The Atomic Job

I do love a heist story. So naturally, this week's installment of Agent Carter was right up my alley. Between the attempt to steal a dead body, a key, and two atomic bombs, we had heists galore!

I also thoroughly enjoyed the light touch of this episode too. There were lots of moments of uncharacteristically broad comedy, but I felt that they worked within the format: Peggy zapping Ray Wise again and again with the memory erasure device, the classic "slo-mo team walk" moment for the unlikely spy quintet, or the simple fun of Chadwick unable to sleep next to a lethal and mumbling Whitney Frost.

There were also a lot of good character moments this week. Peggy pulled off arguably her most convincing alias yet, at first almost unrecognizable as an airhead office girl. Sousa had the delightfully derailed proposal to Violet (and the unfortunate heartbreak later in the episode). Jarvis came through under pressure as he defused an atomic warhead. (Two. Two warheads. Nothing like making a soufflé.)

Then there was the addition of Rose and Samberly on the infiltration team. Their odd flirtation may have gone a bit over the top at times, but each individually was a lot of fun. (Particularly overeager but quite capable Rose.) It felt like both characters were speaking for all the nobodies on all the TV shows that have ever been, standing up and demanding their moment. It brought a smile to my face.

I'm less sure about this new villain Manfredi. I'm a fan of Ken Marino, and hopeful I'll enjoy him as much here as I have in other television series. But he basically came off as a more cartoonish version of Daredevil's Kingpin in this episode. (And for the record, I never really sparked to Kingpin like so many did, perhaps the main reason why I liked but did not love the first season of that series like so many did.)

Still, I felt like I was grinning almost the whole way through this episode. It was definitely my favorite of the second season so far. I give it a B+.