Fans now have two projects down when it comes to the MCU's Phase 4 line-up. Both WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier have wrapped up their freshman—and maybe only—seasons. Both seemed to be a success with the general audience, continually doing well when it came to viewership.
WandaVision was mostly praised for its outside-of-the-box storytelling and for crafting a compelling and entirely unique venture that proved to be different from any Marvel project that came before it. Falcon and the Winter Soldier provided a much more standard MCU affair, though it certainly brought its own things to the table. Namely, its hard-hitting exploration of racial, social, and systematic issues present in today's society .
While the first five episodes were unanimously praised by critics, it seems that the finale may have missed the mark.
WORST FINALE YET?
According to Rotten Tomatoes , the recently-released finale for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has become the worst-rated episode for the show on the review-aggregation website. As of writing this, the rating for "One World, One People" sits at a rotten 59%. The ratings for all episodes can be found below:
Episode 1: 93%
Episode 2: 100%
Episode 3: 85%
Episode 4: 90%
Episode 5: 100%
Episode 6: 59%
CAP STUMBLES HIS LANDING
It's such a shame that after such a run of extremely solid installments, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seemingly stumbled at the finish line. While some fans may have loved the finale, it clearly doesn't seem to have been received by critics very well. In comparison, the finale for W andaVision currently sits at a fresh 88%, though at one point in time WandaVision 's finale was also its worst-rated episode—an honor that now belongs to "Breaking The Fourth Wall" .
Seeing as this is Rotten Tomatoes, the scores tend to fluctuate as more scores come in. Being at 59%, it wouldn't be surprising if the episode regains some ground and gets into the fresh territory. But why has the finale not resonated with critics?
While most seem to like Sam's new role as Captain America, many have said that the characters were severely underutilized in the finale. On top of that, many characters' development and stories seemed to have ended in a very unsatisfying manner , such as John Walker, Karli/The Flag-Smashers, and Sharon.
Either way, the show was a hit. So much so that Marvel already has a fourth Captain America film in development , one that will likely focus on Sam Wilson with his new mantle. Even if the finale doesn't get as high praise as the episodes that came before, that doesn't erase any of that incredible storytelling found within them. Rotten or not, the world still needs more Captain America.
