What did you think of WandaVision?
Friday, March 5, 2021 at 11:00PM by Nathaniel R
DO NOT READ OR COMMENT IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED WANDAVISION - SPOILERS
Today we were treated to the final episode of Disney+'s hit WandaVision, returning us to the Marvel Cinematic Universe by way of streaming sidebar. Watching WandaVision was a like a meta experience on steroids. The show itself was intentionally constructed that way using Wanda Maximoff's (Elisabeth Olsen) love of TV sitcoms to comment, however broadly on them, but more pointedly on nostalgia and the human need for escapism...
ep 1 "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience"
We knew from the first frames that what we were watching wasn't "real" in more ways than you usually understand as a viewer that what you're watching onscreen is unreal...
Even the leads themselves were out of place in the initial episodes which were a mismash of tropes, beats, and styles from I Love Lucy, Dick Van Dyke and Bewitched.
ep 2 "Don't Touch That Dial"
Wanda and Vision were often unable to remember context and/ or adequately perform their assigned roles. Especially when pressed to by their coworkers and neighbors. Sometimes quite literally as in episode 2's Magic Show wherein chewing gum mucks with Vision's insides and Wanda has to rescue his fake magic show with her real magic... while still making it look fake. Kathryn Hahn's Aggie was an immediate delight in the early episodes doing a heightened "nosey comic relief neighbor" that is familiar from just about every era of television. But more on her in a bit.
Several early criticisms of the show revolved around how weak a job the show did at actually capturing and understanding sitcoms. But that's missing the point entirely if you ask me. This is (magical) window dressing. People don't think too deeply about mainstream entertainments as is evidenced by literally every annoying complaint about critics not enjoying blockbusters (never mind that they often do). You know the one, "just turn off your brain and enjoy it".
ep 3 "Now in Color"
I'd be shocked if the intent of WandaVision was ever to faithfully reimagine old sitcoms or even too comment on the form in any meaningful way beyond the escapist gloss of their relatively easy and happy surfaces. All entertainment is illusion but most movies and television aim to immerse you in a heightened reality that you're supposed to buy into as "real" contextually. Not so here.
WandaVision very quickly begins to dispense with any context of even an internal reality as the rules keep changing. Now we're in color. Now there are impossible children. Now the citizens of Westview begin to malfunction in the way Wanda and Vision do, perturbed by things they don't quite get. Like (The wonderful Teyonnah Paris) who is, cryptically, "new"... "She has no home!" And the show even begins to pick fun at Elisabeth Olsen's performance with jokes about her come and go accent work as Wanda. (Olsen's accent work has always been spotty but she's otherwise wonderful, and able to stretch her jumping from era to era and from light silly comedy to angsty drama and the gradations inbetween.
- What are we looking at here? Is it an alternate reality? Time travel? A cocamamie social experiment?
- It's a sitcom.
ep 4 "We Interrupt This Program"
WandaVision's bizzare false reality or even its malfunctioning fantasy doesn't make it revolutionary entertainment, mind you. Many films and shows before it have mined showbiz nostalgia (Pleasantville, Truman Show, every musical episode of a non-musical show, etc...) and/or constructed false realities within a real narrative (Buffy, etc...) or revealed our own to be the illusion (The Matrix, etc..) or generally played with the mutable nature of life and identity (Eternal Sunshine etc...) to comment on various themes.
But WandaVision was delightfully slippery in this regard. Just four episodes in it abruptly and brilliantly changed course, acknowledging what was obvious from the jump -- its complete unreality. While also having a ton of fun by pretending it wasn't acknowledging just that with all the mumbo jumbo about the town of Westview changing people on a cellular level and familiar Marvel Cinematic Universe faces Jimmy Choo (Randall Park) and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) running to catch up with what the audience already understood in comic fashion. They theorized aloud and comically about what was going on, essentially acting out an imagined version of the audience discourse online.
ep 5 "On a Very Special Episode..."
ep 6 "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"
ep 7 "Breaking the Fourth Wall"
The middle episodes were when WandaVision's true theme emerged: Grief and its repercussions for those who don't allow themselves to feel it and make peace with it. By denying her pain, Wanda has only made things worse. Curiously, and authentically if you ask me, Wanda seems to understand this for other people, if not for herself. When her rapidly (magically) growing boys, already pre-teens, lose their new dog she senses their avoidance.
Don't age yourself up. The urge to run from this feeling is powerful."
In these busy plotty chaotic middle episodes the show toys with whether or not Wanda is the villain of WandaVision and the whole idea of the fake TV show begins to fade from view. Technically 'the show' is still on but we're not definitely outside of it and inside of it simultaneously. it's frequently being edited and interrupted. The Vision himself begins to realize that Wanda is controlling the citizens of Westview. He attempts to escape Wanda's false reality only to begin to disintegrate. When Wanda realizes this she merely expands her avoidance of reality, by expanding the magical border of her fake world.
With the return of Wanda's brother Pietro/Quicksilver in the form of the actor Evan Peters (who played him in the Fox movies) rather than Aaron Taylor Johnson (who played him in the MCU movie) fan theories exploded along with everything that was happening within the show. Wanda and Vision were even more confused about this reality created specifically for them. And here were have yet another layer (but not the final layer) of the show's meta elements. The flimsy ever-shifting reality of the show starts to feel like the fan theories themselves, coming to life and evolving, and all completely illusory. Consider: Wanda, or, rather, MCU guru Kevin Feige and his various franchise teams, could just change the reality again. Nothing is ever permanent or fixed. We're already living in the famed "multiverse" of Phase Whichever that we're entering. We've been there all along actually.
At the end of "Breaking the Fourth Wall" we get the "Agatha All Along" reveal -- a new funny theme song -- when the show rewrites its early episodes essentially to make Agatha Harkness (turns out she's a witch) the big bad. Still, it's worth noting that she wasn't the original antagonist and still isn't the sole antagonist. That was and still is mentally unstable grieving Wanda who is her own worst enemy, protagonist and antagonist. They're now two warring Big Bads... at least in terms of the town of Westview where real people are just puppets for two sorceresses to play with.
ep 8 "Previously On"
And the final layer of WandaVision's meta-watching on steroid is revealed as Agatha takes Wanda on a tour of her past, to figure out how she cast the Westview spell. As in Avengers Endgame, we begin to revisit a past that we're already familiar with to glean new information or shift the narrative. In the penultimate episode WandaVision essentially becomes a fan watch-party, or fan-fiction corporatized, rather than traditional fiction. Marvel just keeps rewriting the previous realities. Nothing is ever fixed.
We also learn that the government has officially figured out how to reanimated the dead body of The Vision so now we have two Visions, one real but essentially soulless and one "real" who is also essentially an illusion. This is chaos magic, after all.
ep 9 "The Series Finale"
Unfortunately WandaVision can't quite stick its landing. Which is no wonder with all the inverted tucks, twisting dives, back flips, round-offs, triple axels and quadruple whatsits it's perpetually attempting. The tell is even in the title. Yes, it's cutesy TV blunt just like the previous clever titles but it lacks their in media res fun. It's too generic and also impotent with dishonesty. As with every Marvel show or movie, nothing really ends. It just begins again or rewinds. We'd claim this was also WandaVision commenting on the art of television except that superhero comic books preceded both television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it has always been thus.
After two uninspired aerial fight scenes (Vision vs Vision and Scarlet Witch vs Agatha Harkness), we do get a lovely existential goodbye scene between Wanda and The Vision (Paul Bettany is really wonderful in this sequence... but when isn't Bettany wonderful?) before he and the magically-created Maximoff twins dissolve into nothingness leaving Wanda back where she started before WandaVision ever aired, morose and alone, as she finally lifts her spell from Westview.
The End. But not.
Wanda has come into even more power on this journey and the fake Vision is now sort of the real Vision, since he has his memories back; who knows where he was flying off to after he realized how fucked up his programming was.
The usual "stingers" after the credits are a further reminder that this Finale isn't "final". One stinger is a commercial for Captain Marvel 2 as Monica Rambeau is invited by a Skrull to travel to galaxies uknown. And in the final stinger, after the second round of credits, we see Wanda being chill and lonely in a remote home in the middle of nowhere, drinking tea. Only there's another version of her in the next room -- an astral projection? -- doing what looks like heavy duty complex spellwork while studying "The Darkhold" and hearing her fake children crying for help. This is, then, undoubtedly a commercial for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness coming to movie theaters in a year's time on March 25th, 2022.
But it's a bit disappointing in retrospect that whatever causes this 'Multiverse of Madness' wasn't directly a part of this nine-episode journey... but presumably began haphazardly right here, in this final second, stubbornly undramatized until 2022.
All episodes of WandaVision are currently streaming on Disney+. It's normal 'new episode every Friday' schedule will now be taken over by Falcon and the Winter Soldier which debuts on March 19th.
Reader Comments (26)
This was a Marvel movie not based really on action but character building. It was all about Wanda and her grief. This last year has caused so much personal grief for so many people that the theme of loss and choosing recovery or denial resignated with me. All the performances were great. Hahn sang her own theme song! This isn't the type of program that wins awards but who knows how award bodies will respond to this.
It is time to give Olsen, Bettany and Hahn their due. Is it a miniseries, a drama, or a comedy though?
Week to week it almost attracted me to the MCU, but I've only read the synopsis on Wiki... LOL
First 5 episodes hooked me. 6th is amazing but... 7-9, specially the last one... HUGE disappointment and the last one just enraged me.
Kevin Feige trolled fans too much with these series.
Overall, **** / B
Best: Olsen, Bettany and Hahn. (the rest of the cast is great as well, though)
Worst: Fietro. Not Evan Peter's fault, but the producers and screenwriters'
Honestly, this is a monumental achievement from the MCU. I got really invested into each episode and loved nearly everything about it. I loved how it paid homage to the medium of TV and its importance to people during troubled times as well as the sitcoms they pay tribute to. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany both need to get a shitload of accolades. Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, Kat Dennings, and Randall Park deserve a lot of praise as they just killed it.
It's a show that was way better than I thought it would be as I hope there would be a second season soon. Now let's get to Falcon & the Winter Soldier.
Those first three episodes really sucked me into thinking this would be different than other MCU content. But alas. Could have dispensed with the SWORD storyline completely and, honestly, they had Teyonah Parris and *this* is what she was given to do? Kathryn Hahn has a baddie but she’s only unveiled in the penultimate episode? I agree that Elisabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are really great and the show was at its best when focusing on their relationship/Wanda’s grief, but what a let-down for a show where its entire audience guessed the ending from Episode 1.
;)
I really enjoyed the series, more than I anticipated. I would say that Wanda became a villiain at the end (the prophecy of Scarlet Witch destroying the world) due to her grief. And the exchange between the two Visions was phenomenal.
SPOILER for those unfamiliar with the comic books...
Yes, Wanda's children were imaginary BUT... it was revealed that both were possible thanks to some parts of Mephisto's soul. The fact that the children disappear but she can still hear them crying (tortured?) is just another hint of what's to come: Mephisto (who probably will be mixed up with Nightmare, to avoid problems with China's censorship), as Nightmare was kind of confirmed to be appearing in Dr. Strange 2, before Sam Raimi entered the scene. So on paper, Dr. Strange 2 will deal with Wanda in quest to recover her children, who are destined to be the core of the Young Avengers (also, Wiccan, is now one of the most prominent LGTB characters in the comics, so you can count that Feige is going to have him back to life as soon as possible). The disappointment with this series is that it just teases things that they could have actually shown already... stretching out insanely a story that could have been told in just 3 hours, max.
The list of things that were hinted in some way or another without any pay off...
1) Multiverse, with Evan Peters
2) Fantastic Four, with cosmic radiation and the missing astronauts
3) Mephisto
4) Nightmare
5) Magneto
6) Dr. Doom
... and I mean, not theories that fans could be coming up with. Clear HINTS and references all through the series... it is a pity because the storytelling was awesome in the first 5 episodes, even in the 6th, but they dropped the ball big time in the last 3, that are a 2 hours movie in which everything was exposition, disappointing reveals and generic MCU action with fights between exchangable villains and heros.
Plus... Agatha isn't a villain in the comics. Not a heroine either, but someone with her own agenda that normally sides with the heroes, when in need. Unless they retcon her and "Fietro", this is a massive disappointment for those familiar with the comic books...
Watch Veneno, people.
I wanted the finale back-to-back with Pieces of a Woman.
One was an interesting study on how people cope with grief in their own unique ways, and the other was Pieces of a Woman
It was the first time I was truly moved by a Marvel production. I thought Tony Stark’s death and funeral were too overwrought, and at the time of Vision’s first death, we didn’t really see enough of Vision and Wanda to feel the loss. The last episode’s farewell was the first time I thought the feelings and sense of loss was palpable. The serial aspect really helped develop the story well.
Can they just stick to the Big Screen.
I’m torn on this. The ads and vintage tv throwbacks look great, and I love Hahn, but I HATE Marvel. I find all their movies generic and dull and almost exactly same. Should I watch it? I have such a bad taste in mouth from marvel but I admit this looks somewhat appealing.
Not perfect or as inspired as it thinks it is but good fun and definitely the most interesting Marvel has been in years. The central 4 performances are all excellent as well. Would I revisit? Absolutely, which is saying something for this genre.
Loved it (except for the finale, which featured the action sequences I tend to tune out on in the final half-hour of superhero films). Especially loved Ms. Olsen's work throughout. I think I was the right mix of casual comic book reader, MCU viewer and TV aficionado to appreciate this project without getting too hung up on any expectations.
RE: Elizabeth Olsen. I really need her to act more outside of Marvel. She’s got such a heavy screen presence and her line readings are layered.
My favorite line reading from the series? “I’m a twin”. Almost surprised, as if she’s just remembering but equally packed with love for her late brother and the vulnerability of opening ho to her new friend.
people disappointed with this are just showing how their rather exaggerated expectations (about some wild cameo or certain characters from the MCU appearing) worked against them. I personally think it's one of the finest things Marvel has done since it was acquired by Disney, because it takes a strange concept and makes it work brilliantly, And Elizabeth Olsen delivers the best MCU performance so far, she's brilliant and deserves at least the Emmy nomination only for episode 8
I knew from the very beginning that the weirdness wouldn't last, so I just decided to go with it and revel in the unconventional bits while waiting for it to turn into a typical Marvel product. And it did. But I'm fine with that, because it was a lot of fun while it lasted and Kathryn Hahn was clearly having a blast.
I loved it. I was really into all of the different possibilities of what it could mean, but at the end of the day it told a really effective story about grief, and shot Kathryn Hahn firmly into the mainstream.
I loved the call backs to classic sitcoms, those were really well done and they got the humor right, while also advancing the plot nicley. While I'm not sure it deserves to be in the best limited series category, Elisabeth Olsen deserves to contend as Lead Actress in that category. What she pulled off, as she deftly fit herself into different time frames and slowly showed the audience her pain, was truly impressive.
Also, this is small, but this was a great reminder of what a fun screen presence Kat Dennings is. I know she went off to CBS-land for a few years, but I'd really love to see her starring in indies and taking on fun supporting roles in mainstream comedies and blockbusters.
I enjoyed it, but came away feeling like I do about most Marvel movies and about the franchise in general...I like the characters, I like "tuning in" to each new episode (Emily Van der Werff has a good piece in Vox on WandaVision that notes how all of MCU is basically one giant TV show), but the actual plotting almost always ends up feeling pretty by-the-numbers and designed - effectively, I will admit - to hook us into the next episode.
WandaVision felt different at first because of the sitcom/mystery angle, but it was pretty clear it was going to end in the same way. I basically just resigned myself to the finale culminating in rote fight scenes, or, as the Vulture recapper put it, "MCU silliness with the women flying around and shooting pew-pew magic at each other."
What elevates the formula is the dynamic between the characters and the acting. Olsen and Bettany did great work here, and the rest of the cast is very enjoyable, esp. Kathryn Hahn.
@Lynn Lee
I find it amusing that people realize at the end, that the MCU is a theatre based serial... it was ALWAYS meant to be, as it is just the translation of the same formula that has been working to perfection for Marvel, since the early 60s. Each episode actually invites audiences to try the other franchise that is being offered. The whole MCU is one big coherent and cohesive story, a neverending one, by the way. That is why I am so disappointed with WV's ending... they were hinting to introduce so much, they had 9 hours to fit those introductions and... they wasted so many great chances (specially around Pietro Maximoff). The final chapter was nice and so, but it was a letdown to reduce everything to a couple of generic superhero fights (Monica Rambeau and Pietro were SO wasted in this episode) and reducing fan faves Darcy and Jimmy Woo to almost cameos was wrong. Still, the overall story feels actually great, with the whole thing being an allegory of trauma and how to overcome it, specially when grief destroys not only ourselves but anyone close, as well.
i have little knowledge of the mcu and have never been a comic reader, but i tuned in because of the retro tv homages and the magnificent kathyn hahn. i had no idea who anyone was and how they related to one another and what the hell sword was supposed to be but i ended up watching the entire thing. it was great to see anya from buffy and dawn from mad men and i now appreciate the talents of elizabeth olsen and paul bettany and the show's exploration of grief
but it hasn't made me any more interested in the mcu than i was before. nine episodes and done
Just in case nobody was actually paying real attention... the Evan Peters thing, probably is far from over. There were plenty of hints something has been going on with him, even before the Hex started.
1) Jimmy Woo went to WestView because of a missing person that the FBI was searching for. Witness protection if I remember correctly... that's why Peter's face wasn't listed on the wall among the WestView citizens (same for Agatha/Agnes). So, "Ralph Bohner" is probably a fake name.
2) I am really, really thinking that this is another Mandarin/Iron Man 3 thing. They troll the audience but they had always thought to introduce the character anyways, just later (despite being one of Iron Man's main nemesis, the Mandarin suited better for a Shang Chi film, and that's where we are going to meet him, just later). They fixed the "paradox" and calmed the fans horses with the one shot "All hail the King", which stablished that there was a real Mandarin and he wasn't happy with Ben Kingsley's character impersonating him
3) Same as that, Feige is taking note of WandaVision's audience reaction to see what they do with Peters. But on that aspect let's just remind everyone that...
4) Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool has been confirmed as the MCU Deadpool, so SOME Fox actors are going to cross over...
5) ... as JJ Jameson (JK Simmons) has transitioned to the MCU, and as it seems Alfred Molina, Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe and Jamie Foxx (and who knows who else!) are comming in Spiderman 3, so the Multiverse thing is real.
6) Add to this, that Bruce Campbell is also confirmed for Dr. Strange 2 and his Ash (created by Dr. Strange 2's director!) is included in Marvel Comics continuity in the Ash vs. Marvel Zombies crossover... so do not discard that Ash will be in Dr. Strange 2 as a character as well, specially since it's also confirmed it will have to do with a) Scarlet Witch, who is in posession of the Darkhold book, and b) the multiverse, and c) Ash is intimately related to the also MCU continuity forbidden book, the Necronomicon.
So probably, fasten your seatbelts, we're in for quite a ride. (Marvel Zombies seems to be also confirmed as one episode of the "What If?" animated series in Disney Plus, and the timming of the release is quite suspicious. The multiverse seems to be starting in Loki... so..
I thought this was very well done esp the way the ended it however.... I was livid at one point. That was when Monica Rambeau somehow gained powers indicating that she will be the new captain marvel..... Umm what I'm not happy about this at all I was skeptical at first when I found out they changed Captain Marvel to a women. I wasn't unhappy after I saw the movie but why change something that is perfectly fine. And I'm not going to lie I was livid only when she got powers I was super mad when I found out that she's going to be the new Captain Marvel. Not cool x2