue acting because it's the their passion, but all Whitney ever wanted to be was a scientist but her verbaly abusive mother told her that the only thing she has as a woman is her looks. So she used that, got out to Hollywood, pursued acting and on thing after another came to her but deep down all she wanted to be was a scientist but could never seriously due to her gender.
It's sad because she wants to do good but she ways and methods are so different. One of those ways is using her husband Calvin Chadwick’s (Currie Graham) power. She will use whatever it is, whoever is in her way and whatever she can find to get her to where she needs to be. Whitney sees Cal as her entrance into the Council of Nine and into the group of men who are going to help her realise her vision.
She realises that Zero Matter is something that can change the world.
Peggy keeping the peace and keeping the world free from the terror that Whitney wants to inflict upon the world puts them at odds with each other when, in fact, they’re so similar because they’re both in mens’ world with Peggy working at the SSR and Whitney trying to be a scientist. But ultimately, they’re very 
different women who go about it in very different ways.

Reggie Austin also made a fine and likeable addition to the main cast playing Dr. Jason Wilkes

You can't go wrong with Kurtwood Smith as your villain and he certainly deliverd as the silmy bastard Vernon Masters.

It's a shame that Agent Carter got cut short after just two seasons and 18 episodes because it felt like its own sparate entity from the rest of the MCU and the huge gap from the shows setting to where Steve finds her in Captain America: The Winter Soldier makes for endless storytelling possibilities.