Wandavision was released a while ago, but I have a busy life, so I only watched it recently. I have to say, it’s something else.
Wait, Wandavision?
Wouldn’t you like to see Scarlet Witch and Vision in a nineteen-fifties comedy? No? Well, it wouldn’t be my first choice either, but that’s how Wandavision starts out. A sitcom called Wandavision.
Wanda Maximoff — Scarlet Witch — and Vision live in the town of Westview. Vision is trying to be the man of the house while hiding he’s a robot. Wanda is the plucky housewife, who is trying to hide she’s a witch. Add nosy neighbour Agnes, and you have yourself a fifties comedy. The show veers into sixties, seventies, and other comedies in the following episodes.
‘That’s it?’ you ask. No, that is — in fact — not it. Something clearly isn’t right with the world. And didn’t Vision die in Avengers: Infinity War? I won’t say anymore, because that would spoil the show.
At the very least, Wandavision is something else. Again, without spoiling things, this is not an approach to building up a show that I’ve ever seen before. However, it is pretty brilliant, and a thing you simply couldn’t have gotten off the ground in linear television times. On the other hand, if you don’t like comedies, the first few episodes will take some work to get through.
Another interesting thing is that the length of the episodes isn’t constant. Where the first episode is barely thirty minutes, the finale is fifty minutes. Another thing that was unlikely to be allowed on linear television.
Characters
When we left Wanda — Elizabeth Olsen — Thanos had just murdered Vision to get to the Infinity Stone in his forehead. Now, though, she’s in a nineteen-fifties comedy. During the show you learn what happened, but I won’t spoil that. Let’s just say it gives her an interesting arc in the story, although your first guess at what is going on is probably the right one — it was for me, anyway.
Vision — Paul Bettany — is supposedly dead. But he’s clearly not. He’s a robot posing as a fifties working man. He doesn’t have a clue that something wonky is going on. Even if it is clear to the viewer that something is.
Wanda and Vision are surrounded by a cast of other people, like any sitcom. The nosy neighbor, the abrasive boss, and the bossy neighborhood committee leader. They get smaller but meaningful roles in the story, although they remain ‘types’, mostly because that is how old comedy shows work.
I should talk about Monica, Jimmy, and Darcy too, but that would spoil things, so I won’t. Let’s just say, shit gets interesting around episode four.
Conclusion
All in all, Wandavision is an interesting show. It isn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, but not everything has to be. It’s fun to watch, and is an interesting self-contained story with a very unique build-up.
If you haven’t seen a lot of Marvel shows, this one could be interesting. The show is relatively easy to follow. Still, without seeing the Thor, Captain Marvel or Infinity War movies, you’ll probably have some trouble following everything, but it isn’t nearly as bad as Avengers: Endgame or some of the other Marvel movies.
