WandaVision
I know what you're all thinking. Didn't he already post a long form, full series recap/thoughts piece on "WandaVision" as part of his Re-Visiting the MCU series? Yes, I did. But, I love "WandaVision." It's my favorite of the MCU shows and I really wanted to re-watch it, so I thought, why not do an episode by episode breakdown. It will be quick and painless. Three episodes per post. Three posts total. And then we will move on to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
"Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience"
Agnes: "Hello, dear. I'm Agnes, you neighbor to the right. My right, not yours. Forgive me for not stopping by sooner to welcome you to the block. My mother-in-law was in town, so I wasn't. So, what's your name? Where are you from? And more importantly, how's your bridge game, hon?"
Wanda Maximoff: "I'm Wanda."
Agnes: "Wanda, charmed."
Commercial: The Stark Industries ToastMate 2000 toaster oven
Newlyweds and self-proclaimed "unusual couple" move to the town of Westview, New Jersey. Their life together resembles a sitcom from the 50's/60's. The couple is living suburban bliss until a calendar snafu leads to a semi disastrous dinner with Vision's boss and his wife. Things may all work out in the end, but the question remains: What exactly is going on here? Isn't Vision dead? And who is watching "WandaVision?"
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| Agnes believes in the power of pineapple. |
The premiere of "WandaVision" throws you right into this with no explanation. If you're a fan of the MCU, you are familiar with Wanda Maximoff and her paramour, the android, Vision. You also know that Thanos ripped the mind gem from Vision in "Avengers: Infinity War" effectively killing him. And he didn't come back to life in "Endgame" so something fishy is definitely going on here, aside from Wanda and Vision living their best "I Love Lucy/The Dick Van Dyke Show" fantasy.
Everything about this episode is great from the jump. I love how the Marvel Studios logo goes black and white the show immediately switches to standard definition. It's a great way to show, right for the start that this is something very different than what we've seen from Marvel in the past.
The tone of the show immediately evokes these classic sitcoms from the fifties and sixties from the theme song to the low budget seeming special effects. The cast is uniformly excellent. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany have obscene amounts of chemistry and watching them put their own spin on Rob and Laura from "The Dick Van Dyke Show" is an absolute delight. Kathryn Hahn proves that she is the show's powerhouse right from the start. From the moment nosy neighbor Agnes enters the room, Hahn steals the scene. Here's hoping that she becomes an Emmy winner on Sunday. Shout out to "That '70's Show's" own Kitty Foreman, Debra Jo Rupp, as Mrs. Hart.
The show takes a chilling turn when dinner is finally served and Mr. Hart starts choking. It is a jolt but the tonal shift doesn't hurt the episode. It feels like we've been waiting the whole time for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. Rupp getting more and more hysterical, repeating to Wanda to "Stop it" is the first big clue to the show's end game. It goes on for an almost uncomfortably long time until Vision saves him and then things go back to normal? The episode ends with a shot of someone from S.W.O.R.D. seemingly watching "WandaVision" on an old tube television.
If there is one knock on this episode, it's that it doesn't give you any sense of what is going on. You're dropped into this loving recreation of a classic sitcom, but there is literally no explanation for what his happening. As a comics fan, I had a bit of an idea, but if you're not familiar, you were probably scratching your head.
Grade: B+
"Don't Touch That Dial"
Vision: "Hello, Westview! Good afternoon. It's so lovely to be..."
[bumping into a handrail]
Vision: "I'm so sorry. Excuse me. I am Glamour, and this is my delightful assistant, Illusion."
Wanda Maximoff: "I am Glamour and he's illusion."
Vision: "Yeah, what she said. Today, we will lie to you, and yet you will believe our little deceptions because human beings are easily fooled due to their limited understanding of the inner workings of the universe."
Commercial: Strucker watches
Time continue to marches on extremely quickly in Westview. Wanda and Vision are now at the tail end of the swinging '60's and are getting ready to perform in the neighborhood talent show for the children. Vision heads to a neighborhood watch meeting while Wanda tries to impress head housewife, Dottie. Things go awry when Vision's works get literally gummed up and Wanda has some odd experiences. In the midst of the shenanigans, Wanda meets and immediately takes a liking to Geraldine.
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| I must see the Beekeeper... |
This episode is clearly an homage to "Bewitched" which couldn't be more fitting. The animated opening credits and the animations of Vision's insides are so great and look like they could have been pulled directly from an old episode of "Bewitched."
We get a couple of new actors. There is the sublime Emma Caulfield who plays Wanda's neighborhood nemesis, Dottie. Caulfield has the sitcom suburban housewife down. From her general disdain of everything from the other incompetents on the planning committee to Wanda's slacks and her command of everything and everyone, Caulfield is perfection. Teyonah Parris makes her MCU debut as new character, Geraldine, though there's more to her than meets the eye. I wonder what that could be? Hmmmm...
Paul Bettany is the real MVP of this episode. He really gets a lot of opportunities to flex his comedic chops, something that the MCU really hasn't allowed him to do up to this point. Vision is hilarious throughout, even before the gum he accidentally swallows makes him act drunk. Even at the neighborhood watch meeting when he is reminding everyone he is a human and casually calling Norm out as a communist. It's at the community talent show where things really are amped to 11. I was rolling and Elizabeth Olsen is the perfect straight woman for Bettany. Their chemistry continues to be the driving force of "WandaVision" and I am here for it.
The show continues to keep what is actually happening in Westview close to its chest with mixed results. The remote control helicopter in the bushes with the S.W.O.R.D. logo Wanda finds, miraculously in color, her confrontation with Dottie and the man's voice calling her from the radio is all fine, but it is almost too purposefully vague. What really works is the end of the episode reveal of the man in the beekeeper costume coming out of the sewer and Wanda seemingly rewinding time to make Vision forget about it. That is when you finally start to get an idea of what's happening. Oh and Wanda's preggers as things shift from black and white to color.
Grade: B+
"Now In Color"
Geraldine: "Can you believe it? Twins! Hi."
Wanda Maximoff: "I'm a twin. I had a brother. His name was Pietro."
Geraldine: [Wanda sings to the babies in Sokovian.] "He was killed by Ultron, wasn't he?"
Wanda Maximoff: "What did you say?"
Commercial: HydraSoak luxury bath powder
Wanda's pregnancy is moving at an extremely accelerated rate. As she becomes more and more pregnant, her powers get more and more out of control until there is a rainstorm in the house and stork wandering the house. Meanwhile, Vision is becoming more and more suspicious of what is happening around him, especially when he sees neighbor, Herb acting very strangely. Geraldine seems to be getting closer to Wanda, but Agnes seems suspicious. It may not matter though, since the birth of Wanda's twins, Tommy and Billy, may spell the end of Wanda and Geraldine's friendship.
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| I don't think this is Braxton-Hicks. |
Episode 3 of "WandaVision" continues to lean heavily into it's retro aesthetic, this time the '70's style of shows like "The Brady Bunch," but things are getting decidedly weirder and kind of fucked up. Don't get me wrong, the sitcom shenanigans are still as entertaining as ever. From the doctor's casual, era appropriate sexism to Vision practicing diaper changing on a Kitty Carryall doll or Wanda attempting to hide her baby bump by wearing an oversized trench coat (a time honored television trick), it's all delightful. But after Wanda's casual rewind of time in the last episode, there is an undercurrent of menace while all this stuff is happening. It doesn't help that the residents of Westview are acting weirder than usual. Take Herb, who was trimming his hedges, but is now trying to chainsaw through the concrete barrier between his home and Vision and Wanda's. He doesn't think anything is up, but Vision clearly does. Not to mention, Vision is clearly troubled by Wanda's sped up pregnancy as much as he is delighted by it.
It's Geraldine that is the bad luck character this week. She visits Wanda, hoping to borrow a bucket since all her pipes burst, but gets caught up in telling her about her new job. She seems to be completely unaware of the nonsense that is going on in Wanda's home, including the stork that is wandering around that Wanda can't seem to get rid of. Geraldine handles all this in stride, especially when she realizes that not only is Wanda nine months pregnant, but she's having the baby right then. Wanda of course has twins. Great way to settle the Tommy vs Billy name debate. When they are alone, Wanda opens up to her about Pietro which triggers something in Geraldine.
Teyonah Parris plays this really well. I love the microexpressions that play across her face and the back up she tries when she realizes she may have said the wrong thing. Olsen is great in this scene too. Wanda turning on a dime from her genial sitcom persona to a much more realistic pissed off Wanda. This of course cuts to Geraldine flying out of a bubble seemingly made of television static into a field outside of Westview.
Grade: B+
Next up, we get an idea of what's happening outside of Westview, the twins grow up fast and there's an extra special guest.
Man, I am loving re-watching "WandaVision" and having seen it and knowing how things turn out, I'm noticing a lot more that I didn't the first time around. I'd love to hear your hot takes. Let me know in the comments.
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