What frustrates me about Falcon & Winter Soldier is that it could've been an excellent thriller. The bones were there: Mackie and Stan's acting was excellent, Zemo's return made sense, and John Walker made a terrifying debut. However, the show just fumbles the execution towards the end, especially with the reveal of who the Power Broker was. It does make sense for her character to feel wronged by the government, but it just doesn't feel right. I will say that Flag Smasher death at the end of episode 4 was a jaw-dropping moment for me and one of the most brutal in the MCU.

While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has great action and an engaging character arc for Bucky, it's ultimately brought down by poor pacing, the unsympathetic nature of its villains, and for how it makes zero effort to change the status quo, despite how much it revolved around that being a necessity. It's far too easy to understand why it's seen as the weakest MCU show, and it will be a miracle if Captain America: Brave New World can retroactively save it.

It certainly isn't the strongest MCU Disney+ title, but the buddy cop aspect of the relationship between Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in their respective roles was something that needed to be expanded beyond some brief crossovers.

And beyond that, this series raises important questions for the world of the MCU that raise a mirror to society at large. Yes, the central premise is around an imaginary catastrophe that wiped out half of all life in the universe before they suddenly reappeared five years later, but the show resonates with an audience that lived through the Global Pandemic and remained stuck inside for months or years.

The pacing and energy of the episodes could have been stepped up, but it was a solid entry, and managed to do a lot of the groundwork so other MCU projects could move beyond the blip.

I love the dynamic between Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in the MCU. That is largely what makes this show work. The storyline itself didn't grip me in the way some of the other MCU shows on Disney+ did. This series should have been a mystery or a thriller, but it felt more formulaic than most. Luckily, Mackie and Stan still bring the dysfunctional relationship of the two characters to life perfectly so that it's still enjoyable.

A series that had some big ideas about international politics and how our imaginary border lines harm real people. However, they have to still be punchable bad guys for the good guys to hit, so halfway through, they all turn into cackling villains and their valid points are thrown out the window.

Seeing Sam and Bucky's respective growth in this series is a treat to behold. One tasked with living up to a complicated legacy in a world debating his role without even asking him, to a man trying to resolve the pain he has caused. These stories, plus the lovable jerkass complexity of Wyatt Russell's US agents are the better elements of a show that at times can feel rushed.

Like the majority of MCU fans, I came into this with an open heart and didn't finish out the series because it felt like such a waste of time to watch another meandering, boring episode.

Falcon and Winter Soldier suffers from: 

1) Slow pacing 

2) Weak villain (Karli Morgenthau lacks depth) 

3) Poor handling of Isaiah Bradley's story 

4) John Walker's inconsistent character development 

5) Lack of exciting action sequences compared to other MCU shows 

Starts off really really good but loses steam for me in the second half of the season. I get that feeling about a lot of the MCU Disney Plus shows. Don't understand why they take the directions they do. Bucky and Sam shine in this though. Love their chemistry and their characters.

Not the best of the MCU spin-off shows but certainly one of the stronger ones! The acting is great and The Winter Soldier and Falcon may seem like an unlikely pairing but they have great on-screen chemistry.