TV Breakdown: WandaVision (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
I woke my fiancee up at 6:45AM the day I got my screener for the first three episodes of WandaVision because I couldn’t contain my excitement. So, yeah, that’s where I’m at.
Post-Screening Ramble:
I am fascinated by Marvel’s (somewhat forced) decision to place WandaVision as their reintroduction to their Cinematic Universe and their first foray into television on Disney+. You would think that with a full year passing since the last Marvel film (Spider-Man: Far From Home) you’d want to reintroduce some characters, lay the groundwork for future films, remind your sycophantic fans (like myself) what they’ve been missing. The first three episodes of WandaVision are not that. Instead, under the creative control of showrunner Jac Schaeffer and director Matt Shakman, this is, well, it’s not that. Using the structure of sitcoms of different decades – I Love Lucy, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch – this is a mystery box of a show wrapped around two side characters from the MCU – Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). The sitcom aspect isn’t just a concept either – aside from a few, ahem “moments” in each episode, these are true-to-form sitcoms with all the corny humor, fake sets, and camera lock-ups you’ve come to expect. There isn’t a mention of a Marvel character or storyline outside of the briefest mention of “Stark Technologies” in the first episode. Just Wanda, Vision and a fantastic cast including Kathryn Hahn embodying the slightly-off universe of the American sitcom. And it works. Exceptionally well. Olsen is fantastic as Wanda Maximoff, using the brittle shell of the homemaker stereotype to illuminate the instability at the heart of the character. Paul Bettany is amazing in this – a bumbling burst of comedy you very much could see enlivening a thirty-minute broadcast. Shakman (who directed every episode) and Schaeffer use the inherent oddness of American sitcoms as a jumping off point, and each of the three episodes is injected with increasing amount of almost Twin Peaks-like oddity. And for those who will shake their foaming maws and scream at the Marvel gods that there isn’t enough MARVEL, take a breath and wait, by the end of the third episode “things” are starting to be revealed and they look to be pretty big. All-in-all this isn’t what I expected from the show and that’s a good thing. This is a bigger, braver, more experimental swing for the fences than I imagined Marvel would go, and for someone who was been chomping at the bit for new content, this not only fills the gap, but makes me even more excited for whatever comes next for WandaVision and for the MCU.
Wanda/Vision’s first two episodes hit Disney+ this Friday, January 15th.
One Last Thought:
There are so many tiny, tiny easter eggs all throughout these three episodes. I can’t wait until other, bigger nerds than me pick them all apart.
