2021, d.Matt Shakman - Disney+
It was about 1 year ago, mid-March 2020, that we were told to lock down because of COVID-19. My wife and I had plans to take the week of work (which was also supposed to be March break for the childrens) and just enjoy doing stuff. Instead of doing stuff, it turned into a blitzed re-watch of all the Marvel movies (we skipped only the Incredible Hulk). At that time we had no idea what COVID-19 was going to be, how virulent it was, how it would evolve, how it would decimate populations and economies, nor how far away a vaccine or treatment would be. We didn't know when our next Marvel movie would be, or when we would see the next Marvel feature, Black Widow, which was slated for the start of May 2020 (but is now reslated for May 2021).
We were supposed to get the first Disney+ series in August 2020 when Falcon and the Winter Soldier was originally slated to debut, but the 'rona shut down production on everything for a time and so the Captain America spin-off was held off. Wandavision originally slated for a November or December release, was shooting in much more controlled, studio spaces so it pick up production much faster and became the first Marvel project on Disney+ instead.
The last Marvel Cinematic Universe feature was Spider-Man: Far From Home which debuted July 2, 2019, which meant there was 18 months between Marvel releases, easily the longest gap since the nearly 2 year wait from Incredible Hulk to Iron Man 2. To say anticipation for a return to the MCU was high was an understatement. There hasn't been a lot to look forward in the past year, but not only did Wandavision fill the hype void, it also delivered on both hugely cultural Lost-style week-to-week mystery deconstruction and a surprising amount of weirdness.
The commercials and advance talk had painted Wandavision as a sort of traipse through the history of family sitcoms, but I don't think anyone expected the first episode to be a through-and-through pastiche of The Dick Van Dyke Show, with Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda absolutely nailing the rhythms and cadence of Mary Tyler Moore and Paul Bettany as Vision acting note perfect in the clueless dad role. The first episode is scripted and produced with authenticity in mind. Though shot in black and white they had to colour the sets (and makeup and wardrobe) for B&W contrast as well they actually shot with a live studio audience and utilized classic TV wire and in-camera effects. The comedy, in all unlikelihood, somehow worked very well, both as pastiche of the comedy of the times as well as character-specific humour. Though never huge players in the Avengers films, we did see enough of Wanda and Vision to know their basics which is all we need to start out. The episode ends coming out of its 4x3 frame into full-screen colour to show that they are, in fact, on a TV show called "Wandavision". The questions begin.
The second ep, debuting the same day, jumps them into a 60's Mary Tyler Moore Show/Bewitched-style magical sitcom, again with Olsen shifting her style and performance to mirror that of Elizabeth Montgomery. Small moments in the conventional sitcom start to break the facade, haunting undercurrents of darker emotions start to creep forth from the leads as well as supporting characters. Little cracks that break the fourth wall start to indicate that there's something magical and mysterious at play. Little splatters of red, a curious sigil, and a mysterious visitor emerging from the sewers all contribute to serious creepy vibes lurking under an otherwise pitch-perfect 60's sitcom re-creation. The question still is what is happening and why...as well as who is causing it...and where are they.
The third episode shocks into colour, and morphs the set once again into something that resembles the Brady Bunch. Vision, still the clueless dad starts to clue into the fact that something is wrong, and attempting to address it with his wife leads to diversions and distractions. There's no serious on a sit com silly. But suddenly pregnant, and evolving quickly, Wanda is having a hard time keeping her magic under control and under wraps. A nosy neighbour (Teyonah Parris) is cast out of town for asking too many questions, questions that threaten to snap Wanda's safety bubble... and its our first glimpse that this fictional construct of Westview, New Jersey, maybe isn't so fictional afterall.
Episode 4 breaks from the sitcom evolution to backtrack and explore just who this character Teyonah Parris is playing. It turns out she's the now grown-up Monica Rambeau, last seen as a 10-year-old in Captain Marvel. The episode starts with chaos in a hospital that's kind of the opposite of the opening moments of The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later where characters wake up in a desolate hospital...instead here Monica returns from the snap, along with dozens of others into absolute chaos. The Snap from Infinity War and the return snap from Endgame are barely addressed in the MCU to date, save for the post-credits of Infinity War, a bit of Endgame and a brief sequence in Far From Home. This is our first real grounds-eye-view of the return and it's as much of a nightmare as I'm sure the initial snap was.
Monica's mother, Maria, helped found and run S.W.O.R.D. as a replacement for S.H.I.E.L.D. but has passed away in the years between the Snap and the return, and the new director seems to be very concerned about Monica's intentions. But Monica is assigned to work with Jimmy Woo (Randall Park, last seen in Ant Man and the Wasp) about Westview New Jersey's sudden disappearance. This eventually leads to meeting physicist Dr. Darcy Lewis (a return for Kat Dennings to her Thor character) who discovers the signal that gives a view into the not-gone-but-shielded Westview.
Venturing outside the bubble was both a welcome deviation from the norm but also changed the structure of the show. I quite loved the fully engrossed pastiche of each episode being an era of a sitcom. Episode 5 returns with a Family Ties/Growing Pains/Full House pastiche, once again, Olson evolving her personality to fit the times while Vision's dad persona doesn't seem much different. It's a pointed note, showing how women's roles have evolved while it seems man's role has stayed fairly stagnant...or at least the archetype is. But it's clear now that we are actually viewing "Wandavision" (the show within the show) from the outside, along with Jimmy, Darcy and Monica, there's really something wrong here and Wanda is the center of it. She and Vision (and perpetually nosy neighbour Agnes, played by Kathryne Hahn) seem to be the only one with some sense of self-awareness. Monica when she was within the "hex" also maintained her awareness it seemed, so is Agnes from the outside too? What is Monica doing.
Vision begins questioning his existence and the question is asked whether Wanda is bringing people back from the dead. Is everyone in Westview dead? Wanda is seemingly in control, but isn't quite aware exactly what it is she is doing or why....but she knows for certain she's not bringing people back from the dead. And then her brother Pietro (killed in Avengers: Age of Ultron) shows up at the door...only it's not Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but rather Evan Peters who played Quicksilver in Fox's X-Men series. It's at once a confusing and inspired choice to confound expectations and add even further uncertainty of what's happening into the mix. Plus, fan circles were going nuts with theories as to what it could all mean. All of them wrong. But the idea that it could be toying with the multiverse and be a seedling for the upcoming Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (in which Olsen's Scarlet Witch co-stars) seem to make some kind of sense.
It's this kind of toying, not just with audience expectations, but also with their perceived foreknowledge that is missing with the all-at-once style of season drops on Netflix. Though week-to-week has remained a thing, it seems like we don't want to engage with most programming on that front any longer. The need for immediate gratification is where our culture has landed, so it's good to get a reminder of the old ways, and it's only a little surprising that it's Disney that is giving it to us (it's not anything other than a way to ensure continuous subscribership on Disney's part, really).
A wonderful Malcolm In The Middle pastiche leads into Episode 6 and finds Wanda wrestling with what Pietro's "return" means, what it all means, and it's really this episode that we're really getting to the meat of what's happening, Wanda's grief after losing Vision, her brother, her country, her family, not to mention the chaos her powers have caused... it's been a tumultuous time for one Miss Maximoff. Episode 6 is also the "Hallowe'en Episode" where Vision, Wanda and Pietro dress up in somewhat accurate version of their comic book costumes (Wanda's is note perfect, Vision's is sort of a Luchador spin, while Pietro's is charmingly home-made). Meanwhile, Darcy, Jimmy and Monica challenge the powers that be on the outside
Episode 7 takes on a Modern Family/The Office confessional-style format which is fabulous in how brutally it messes with the logic of the show, and yet, it allows so much additional insight into our leads and what they're working through. It's the last pastiche for the show to land on, and really where is there to go. Not that Modern Family is an outright family comedy, but they're few and far between now where they were once everywhere, so it's hard to see where they could go from here with anything with the same notoriety.
The final two episodes are effectively a two parter that start really deep diving into backstories and how we wound up to where we are now, culminating in a big magical showdown that brings everything home, and while episode 8, which finds Wanda exploring her past, It's A Wonderful Life style, is extremely emotional, episode 9 seems like it's just lasers in the sky and feels like such a standard Marvel house-style battle that carries such little weight or creativity. I was really hoping for something spectacular that tied the series' themes and its television themes together...it keys sort of into the former but not so much the latter. But that episode 8 exploration of Wanda's history of trauma puts a lot into context. Wanda has experienced a tremendous amount of loss, not the least of which was having to kill Vision herself in Inifinity War, only to have time rewound and to watch Thanos kill him instead. It's no wonder she's kind of unconsciously out of control.
I loved Wandavision thoroughly through it's first half. But once it started mixing its "outside" aesthetic with the inside, we lost some of the stylistic flavour of being fully entrenched within an era-specific sitcom and it felt less audacious. Once the scripts became more Marvel-flavoured, less sitcom structured, it just didn't seem to connect the same way. Yet, I admire that they persisted through to the 2000s with the structure, including unique (and absolutely marvelous, no pun intended) theme songs for each era with point-perfect credits running underneath. As well it still maintained its commercial breaks, and the sort of "in-universe" nods were maybe devoid of larger specific meaning but were fun fanspotting.
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This was absolutely a story worth exploring, and if anyone was worried about the star-power of the MCU with Evans, Downey Jr. and Johansson's departures, I think Olsen has proven her undeniable presence here, showing incredible diversity, range and skill. She holds the bulk of this series on her shoulders and you can't even see her sweat.
Vision still may not be the most captivating character, but Paul Bettany is just endlessly charming in the role and certainly provided a needed presence. One can see why Wanda would be so in love with a robotman in the way that Bettany flashes his pearlescent smile, glances with such warmth, and delivers his lines so soothingly.
While the story inside the hex was note perfect, up until the final battle, that is, outside the hex it felt somewhat messier. Darcy, Jimmy and Monica were doing their own Scooby-gang thing sneaking around and pissing the director off, but it felt pretty ancillary. There weren't any stakes for them as characters, so it left them feeling pretty hollow at the end. Of course, Dennings is always a delight, Parris only leaves us wanting more, and Park's Jimmy Woo needs his own show.
In terms of how the show stacks up against its cinematic fare, it's a possible top ten contender. Though runtime may be somewhere in the range of two long movie's worth of content, it doesn't work as a movie, it's the first MCU-controlled show and comes out demanding that it be presented as a serialized program, and presents a very tough act to have to have to follow.
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