The Falcon and the Winter Solider reeks of laziness. Amounting to little more than six hours of exposition, cringe-inducing attempts at humor, awful action sequences, and incoherent, muddled politics, it is a miniseries that exists for three reasons:

1) To gain Disney+ subscribers

2) To fill out contracts

3) To set up future installments

The actors do their best, but being given trifling cutouts to work with largely hinders the performances, with Bucky in particular still being less of a character than a prop (on a relative note, Sebastian Stan is not good in this at all). The final two episodes have some decent beats, but they don't work as a satisfying payoff for me because I didn't care during the first four episodes in the first place. Add in lifeless, painfully workmanlike direction and inconsistent, tedious pacing, and you have a miniseries that summarize so much of what's wrong with the MCU.