Friday the first two installments of Marvel’s new Television series, Wanda Vision, released on Disney+. From the commercials, it was hard to tell what exactly this show was going to be like, it looked very odd, and it held up to that. This seems like it could be a big leap to make for Marvel’s strong base. When watching a typical superhero movie there are large action sequences, and this was not that. The first two episodes were more like 1960s sitcoms. They had a laugh track in the background, and they made pointed jokes. It seemed more geared toward an adult audience than towards a teen pre-teen audience, which seems like a bold choice. It may ramp up in a different direction, but for the people that were expecting a more traditional superhero watch, they might have already lost their interest from the first two episodes.
In the first two episodes of the show, the viewers got a glimpse into a mid-1900s suburban lifestyle between Wanda and Vision. The fact that they have superpowers was more in the background instead of being a focus point. In the first episode they host Vision’s boss for a dinner party, and there was a big misunderstanding as to what was going to happen, which allowed them to hit their highly set up comedic points and make it feel like a classic television show. Then in the second episode Wanda and Vision were going to participate in a neighborhood talent competition. They had a script to go off, but Vision had a malfunction with his system that equivalented his actions to him being drunk, and he started to try and use his powers to do the tricks, but Wanda would use her powers to make the situation look like it was staged, and that he was just a normal human. At the end of both episodes, they did allude to the fact that there was something bigger going on, but it was not to clear what exactly. Someone was trying to reach Wanda and Vision, but it is not completely clear who it was and why, but some strange occurrences had started to happen. So the rest of the series it seems like the goal is to illuminate why Wanda and Vision are living a suburban life.
From what the first two episodes showed, it did not seem like there was too much background needed from the other movies to understand what was happening, unless I missed something, but if you want some background without watching five different movies, Disney+ released two seven minute shorts about Wanda and Vision giving background on their stories. The only area where it seemed like some background would be helpful comes towards the end of the episodes, when the person was trying to speak to Wanda. My guess is that it is Antman and that Wanda and Vision entered some quantum realm alternate universe, and information about that was in the Antman sequel and in End Game. I also could be completely wrong about that, but that is my guess.
One of the areas that Marvel has been really excelling at is being more creative with how they tell their stories. From movies like Thor Ragnarok, the Antman movies, and Civil War. Marvel seems to vary from the formula of a superhero movie in a good way. In Ragnarok, they do not take as serious a tone, they let Thor have asides with the audience, and it can almost be considered a comedy. Something similar can be said for Antman, they have a strong focus on having a levity and trying to create some laughs. Then in Civil War, there was a typical villain, but there was a strong interior conflict between the Avengers that had to do with the morality of what they were doing. So it had a much more intellectual theme to it than just action. Also Spiderman had great comedic parts once he appeared, but this series is taking an even bigger leap than any of their movies has in starting out in a black and white sitcom way, I just hope it does not scare a large part of the audience away, because them having such a massive creative flexibility has been great so far.
All of that is to say that they have created a great deal of credit in their bank that they can create something weird like WandVision, and that it will be successful. I was disappointed when I finished both episodes, because I would have to wait another week to get another one, but I do enjoy the anticipation of waiting over binge watching, because it creates more of a chance for discussion of the content, compared to something like Stranger Things where all the episodes are released together, and then it disappears from public conversation quickly because not everyone watches it at the same pace. Disney+ so far has been incredibly successful with their tv show releases between this and The Mandalorian. It is also interesting that both shows have had heavy imprints of shows from the past. In WandaVision there is the 60s sitcom setup so far, and then in The Mandalorian there were heavy uses of storytelling in the form of Westerns. Both of which are great genres to revive, especially since they are being done so well.
In my most recent quarantine I caught up on the Marvel movies I had missed, and I was generally impressed. Personally, I like the heroes better in D.C comics, but as of late the movies from D.C have been disappointing. I found both Wonder Woman movies to be quite horrendous. The action scenes between the Wonder Woman movies and any of the newer Marvel movies are not even comparable. I enjoyed Gal Gadot walking through the Smithsonian museums as a civilian better than her being a superhero. Also the villains in both of the Wonder Woman movies did not interest me at all. Cheetah seemed like she could have potential, but she did not impress in the movie. Whereas in Marvel movies they have a giant web of interconnected stories that build off each other so well, and even when they do not have a great villain like in Civil War, they still make the rest of the story so compelling so that it does not even matter. D.C needs to step up again. It is almost impossible to get out of the shadow of the masterpieces that Christopher Nolan made with the Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, which are not only two of the best superhero movies of all time, but the Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies I have ever seen. I have high hopes for the new Batman with Robert Pattinson, but it is hard to have faith at this point.
I am glad that Marvel has continued to go in this direction of being more creative with their material, and I have high hopes for their other TV shows that will release on to Disney+. It was awesome to see the announcement a few weeks ago about all the Marvel and Star Wars content coming to the platform in the future, personally I look more forward to the Star Wars than the Marvel, especially after finishing all of Star Wars Clone Wars final season that was amazing, but I will probably watch it all either way. Fantasy worlds have been particularly important this past year for many people because it has given them a chance to free themselves from the troubles of the world. One of the best fantasy escapes that I went through this year was the Harry Potter book series. I knew it was good, but when I read it, it was even better than I could have imagined. Another fantasy series I just finished was the Golden Compass or His Dark Materials series. It is a show currently on HBO, so I thought I would give it a read as well. The first book was great, and the others were good, but they did not match the first one, and the TV show itself is on pace to be same, a good first season, but not as compelling in the second. Needless to say, there is a ton of good content out there, and WandaVision should definitely be put on the list of shows to watch.
(Also if you want a really good deep dive into all of the Marvel movies, go listen to the podcast Binge Mode, it is the reason why I picked up in the Marvel movies where I left off.)
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