Amid the fanfare of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Solder premiered on Disney+ Hotstar. The show is for the people who walked out of Avengers: Endgame in a dilemma about Sam Wilson (Falcon) and Bucky Barne’s (Winter Soldier) relationship and where it would have gone after Steve Rogers aka Captain America left his shield in the shaking yet responsible hand of Sam Wilson.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or TFWS was supposed to have come before WandaVision and on the first viewing of the pilot it became clear as to why the studio had made that decision. While WandaVision is fantastical and surreal, TFWS is much more for the average casual Marvel fan. The show has a much familiar tone in its espionage driven plot where the scene jumps from Switzerland to Japan to New York.

The show is created by Malcolm Spellman and has Falcon, the former minor character in the much larger MCU now wearing an invisible cape of a main superhero. Falcon is shown assisting the United States forces in their missions as he is dealing with the heavy responsibility Captain America left him with, along with the legacy in the form of vibranium shield. One would be hard to not reminisce Captain handing him the shield and Wilson saying, “It feels like it belongs to someone else”.

While Wanda in WandaVision got through her grief dancing and aching, Bucky aka Winter Soldier is dealing with him being a stone-coldassassin for half a century in a much more traditional approach. Bucky is seen seeking therapy as his psychiatrist tries to assist him in coming to terms with his deadly past. But as one would imagine, Bucky finds it difficult to come back to normalcy after being brainwashed and turned into a killing machine like the Terminator.

Apart from Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Doctor Strange, most MCU members have not gotten their fair share of storytelling in the forms of movie. The massive injustice feels particularly true for Falcon and Winter Soldier who were second in command to Captain America.

The premier of the show showed its intent of being a setup for much bigger things to come and thus is slightly of a slow burn in nature. Apart from the one big action sequence in the beginning where the cameras swoop up and down following Falcon as he evades some bad guys, the show focuses on minor yet important details and fleshes them out beautifully.

Although the forementioned action sequence may seem not as grand as its movie counterpart, the CGI is still gorgeous and lifelike.  The show also doesn’t have any resemblance to the storytelling structure of WandaVision, but this is for the show’s own good as it’s creating a league of its own. The show has the same Captain America: Winter Soldier like excitable and thrilling energy.

One of the best parts of the connections between TV series and MCU movies is that it’s so well-written that even an everyday MCU fan can connect the dots and be well versed in the MCU history. Add to that the well-written characters with motives and challenges, and you’ve got a winner. That’s what makes the show so exciting; the way the superhero journey is imbibed in personal history, challenges and human struggles makes it feel like the story of humans who are struggling to handle their powers whilst living in a challenging world.

After the pilot premiered, MCU fans took to their respective Twitter handles to share their reviews. So far, the show has garnered some really good reviews for its storytelling, CGI and the change of pace from WandaVision. While some fans went crazy over the return of the two characters they were looking forward to seeing more off, some shared some rib-tickling memes on the inside jokes.

Twitter reactions: Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier Premiere