The Falcon and The Winter Soldier premiered its first episode on Disney+ on Friday, March 19. The short series will consist of six episodes and finishes releasing on April 23. It stars Anthony Mackie as The Falcon, or Sam Wilson, and Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier, or Bucky Barnes.

The mini-series is set after “Avengers: Endgame” and follows Sam and Bucky around the globe on their many adventures while they battle new and old villains.

In the first confrontation and opening scene of the first episode, we follow Sam on a flight rescue mission to save a hijacked plane and its captain. With a fight on the plane and in mid-air the episode began with a bang.

He eventually touches ground, where he meets with a partner and new character First Lt. Joaquin Torres, played by Danny Ramirez. Torres brings to Sam’s attention a new group he’s been looking into, called the “Flag Smashers”, who want a world that’s unified without borders and surfaced after billions of people were erased from existence by Thanos.

The episode turns to focus on Bucky as he struggles to acclimate to the world as it is now and make amends for things he did while he was under the influence of Hydra. 

The new series is a great mesh of action and emotion and takes time to focus on all the problems created after “The Blip” (when the vanished people were returned). It takes time to focus on the fun activities that all superhero movies are packed with, but also typical problems that normal citizens deal with.

The series seems like it will focus on many issues like the PTSD that Bucky will deal with and racial issues that Sam will deal with. The Vulture mentions that Sam said Captain America’s shield felt like someone else’s and as such, “as a Black man, Sam will spend much of this season struggling with representing a country in which he is still not regarded as fully equal.”

So far the show has received an 8.4/10 on IMDb and a 93% from Rotten Tomatoes.

Just one episode in and the series is off to an interesting start with a new angle for Marvel to take as it explores these characters. The show promises more action and deep themes that run beyond just the Marvel cinematic universe. 5/5