So full disclusure: The Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes is my favourite character in the MCU.

His story arc in the movies before this series is absolutely marvellous (did you get the pun?). When I saw there was a standalone series about him and Sam I was *really* excited, but watched the movies and all beforehand for context.

This series had so much promise. I was also totally on board with the idea of Sam being the new Captain America but I wanted to see him struggling with the expectations and responsibilities of the role before fully embracing it. That would have done Sam justice, it would have been a great broadening of his character arc.

The first Episode also teased us with the possibility that the series would seriously examine poor Bucky's PTSD and trauma from the years of torture and brainwashing he endured during his time as the Winter Soldier, and how he was trying to come to terms with everything. I wanted that, I trusted them to do it.... and they let us down on both counts.

By Episode 3 it became obvious: the heavy-handed political messaging was more important than the plot, or developing and continuing the story of such beloved characters as Bucky and Sam.

I already said that I was happy with the idea of Sam becoming the new Captain America- and I am. Steve passed him the shield, but I expected self-doubt and Sam being hesitant to take up the role. I wanted soul searching. That's fine. What we got instead was a plot centred around racial injustice.

Sam is told he can't be Captain America because *oppression of Black people* and he will be aligning with the "enemy". Yeah- basically doing what Steve, one of his best and closest friends entrusted him to do will make same a certified race traitor.

I seem to recall the role had *nothing* to do with race, and that Steve was picked because the man who developed the original Super Soldier foruma saw the goodness and kindness of his heart. He saw a man who would not be corrupted by power. THAT was the core message, its a universal one: those are are not corrupted by power and do not abuse power are the ones who deserve to wield it most.

Not according to Disney. Now its your skin colour. That''s literally all that matters.

This in turn leads to what in my mind is the most offensive line in the entire series, when Isaiah basicallly tells Bucky that he is not a victim. I get that Isaiah is bitter about what happened to him. He had reason to be: but Bucky was NOT the cause of that. They were both victims.

Bucky was captured, tortured and brainwashed to make him a slave of HYDRA and a mindless killing machine: like Isaiah he had the Super- Soldier serum put into him without his consent or even knowledge.

Unlike Isaiah though, Bucky was not able to return to what was left of his family. He had nobody left because he had been enslaved for twice as long, and during his time as the WS was entirely stripped of his agency and personhood, even his very identity.

This could have been us two trauma victims and former servicemen who had both been betrayed by the very regimes which they had once served struggling to come to terms with their pain and brokenness. Isaiah and Bucky could actually have worked very well together, just because of their similar experiences.

However, the writers made their meeting into an excrucuating forced speech about racial injustice. We're told that Bucky bascially can't be a victim because he's white, and that Isaiah has more in common with Sam (they have literally NOTHING in common) because they are both black.

Then, just to make it even more painful, the police turn up when the two are bickering in the street outside Isaiah's house and engage in some profiling of Sam. We're led to believe that Sam is going to get into trouble for being black--- not Bucky though he's clearly recognizable as the former assassin with the conspicious metal arm.

REALLY?

So the cops are going to arrest Sam for being black and not the dude who literally went on a killing spree last him he was out loose in the streets of a major city before effectively disappearing for 7 years?

Yup: the political messaging bludgeons you harder than being smacked with Bucky's Vibranium fist.

I finished the series because..... 5 hours of Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie with banter, but it was such a huge disappointment in all areas.

I absolutely hated what the writers did to Bucky in so many ways, and how they either forgot about his PTSD or failed to address it after Episode 1. The conclusion of that story arc was covered as an afterthought in like 30 seconds, when it deserved much longer.

That is not representation of people with PTSD which one of the showrunners talked about. That is the worst kind of tokenism. The same showrunner also tried to suggest that Bucky's traumatic background, brainwashing and torture were some kind of "excuse"- which is just... not what someone says when they're trying to be sensitive about mental health issues.

Apparently, it has now been confirmed that Stan's character won't appear in the 4th Captain America movie at all, despite having been present in all of the previous 3, and despite the conclusion of the series suggesting that Bucky had formed a close bond of friendship not only Sam and Sam's family.

Hardly a suprise: they know that Bucky is as popular as ever, and they'e worried he'll overshadow the "first black Captain America"