I liked it, but then I had to think about it.
WARNING: This article contains full spoilers for the show.
With so little new mainstream entertainment out there at the moment (Thanks for nothing, COVID!), most of us have been looking for something to feed that need for escapism. Luckily, Disney+ has a few cards to play in the form of shows from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first of 2021 is WandaVision, and it’s pretty good.
Kind of. I guess.
Allow me to explain.
On One Hand…
I really felt bad for Wanda… until the ending, at least.
WandaVision starts off with an interesting premise that appears to be radically different from a traditional piece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For some strange reason, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) find themselves in the middle of a mysterious town that appears to be modeled after a sitcom from the 1950s. At first, it seems like Wanda might be playing around in a happy fantasy version of Agents of SHIELD’s Framework, but then it hits you.
Vision died in Avengers: Infinity War, and it seems like everything around Wanda is going haywire.
I was quite awestruck by the early presentation of the show. It came across as a love letter to American comedy, the odd mystery elements were cool, and surprise appearances by some familiar faces made it easy to accept the show as a part of this vast web of stories.
All of the pieces fit into place, and I was excited to see what happened next.
On The Other…
“I’m EEEEEEEEVIL!” isn’t good enough.
The basic structure of the show starts to fall apart in the second half because of a double dose of handwavium.
In her grief over the loss of Vision, Wanda actually took the town of Westview, New Jersey hostage through a sudden burst of her powers. She is solely responsible for the town’s trip through the decades, and the turmoil comes with an unhappy side effect of mind-controlling every living thing in the area.
So, why is Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) the villain again?
From what I understand, Agatha was observing Wanda because she wanted to figure out how she spontaneously brought Vision back to life and created two children out of thin air. However, the show doesn’t go into much beyond that other than that the Salem Witch Trials may have been on to something and that she killed a dog.
That seems rather one-dimensional, doesn’t it?
I get that the writers needed an explosive finale to close everything off because it’s Marvel, but that doesn’t exactly work when your heroine comes off as a villainess all on her own. Sure, the show tries to explain that Wanda’s sudden escapade as Yuri is bad and possibly accidental, but it pulls a 180° turn when Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) suggests that she’s a heroine who sacrificed a lot.
I’m confused. Isn’t Vision still out there? Shouldn’t there be consequences for Wanda apart from seclusion in a cabin? Why did Monica just pass it off?
I doubt that SWORD could have stopped her after her transformation into the Scarlet Witch anyway, but these are important questions that I should not be asking as a member of the audience.
Conclusion.
Oh, SWORD is watching her. Why haven’t we ever heard about them before?
WandaVision isn’t horrifically bad to the point that it’s unwatchable, but the last few episodes violate an important rule that I try to harp on again and again on this site: Viewers should not ask too many questions beyond the ones that the writers direct them toward because that act runs the risk of breaking the suspension of disbelief. Apart from that, the performances are good, the presentation is great, and some of the twists work well.
I’m not sure if I would recommend it to others, but maybe The Falcon And The Winter Soldier will be better!
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