Agent Carter 2-Hour Season Premier (2016)

Agent Peggy Carter is back in the 2nd super awesome season of her show! ❤ 

Any self-respecting Marvel superhero fan absolutely must know who Peggy Carter is . . . Captain America's girl from the 1940s who is now a top notch secret agent and will eventually be a member of Shield (errr, before it went bad that is). The 1st season of a mere 8 episodes was such a rousing success with Marvel fans that Peggy is back, and even better than ever!

Played by Haley Atwell, Peggy Carter is reunited with James D'Arcy's portrayal of Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark's faithful butler who now has a taste for subterfuge due to his excursions with Peggy in the 1st season. As for Howard (Dominic Cooper), he hasn't put in an appearance yet this season, but I'm expecting him at any turn. Howard is one of those characters you resent liking because he is suuuuuuuuuch a dreadful playboy! But I miss not having him.

❤  In Episodes 1 & 2 w/ SPOILERS ❤

This seasons starts off with a bang where Peggy finally catches Dottie (Bridget Regan), that horrendous Russian assassin who escapes at the finale of the 1st season. My gosh, I loathe that woman, especially now that's dressed like Peggy! But a hefty bag of coins to the head does wonders and she's now in custody. With a mysterious pin that Peggy feels she should know and is important, but she's not sure how or why. I suspect she'll be a crucial player throughout the season considering she's credited with 15 total episodes for the series. Bleh. Oh well, I need someone other than Howard to grind my teeth at.

Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) was one of Peggy's sole supporters in Agent Carter's 1st season, although still a bit flawed in places, but I still like him. He's been stationed in Hollywood, CA to start up an office for SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve) for about 6 months and then comes across a strange case of a woman's body being frozen in the middle of a lake . . . in California . . . in SUMMER. In other words, an impossibility and he needs help. And because Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) is now in charge of the New York branch and has too much power and doesn't think Peggy is capable of getting information out of Dottie, he sends Peggy to help Daniel. No, Jack hasn't really changed and I'm about as fond of him as I am a tub of tepid dishwater.

Peggy arrives in Hollywood to find Jarvis waiting for her, eager to assist as always. Howard has offered the use of his Hollywood abode to her while she's there, including the charming flamingo below that Howard has added to his menagerie and which Jarvis has nick-named the "THE DEVIL IN PINK."

Atta boy, Jarvis! Run, Bernard, run!

Meet Bernard Stark. It's worth a million laughs and then some to watch James D'Arcy chase that bird around the lawn because he can't get it into its enclosure!

We also meet Ana Jarvis (Lotte Verbeek), the wife of Howard's esteemed butler. She's darling and so European and she absolutely adores her sweet husband, snatching him for a kiss whenever she feels like it. So Jarvis is not as staid and somber as we like to think! Any woman who makes Peggy a garter that's also a holster for a gun is pretty terrific in my book. Naturally, Ana and Peggy become fast friends, and it's good she's not really the jealous type because Jarvis has developed a potentially unhealthy dedication to Peggy. I hope that doesn't go anywhere. Yikes!

The lovely and charming Ana Jarvis!

Back to the reason Peggy's in Hollywood, all roads leads to Isodyne Energy where Peggy and Sousa uncover more mysteries than they ever wanted, including a mysterious Darkforce substance that is apparently a part of the Marvel universe and has been important to the Agents of Shield plot, which I'm not familiar with because I haven't watched that show.

I don't want to give away too much, plus it's a fairly complex plot that can't be summed up in just a few sentences. 

So instead, let me just say that I'm already in love with this season. And, although there are extenuating circumstances, Peggy may have a love interest! He's complicated, especially for the era, and we already know due to back history that Peggy marries a man that Steve Rogers saved, which could be Sousa, except that Daniel has a steady girl now and is considering proposing to her. He's got the ring and everything, but he still has that "thing" for Peggy that he just can't quite shake. So who knows what might happen.

Anyway, back to Peggy's love interest, meet Jason Wilkes (Reggie Austin)!

Now Wilkes is a fine-looking man!

Wilkes is charming and handsome and he really, really likes Peggy. She's been lonely since she lost Cap and I don't blame her. But the world of the 1950s is a really ugly place where prejudice is concerned, and that does crop up when Peggy needs change for a phone call and goes into a diner with Wilkes and the guy behind the counter asks her if she needs help and then calls Wilkes "boy" in that demeaning tone that everyone should hate.

At least they address the problem as it would have been in the early 50s. I was halfway concerned as soon as I met him that they would just blow past any racial prejudice issues. Although why I feared that I'm not sure because the show sure is brutally honest about gender prejudice, especially the 1st season.

So I doubt really that Wilkes and Peggy as a couple has very far to go simply because he wasn't saved by Captain America. And that's really a shame because I like him.

The end of episode 2 has the deadly Darkforce matter that freezes people missing, a mysterious collective of powerful men with unique lapel pins is plotting hostile takeovers, and Peggy is caught up, once again, in the middle of something cool and crazy and more sci-fi than realistic. Which is what I love about this show!

No, I don't ship Jarvis and Peggy because I do NOT ever ship adulterous couples. And I love Jarvis' sweet, spunky wife. But James and Haley are still soooo absurdly adorable together. They have such charisma on screen. They make the show work, literally, it's all them!

Parental Guidance: The series is rated PG, but it does have occasional sexual innuendo and Peggy will wear decollete dresses sometimes that reveal more than I would like. And in this 1st episode of the new season, she and Jarvis are sparing. He's taken up an exercise regimen and thinks he can take her. Well, one thing leads to another and he lands on top of her. I doubt anything would have happened if his wife hadn't come around the corner anyway, but still, I wasn't entirely pleased with the potential for something happening. You'll also find racism and gender bias as main themes of the day, always portrayed negatively, and that's part of what makes Agent Carter so awesome.