WandaVision: I Lied, I Am Not Finished with the MCU

Spoilers for WandaVision. I seriously suggest you watch it before reading this. It’s worth it.

I thought I was finished with the MCU. I thought that Endgame was enough for me and that any more MCU content was pointless. I was half wrong. There are some projects in the next couple of years that I look at and still think ‘What is the point?’ But after watching Spider-Man: Far From Home and now this first series of the new wave of MCU television shows, I realise that some arcs like Spider-Man’s and Wanda’s are in need of more development or an ending. And, as usual, it’s hard for Marvel Studios to make something that isn’t at least entertaining. So here we are, the first television show of Phase Four of the MCU: WandaVision.

The idea that Wanda or Vision were some of my favourite MCU characters was laughable. Wanda had not had much development before the last two Avengers films except her brother dying and the fact that she’s a powerful superhero. But the aforementioned films again only gave her another death to be sad about. Now, in essence, this is also what the show of WandaVision does. But it actually takes time (since there are not dozens of characters to service) and explore Wanda’s grief and what it does to someone, especially someone with powers. Elizabeth Olsen has a great performance and some really nice scenes while paring off with Kathryn Hahn and Paul Bettany. Speaking of Paul Bettany, he completely knocked it out of the park again as Vision. He’s simply one of those actors who can turn it on at any time. Vision’s entire journey throughout the show was fantastic having him wrestle with who he was and what had happened after noticing that something is not quite right with the entire situation. Every time they give Bettany a moment to give a small monologue whilst talking to Wanda or Agatha, I feel like I’m watching a Shakespeare stage production. The only thing I would have preferred is if they leaned on it more heavily. Agatha, spinning on over to the main villain, had a little up and down for me. I love Kathryn Hahn and her style of acting worked liked a charm when the show was doing the fake-sitcom premise but as the show got more serious, so did the character which I feel let down Hahn’s skills. They let her shine through with some great lines and opportune laughing but the character felt a lot more limited and suffocated with the turn in style. I don’t think any of that is down to Hahn herself, it appears as if the writers of this show couldn’t balance the character with the optimal amount of comedy for the last two episodes where the series takes its more serious turn. The other major character to talk about is that of Monica Rambeau. With all new characters, the question is how to introduce them. They sneaked her in as a citizen of Westview during the early episodes and then revealed her identity and backstory in the fourth episode that was the first to take the break from the sitcom format. Although we learnt a little about her during her brief appearance in Captain Marvel when the character was young, this really fleshes out the character in her proper introduction into the MCU. I thoroughly enjoyed the role she played but am much more excited to see where the character goes and what her involvement with the Nick Fury chilling in space storyline will result in. Some other great additions to the show were Jimmy Woo, the FBI who appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Darcy Lewis who fits nicely into the show without being too corrupted by Thor: The Dark World. They functioned very nicely as side characters and I hope they turn into something like Claire Temple from the Marvel Netflix shows where the characters occasionally pop up to help out our heroes. If you’re dubious as to whether you would enjoy the show, I would still give it a watch. As I mentioned, I was certainly not the biggest fan of the two main characters but the show has one of the best television show premises ever and plays on it incredibly well. They ease off as the series makes its way to the end to bring in the full force of typical MCU content but still use it to their advantage. Shout out to the best Westview resident, Herb.

The plot is the weakest part of the series but by no means does that mean it is bad. It sets up many different plot points nicely and has a great resolution for nearly all of them (and half of the ones that aren’t resolved have set ups for other future MCU projects). With the type of format the creators went for, the main problem they faced were pacing and placement of episodes. The first two episodes are the best example of how the show is beautifully paced. The first drops you into the bizarre world where you have no knowledge of what’s going on. The second adds to this and then ends the episode with the first hint at a larger force at work. Episode three continues this and adds more of the reveals. Episode four is where the question of pacing first comes into question. Because of how they set up the premise and initial episodes of the show, an episode where the creators take you out of the fabrication in order to show what is really going on is always going to be an issue and incredibly difficult in the decision as to where that episode is placed. All in all, the placement was perfect, they build up the mystery and slot in the out-of-hex episode at a great point to not only reveal important plot points but to also give the audience a little break from the forced sitcom format. All episodes after are a mix of the in-hex and out-of-hex which worked fine though I would have preferred a little more of a separation like in those first four episodes but given they only had nine episodes to work with (I’m assuming Disney mandated episode count), it worked well enough and would’ve been hard to fit everything in if done in a more separated manner.

Visually the show is great but much more from a view of style and direction. The premise of being in an anomaly that has everyone playing out a sitcom creates some great shots, and uses a lot of sitcom techniques to create their story in a unique way. Costume design is probably the flagship of the show’s visuals. Each costume feels appropriate and in a lot of cases hints at character backstory or important plot elements for the show. Music and sound during the show wasn’t I really noticed too often and looking back on it now, the only interesting part of the sound design in the entire show were the different fake-sitcom openings also imitating the various shows they parody throughout the series. This is a little sad considering the numerous other MCU films that have at least one or two tracks in the soundtrack that are incredibly memorable if not the entire song list. Then again, the show is very focused on the bizarre and ethereal elements in can convey so maybe the non-bombastic soundtrack was a style choice. We’ll see in the future and maybe some of the tracks seek back into other projects or my head.

The last thing to talk about with WandaVision is what this means for future MCU shows and films. Obviously there won’t be a second series of this project and I’m very much glad since it worked perfectly as a nice self-contained opening to the start of the string of MCU television shows we are going to get shoved down our throats this year. But in terms of other projects, it opens up a few things, revealed and conceptually. First, that Wanda is already schedule to appear in the second Doctor Strange film dealing with the multi-verse. Theoretically this could crossover with the Spider-Man: No Way Home film coming at the end of the year, but I feel the only crossover in that will likely be Doctor Strange himself and not really involve Wanda or any of the other characters in this show. The only exception to this could potentially be Monica Rambeau but because of the mid-credits scene, it is far more likely that she is purely going to be involved in the Nick-Fury-Space-Adventure plot line as well as anything Captain Marvel. The most interesting thing about the future beyond WandaVision is both Wanda and Vision’s future. With Wanda, the post-credits scene keeps her story completely open. Apart from being in the Doctor Strange sequel we really have no idea where she’s going and to what extent her powers are going to grow. Then on the other side of it, Vision, now kinda re-animated (I guess?), has a long journey of figuring out what he’s going to do and who’s going to be after him. This version of Vision could literally appear in any future MCU project and it could work. But surely he will eventually run back into Wanda and have to deal with his existence even though Wanda has grieved for him.

And that’s it for WandaVision. Again, I must say it was a great opening for the MCU television shows and if this is an example of what the shows are general going to entail on a quality level, then we are really in for a treat. The next show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, is looking a lot more like what an average MCU television show is going to look like so I’m very interested to see how that turns out as it may give more of an insight into what the other shows might average out at. In the end, this was great.

Some things are forever.

-Boad