Intro: Before tackling this show, I need to address the MCU-sized elephant in the room. I will not be reviewing this show from the perspective of an MCU fan, rather from the perspective of a TV critic. What this means is that I will not be talking about connections to the comics, significance of scenes to the rest of the MCU, Easter Eggs, or any speculation about the future. I will purely be viewing this show as a simple TV show that happens to take place in the MCU. That being said, I am a fan of the MCU and have seen all of the films so I do have the context I need to enjoy this show,. I will be referring to the MCU a couple times in this review as a point of reference.
Summary: Wanda and Vision live in a sitcom world in the town of Westview. She is pregnant and gives birth to twins. SWORD, which rose up after the snap, is investigating Westview after all of its residents have been reported missing. Monica ends up being sucked into Westview and experiences the sitcom world before being ejected by Wanda. Monica wants to resolve things amicably, but Hayward doesn't. Vision begins to realize that there's something wrong with the world and confronts Wanda about it, but Wanda seems to not fully be in control. Pietro appears, looking very different from before and Wanda starts to confide in him. Vision tries to escape Westview and Wanda saves him by expanding the borders. Monica enters Westview again by traveling through the borders, gaining superpowers. Wanda's neighbour Agnes is revealed to be Agatha and kidnaps Wanda's kids. Wanda goes to get them back and goes through a trip to her past, where Agatha learns Wanda is the Scarlet Witch. Wanda learns that she created this world and suppressed her own memories on accident in her grief. Ashamed of what she has done, she cracks open the barrier so the innocent people can leave, but SWORD takes the opportunity to enter. Hayward has an upgraded White Vision with him. The Visions battle while Wanda fights Agnes. Wanda defeats Agnes, while Vision uses logistics to get White Vision to leave. Hayward is apprehended and arrested. Wanda says goodbye to Vision and her kids, who vanish once Westview is freed, with Agatha prisoned within. Wanda goes off on her own to study magic. The Good: Wanda's arc in this show is surprisingly strong, and she is the best part of the entire show. I was very underwhelmed by the announcement of this show initially because Wanda and Vision are woefully underdeveloped characters who I didn't care about going into this show. But both characters were brilliantly written and acted in this series, which is a big reason for why the show was successful. Wanda's arc in particular was really well done. Wanda is a character who lost a lot in the MCU movies, losing her brother, her freedom and her lover before the events of this show. So it's fitting and powerful that the show spent so much time exploring grief and how these losses affected Wanda's life and ultimately led to her creating a fantasy world where she can just be happy. The themes of the show were explored wonderfully, and I really felt for Wanda by the end of the season when she had to lose everything again and finally come to terms with what she had lost. Vision was surprisingly engaging too. Since Vision died in "Infinity War", there is a lot of mystery surrounding how he is somehow walking around in Westview with sentience. What makes Vision so compelling is that he also realizes that something is wrong with the world, so much of our attempts to find out what's really happening comes through the eyes of Vision, endearing us to the character. There were some really good moments throughout the season which highlighted Vision's frustrations and how difficult it is for him to exist without knowing a thing about his past or how he even got to Westview. Since we care about both Wanda and Vision in this series, it makes it really easy to buy into their romance, which really surprised me since I thought it was a really flat storyline in the MCU films. But they were really well written here, and I especially appreciate getting the flashback scene that shows us exactly why they got together. Wanda was searching for a cure for her loneliness and grief while Vision yearned to experience these human emotions. This is really good storytelling that resulted in the show having a really strong emotional core. The mystery in this show ended up being really engaging. The way this show was executed is nothing like any MCU film, giving this a sense of uniqueness and intrigue that no other MCU property has had. It was a joy to tune in each week to see what details we would get about what was actually going on in the sitcom world of Westview. Eventually the answers were given, and not all of them worked (see: The Bad), but the intrigue of Westview is one of the primary hooks of the show and it is what kept me interested to keep watching the show. I really adore the presentation of this show. It's high budget so it looks fantastic and there is a lot of really strong camera work, editing and style to compliment the visuals. The sitcom style was a creative idea, and it gave the show charm and uniqueness that made the mystery even more fascinating to watch. And as a TV fan, I really enjoyed the homages paid to sitcoms of all the different eras from the 1950s to the 2000s. The custom intros and commercials were especially memorable delights, and the "Agatha All Along" song was a perfectly executed reveal that is still stuck in my head weeks after it was first shown. The Bad: Not everything about the show is great though. When the show was being its own thing, that was when it really excelled. However, as the show goes on it begins to introduce more and more typical MCU tropes and that weakened it significantly. The SWORD storyline was never interesting after all the major answers were given to us in "We Interrupt This Program". This is primarily because of how the story fell into typical MCU tropes that have been entirely played out. Quipping side characters are not interesting to watch, and I didn't find their lines funny at all. Furthermore, Monica, Darcy and Jimmy were all really weak characters with nothing memorable about them. If we were gonna spend so much time with SWORD, we needed better characters to make the experience more engaging. Hayward was another terrible character, but I'll get more into him later. The early parts of the show were somewhat frustrating in how slowly they were paced. I don't have an issue with slow pacing ("Better Call Saul" is one of my favourite shows), but there isn't much of substance in the first three episodes outside of a couple creepy moments and the sitcom comedy. And unfortunately, the sitcom comedy isn't very good. I get that the show is heavily borrowing from real sitcom storylines when coming up with its jokes, but it doesn't end up being that funny. While I appreciate the effort and the passion put into it, it's not gonna be good if I don't enjoy watching it. But the biggest issues with the show came with how it ended. The one biggest word to describe the ending is unsatisfying. Wanda's arc was wrapped up nicely, but the show's big twists did not have much impact, a lot of plot threads went unresolved, and the ones that were resolved were given entirely unsatisfying answers. I would compare this ending to the likes of "Lost", but at least "Lost" answered its most important questions satisfyingly. This show was unable to do that in its final act and that really dampened my enjoyment of the show. The villains ended up being terrible. Hayward is the most generic bad guy you will ever see, and there ended up being absolutely no depth to the character after he was introduced. Having him be taken out by Darcy was laughable, and it cements that Hayward was a bottom-tier villain. White Vision was a boring nothing character who did more bad for the story than good. It makes Wanda's tearful goodbye to Vision mean less since there's another Vision out there somewhere anyways. And where the hell did he go anyways? White Vision did not get a satisfying resolution. "WandaVision" fell for one of the MCU's trappings by choosing to set up for a later movie instead of just telling its own story. Agatha unfortunately also ended up being a lame villain. Kathryn Hahn gave a great performance and the character showed a lot of personality for the first seven episodes, making Agatha one of the most unique villains in the MCU so far. But after the "Agatha All Along" bit, the character sharply changed to become a typical condescending, monologuing, weakly motivated villain who has nothing special about her at all. Agatha was remarkably boring in the last two episodes of the show, and I was let down by that. So many storylines were given disappointing answers. The character of Fietro is probably the most egregious example of this. Casting Evan Peters ended up purely being a cold-hearted tease for fans, and it should not be surprising that a lot of fans were angered by this. But even looking at it from a storytelling perspective, the reveal of who Fietro is was disappointing. There's no explanation for how he has super speed, how Agatha had the ability to create him or anything like that. The character's resolution comes from an awful boner joke and a dumb moment where Monica takes him out and somehow manages to separate him from Agatha's influence. The entire purpose of the character was seemingly just to be taken out in an empty and unsatisfying way by Monica. If that's all Fietro was going to do, he shouldn't have been there to begin with. Monica herself added nothing to the story. The character isn't given any arc at all, which is awful considering how big of a role she has. The actress also doesn't do a very good job and the character falls flat as a result. Plus her superpowers make no sense, and the way she got them was as boring and uninspired as possible. One of the show's biggest mysteries was how Wanda created the Hex and why she didn't know that she did. The writers completely fail to answer this question. Apparently Wanda created this world but in her grief, she suppressed her own memory or something. The reasoning is incredibly vague and can easily be ripped to shreds. If Wanda had no idea of what she was doing, then how was she able to confront Hayward and the other SWORD agents? How was she able to reverse time the way she did? Hell, the time reverse thing just makes no sense anyways. There are plenty of other holes I can poke, and I'm sure others have done the work for me. The point is, the answer we got makes no sense and is not consistent with the show, which is horrible since this is the defining mystery of the entire show, and it is ignored. Best Episodes: E05 On a Very Special Episode...: This episode was entirely centered around the Wanda/Vision relationship and the tensions building between them as a result of SWORD's interference and Vision's growing suspicions. The tension is built up extremely well and the end of the episode features the best scene of the show, as Wanda and Vision finally have a full blooded argument which is interrupted by the shock arrival of Pietro. E06 All-New Halloween Spooktacular!: This episode had some really strong comedy, some of the most unsettling visuals of the show, and a really intense and dramatic ending. E08 Previously On: This episode was an engaging experience taking us through Wanda's past and showing us exactly what happened to get us to the events of this show. It felt like it took a lot of inspiration from "Watchmen", and though it doesn't come close to reaching those heights, it's still a really good episode. Worst Episodes: E01 Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience: This is an amusing episode but there really isn't much to it. E02 Don't Touch That Dial: Again, this episode is amusing and does the sitcom inspirations well, but it's lacking in substance. E09 The Series Finale: Here is where all of the worst reveals and answers were, and outside of Wanda's arc, this entire episode fell flat. Character of the Season: Wanda. Conclusion: In the end, "WandaVision" was a mixed bag. It did a lot of things right and had heart in most of its run, but the unsatisfying ending as well as fundamental problems with the SWORD storyline and the sitcom setting hurt the show and prevents it from being as great as it could have been. However, I am very glad that the MCU decided to take a risk with this show, and honestly the show was much, much better than I had expected it to be. It may not be a particularly great show, but it was better than my expectations, so it does have that going for it. My fear is that this show will be the best out of all of the new Disney+ MCU shows. I will try to review them all, but I might not have the time or motivation to do so. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be starting soon so we'll see what the future for MCU television will hold with that show.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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