WandaVision (2021).
“This is our home now.”
Created by Jac Schaeffer
Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, Randall Park, and Josh Stamberg
ATTENTION: SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
1. (The Stage)
Welcome to WandaVision! A TV show starring Wanda Maximoff and Vision set in Westview, New Jersey. Westview is an idyllic small town where everything is as it should be…except the time period…and the residents…and the witches…wait, what’s going on?
2. (The Good)
I think that what Kevin Feige has done while overseeing the last 10+ years of Marvel Films is nothing short of astounding. Taking the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame is a feat that I’m convinced will never be recreated (as much as other studios have tried). WandaVision is the start of the next big phase of the Marvel Universe and although it wasn’t perfect, I think it’s a fun appetizer for the next decade.
The concept of the show, especially with how it started, took massive balls. Disney is playing with house money and they’re taking risks that a normal weekly show would probably never take. The first three episodes have almost nothing to do with the overarching plot. We spend the first hour and a half of WandaVision with lighthearted recreations of different eras of television. We get episodes reminiscent of Bewitched, Mary Tyler Moore, Growing Pains, and Malcolm in the Middle that have their own contained, familiar stories that, frankly, I found refreshing. They weren’t even parodies of the period pieces, they just created episodes from those eras and I loved it. There were minuscule hints that something wasn’t right, but the show didn’t really open up until episode 4. It was then that the story really started to feel like it belonged in the Marvel Universe.
Wanda and Vision were never my favorite characters in the films and although they showed up in books I read as a kid, I am not familiar with their history or stories. I really loved them here. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany have loads of chemistry and they really got a chance to shine here. Kathryn Hahn, who has always been amazing, is pitch perfect here as Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch hoping to usurp Wanda’s power while disguising herself as Wanda’s nosey neighbor. There’s no weak link in the cast, everyone is great. And “recasting” Quicksilver? That was nothing short of fucking brilliant, even if it didn’t end up leading to some big X-Men kind of reveal that I’m sure a lot of people were hoping for.
The show is an excellent examination of how Wanda is dealing with grief, examining her tug-of-war with freeing the residents of Westview from what must be a terrible existence and losing her family, or keeping up a cloak of normalcy with an idyllic town and a family life that doesn’t actually exist. It also deals with Vision slowly discovering that Westview is Wanda’s doing, and he might not be what he thinks he is. There’s a lot of heart in the show and some great quotes about love and loss.
There’s also an element of horror in a few short portions concerning Salem witches that I thought was surprisingly effective for a Marvel show.
3. (The Bad)
I have seen a lot of complaints about the show being boring, and this is one show that I think really benefits from being a week-to-week show. I also think that people expecting every episode to be a thirty-minute epic in the spirit of Endgame are going to be disappointed. It’s not that kind of show.
I loved Kathryn Hahn as one of the main foils in the show, but I didn’t find the character of Agatha Harkness particularly interesting, which continues to plague Marvel films. The villains are often the weakest links and I think that’s the case again here. Her motivation was simply that she wanted to snag Wanda’s power from her.
Although I was happy with how the show ended as a nine-episode series, I don’t think that it stuck the landing in terms of really getting me excited for what’s coming next. We know that Wanda is going to be ultra-powerful and that she doesn’t know what’s she’s getting into, but we don’t know what that means for the rest of the world. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, including why fake Vision didn’t tell Wanda about Vision II, where he went, and what’s going on with Monica Rambeau. Speaking of which, if you haven’t seen Ms. Marvel, the final scene of the show might confuse the heck out of you.
4. (The Ugly)
Shag carpet, wood paneling, and turtleneck sweaters, oh my!
This show was honestly beautiful looking, but the ugliest thing I saw was the CGI, specifically in the final episode. Vision fighting Vision and Wanda flying didn’t look great. It’s still passable, but I’d be lying if it didn’t make me nervous for the effects bonanza that Falcon & Winter Soldier promises to be with a smaller budget than this show.
5. (The End)
I had almost no interest in WandaVision going into the season, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t eagerly awaiting each episode from week-to-week. If you go in with the right expectations and are prepared to have some fun, it’s a great time. Elizabeth Olsen is so charming as the Scarlett Witch and Paul Bettany is amazing as usual. Disney’s first Marvel show is a hit.
