It tries to spin too many plates, and it fails in every sense of the word.
Just for comparison, take a look at Wandavision.
That show consists of 2 storylines, namely inside of Westview and outside of Westview, and both of those storylines belong to the same plot.
Then take a look at this show:
- There’s the stuff with Karli and the flag smashers
- Then there’s all the stuff with John Walker and his storyline as replacement Cap
- It also wants to act as a Civil War sequel by picking up Zemo’s storyline and the Wakandans chasing after him.
- Let’s not forget about Sharon Carter and the stuff in Madripoor
- Oh yeah, there’s also a very ham-fisted and tacked on plotline regarding how Cap was supposed to be black
- And finally you have all of the personal stuff of Sam and Bucky, which also includes the therapist and Sam’s sister

I dare anyone to summarize the plot of this show in a few sentences, you simply won’t be able to because it’s so incoherent.

That’s not even to mention how dumb and poorly thought out this show as a whole is.
It wouldn’t be such a problem if it took itself less seriously, but no, it wants to make a point about how world leaders aren’t uniting us. It wants to talk about what it means to be black in America.
Do I need to remind anyone: this is a show where our 2 ‘heroes’ broke a criminal mastermind out of prison in return for ... intel.
It’s a show that thinks it’s morally justified to have the protagonist throw terrorists out of planes, and then have that exact same character confront someone else about the implications of killing.
And so on, and so on, even to the smallest things.
There’s this scene in the final episode, where a random UN employee just hands Bucky her phone and she’s like: “here’s Karli, she wants to talk to you”. Like, how did she get that phone number? Why didn’t you just write a direct confrontation between Karli and Bucky? They were already in the same building.

There are two things that keep it watchable: Kari Skogland’s direction is very good (loved the first action set piece) and the acting, for the most part, is solid. Erin Kellyman is by far the weakest link, and she lacks any kind of real presence as a terrorist leader. Wyatt Russell, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan do a lot of the heavy lifting, and I can’t wait to see where they take those characters next.

4/10