Standing out is hard to do in the superhero genre, leading the ever-churning Marvel machine to try increasingly experimental ways of delivering their patented brand of superhero shenanigans to audiences post Endgame. The first attempt at that new normal comes in the form of the first Marvel television show to hit Disney+: WandaVision. Doing what most other Marvel projects don’t proves to be the series’ greatest strength here, placing the focus on character rather than action in its exploration of two of the lesser developed Avengers; Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany’s robotic Vision. That development goes a long way to increasing the viability of this behemoth of a franchise without franchise stars Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans but it isn’t without its flaws, namely a lack of spectacle in its eventual action, a poorly fleshed out villain and enough filler to give the Netflix Marvel shows a run for their money.
Of all the Avengers not in the core cast of heroes, Wanda may just be the most interesting, as well as the most powerful. Her story is one of the most tragic in all of the MCU and her previous appearances have all been as part of a larger story, with key moments central to her character serving as lynchpins for bigger stories, never zeroing in on her own experiences. This is a character who has survived a bombing as a child, been turned into a mystical being with a magic wand, helped a killer robot lift her home country out of the sky and drop it like a meteor, accidentally killed thousands mismanaging a bomb and watched her robotic boyfriend die at the hands of an alien being. That takes a toll on anyone and yet we know next to nothing about Wanda. WandaVision’s biggest strength is the fleshing out of her character, something Elizabeth Olsen is clearly relishing exploring as she imbues the character with a fun, witty charm that belies the dark effects of the mental trauma brought about by Vision’s death in Infinity War. It’s her best work to date as the Sokovian native, clearly priming her for a bigger role going forward and proving that she has the chops required to bear that weight.
We find the magical Avenger inexplicably living in some sort of a sitcom reality, with earlier episodes shot in black and white and costumed to perfection to emulate the styles and humour of shows such as The Dick Van Dyke Show and Bewitched. With Vison somehow by her side, all seems well for Wanda living out her days in suburbia with the occasional unannounced drop-in from nosy neighbour Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) to spice up an episode. These first two episodes of the show are by far the most impressive visually, with sets borne out of the look and feel of sitcom houses of the past, evolving and changing to suit the era of television being parodied whilst always feeling like an evolution of the one house. Similarly, that black and white look requires a great deal of technical wizardry, covering everything from the lighting to the colour of paint Bettany was covered in as Vision to best bring his elaborate costume into the golden age of television. It all combines to showcase a deep reverence for television that goes beyond a cheap gag in Marvel’s first foray into the small screen.
As the story goes on, the style of the show begins to evolve into a more modern television setting, and as Wanda starts to notice strange occurrences in her idyllic home of Westview the action begins to shift to a team of operatives and scientists attempting to gain access to this “world” Wanda has created, seemingly unbeknownst to her. This team consists of previous MCU side-characters; FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) from Ant-Man and the Wasp, theoretical physicist Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) from the first two Thor films and the adult version of Monica Rambeau (Teyonnah Parris) from Captain Marvel on a mission to prevent Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg) – director of SHIELD replacement organisation SWORD – from launching an all out attack on the out-of-control Avenger, imploring him to appeal to her better nature rather than seek violence. For fans of the more traditional MCU plot threads, this storyline will be more to your liking, even if it is light on meaningful characterisation or impact in the grander scheme of things. These characters are like comfort food, taken from the more lighthearted MCU instalments and constantly cracking jokes as they explore the world of Wanda’s self-imposed television show.
You see, the way we perceive Wanda’s world as an old-school television show, so too do those living outside of her field of influence, with Darcy and Jimmy quite literally watching the same “episodes” of her show as us on high-tech computers. When we move to a new era of television, more cracks begin to show in both Wanda’s world and the story of WandaVision itself. Twists, in the form of cliffhanger endings, plague the middle run of episodes, constantly introducing new storylines and characters to the point where there simply aren’t enough remaining episodes to address it all. One cliffhanger in particular introduces a character with potentially enormous ramifications for the greater MCU (no spoilers here), which hangs over multiple episodes as we believe this person is being controlled by Wanda and thus not their true self. The reality of this person’s presence is far less interesting than what could have been, with the rushed conclusion to their storyline coming across as cheap and manipulative of the die-hard Marvel fanbase rather than witty and clever as likely intended; retreading the divisive twist of Iron Man 3 to poor effect once again. Seriously Marvel, stop doing that.
Once the ultimate villain of the piece reveals themselves, we’re treated to an admittedly delightful piece of music taking us through this person’s manipulations that raises more questions than it answers; the “big reveal” fooling absolutely no one and making what had come before feel like filler rather than a slow burn given there was something off about the villainous character from day one. Despite their visual proficiency, the first two episodes can really be skipped in their entirety, adding nothing to the overall story other than setting the scene, something which can be gleaned from a quick “previously on…” segment without losing anything of the experience of WandaVision. There is a sense that the creators of the show may have foreseen a response like this, retroactively detailing all the villains nefarious machinations throughout these episodes to middling effect, as we know from watching that nothing of consequence came from these episodes. All that remains is a hollow villain – the hallmark of far too many Marvel projects – whose paper-thin motivations never go beyond attaining inexplicable power and destroying Wanda. It’s a tired, rote tradition that goes against the very ethos of WandaVision’s originality, causing the rushed final episode to lose a lot of the momentum and goodwill it had built up with a generic shoot-a-thon of a final conflict. Even the television spoofing tradition of earlier episodes is turned into a hollow gimmick after a few episodes, with a later attempt to give the show a Modern Family-esque mockumentary style falling short as it clashes against the more traditional Marvel movie feel.
Despite all that, the characterisation of Wanda and Vision shines through – with Olsen and Bettany’s chemistry holding it all together. The reborn Vision may exist largely as a physical manifestation of Wanda’s grief rather than his own fully fledged character, but Bettany still comes to play, spouting some truly profound and emotional one-liners that cut the confused Wanda to her core, prompting some desperate soul-searching that will be compounded in future films. In a somewhat minor spoiler (consider this your warning), the show introduces Tommy (Jett Klyne) and Billy Maximoff (Julian Hilliard), Wanda and Vision’s twin sons borne from her magic. Their presence adds yet another emotional layer to Olsen’s performance, with the role of motherhood now thrust on the already mentally unravelling Avenger amidst a sea of other troubles. Olsen takes all these new aspects of her character introduced throughout the season and folds them into Wanda with ease; paranoid and uneasy as life as she knows it begins to crumble around her. The twins’ appearance also sets up some intriguing storyline’s for Wanda going forward, with that deep maternal connection providing a replacement for the deceased Vision that feels like a natural evolution of the character.
WandaVision is a fascinating gamble from Marvel; one that alternates between feeling wholly original and frustratingly familiar. The decision for Marvel’s introduction to television to play with the concept and history of the medium is a stroke of genius that sets it apart from what has come before in more ways than the size of the screen. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany prove to have the best chemistry in the franchise since Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, selling the absurdity of an android and witch living in suburbia with ease and leaving you with an uneasy sadness in the back of your mind at the thought of Vision’s temporary revival ending. The uniqueness of its television spoofing format does feel like a gimmick at times – one which leaves many questions unanswered and storylines half-baked – and the villain fails to live up to the standard of a Loki or Thanos but at the end of the day WandaVision is about its namesake characters and Wanda and Vision have never felt as fully formed and interesting as they do now. If this is what the future of Marvel looks like, then bring it on.
WandaVision stars Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, Kat Dennings, Randall Park, Josh Stamberg, Julian Hilliard, Jett Klyne & Evan Peters – Streaming on Disney+ now.
