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This is a mostly spoiler-free review of Marvel’s WandaVision, which is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+. Some themes and characters are alluded to, but no main plot points are discussed in detail. For a deep dive into the show, you can read our spoiler-filled individual episode reviews:
[poilib element="accentDivider"] The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been bold. Despite its frequent reliance on formula, its very existence - a series of storylines told across more than a decade’s worth of multiple interconnected movies - is unlike anything else. It should come as no surprise, then, that WandaVision is also bold and experimental. And yet surprise it does: the MCU’s first true venture into television constantly morphs between surreal sitcom, puzzle box mystery, and superhero dramatics, indicating that Marvel’s confidence in a post-Endgame world remains strong. Free to write its own rules, WandaVision goes to places few would have expected the world’s biggest popcorn franchise to explore, and more often than not its themes of the grief and love between Wanda Maximoff and Vision help it find its footing. This is evident from the very first shot of the series. Filmed in monochrome and 4:3 ratio, the opening chapter of WandaVision looks like a recovered relic from the 1950s instead of glossy superhero cinema. Rather than deal with explosive conflict, WandaVision places its titular duo - Elizabeth Olsen’s magic-wielding Wanda and Paul Bettany’s sentient android Vision - into loving homages of classic US sitcoms such as I Love Lucy and Bewitched. With each successive episode the time period advances, recreating the aesthetic and directorial style of shows like The Brady Bunch and Family Ties. From multi-camera, live-audience set-ups to the energetic mockumentray formats of modern favourites, most episodes sport their own unique look and feel and tap into nostalgia for the classics - even among those of us who’ve only seen reruns. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-wandavision-episode-review&captions=true"] This is an unusual choice for Marvel, especially considering the importance of young audiences among its demographic, but the concept plays out successfully. Aside from creating a genuinely unique approach for both the MCU and TV in general, it provides WandaVision a new delivery format for its all-important humour that allows for fresh interpretations of similar jokes each episode. While knowledge of the original shows does help make those jokes more successful, the humour generally manages to transcend the homage. Episodes set in earlier decades can come across as charming more than laugh-aloud funny, but there’s always something to admire, even if it’s just the replication. Most importantly, though, all this creates a sharp tonal contrast with the other half of WandaVision’s design. You see, WandaVision is not a sitcom set in the MCU. The homages are merely a mechanic to deliver - and often disguise - its true intentions. WandaVision is actually an exploration of grief, acting as an extended epilogue to the trauma experienced by both Wanda and Vision during the events of Avengers: Infinity War. This emotional darkness plays off against the wholesome sitcom comedy, creating frequent moments of turbulence. This manifests in numerous different ways but starts in earlier episodes by delivering a sense of unease through dramatic irony, as the audience understands Vision to be dead, despite his seemingly very much alive on-screen actions. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=WandaVision%20is%20not%20a%20sitcom%20set%20in%20the%20MCU.%20The%20homages%20are%20merely%20a%20mechanic%20to%20deliver%20-%20and%20often%20disguise%20-%20its%20true%20intentions."]Both Vision’s mortal state and the couple’s existence in the ever-changing sitcom town of Westview is initially presented without context or explanation, which makes the show as much of a puzzle box mystery as it is an emotional drama disguised as a comedy. The balance between these elements is particularly interesting, and continually recalibrates as WandaVision progresses through its nine episodes (which vary in length between 30 and 50 minutes). Some chapters ignore the idea of a world beyond the comedy almost entirely, while others drop the sitcom homage to allow more familiar MCU elements to come to the fore. On a week-by-week basis, as WandaVision was originally delivered, this fluctuation of the familiar and odd could be confusing. It was difficult, especially in the first handful of weeks, to assess what the show truly was, with the tonal balance occasionally feeling out of equilibrium. But, seen as a whole, WandaVision makes sense. It’s not a formulaic show, and so therefore does not need a formula for each episode to adhere to. In fact, in hindsight it's important that some episodes are imbalanced. While there is conventional logic in its overall storyline, showrunner Jac Schaeffer and her team of writers plot out the individual episode journeys on their own terms. This lack of guaranteed consistency from chapter to chapter is what makes each installment feel like a genuinely new adventure. This is in direct contrast to the MCU-adjacent shows, such as the procedural Agents of SHIELD, and even most of the MCU’s movies. There’s very little out there in mainstream television that’s quite like this, and that demonstrates Marvel’s absolute confidence in both the production talent and the audience. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-evolution-of-scarlet-witch-and-the-visions-relationship-in-the-comics&captions=true"] That’s not to say WandaVision won’t lose some people - even some who expected to like it - along the way. Its experimental nature means it is juggling many ideas at once, and the half-hour format means there’s much to deal with in a very short amount of time each episode. Furthermore, this isn’t just a show about Wanda and Vision; as the story expands we’re introduced to a whole new Marvel government agency - SWORD - and a secondary protagonist in Teyonah Parris’ Captain Monica Rambeau. There are links to other Marvel storylines as well, with the presence of Ant-Man’s Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) and Thor’s Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), along with WandaVision’s new original supporting cast, spearheaded by Kathryn Hahn’s nosy neighbour, Agnes. WandaVision does an admirable job of supporting these multiple threads, but very often something has to give. Sometimes this has long-term repercussions; a character that is a vital part of the final episodes is mostly sidelined for the first two thirds of the show, and one villain in particular is given so little growth that they come off incredibly cartoonish by the finale. But perhaps WandaVision’s biggest flaw is its dogged determination to hold to its puzzle box formula. Throughout its run it insists that viewers don’t know the whole story, but more often than not the elements are so clear to see that the reveals lack impact. From the very start it is reasonably obvious what is going on, even if you haven’t read the Marvel Comics source material it loosely draws from, simply by virtue of the surreal nature of the sitcom format and the fact that a character we all know to be dead is walking and talking. This means viewer interest comes more from the emotional motivations of its characters rather than the many ‘what?’ and ‘how?’ questions the show continually poses. While all this builds to a finale that’s suited to the story, the presentation seems to promise some kind of subversion that never plays out. This means WandaVision becomes less satisfying just as it hits what should be its most engaging moments. A slightly more straightforward and honest telling of the story could have prevented this, as well as provided more time to explore the mindset of its characters, at the cost of some of its novelty. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/04/wandavision-official-new-era-trailer"] Doubling down on the mystery elements also has a negative effect on WandaVision’s pacing. Big reveals are often positioned as cliffhanger endings, rather than weaved into the episodes’ actual plots. (Some key moments are even hidden in mid-credits scenes, which is an odd choice to say the least.) This makes for a couple of episodes that feel as if they’re killing time waiting for their last few minutes. Annoyingly, that occurs mostly in the latter end of the series, which leaves the wheels spinning when the story seems like it should be accelerating. Additionally, a cynical mindset could imagine that some of these cliffhanger reveals have been engineered to generate social media discourse and provide free marketing for the show, especially those that turn out to be far less significant to the future of the MCU than we seem to have been meant to believe they would be. But even in WandaVision’s faltering moments, it remains an engaging watch. This is, for the most part, due to its charming leading couple. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany’s characters were largely used as plot devices in prior MCU movies, and so it’s new ground to see them fully embrace Wanda and Vision as living characters. Furthermore, they are characters directly affected by the era of their environment, which makes for some delightfully funny moments. Bettany effortlessly takes to the comedic skits, playing this version of Vision as bright and almost bumbling. This contrasts against his traditional, more ethereal personality, and helps generate some uncertainty about the situation. Meanwhile, Olsen deserves particular praise for her chameleon-like ability to replicate performances from yesteryear, capturing the delivery and mannerisms of the likes of Mary Tyler Moore and Lucille Ball, and - later on - a perfect Julie Bowen. After four MCU films playing a dour and troubled character, it’s fantastic to see Olsen bring a whole new side to Wanda. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Being%20uafraid%20to%20question%20its%20protagonist%E2%80%99s%20actions%20is%20one%20of%20WandaVision's%20most%20notable%20strengths."]Of course, that’s just one side to her story. With a life of tragedy behind her and the death of her beloved Vision fresh in the memory, there’s also a more emotionally brutal side to Wanda. And when it's called for, Olsen absolutely delivers the heft required. This often comes across as desperate and barely clinging onto control, which helps solidify the conflict within Wanda. It also makes for a character who isn’t always sympathetic in the ways that she deals with her problems, bringing legitimate questions as to who the real villain of the story might be when you take a step back from it. That WandaVision is not afraid to truly question its protagonist’s actions on occasion is one of its most notable strengths. Vision also gets his fair share of heft, with Bettany delivering some really rather beautifully written lines in the character’s more traditional moments. While WandaVision will likely have an uphill battle against TV’s most prestigious dramas come awards season, the couple’s most emotional and tender moments are a good reminder of how far the MCU has elevated popcorn writing standards. It’s only right that Olsen and Bettany have the lion’s share of the good stuff, but it does mean that many other interesting characters don’t get to shine quite as brightly. Kathryn Hahn, for instance, is a comic delight as Agnes, but is all too often relegated to a bit part. Despite this, across the whole series we do get to see her range, with a darker side to the performance shown as the show skews away from its sitcom replicas and back into more traditional MCU territory. Meanwhile, Teyonah Parris stays almost entirely in the more familiar side of this universe, and as such her Monica Rambeau provides a more classic comic book hero to root for. This means her role is not quite as unusual and thus memorable as the other front-and-centre stars, but Parris nonetheless feels perfectly at home. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=0b1ff2c2-29d0-4975-a64a-654aae13b1fb"] Talking of the wider universe, WandaVision has a few ties to other parts of the MCU in terms of both its own continuity and some Easter eggs, but does largely stand on its own beyond Wanda and Vision’s stories. The most important link is Monica Rambeau, who was first seen as a child in Captain Marvel. But even though she has enough screen time to be considered the show’s secondary protagonist, by the conclusion it feels as if she has been included to set up a new character to be used in another show or movie, rather than get a whole story here. As such, her arc feels notably incomplete, and the payoff for her evolution across the series is weak. That’s something that affects the finale as a whole; many plot threads are left dangling, excused by the fact that nothing in the MCU is ever ‘finished’. While this promises excitement for the future, it comes at the expense of a truly satisfying conclusion to all of WandaVision’s numerous stories.
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