★★★☆☆ Peggy Carter sans Steve Rogers

Agent Carter

Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Marvel

Near the end of Captain America: The First Avenger Steve Rogers dives his airplane into the sea in order to prevent it from reaching (and destroying) New York City. In a final radio conversation with Agent Peggy Carter, he makes a date to take her dancing next Saturday. Both of them know he will not make that date.

Agent Carter shows Peggy Carter's career after Steve's fall and after the end of the Second World War. The year is 1946, and she is an agent with the Strategic Scientific Reserve, a fictional secret organization that was the precursor to S.H.I.E.L.D. It is, I suspect, more or less based on the OSS, which was more or less the precursor to the CIA. Although she is one of SSR's most experienced and effective operatives, having had experience in the SOE (a real English spy operation in World War II) before coming to the American side, Peggy is relegated to fetching coffee and answering phones by her bosses in the SSR, who are unable to see past her sex. Unfortunately, the writers of the series seem to suffer from the same problem, as for much of the series she's caught up in the typical dilemmas of a Hollywood leading lady. For instance, much of the plot revolves around a love triangle that I found acutely boring, if "acute boredom" is a thing. It doesn't help that several important characters are scientists, and they are scientists of the type imagined by writers who don't actually know any real-life scientists.

My disappointment with the series was increased because I happened, at the same time, to read A Woman of No Importance, the extraordinary story of real-life spy Virginia Hall (who worked for both SOE and OSS). Virginia is far more interesting than Peggy Carter.

Agent Carter on IMDB.

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