WandaVision returns this week, now in color, with a groovy opening theme song that recalls The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch, but it’s not all fun and bell bottoms. There’s been criticism that the first two episodes were too dependent on viewers picking up all the clever meta references to classic TV sitcoms such as Leave It To Beaver and Bewitched. Although this episode, aptly titled “Now In Color,” continues WandaVision’s impressive attention to period detail, the plot kicks into thrilling overdrive.
The previous episode,“Don’t Touch That Dial,” ended with Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) mysteriously, suddenly pregnant, and her and Vision’s (Paul Bettany) world had just as mysteriously and suddenly shifted from its mid-1960s black-and-white setting to 1970s full color. It’s an aesthetic downgrade, if you’ll forgive my bias. I already miss Wanda’s capri pants and Laura Petrie hairstyle. Wanda and Vision now live in a very 1970s mid-century home with a hideous green couch and trip-hazard sunken living room. The floating staircase is especially Brady-inspired. Doctor Nielsen (Randy Oglesby) examines Wanda while the happy couple try to hide the fact that she’s four months pregnant after just 12 hours.
The laugh track is even more intrusive this week, providing guffaws when none are justified, like when Doctor Nielsen tells Vision he’s taking his wife (Rose Bianco) on vacation to “Bermuda, baby!” It’s as if an all-powerful “showrunner” behind the scenes is going to greater efforts to hide that something’s not quite right in Westview. The Monkees’ song “Daydream Believer” was featured in series promos and even plays over the shocking final scene. I’ve previously noted the dream-like feel of the show, but “Now In Color” has moments that remind me of the creepy dream sequences in Buffy The Vampire Slayer or the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Phantasms,” when Data’s odd dreams are warning him about a real-world threat. Vision notices that his neighbor, Herb (David Payton), is trying to cut through his yellow brick fence with a chainsaw. This isn’t a wacky sitcom neighbor moment. It’s just strange.
Wanda’s powers have gone haywire as a complication from her mystic pregnancy. At first, it’s little things, like when she accidentally turns the baby’s mobile into butterflies, but soon Wanda and Vision have to abandon the kitchen when the appliances freak out. The entire block loses power, which spares Phil (David Lengel) from having to answer Dottie (Emma Caulfield Ford) when she asks if “these earrings make me look fat.” That’s all we see of Dottie this week, and Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) is also used sparingly. Yes, I did deducts points.
But Wanda still has enough control to reverse time again when Vision starts to suspect something’s wrong with their lives in Westview: He mentions the dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Hart from “Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience.” Wanda doesn’t say anything, but there’s a quick cut and Vision is once again a comforting, and, most importantly, clueless husband.
It’s clear that Wanda is going to have her baby at any minute, so Vision rushes off to find Doctor Nielsen before he leaves for Bermuda. While he’s away, which is perhaps not a coincidence, their neighbor Geraldine (Teyonah Parris) stops by, and we have our obligatory “cringe comedy” scene: Wanda tries to hide her condition from Geraldine in increasingly farcical ways. She puts on an oversized coat that keeps magically changing and then she just holds a fruit bowl in front of her stomach. Geraldine doesn’t catch her hints and settles down on that ugly couch to tell Wanda about her temp job. Meanwhile, an actual, non-figurative stork has arrived and wanders around the living room.
Wanda’s magic has failed her. She can’t make the stork disappear, but Geraldine remains engrossed in her triumphant story. She does briefly notice “a chattering sound,” and Wanda coldly explains it away as coming from her ice maker. On Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie, it was funny whenever the nosy neighbor or suspicious boss was made to believe that bizarre circumstances were a figment of their overactive imaginations. Here, it feels like gaslighting.
Geraldine eventually discovers that Wanda is pregnant and is about to have the baby right away. Vision returns with Doctor Nielsen, who doesn’t make a big deal over how Vision transported him to the house at super speed, but Geraldine has already helped deliver their son, Thomas. Doctor Nielsen notes that Geraldine would make a great “nurse.” Wanda and Vision debate whether to name their child Thomas or Billy. Everyone wins, of course, because Wanda has twins.
This is not the happy conclusion. The past two episodes had isolated moments of darkness, but the entire last act of “Now In Color” is unsettling. Vision thanks Doctor Nielsen for his help and wishes him a pleasant trip to Bermuda, but Doctor Nielsen says that he’s not sure that he’ll “get away” after all because small towns are so hard to “escape.” He seems almost resigned to his fate. Vision also overhears Agnes and Herb whispering nervously to each. They are both concerned that Geraldine is in the house with Wanda. Agnes jokes about her husband Ralph as usual but it’s clear that she’s terrified. Herb says that Geraldine is “new to town.” Agnes adds that she has no family, no husband, no … home. Vision wants to know what they’re trying to tell him.
Inside, Geraldine swoons over the twin boys, and Wanda solemnly notes that she was also a twin. She mentions her late brother, Pietro. The laugh track is gone, as well as Olsen’s exaggerated performance. This is suddenly no longer a sitcom. Wanda sings softly to the twins in her native Sokovian. Geraldine notes that Pietro was killed by Ultron, and this reality greatly disturbs Wanda, who is legit scary as she stalks Geraldine through the living room. She’s noticed that Geraldine is wearing a necklace with a sword logo on it, and she demands to know who she is and what she wants.
When Vision returns, Wanda tells him that Geraldine is gone: “She had to rush home.” Wanda has banished Geraldine from Westview. This is not like any episode of The Brady Bunch. I couldn’t help thinking of The Twilight Zone’s “It’s A Good Life” with the all-powerful child, Anthony Fremont, who sent “bad” people to the “cornfield,” especially when Wanda coldly tells Geraldine, “You need to leave.” But there’s every indication the “cornfield” is our world. We see Geraldine plummet from the sky and land on the ground just outside the Westview town sign, but we don’t see Westview itself, just an invisible forcefield as black vans and helicopters surround her.
I’ve seen WandaVision compared to The Prisoner, but this might prove an interesting flip on that classic series’ premise: What if Wanda isn’t Westview’s prisoner but its warden?
Stray observations
- The fake period commercial this time is for Hydra Soak. Hydra is the authoritarian paramilitary-subversive organization that had infiltrated the top reaches of government in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A play on the Calgon commercials from the 1970s, Hydra Soak promises an “escape to a world all your own, where your problems float away.” Is this a clue that Westview’s residents might’ve been tricked into moving there?
- We still haven’t seen Agnes’ husband Ralph yet. He could join the ranks of such famous but never seen characters as Vera from Cheers, Maris from Frasier, and Ugly Naked Guy from Friends (this was probably for the best).
- Teyonah Parris is billed in IMDB as playing Monica Rambeau, who appeared as a child in Captain Marvel. SWORD stands for the Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division, a subdivision of SHIELD. Was Rambeau an undercover agent? Parris plays Geraldine like she’s the lead in Foxy Brown before subtly breaking character in stressful moments. During the “previously on” segment, Geraldine asked, “I don’t know what I’m doing here.” Yes, that was a big honking clue.
- Rod Serling’s intro for “It’s A Good Life” might describe a lot of what we’ve seen so far on WandaVision: “On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village.”
446 Comments
Is it me or has superspeed not been part of Vision’s power set? Is Wanda conflating her two greatest losses: Pietro and Vision?
It has been years since I read it, and perhaps this is only coincidental to your observation, but I’m pretty sure The Ulimates/Ultimate Avengers intimated and/or joked more than once that Wanda & Pietro were incestuous. So in a family-friendly show I can see that translating into conflated grief over losing the both of them.
Oh in Ultimates Wanda and Pietro were 100% fucking. And, for Kirby knows what reason, nobody but Ultimate Cap raises any objection to this…In fact Ultimate Wolverine, who’s implied to be their biological father, once watched them bang from the bushes…However, it’s best to ignore the Ultimates Universe versions of Wanda and Pietro as its the only version of either character that has this sort of relationship each other.Really, it says a lot about how badly Jeph Loeb fucked up the Ultimate Universe to the point where nobody cared if it was destroyed so long as Miles Morales and his supporting cast lived.
Yeah I just looked it up. Much more direct than I remembered. Mark Millar, Ladies and Gentlemen.
No, Ultimates 3 was Jeph Loeb.
Oh okay. I remembered that stuff being much earlier in the series, like right away. It’s been a long time.
When they were introduced, they were uncomfortably close, but it was really more of an gag – “we’re not sure if its a mutant thing, or a European thing;” Loeb made it literal in Ultimates 3, for all our sins
I knew there was a reason I loved Mark Millar getting sold out in Kick Ass.
Mark Millar was probably the only one who kept it subtle.
Fucking Mark Millar….
I hear that guy licks goats 🐐
As does Warren Ellis…
I would dearly hope that if they can do this, a Nextwave series is not far away.
God, the Ultimate Universe started off with so much promise, but 99% of it is just basically trash.
That universe’s Blob literally cannibalizing the Wasp of that universe was pretty much it for me.
Ben Grimm murdering what at the time was supposed to be Doom combined with the killing off of most of the X-Men roster in that same event were also nails in the coffin for me.
It did give us the first JJJ face turn and the unexpected character growth of Kitty Pryde, along with Ult Captain America somehow eventually not being Millar’s old timey jerk version, but at what price?
HULK HATE FREDDY PRINZE JR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hickman’s bits were unsurprisingly good, but there really is so much of that universe that is crap, yeah.
Well, that’s Ultimate for you. Basically a reflection of the early noughties, when most pop cultures is “dark edgy cybergoth matrix faximiles” trend.
God, it’s even worse than I remember.
Even funnier is that Wanda and Pietro’s actors played a married couple in the 2014 Godzilla film.
We don’t talk about Ultimates 3 or Ultimatum.
I was so excited to get another Marvel book by Joe Mad, too. Barf.
Ultimate was just incredibly Dark and fucked in general, what with blob eating wasp and all.
I think Loeb has proved himself a complete hack over the years, who’s biggest (arguably only) talent is in knowing to get out of his artists’ way. But even so, it’s impressive how badly and how quickly he fucked up everything good about the Ultimate universe (and took down what was left of J Michael Straczynski’s incredible Supreme Power in the process).I mean, he made Mark Millar look subtle…! How is that even possible?!
I believe Loeb’s kid had just died and he just was in a bad place and went super dark. It’s not his typical work and everyone felt bad for the guy and… didn’t fix it before they published.
Thanks for reminding me how much I also loathed the art on Ultimates 3 in addition to the writing.
Comics, everybody!
that was crazy. Even in the ultimate universe, i cant believe they allowed that.
It doesn’t make it any more readable, but I do forgive Jeph Loeb for losing his mind when his son died. I got more blame for editors who saw that he was venting those feelings into a comic and thought “yeah great let’s publish it.”
Though there are the anti which are, to put it mildly, less excusable.
Well that sucks. Long Halloween is my favorite Batman story of all time, really hoped better from the guy.
Let’s not go there. No one has gone there since that plot was introduced in Ultimates 2. Everybody kinda acknowledges it was a mistake, like when Blob ate Janet… or many, many other things in Ultimates 2 people want to forget.
Everybody kinda acknowledges it was a mistake, like when Blob ate Janet… Fucking comics, man.
I highly doubt Disney’s going to bring anything relating to incest (even joking) into their Marvel canon.
I agree. I was referring to the comic book allusions to incest possibly being a joke – but that was going by hazy memories, which Laserface1242 already pointed out the comic was more directly portrayed than I remembered. I think it’s a translation of intense familial love-turned-grief.
The less that is mentioned about the terrible characterizations of The Ultimates, the better. There were some good stories in the Ultimate universe but overall, it’s an example of why dark and moody doesn’t work at all for every character. Every Ultimate was unbearable.
He was shown to be fast enough to get to Berlin from NY in Civil War.
I suspect so, as Vision has not displayed super-speed in previous mcu appearances (aside from quick calculations due to computer brain, etc)
Which he notably failed at in this episode, failing at his due date calculations. Although that may have just been unpredictable.But it leads me to think that this Vision is more of a Wanda-created construct than not – which I am really hoping is not the case.
failing at his due date calculationsWhich weren’t that difficult, by the way. If she went to unpregnant to 4th month in 12 hours, delivery at that rate was clearly going to be the next day, not three days later. Not sure what is Vision not being able to do kiddie math implying here.
That he’s not Vision. He’s Wanda’s manifestation of Vision.
He sure is, but I don’t get how being unable to do math would be a clue. Sure Wanda didn’t see him as an idiot.
So like a ….wandavision…
The visual effect for his speed also resembled the way it was depicted for Pietro, fwiw
I didn’t see much resemblance to tbh
Traditionally, Vision has never been all -that- fast. His powers were always density control and energy absorb/release… Definitely, I felt like the way his speed was represented here was much more indicative of Pietro than Vision, so this may be another sign that Wanda is controlling/influencing more than we know, even if it’s subconsciously so. Especially since this episode actually brought up Pietro and his death.
No, Vision has super-strength, super-speed, flight, a lazer beam and the ability to control his density. He holds his own with Thor or Iron Man, and has eluded capture by Wonder Man (who also has a similar set of physical powers). He’s a synthezoid Superman. He likely cannot outrun Pietro, though.
We’re talking about the MCU version
Yeah that came to mind for me too. Had me worried that Pietro might be set aside for Vision to take on his power for some reason.
Apparently he can move at the speed of sound, along with his other powers. Which is also how fast Pietro used to go, for that matter.
I think the explanation is much simpler than that. In the mid-20th century, one of the main notions of what a computer could do was human things but faster. It wasn’t until later in the century that popular culture could imagine robots and computers doing unique things that humans couldn’t do at all (and vice versa).So Vision being able to move (and do “computations”) physically very fast just feels like a classic old-timey idea of what a super-powered robot is supposed to do, but also something that could at the time be easily depicted on television by speeding up the film.Everyone is tripping over themselves trying to find previous MCU or deep lore comics connections, but as often if not more often, writers/directors/producers of MCU are just focused on the thing they’re making right now, and these explanations are less intricate than you think.
House of M meets Southern Reach Trilogy.
So they changed the acronym for SWORD from Sentient World Observation and Response Division to Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division. That works for me.Also, it kind of seems like Dr. Nielsen was trying to make an escape attempt when Vision went to get him.
Did they change it or did Stephen just get it wrong? The word “sword” has yet to be uttered in the show so far, much less the acronym explained. Unless Stephen has seen more episodes early for review I don’t see how we could know that the W was changed from world to weapon.
Why do you assume Wanda banished Geraldine or caused the glitch with Vision?
It seems like when things have shifted out of the light tone that she’s the one that has the greatest sense of control in the past. During the choking at dinner scene it’s a weird stasis until Wanda finally tells Vision to help, when the bee suit man emerges she says no and everything resets, when Vision starts questioning the reality she doesn’t actively say anything but the next moment is something that affirms the sitcom reality she seemed to lean into…I wonder if it’s possibly a combination of her being captured and leaning into the pleasant side just so she can?
If you watch closely before the Vision reset, Wanda darts her eyes back and forth.
Because it’s clear she ultimately has control of everything that happens in this universe. The weather, the power, everything reacts to her mood fluctuations
Then why was the voice on the radio asking who was doing this TO her? I think that suggests she’s NOT in control.
That’s a fair point and I think I tried to address it elsewhere. My take is that someone else/some other force has put her in this unreality but inside that reality she seems to have quite a bit of control and powers beyond what she displayed within the “real” MCU
So who thinks this could be MoJo?
Personally, I’m hoping it’s Mojo re: all the TV screens and the whole sitcom motif. But there’s also a good chance it’s Mephisto. I think Agnes is out here trying to help rather than hurt Wanda. But I’m also just like, “what’s even going on?” and that’s so refreshing.
Ugh no. It’s like the Legion reviews all over again. This episode made it pretty clear that it’s Wanda making this sitcom reality and no one else. Besides, I’m pretty sure they started working on this before the Fox purchase.
But, to be fair, if they didn’t plan for the very likely Fox purchase, they’re morons. And I think filming only wrapped this summer or fall, so there’s a pretty wide window where they could have tweaked things once it went through.
If you were truly being fair, you’d acknowledge it makes zero sense to use a random X-Men villain instead of Wanda’s reality warping powers as the catalyst of a show about Wanda.
That seems unnecessarily insulting. Also, I was clearly talking about the aspect of the inclusion of previously Fox-controlled IP, not using about their using Mojo specifically.That said, it’s based on super-hero comics. It doesn’t have to make sense. In the MCU, what they’ve shown us so far is basically telekinesis and mind-control. We don’t know yet what is going on. Could be magic (implied by a possible Agatha Harkness), could be externally constructed and forced on her, with her having some measure of control via her mind or her powers (such as the Matrix), could be her doing the whole thing via magic or purely “enhanced” or mutant reality/probability warping powers. Her powers have been all over the place over the years and they’ve already made them different from anything we’d ever seen before. So, with such a wide gamut of possibilities, who the hell knows?
If any documents related to any such planning with dates on them prior to when the sale was finalized came to light, Disney would be open to a massive lawsuit.
Honestly, I never considered that. I can see how that may very well be the case. Interesting, also because I’ve put that out as a pet theory for years since the rumors started. It made sense to me, as I have to always have a Plan B for my planning at work and no one has ever brought up that possibility. But, yeah, that makes total sense.
They would never have gotten approval for the purchase if there were even plans on including or working on the characters Fox had the film rights to. In other words: it’s not goddamn Mojo.
Like I acknowledged a day before your “response,” probably so, but it’s a really long comment thread, I guess. That said, assuming that there were no discussions of any kind because it’d be unethical is a bit unrealistic. Idle fanboy/”What if…?” speculation happens.
But whatever reason keeps him out of this or any story, I enthusiastically support. Because I really, really fucking hate Mojo.
Wanda and Pietro were a couple of the characters that Marvel/Disney and 20th Century could both use.
This episode made it pretty clear that it’s Wanda making this sitcom reality and no one else.Yeah, seems like there’s a lot of very clear, borderline explicit, stuff in all of these episodes that people are either ignoring or misconstruing because it doesn’t fit with their favourite theory off the internet?Wanda has withdrawn from the world. And done so so successfully that she’s not consciously aware of it. Although her subconscious keeps stepping in to… iron out… certain wrinkles when they appear.The only question I have, right now, is… what if this isn’t the first “run-through”? Seems to me, with the townsfolk being so subconsciously terrified (Agnes knows something bad will happen if they keep talking) and SWORD being so set up, that the Wandavision pocket reality might have been going on longer than we, the viewers, have seen, only Wanda keeps rebooting it whenever it starts to fall apart (mostly, as far as I can tell, because Vision keeps figuring it out) because she can’t face reality.
Agnes’ , who is definitely Agatha Harkness, unseen husband “Ralph” is Mephisto. She’s said she wants him to disappear, responded to a character saying, “the devil is in the details,” by whispering to Wanda, “that’s not the only place he is.” She says she likes him better “when he’s shrouded in darkness.” The rabbit she gave Wanda was named Senor Scratchy. Mr. Scratch is an alias Mephisto used when he appeared in human form. They’re definitely doing Mephisto in some shape or form.
It’s very much based on House of M right? I didn’t read it but doesn’t Professor X pull Wanda out of that fever dream state? Would they possibly launch thye X-men though their first streaming series? Marvel does do some off the wall, unpredictable stuff, like this show for example.If it was Mojo doesn’t that effectively introduce the X-universe to the MCU??
That would be an…interesting crossover. Oh. Sorry. I was thinking of a different Mojo…
Mojojojo?
Would be fun if it was but I doubt it. Wanda’s package never really cross pathed with him in comics and I figure they will go to her well of goofy stories instead.
There was also an interesting beat when the doctor said that Geraldine would make a good nurse and there was this look exchange between Geraldine and Wanda – I almost wonder if she is like a “nurse” of sorts trying to help Wanda in the real world.I do think Wanda is the “villain” of sorts, but I also think some of the people in Westview (and potentially outside of it) helped her get to this point.
I read that more as a play on 1970s era gender roles and patriarchy. Women can’t be doctors, but if they work hard enough they can be a nurse.
There’s a lot of that kind of stuff in the show. Seems like every episode has some kind of joke/nod towards antiquated ideas of gender roles.
Yeah, it was a jab at seventies sexism and racism
I interpreted that look as, “Nurse? Why not doctor??”
This is definitely how I read it, as a misogynistic jab
That’s fair. I saw it in a screencap later and it just seemed more significant. May have just been seeing it out of context.
This. It’s an homage to the sitcoms of the 70’s (this episode), where they were doing a lot more pro-woman/pro-feminist messaging where possible.
Westview folks have to be in on it. Somehow. I don’t think they’re innocent bystanders. I’m thinking they’re AIM or Hydra agents/scientists who got sucked into this pocket reality. That or it’s The Good Place and they’re all demons.
It seems like some of them are slightly scared about what’s going on and it implicitly happened long enough ago to predate Wanda, Vision, and Geraldine moving in?
I am now going to be listening for references to “butthole spiders.”
I think it’s also a question of how long has Westview existed and how long has Wanda been “perfecting” it. Were they like “Geraldine” sent in to handle it and then got stuck?
The way Agnes and Herb were speaking, it seemed they were very aware that Geraldine was an intruder and an outsider. To me, that seems more like they’re functioning as either figments of Wanda’s imagination or HYDRA or similar whose job it is to keep Wanda in the simulation.
It looked like a containment zone from the outside. As if they’re trying to prevent her Twilight Zone from spreading and potentially taking over the world, as opposed to helping her stay inside it. Possibly not directly taking offensive action due to the fact that she used to be a hero, or because they have no freaking idea how, and Doctor Strange hasn’t arrived yet.
Agreed, though the radio from episode 2 suggests they may think someone else is pulling strings.
I assumed this is what’s going on as well.
Im not watching this, just reading recaps, because this is the future now and that’s a thing….I’ve been assuming that this is all some mad fantasy alt reality Wanda created (as we know she can) related to the grief and trauma of visions death in the real world. All the weird stuff is symbolic of people trying to communicate with her from real reality and wake up before her version of the world destroys our own. Is that stated or obvious to people watching? Am I jumping to conclusions?
Only in so much as this episode confirmed there is a physical space that seems to be adjacent to us where she physically is and people can move in and out of her world – Westview.
Back when they announced that Elizabeth Olsen would be part of the Doctor Strange 2 cast, I recall reading somewhere that Doctor Strange would be training Wanda to better control her magic powers. If that’s true it more or less tells us what’s going on here.
That’s definitely partially true, but there’s a lot of odd moments to suggest there’s something more too, like the neighbors seeming to have their own agendas, or the fact that this is seemingly a literal TV show in the “real world.” Plus, while comic book Wanda has these powers, they’ve never been shown at this level in the MCU before, so we’ll need some kind kind of origin story for that. I’d say it would be disappointing if that’s the only twist.
Agnes, who is clearly Agatha Harkness, has basically said outright that her husband “Ralph” is Mephisto. How that’s going to work into all this, I don’t know. In the comics the twins are made from fragments of his soul but the MCU has never taken more than a very basic framework from the comics. The thing Mephisto does though, is grant anyone their wish in exchange for their souls, including completely changing reality because he is that powerful.
There are definitely people trying to contact her, but so far in the show that’s all seemed to come from outside of “Westview” – a message through the radio, a little helicopter in the lawn, that sort of thing. This is the first episode in which a resident of the town (such as it is) made a direct reference to Wanda’s past or seemed to want to relay a message.
I took it as more proof that Geraldine was an outsider because she didn’t buy into the sexism of 70’s sitcoms.
I think Monica flew into the “bubble” on a SWORD copter but once you enter the bubble you are automatically rejiggered to conform to the reality Wanda is creating – so the helicopter turns into a toy, Monica becomes one of the townspeople – although her training and/or recent induction allows her to remember the real world more readily.Perhaps sewer guys’ protective beekeeper suit helped him maintain his sense of the real world but wanda quickly ejected him by rewinding. Agree with others that there are definite shades of “Its a good life” and the Southern Reach trilogy, altho marvel has had plenty of its own stories along the same lines, such as when Kulan Gath converts NYC and its denizens to a conan-esque fantasy world in Uncanny X-men 190- 191 – complete with a horrific transformation to Doc Strange that would fit right in with “its a good life” – poor Doc ends up with no mouth and his lefthand and righthand fingers connecting so he can’t do his hand motions for spellcasting.
I think you’re right about Monica and I like your idea about the bee keeper suit. Parris was really good this ep, switching between Monica’s ‘70s sitcom persona and her real self. Plus it looks like she get to keep those awesome fish pants.
I’m glad I’m not the only one getting Annihilation vibes. Very heavy at the end of this episode.
no way Annihilus is too hard to explain WHAT it is of course…The Bee Keeper is insect oriented i think it’s just AIM and an extension of the Hydra story from Agents of SHIELD
I think you’re on the money here. And judging by the guns drawn on Rambeau when she lands outside the forcefield, I wonder if AIM is running the forcefield and Sword is trying to sneak people in under the radar.
I highly doubt the MCU version of AIM is still operational post-Iron Man 3.
I highly doubt the MCU version of AIM is still operational post-Iron Man 3.
Except it obviously is, because AIM is connected to the MODOK show.
The MODOK show isn’t MCU; it was going to be part of the “Offenders” franchise until most of that got scrapped.
Still, you can always bring back an evil organization, whether reformed by a new leader, surviving stragglers, or whatever.
and i doubt they take precedence over Shield or Sword.
That beekeeper suit, though…
it couldve been because they were prepared in case she brought anything/anyone with her. Sword is the government-they dont have to sneak around Aim, theyd just shut em down and create their own set-up.
It’s also similar to another reality-warping Marvel show, Legion.
I’m going to be sad if Wanda turns out to be the Big Bad here. I’m tired of abused & damaged women being turned into monsters (even sympathetic ones).
You might want to stop watching then. If it follows any of the comics, Wanda is almost always a damaged woman who gets turned into a monster (either by her own instability or by the machinations of a Big Bad.) Vision doesn’t fare much better as he always gets reprogrammed, deprogramming, or destroyed.
Yeah, I’m aware, but the MCU doesn’t have to be slavishly devoted to the comics.
I’m hoping, like they usually do, the MCU takes some storylines as a basis but reworks them entirely. Wanda has repeatedly been done dirty by the comics by being portrayed as a hysterical woman who repeatedly destroys reality because she can’t handle her emotions. Shockingly, there’s lots of hints from Agnes that they’re setting up Mephisto being involved somehow.
What are the hints about Mephisto?
I kind of feel like WV might end up serving as a reverse House of M where Wanda is how mutants are introduced into the MCU.
well, to be clear, John Byrne did the “dismantle the Vision and take his humanity away” but BEFORE THAT, Vison was one of the most popular comic charactersin the Roy Thomas Avengers, Vision, Panther and Wasp were KEY to the book, not Iron Man, Cap and Thor, they were hardly thereJohn Byrne is a bad writer, WAS a Great Artist, now much diminishedbut NEVER had “great” ideasNext Men, anyone?
its possible but i’m guessing that she is being influenced at least to some degree. i do feel like the resolution will somehow involve her coming to terms with Vision’s death, though.
in the comics, Wanda, after House of M, is shown to be very super-villain-like or just plain CRAY-CRAY
My own theory is that the “pocket dimension” is a pre-existing thing that other people have been trapped and/or created in, and Wanda is new to it but her powers fit right in there, and she’s so desperate to remain with Vision that she “cooperates” any time her self-awareness kicks in. Might be wrong though!
Ha, good catch with that X-Men story – I didn’t follow the comics a lot back then but I do vividly remember that one for the creepy horror imagery (also, they really emphasized the brutal torture of Spider-Man, who ended up more or less like Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Jesus). Kulan Gath didn’t just enchant everyone who was already in town – when National Guard soldiers or whoever tried to enter the zone, they and their equipment instantly changed into the sword-and-sorcery equivalents and they forgot what they were doing.
I’ve conjectured that it’s not the beekeeper suit but the BEES that protect him: hundreds of tiny minds buzzing around him prevent Wanda from focusing on and manipulating his mind. The beekeeper suit is just to prevent him from getting stung.
I think the toy helicopter was a drone that was flown in, and like you said was forced to conform to the reality Wanda’s making.
good point, that would make sense
Way to evoke Bill Mumy while we’re mourning Mira Furlan!
Ah, this was excellent. Wanda’s turn at the end was absolutely chilling, and clearly shows that they’re going in a House of M direction–even if I’m sure they’ll make Wanda more sympathetic than downright crazy.
Wanda’s head tilt. You don’t want to be on the wrong end of that head tilt.Elizabeth Olsen is an absolute gem. My goodness.
She’s such a good actress, I’m so glad she’s getting this huge mainstream exposure to show that off.
I think I’ve seen just about everything she’s been in since Martha Marcy May Marlene. I always forget she’s an Olsen (non-twin)!
All these “meta references”, or rather hommages to shows decades past feel a little too Quinton Tarantino-y. Like how Tarantino likes to show off he can replicate past styles and genres, but lacking in a bit of (or more) substance which adds to the success (Jackie Brown), or failure (Death Proof), of each attempt.It’s great that they want to go this route, but at the expense of the show being a bit boring, that’s where the problem arises. Mainly you get bits of information towards the end, otherwise, for most of the show, it’s a just showy hommage, a superficial gimmick. I grew up with these shows, being rerun in the afternoons, or watching them on cable channels, so I would’ve liked to have seen them do something more with it.In a way, it reminds me, of the utter frustration that was Haruhi Suzumiya’s Endless Eight story arc, a repeated time loop episode, for eight episodes, with just a little bit acknowledged or changed at the very end.So far Wandavison feels like Tarantino does Haruhi Suzumiya, but with each episode stylized as shows of the past. And it’s utterly maddening, as it could’ve been a far more interesting foray into such sitcoms if it just didn’t copy the humor, beat by beat, and story structure, note for note, with nothing to elevate or separate it from its reference material. We may have gotten a little more this episode, but three episodes in, hopefully the fourth won’t belong to present company.
So next episode Cheers, then Seinfeld, then Arrested Development, then Community? I’m looking forward to see Vision as Abed.
Family Ties, ???, Malcom in the Middle, Modern Family.
I’m thinking “The Good Place” as run by Anthony.
Probably All the the Family, Taxi, or Mary Tyler Moore Show beforehand, and then Cheers, Seinfeld, and AD.
The Seventies were this episode, they’re moving up a decade every time. Next up, the Eighties.
Which means Let’s Get Physical, and maybe Saved by the Bell? Square Pegs? Breakfast Club?
Family Ties.
Which means Let’s Get PhysicalNot a sitcom. Breakfast Club Not a sitcom. Saved by the Bell Not the Eighties (if not for a few months in season one). Square Pegs You consider it the sitcom that defined the Eighties? Also, they’re a married couple in the suburbs. How can they reenact a show about high schoolers?
Tommy and Billy can go to school? But what they’re enacting in all these cases is not the literal sitcom, but a hybrid of period references and a sensibility of the era. So I’d throw in the Travolta/Curtis Perfect movie and Jane Fonda videos for the 80s, just as the 70s had vestiges of Stepford Wives and chauvinist doctors and the 60s had noted gender role divisions and hourglass figures and social confority.
Maybe. I mean I’m skeptical they’d try and replicate AD, but I’d be super jazzed if they did. Nor do I think they’d stop at one 70s and one 80s sitcom, given the important shows from that period (AINF in particular). I wonder, though, if they’d try something super ambitious and do the 90s as the Simpsons. That would be gutsy.
It couldn’t be Cheers or Sienfeld. They need a family’s home. It’s gotta be Family Ties for the 80s. I’ve totally ruled out The Cosby Show.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they worked a toilet flush into an episode for good measure.
I am all in for a Cheers-style opening credits sequence featuring The Avengers.
Given we have an Olsen, I’m hoping next episode goes Full House
My guess is that Full House will be the 90’s show. Yes, it began in the 80’s, but the early 90’s were when its popularity peaked. And the 90’s is also where the domestic sitcom starts to fall out of favor, so they’ll probably want to stick with a more conservative show like FH since something like Seinfeld or Friends wouldn’t really fit this setting.
Wasn’t Fresh Prince 1990s and very much the domestic sitcom?And I’m not just saying that because I want to see Vision tossed out the house DJ Jazzy Jeff style
Geraldine already did a really dramatic version of a Jazzy Jeff take at the end of this week’s episode.
That would be extra meta, I suppose. Considering Wanda’s played by an Olsen,
My prediction:Friends/seinfeld/90s The mock docks (modern family, parks, office)Maybe Malcom/other early single cams? Don’t know how distinctive that would be
Then maybe postmodern shows like Arrested, 30 Rock, Community Holy shit, are they gonna do a Simpsons?
I bet someone in the writer’s room suggested The Simpsons and the higher-ups quickly shot the idea down because it’s now a major Disney property and it’s still in production, so they don’t want to imply that it’s a relic of the past like these other old shows.
The picture at the top of this article with Anges in the 80s leotard on the kitchen counter looks vaguely Cosby Show if I remember correctly. If they dare go Cosby Show.
It looks very much (but not exactly) like Family Ties:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0577322/mediaviewer/rm728678400/
I think you are correct. Familt Ties. What other family based sitcoms represented the 80s more than this. It had to be the most popular and well known ones right? What elese? Growing Pains? Nah, I don’t think so. Who’s the Boss? I’m guessing WtB is lower on the popularity scale than Growing Pains.
Ohhhhh shit! Would they go there!?!?!?!?! It Doesn’t look like the house, but would they maybe at least through in a Full House reference?
I think there’s a very obvious stop in that sequence for this kind of show, especially as it would appear later in the season when they’d have to do more of the actual plot no matter what:Scrubs.Break the conceit down with a goddamn sledgehammer by mixing it with a show that also played with the format and the fourth wall.
I agree they should do a meta series, but I imagine that’s when the sitcom conceit will collapse, so I think Scrubs would be too early on the timeline for it. You’ve got to do an Office/Parks&Rec/Modern Family-style mockumentary episode before we ditch this. I could see Community or The Good Place working, though. A lot of sitcoms from the past decade have been particularly knowing, or else barely distinguishable from dramas, so you could weave in many references, too, like these episodes are doing for the shows of their respective decades.
I feel like you could do Scrubs in the early 00s and still hit all those. Have Scrubs’ outright breaks act as the inciting incident that makes it impossible to keep denying that something’s going on, and then go through Modern Family/The Office mockumentary style and (fittingly) The Good Place as an ‘okay, now that we all know what’s up, let’s tackle this directly’ conclusion.Of course, we do hit a bit of a weird point on these: are they parodying the standouts from those eras, or the standards from those eras? Scrubs is undeniably an important stop on the history of the sitcom, but it’s important because it broke from the accepted norms, not because it was part of them. Honestly, the same is true for both Community and The Good Place.Are they going to hit the interesting outliers of the modern era and hit us with a Good Place episode, or would they go for the mainstream and give us The Big Bang Theory?
Those are good points. Bewitched probably was the standout of the 60s. That’s a different ballpark, but there’s nine episodes covering seven decades. So for the last 20 years, we could do, say, “old-fashioned 00s/10s sitcoms,” “mockumentaries,” and “meta/prestige/cult sitcoms.” And then, yeah, The Good Place for the end.
The target audience for this show is probably closer to Scrubs than Malcolm in the Middle, so I’d bet there’s at least a nod. And the Russo brothers got hired by Marvel because Kevin Feige loved their work on Community, so we know that show’s on their radar.
Otherwise, among mostly straight-forward sitcoms, it occurred to me that How I Met Your Mother could be used as a turning point. Just the narrative device of narrating to your two kids in the future could easily lead to a reveal, especially since (spoilers for that show) Vision is probably dead the whole time, just like the mother.
Married….With Children? I want to see if Bettany can pull off an Al Bundy, and Wanda in a big red wig flouncing her way to the couch. “Sex again. Wanda, we’ve been married for 15 years now, can’t we just be friends?!”*cue foreshadowing to real world somehow*
Community would be the ideal homage show for when the illusion breaks down – Wanda’s rules about living in a sitcom becoming the petard with which she hoists herself. It’d be trippy if she were unable to change/erase/rewind things like Dan Harmon doing a fourth-wall-breaking narrative because it’s not technically an incursion from the outside world.
Unfortunately I think they’re trying to stick with the husband/wife sitcoms as closely as they can. That’s going to become a problem too, though, because even sitcoms with prominent husband/wife pairs in the past 10-20 years aren’t really so insular anymore. They’ve always got extra main characters, not just side characters, and those extra characters are often extended family members… and that, of course, is a huge problem for Wanda’s little bubble.A clever “out” would be for sudden extra relatives to finally be the trigger that breaks down the illusion.
I’m assuming these homages are shows that Wanda herself was familiar with growing up. I doubt they got Community reruns in Sokovia, as awesome as that might be
“WandaVision, shooting la-va!”
No, they’ll definitely be family/home-centered sitcoms. “Family Ties” comes to mind as a likely candidate, as another poster has suggested. And “Cosby”…and “The Simpsons”.
They won’t touch Cosby with a twenty-mile pole. Also, how would you expect them to convey Cosby as opposed to any of its contemporary family sitcoms? By doing blackface?
I don’t know, animate it? Combine The Simpsons with Cosby?
I hope we get a paintball episode.
They’re action stars in the MCU, after all.
I’m wondering if they are even going to continue this for much longer with the eras/decades of sitcoms.After this episode, it seems like things are falling apart a bit. Working under the (possibly false) assumption that Wanda has created Westview to cope with Vision’s death, and is using things she was aware of while growing up (old sitcom reruns), it’s possible it doesn’t go much past the 70’s or 80’s.I have no idea though. This is a weird show for me, because I haven’t really enjoyed the episodes as a whole – just bits and pieces (the talent show, the last few minutes of this episode), but I am really interested in where it goes.
Yeah, of course it wouldn’t make sense to keep going through the decades (even just because “nostalgia for five years ago” is not a thing. Yet). My post was meant as a joke, although it was taken way too seriously by way too many people around here. 🙂
I mean, you never know. It’s easy to extrapolate that since each episode has been a new decade of sitcom styles, and we’re clearly at least getting an 80’s episode based on the header image for this very article, it’s not a huge stretch.Admittedly it would be kind of amusing to see if they could pull off the mockumentary comedies of the mid 2000’s, but I have a hunch that the 80’s will be the last nostalgia episode.
At least I hope so. The camera work and dedication to filming techniques of the various eras has been pretty neat, but it’s kind of wearing thin for me, personally.
I have a hunch that the 80’s will be the last nostalgia episode.I agree. Past that, they’d also run the risk that the source wouldn’t be easily identified, because from an aesthetic and technical point of view, it wouldn’t look too different from what we would produce today.
I’d imagine for the nineties they’ll do a Full House thing, given Olsen’s family.
Tarantino is very in love with replicating style, but at least his dialogue makes things interesting. One of the problems I’m having with WandaVision is nothing anyone is talking about is interesting. Only when they break reality, but these fleeting moments only amount to a few precious seconds per episode. I’m also fine with replicating these eras of television. But I think the episodes themselves need to be more interesting besides just the clues.
Absolutely. The meager clues aren’t enough if the dialogue is just meaningless and uninteresting throwbacks to different eras of tv. I vaguely got a kick out of Wanda holding a bowl of fruit to “disguise” her pregnancy, but otherwise, I was left fairly uninterested.
I don’t think it’s all that superficial. The MCU Wanda and Vision draw a lot on the comics, and not the most recent ones either. There love story is from the 1970s, and ended badly in the 1980s. Both characters have been a bit lost since then. The movies have been pretty clear that Wanda is a heroine, not a villain, and that Vision is/was a being with a soul and unique personality (even though he arose from AI). Wanda arrived in 1964, right between the eras of I Love Lucy and Bewitched. Vision dates back to WW2, but the version she fell in love with was revived in 1968. Their marriage and honeymoon was completely Brady Bunch/Patridge Family days, and their two mini-series were 1982 (where she learned Magneto was her father) and 1985 (where Tommy and Billy were born). So though we’re seeing everything through a guise of retro TV shows, we’re really seeing their beleaguered relationship unfold week to week, meta-textually.
A show shouldn’t need the comics to fall back on and flesh it out. I used to read a lot of comics, but Vision and the Scarlet Witch weren’t really among the ones I followed. Having said that, it shouldn’t require the viewer to have any of that knowledge to make the show interesting.Take the Mandalorian. There’s a lot of references to other shows and books that I haven’t seen, but it didn’t sacrifice the story relying on the viewer to know this.Like I said in my OP, references are great. They can be really fun and cleverly done, but not at the expense of the story being compelling or interesting, otherwise what was the point?
And some people (who aren’t into Westerns I guess) just found the Mandalorian boring and predictable. I suppose the current ideal is to have all the Easter eggs and tell a broad appeal story at the same time (as the MCU movies mostly did, even GotG; as HBO’s Watchmen did) but as I can’t unknow everything I know about Wanda and Vision, that broad appeal means little to me. I can see what they’re doing and guess where they’re going, but mostly I find the meta-TV commentary (from the MCU’s first Disney+ TV show) clever and creative, especially as it relates to the evolution of a popular artform over time. And I think about Cabin in the Woods more than Tarantino. There’s a connection between the shows they reference and the ideal of a loving couple/family, one that should be logically out of reach for a robot and an evil mutant who fell in love.
For me, the Mandalorian was predictable and sometimes boring. Perhaps because it was extremely formulaic and very by the numbers, as I like Westerns. There isn’t necessarily a problem with that, formulaic can be very entertaining and fun. Lots of good shows are formulaic. What’s troubling is it could’ve be so much better, and that was highlighted with the Ahsoka episode, where it showed just how capably better it could be, then it went back to being meh or better than meh. And that’s what makes it so frustratingly disappointing for some. I wasn’t disappointed per se, I just recognized that it had a lot of untapped potential. That Ahsoka episode was excellent though, and I wished more of the show was of that quality.
Yeah, it’s frustratingly slow. And half an hour at a time doesn’t help.
I’m fine with the meta-references for two reasons. First, I’m not an obsessive who watches and tries to pick up every reference to every other thing. Second, the show makes me laugh and I don’t get to do that often anymore, they are funny.
I wouldn’t compare them to Tarantino. I watched him recently on some Popcorn film show (Travis? Travers?) and the feel is different. Lighter, less angry, a kind of well-made superficial. *shrugs* I haven’t formed a real thought about this yet.
eh… no.
This has been my gripe with the show so far. My girlfriend who is not a Marvel fan keeps asking why we aren’t just watching Bewitched or something instead. I don’t feel like they’ve been teasing the mystery enough or twisting the classic sitcom formula enough. It really feels like we’re watching an old sitcom just for 15 seconds of intrigue in each episode. I understand the logical pacing so far (1 – setting up the world, 2- teasing thats something isn’t right, 3- twisting the formula) but seeing all of this play out as a viewer feels glacially slow.
It feels slow because it’s not exactly interesting. Like, I grew up watching some of these shows being rerun, but like, the nostalgia factor isn’t enough for me like it is for a majority of the commenters. To be honest, I don’t like that sort of stuff as old sitcoms and their cultural aesthetics and humor grate on me.Like you said, there isn’t enough of the mystery woven into the actual show for it to be interesting/relevant hence why it feels like an exercise in the superficial.
I really dug this episode for the Truman Show-esque twist at the end, but I hope it won’t just devolve into generic Marvel “gray government bunkers and black vans” fare when the first few episodes have been so fun aesthetically.
“gray government bunkers and black vans” fareAlso known as the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aesthetic.
So, according to The Verge (all speculations, of course), we’re gonna see Mephisto, and then apparently Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange to link this show with Multiverse of Madness.The idea is that Mephisto (who in the comics had a hand in the fate of Tommy and Billy Maximoff) is Agnes’s unseen husband Ralph. In the last episode, Agnes (who is wearing Agatha Harkness’s necklace) said she’d wish she could make Ralph disappear, and replied to “the devil is in the details” with “that’s not the only place he is.” And this episode, she quipped that Ralph looks better when shrouded in darkness.I don’t know what to make of this. I checked the lines about Ralph in the first episode, and those don’t seem innuendos about Mephisto to me. But who knows. Clearly Kathryn Hahn being billed so prominently in the credits after Olsen and Bettany means her character is not just a random neighbor.
Please no.
Dont worry it just sounds like more bullshit fan rumors, to me.
I hope so, fearless leader. One thing I’m finding obnoxious about wandavision speculation is “well, in the comics…”The MCU honours, but is rarely slavish, to the source material. It’s one of the things I like about —- free of the decades of comic baggage.Wanda and Visions comics history is messed up and not even very good. Taking from it? Sure. Largely following beat by beat? It already isn’t. 🤷
i dont think we’re gonna see the evil wizard that has babies for hands.
The premiere mentions June 2, their anniversary, which is when the Salem Witch Trials started.
I really doubt they will introduce the actual Devil into the MCU (which Mephisto basically is in the comics), if only to avoid going into direct conflict with the real life religions.
They added him to the Ghost Rider movies, but when they introduce the Ghost Rider to the ‘Agents of Shield’ show (which is still somewhat tangentially related to the MCU) they made it pretty vague and alluded to the fact that it relates to different dimensions and stuff
Yeah, the “Dark Dimension” is the MCU’s version of Hell. That would mean Dormammu is the Satan analog. I agree, it would feel odd to introduce such a major, movie-level villain like Mephisto in a show like WandaVision.Dormammu pledged to Strange that he would never again enter our world. But Wanda-view isn’t “our world.” Westview could be a loophole, a crack in the wall, and someone might want it to expand Westview until it completely takes everything over.
I thought the same thing at first but Agnes, who is clearly Agatha Harkness, has basically said as much. Her response to “the devil is in the details,” basically saying he’s here. Her wishing he’d disappear. Her saying he looks better shrouded in darkness. Her rabbit was named Senor Scratchy. Mr. Scratch was an alias Mephisto used when he took human form. That’s a lot just in 3 episodes. In the comics Wanda created the twins from fragments of Mephisto’s soul. Seems like it’s more than just Easter eggs for people who are familiar with comics.
mephisto is pretty much the classic devil thats been in tv and movies forever-i doubt religions would have a problem with just his presence, unless marvel made him the good guy, or said theres no god.
Well yeah! She’s Doc Ock!
Man, I hope not. Up to now, the MCU’s take on the whole metaphysical aspect of the comics has been “of course they’re not gods, they’re powerful aliens or something…stop asking questions” so I don’t see them changing it up now.
the whole metaphysical aspect of the comics has been “of course they’re not gods, they’re powerful aliens or something…stop asking questions” so I don’t see them changing it up now.Why should they change it? Mephisto is just a character, even in the comics it’s said that he was *posing* as Satan at times, not that he *is* Satan (though some writer might have alluded to it more strongly). They already featured Dormammu which is beyond Satan. An they’re going to have the Celestials around in a major way in Phase 4.
Agnes’ (who is definitely AGatha HarkNESS) rabbit was also named Senor Scratchy. Mr. Scratch was an alias Mephisto used when in human form. Mephisto is involved somehow. He also has an (awful) history with Spider-Man and multiple run ins with Dr. Strange in the comics.
“He also has an (awful) history with Spider-Man”One encounter does not a “history” make.That’s one of the (many) reasons why One More Day is such a terrible story. This big Spider-Man storyline is resolved with an appearance by … Mephisto? Wait, what does Mephisto have to do with Spidey? Nothing. Why is he here? Nobody knows. Why is Mephisto interested in Spidey and his marriage all of a sudden? No clue. How could JMS, a great writer, come up with this crap? He didn’t – this has Joe Quesada’s fingerprints all over it.
So Mephisto without a backstory or origin?
So Mephisto without a backstory or origin?Since when every character introduced in the MCU has a backstory or origin? Did we get that for Dormammu, beyond a few lines of exposition?
Right? Hell, the Infinity Stones were the A#1 plot device/MacGuffin of like 20 movies, and all the back story and origin we got for them was 2 minutes of Collector exposition in one movie. Granted, they weren’t a character, but they were just as important to the story as one.
This confused me, because i thought Nightmare was announced as the main villain for Dr Strange 2-there can be more than one villain, but except for people speculating on the internet, ive seen no evidence that Mephisto is even a blip on the horizon. Unless theyre setting him up for phase 5 or some shit
I’m not sure what started the Mephisto theory but it might be a “deal with the devil” type of scenario. Wanda could’ve made a deal with Mephisto that lets her exist in her ideal/fantasy reality in exchange for something. Sword are the 3rd party trying to get her out and protect people while dealing with Mephisto and whatever he gets out of the deal.
Honestly, I just hope they are giving her the powers she should have (and the MCU continuity justifies due to an Infinity stone being the origin of her powers, just like for Captain Marvel).
I am disappointed that this is largely a straight forward recap, rather than a review.
i did find this one heavy on summary
What is there to say? It’s been 3 episodes and WandaVision hasn’t really done anything. Right now it’s “I Get That Reference: The Series”
Then write that. Recaps aren’t reviews.
There could at least be some attempt to explain the B+ grade beyond deducting points for lack of Kathryn Hahn. The “reviewer” has made no indication so far the lack of actual commentary on the series is because there is little offered from each episode to actually discuss, but surely there’s a way to fill an article without including information that the vast majority of readers (and viewers) will already know like “Hydra is the authoritarian paramilitary-subversive organization that had infiltrated the top reaches of government in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
Then you’re missing the identification of the villain (which is an opinion rather than a spoiler), the judgment on the increasingly strident sitcom affectations, the condemnation of 70s style, the characterization of Wanda’s erratic actions, and a very strong aversion to the couch.
Yes, it’s true that the comment about couch appearance was review-adjacent. But 90% of these reviews has just been reciting things that happened, in the order that they happened, and this episode it’s gone up to, say, 95%. I don’t want to be negative about the writer – the bits that aren’t just repeating things I’ve just seen are written well – but I’m just not sure why the reviews are being written seemingly for an audience who hasn’t seen the episode?
‘a straight forward recap, rather than a review’- The AV Club
I suspect B.A.R.F. is involved.How weird would it be if this is all just superhero therapy gone very wrong? What if Wanda agreed to process her traumatic memories under SWORD supervision, and nobody realized a technology designed to work with a normal human hippocampus might have some unexpected side effects when used on a Mind stone empowered superhuman one?
Final line of the show will be some guy in a lab coat saying “oops, my bad” as Wanda wills the universe out of existence.
After its appearance throughout recent Marvel movies, that would be an amazing callback. Perhaps it’s been co-opted by evil forces, again…
I couldn’t help but note that the final exchange between Wanda and Geraldine had very different line readings than in the trailer.
Yes! Also noticeable how different Wanda looked–it’s almost as if, once the children were born, she looked worn out and weakened, like she did in Sokovia before joining the Avengers.
Rod Serling’s intro for “It’s A Good Life” might describe a lot of what we’ve seen so far on WandaVision: “On
a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and
Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether
the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether
the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand,
sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village.”
“ (even that quote about Peaksville is originally from short story). In the short story Anthony is 3 and the part of the tragedy about Peaksville situation is that he is not a monster. He means well but he has temper tantrums and understanding of how things work of 3 year old. A lot of disaster he causes is because he wants to help.I suspect that this is much better comparison for Wanda. Of course she isn’t a child but the rational part of her is
suppressed. The memory loss and the fact that no one questions the
era/decor/clothes changing even when they are bothered by some small
illogical things makes it seem like she is dreaming. And she fights very
hard not to wake up. Even when she’s disturbed she either weaves the
things she can into the dream – like “Geraldine”
– or discards them when she can’t – “Geraldine” again. So in her case
she probably doesn’t realise she is keeping all those people in the
dream with her.
Because only part of it is controlled consciously by her . The rest is
her subconscious. And it seems it might be both trying to let her
realise she is missing something – like the commercials representing
lost memories – and make her more easy to manipulate – like all the
inceptions about babies.I think the commercials represent suppressed memories and this one seems to be about how all this happened.
“Escaping to a world all your own where you problems float away” is
clearly what
Wanda did escaping life of tragedies where she lost both her brother
and her love. But what I found it interesting that the commercial
advertises “when you want to go away but you don’t want to go anywhere”
since that is how it all seems to work for everyone inside. They can’t
leave unless Wanda makes them too like she did with “Geraldine”. And
Wanda clearly found the “Goddess within” to make it this way.
The commercial can also be another clue that doing it all was not
Wanda’s own idea. Just like a narrator in the commercial there might be
someone who suggested to Wanda she can escape her problems and she did.
And now
everyone is trapped with her in the world that is perfectly reflecting
her whims. And they have to pretend “It’s a Good Life”.
I just wrote something similar (but less comprehensive) but… yes, this.I don’t think there’s a “villain”, as many people have been wildly speculating. It’s a far more interesting story if it’s about Wanda and her grief – hell, I think we can all empathise with her desire to step away and deny reality.The only thing I’d add (you’re totally right about all the meta-references, etc, being aspects of her subconscious, which is clearly in control here) is that by creating such a faithful and real version of Vision she’s introduced an inevitable flaw – no matter how many times she resets the scene, or reboots the entire reality, he’s always going to notice something is wrong. He’s the one thing she can’t let go of but also the one key flaw in the reality she’s constructed.
I think it’s pretty clear that Wanda is mostly controlling this and making it happen, even if subconsciously. The question is why and I think it’s most likely as a reaction to trauma or because she’s in a situation where this state was initially induced by someone else: remember “who’s doing this to you Wanda?”
Yes, it’s Wanda who keeps this reality going. It’s clearly her idea of happy life in a perfect world and she is obviously the one policing it’s integrity. She resets it every time something goes of the rails – the radio/Dottie incident (radio is whole and wound is soon gone), the beekeeper, Vision questioning.
However, I still think someone is manipulating the outcomes. The whole baby theme – from all the questions on the first episode (both from Agnes and the Harts) to the “for the children” chanting – was a pretty overt way of putting it on Wanda’s mind and thus steering her into using her powers to make it true. And as the commercial suggest the whole creation of this bubble could’ve been another push like that. So I think Wanda manipulates the reality but someone is manipulating her.But I also think that like with many suggestions these work because Wanda also subconsciously wants them. This is her wish fulfilment fantasy. And as it’s usually with those keeping it up will become more and more hard to do as the inconsistencies build up. It’s especially hard to keep them away from Vision because the more he is like himself the more they bother him. You can only reset a dream so many times before it falters. So the question is if the twins are the goal how can they be sustained after that?
I think there’s going to be a villain. Agnes has all but said who it is it a few times now if you’ve read the comics. At first, I didn’t think they’d actually go that route, but now? Either that or they are dropping these hints as purely Easter eggs or an intentional head fake.
The question I have is how “real” is all of it. Like is she in some kind of simulation, or is she actually fully altering reality and manifesting things from nothing. Because the second, while more in line with her comics powerset, represents a massive growth in her powers. The clothes Geraldine was wearing suggest she’s actually creating these objects. Which begs the question, did she create the citizens of Westpoint, or are they just stuck in her fantasy? Beyond this, why is all of this happening?I think she and a team tried to fix Vision using her powers, and something went wrong, now she’s caught in this pocket reality, a prison she doesn’t want to escape. Pretty interesting stuff though.
I think it’s all works like Reality Stone. But I’m also pretty sure the people in this reality are not created by Wanda but trapped in the bubble with her. It’s the way they seem semi-aware of their predicament. Well, all the people besides Vision and the twins. These three are her wish fulfilment and the whole reason she is fighting so hard to keep it all up.
This show is unfunny goofy shit.
“B…b…but it’s building up to something!” Well, yeah, whatever that is can’t come soon enough. Strike three.
Im sure they’ll be devastated.
As long as they have fanboys like you, that mega corporation will be fine.
🤣
You… realize nearly literally every show ever has some ‘mega corporation’ involved at some stage, yes? You aren’t striking a blow against The Man by not liking a show.
“another Marvel project, yawn, they’re all the same anyways – I don’t see why anyone likes them anymore. They don’t do anything creative and the directors don’t matter, it’s all just Marvel-house style anyway.”“This show is too different and weird, when do the super-heroics start?”byyyeeeeeeee don’t let the door hit you on the way out
That’s not fair. It’s reductive to say that the problem people are having with it is that there aren’t any superheroics so far. Even as a sitcom, it’s not funny, and doesn’t even seem to be trying to be funny. They seem to have gotten the “sit” part of the “sitcom” right, but even a normal MCU movies has more “com” than that.
I mean, the obvious answer is: WandaVision isn’t a sitcom. The first couple of episodes mimic sitcom storylines and beats, while something unsettling slowly creeps in and we move toward finding out what’s the actual creepy (non-comedic) weirdness that’s going on. I’m not a big fan of binge-watch culture but I’m starting to feel like this show would probably be better as a binge watch, rather than a weekly show.I can totally understand that the first three episodes have been very slow to reveal what’s going on, and the surrounding “sitcom” elements feel a bit like filler, but Marvel has earned my trust in their ability to tell stories. I’m willing to let it play out before I throw a hissy fit like LiamGallagher.
Sitcom or not, what are you watching for the majority of that 20-30 minutes per episode? You’re watching hokey sitcom plotlines play out without any humor. Even weirder, it’s not even parodying the old sitcom tropes or playing with the “I am a modern and realistic human being, stuck in a sitcom” angle. This is some avant garde shit.
I mean, yeah, they probably could have condensed the first two episodes into one without really losing anything, given that we already know Wanda and Vision’s backstory; think about if this were done with new characters we’d never met before. A longer lead-in to let us get to know the characters before the underlying mystery seeps in would make more sense.
HOWEVER.Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen are so good (not to mention Kathryn Hahn and Teyonah Parris) that it’s just a delight watching them do basically anything, even if it is hokey old sitcom tropes with humor no more sophisticated than what was on those kinds of shows in the actual 1960s. If it were lesser actors, yeah, the fillerish nature of the first few episodes would bother me. There’s also the angle to consider that the rest of the series may well do something to justify the way the first couple of episodes have gone. Like I said elsewhere, it’s not like Marvel (more to the point, Kevin Feige) hasn’t earned our trust that they know what they’re doing.
Different smelling shit, then.
just because it’s weird and different doesn’t make it good, moron.
Thank you! This seems to be the truth about many new and hot things. Just because someone is doing something differently doesnt mean they are doing it well. I am looking at you Hamilton.
Boy I must have really struck a nerve if you replied 2 days after the initial comment and then came back again 2 days after that to call me a moron. I hope I haven’t been keeping you up at night. How much of the last 48 hours has been spent thinking about me? I’m flattered tbh
sorry, didn’t realize I already replied to you. Kinja’s comments threading is awful. As you can see, lots of butthurt fanboys replied and are still replying, so it’s hard to keep up.
This kind of phony argument is useless, and not real. Doing something different does not by default equal quality or well done.
Solid gold.
I turned over after watching this to see an early episode of Life on Mars – an hour long show that did this drawn out mystery stuff so much better just by having an enjoyable show anchoring it.At just 20- something minutes these WV eps are still dragging like crazy.
A sitcom that has no funny jokes is a curious framing device, that is for sure.
Does anyone else feel like the end credits account for about half the episode length? It feels intentionally drawn out to pad the run-time. Either that or they’re doing a few of these sitcom-length episodes until reality shatters and suddenly the end credits become the title sequence after each episode’s prologue / setup.
I believe they said future episodes would (could?) be longer. But man, those end credits are the longest I can think of for a TV series…
They are very long, but maybe it’s just a D+ thing. Mandalorian has long end credits too.
We rewatched the first two episodes last night and when I hit pause at the end of the show there was like six minutes left of runtime which felt pretty ridiculous.
I thought the 60s episode was the best by far, because Drunk Vision was legitimately hilarious. The pilot had some good jokes too. This was the first one that felt completely unfunny. Maybe that’s a commentary on how lame stuff like The Brady Bunch was in comparison to earlier sitcoms? But there were plenty of funny sitcoms in the 70s they could have referenced instead. Strange.
I’m wondering if the “jokes” in the show aren’t meant to be funny? If that makes any sense. Especially since we all know that it is not an actual tv show. I’m wondering if the jokes are being intentionally forced since Wanda’s world is supposed to bit a sitcom universe which it isn’t. It feels like this world is meta in a way. Also if Wanda is aware of her and Vision’s powers, do they know they are in a sitcom or are just playing along to see where it goes? It’s like she knows this world might be fake to her but still plays the part of the show.
I grew up watching Brady Bunch reruns and this had as many laughs as an actual BB episode. (…and yes, Ep 2 was the best so far)
Maybe that’s a commentary on how lame stuff like The Brady Bunch was in comparison to earlier sitcoms?There’s an issue in filmmaking (and TV-making) where you get this sort of Poe’s Law of parody – if you try to satirise 70s sitcoms by recreating a lame 70s-style sitcom with perfect accuracy, you end up with, well, a lame 70s-style sitcom.Check out this Aussie dumb-70s-police-show parody, Funky Squad:The episodes were only 30 minutes long but my God did they drag. It’s funny watching it on YouTube (in two 15 minute chunks) in 2021, because you can pick up the subtle running gags (like Tim’s malaprops and deliberate line-flubs) plus you also now know about the history of 70s TV and the “first age of video” where they were able to make shows on the ultra-cheap… and boy did they.But this first came out on Aussie TV in 1995, and it just seemed like this crew absolutely burning the cachet they’d earned barely a year earlier with this:The key difference being that Frontline was very much a satire of current affairs news, that lifted the lid on the bullshit that goes on behind the scenes (this was 1994). Whereas Funky Squad was lovingly crafted parody that relied on one single idea: Look at us modern folks doing a 70s show, how ridiculous!With WandaVision, the 60s B&W stuff was charming and didn’t need to be that funny, its mawkish attempts at humour are, intrinsically, kind of funny. But the 70s shows are very much “these sexist, racist fucks are trying to socially engineer us into being better people…” Which may very well be the showrunners’ intention with this, but relying on an audience’s knowledge of the cultural context of an old style of TV show to carry the meta, is pretty risky. See: Funky Squad.
UK version or US remake?
UK, I’m not a lunatic
The original Life on Mars, or the terrible American remake? I agree that WandaVision is no (original) Life on Mars, but I also don’t think it’s trying to be. The central question of Life on Mars was how he had gone back in time – that isn’t the question in WV. It’s what made her decide to construct this tv reality for herself, how much of it is actually outside of her head, and what it’s going to take to break her out of it.
The principle is the same. We know that what we are watching isn’t ‘reality’.We don’t yet know for sure that it is Wanda doing it to herself, just as we didn’t know whether Sam Tyler had gone back in time, was in a coma dream, or already in the afterlife. That mystery is the only interesting thing going on in WV.
Its just sad that a 70’s cop show can be funnier than a load of old sitcom plots
Well, to be fair, WandaVision doesn’t have the Gene Genie.
Yeah, I kind of feel the first two episodes could’ve been one episode and this could’ve been the second. Three episodes for plot to start kicking in is a long wait (clearly that’s not the case for everyone, but for me the pastiches are well produced but unfunny sketches, ones that for me aren’t saying much so far other than that old sitcoms were escapist.)Nice to see the MCU debut of Billy and Tommy at least.
The Dick Van Dyke/Bewitched pastiches could have easily been condensed into one episode, and I’m betting the ‘70s and ‘80s ones could be treated similarly.
it’s like a parody written by people who didn’t REALLY watch I Dream of Jeanie, Bewitched and Brady Bunch they hit the EDGES, but never get close to the MEATand it comes off HOLLOW
I loved Life on Mars (and in retrospect, the ending wasn’t too bad, all things considered).This? I’m not sure. Yeah, it’s less than 30 minutes, but it feels like it’s trying too hard. I know that’s kind of what they’re going for, but they could have done the ‘sitcom aspect’ better. “We know we’re leaning too hard into it, that’s the point!”Except it’s not really enjoyable.I’m not giving up on it though.
It’s an interesting concept, but the mystery isn’t interesting enough and the sitcom pastiche isn’t funny enough to justify it as a full mini-series. I’m just happy to see Emma Caulfield get work.
You’ll be missed!
Like your mom misses me?
Ha! Jokes on you! My mom died on Nov 2nd, 2015!
I disagree.
Fair enough.
Oh shit, They’ve lost the guy who sang Wonderwall. It’s all over for Marvel.
How long did it take you to come up with that one, wanker?
Anyway, there goes Wonderwall…
Why not just wait until they’re all released to binge at once instead of hating on it…?
Because the greedy bastards at Disney decided to release it once a week so no one cancel their subscription?
Yes, because all those new streaming shows that are lasting 2 whole seasons because everyone binges them in a day and a half and then stops talking about them is a brilliant business model and definitely healthy for shows, great point
“I can’t figure out the twist and I am MAD about it!”
There supposed to be a twist?
Unfunny. Perhaps this style of period sitcom just isn’t your thing. I found all three to be pretty fun in that classic style of a sitcom.
Indeed, I have just finished the first three, and, as a retro TV junkie, I am loving all of the tv tropes they show is sending up. Plus, the ominous whatever the hell else is going on.
Hmm, I’m enjoying it so far. Though the first two eps were more funny than this one, I like the patter of that 50’s as seen by the 60’s era better than the 70’s wackiness.
It’s fine. I mean, all those people who spent their film school tuition learning how to make television look like older, poorer television also need jobs. What I don’t understand, though, is why it gets regular coverage here and season five of “The Expanse” doesn’t.
You do know why. Marvel equals more clicks than the Expanse.
But Marvel doesn’t have a sizzle reel where one dude bashes another dude half to death with a can of chicken. It should be obvious which is the better entertainment./skinneritisthechildren.jpg
Then fuck off. No one cares about you.
Typical Marvel fanboy, so aggressive…You got triggered over a nobody’s opinion.
At least you acknowledge you are a nobody. You’re completely and utterly unimportant. The only reason I even blessed you with a response is that I was offended you wasted my time with your bullshit. Go watch things you enjoy and stop trying to be a joyless, sexless worthless little piece of shit who thinks he’s important enough to splatter his mental diarrhea on posts about things other people enjoy. There’s plenty of things I hate but I don’t waste my time and the time of others trying to shit on them.
So again, break off your own dick, and then go fuck yourself with it.
Lots of words for a nobody that doesn’t matter. Sorry I hurt your feelings, kiddo.
May you get gangrene on your tongue and not notice it until it is too late.
Someone needs to look in the mirror.
Oh no! How will we ever get over YOU not liking the show?
I’m enjoying it quite a bit myself but I can see why not everyone would dig it.
You sound like a clowndick.
Yeah, you’ve had to slog through roughly seventy minutes of this. Thank you for your service.
After all, it’s your Wandawall.
We are loving it and find it simultaneously funny and creepy. We love the classic sitcom pastiche, as we grew up watching many of the shows this is styled after. We love the creepy mystery, which after only a few episodes is beginning to unfold faster than I originally thought it would. It’s fun, it’s different, it’s very enjoyable. Sorry to hear you aren’t digging it!
sorry you feel that way, the rest of us will enjoy it while you sulk in the corner
I’m fine with this “build-up” if the season ends with something like this:
Shouldn’t you be punching your brother Noel in the face right about now?Also, GTFO, troll.
You sure as shit are living up to your username.In being a total fucking wanker.
im glad some people are brave enough to say that this show sucks. (No, thats not sarcasm.)
Plenty of people are saying that, it’s not some rare brave act lol
Episode 3 gave me enough to stick around, but the reality is: I was bored halfway through episode 2. I suppose YMMV. I get exactly what the magic show was going for. I simply don’t like that kind of sitcom humour. In its original form or here, where they fully commit to the bit. Admirable but certainly goes on a very long time for what it is. The first two episodes have those hints and clues but are 95% straight sitcom parody. Old sitcom tropes I don’t find hilarious or would watch otherwise. I grew up with betwitched and genie reruns. I’m good. They nail the tone and look and patter, but I don’t really enjoy what they’re homaging. 🤷
three episodes was prehaps too long for a slow burnep 4 better have some answers MORE questions will just be a sign of bad writingor writers writing The Mystery Box bullshit
So they’re out?
Well, obviously it’s building up to something. I’m inverse concerned. I think the mystery is pretty compelling. I’m apprehensive about what happens when we go through the looking glass and the suspense is over. Not that I want an Abrams-esque forever mystery box, I just hope the payoff is well-planned.
lol, learn to laugh
This aged so well.
your reactions are unfounded. stop it.
I do like the idea that Geraldine actually flew in on that helicopter that was turned into a Dogtooth copter when it entered their reality-field. I hope that actress is not gone, because she was really good. I am glad that Kathryn Hahn doesn’t appear to be evil, at least right now. I like the idea that Wanda is the danger, that she is the one warping reality.I said before and will again that I think an important touchstone for this is Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared. There’s also a bit of Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway’s “the mind becomes a friend to itself”: some villain gave Wanda the chance to not accept Vision’s death and she knowingly or not invited it in.
She’s definitely not gone, in an odd move for Marvel (since they’re so tightlipped) they actually announced long ago that “Geraldine” is not Teyonah Parris’s real name in the show. Since it appears you don’t know I won’t spoil it, but safe to say her story is not nearly over. There are two other returning MCU minor characters (one we heard on the radio in episode 2) who I think are likely also operating as SWORD agents with Parris and next week I think we’re going to get a larger look at the world outside Westview.
the reviewer had it in strays and it’s apparently listed on imdb with the character’s real name, but I really appreciate you trying not to spoil, thank youI like that actress, she was amazing in Chi-Raq
Agnes, if they are following who she is in the comics, isn’t evil. Her unseen husband “Ralph” on the other hand? If he’s who Agnes keeps hinting at, then, yeah, very evil.
Not gonna read the review for spoilers but asking here. How is the tone of this episode. Can kids still watch okay? Was pleasantly surprised that we could actually watch the first two episodes with the whole family(even my little guy). I know eventually shit will get crazy but wondering if episode three is that point
Most of the “weird” stuff is silly things like inanimate household objects moving themselves. The last 8ish minutes get into a level of unsettling that, depending on their age, proooobably goes over a child’s head? It’s the delivery of dialogue, the music, and camerawork that drive the dread feelings, there’s not anything visually disturbing.
I would not recommend it for small kids.
Still very family friendly – not even a drop of blood or anyone choking in this one. And still plenty of sitcom slapstick silliness.
There is NOTHING to worry about in this episode. (And I suspect the remainder of the series. WandaVision is what I would call ‘soft’.) The kids are good to go.
Well, the twins are born on camera, but not in any way approximating realism.
I’m glad to see WandaVision keep up the television tradition of newborns appearing to be 3-6 months old at birth.
That worked this time, though, since everything about Wanda’s pregnancy is unnatural. In fact, I found myself thinking that the babies were deliberately supposed to look extra-big & developed, even compared to typical TV newborns. (That, & the whole show so far has been riffing on TV tropes.)
That’s true — the season after the Keaton family’s 4th kid was born, the kid was going to kindergarten. I guess Billy and Tommy will be in college by the time this season ends.
The babies’ birth was probably my favorite sitcom joke of the episode. One minute of pushing and out pops a fully dressed, clean three month old.
I’m pretty sure thats the point given how real babies take 9 months and don’t have an Android as a parent. Wouldn’t be suprised if they weren’t teenagers by the end of the next episode.
I don’t know if it applies to the whole season or how often those ratings actually change episode to episode but the label on the series itself indicates it’s PG? It doesn’t seem like many shows would then veer wildly off in tone even if they might be allowed to on a streaming platform. (Granted I’m surprised some of the backlog stuff they have on the platform like The Wolverine when they have banished relatively tamer stuff to Hulu.)
There’s nothing particularly objectionable I don’t think other than just the horror of not really knowing what’s going on, what’s real or not etc. Kids would probably be asking questions that you can’t answer non-stop.
It seems unlikely Marvel/Disney are going to put anything in these shows that’s harder than what was in the movies.
If the movies are OK for your kids, these should be.
That’s the thing. Some of the movies are and some aren’t. I was more asking in comparison to the other two episodes
Sorry, I misunderstood.
But I’m also curious which of the MCU movies weren’t OK for your kids?
So I have two kids, a 13 year old and a 5 year old. The 13 year old has seen them all. Its the 5 year old that we are more selective on. Off the top of my heads, ones I know he is not ready forWinter Soldier, Civil War, Spider-man: Far From Home(mostly because of a few creepy parts), Infinity War(The snap at the end would be a bit much for him, especially seeing Spider-man(his favorite superhero) fade away. Iron Man(mostly for the torture stuff in the first act). Its really just about know what your kids can and can’t handle. Wandavision was just a surprise at how tame it was in all aspects.
Thanks – I appreciate that.
I’m not a parent so I was just curious!
I would say this one was definitely the darkest yet, but it’s dark in a way that would be way over a kid’s head. I would have no problem letting my 4 year old watch this and I think a kid would need to be 15 or so to get the darker bits.
Yeah, it’s still Disney+ at the end of the day. 90% of the show is a 70’s sitcom take on the star/main character being pregnant.
It’s a show on disney + dude. Based on characters from PG and barely PG13 movies.What kind of sheltered kids you tryin’ to raise? Have you seen the *ACTUAL WORLD*?
Shut the fuck up.
OMG WHAT IF MY KID SAW THIS RESPONSE??
No worry there, chances are you will die a virgin.
Ironic that you’d actually ask about whether or not the “tone” of a disney plus feature based on kids movie characters is acceptable for your children, when their father is such a toxic fucking cunt who can’t handle even the slightest amount of critique or questioning.Fuck you, dude.
Err nevermind, not worth it. Gotta remember I can just dismiss stupid replies
You do that, princess.
It’s a show on disney + dude. Based on characters from PG and barely PG13 movies.What kind of sheltered kids you tryin’ to raise? Have you seen the *ACTUAL WORLD*?
It’s a show on disney + dude. Based on characters from PG and barely PG13 movies.What kind of sheltered kids you tryin’ to raise? Have you seen the *ACTUAL WORLD*?
Do kids nowadays know the symbolism of a stork and pregnancy? I seriously doubt it, but it features prominently in this episode. My twelve-year old is watching, but he certainly doesn’t get most of what’s going on, and he’s patient in accepting it’s building up to something. I just find it all very annoying.
It’s about as family friendly as a particularly unsettling episode of Twilight Zone. So, ymmv.
theres just a general air of menace, nothing a kid couldnt see-no explicit violence or sex
Broadly you’re fine, though there are tonal shifts that feel a little scary, so its just about being sensitive to how individual kids process.
The genre-bending per episode Wandavision reminds me that it’s tragic that the Tv club stopped doing recaps for Search Party, which did a different genre every season. And its current season is really…polarizing? to say the least?
I was a big defender of the “beat by beat sitcom parody” for the first 2 episodes, but I can see how it is starting to grate on people by now. I guess I am such a sucker for these shows and haven’t seen any of them in a long time so I am giving Wandavision a lot of latitude.
So far it seems like that beat-by-beatsitcom parody is lessening, especially with the end of this week’s episode. I have a feeling they’re gonna lean harder into the mystery and unnerving aspects of the show from now on, which I’m happy for. The sitcom parodies I thought were pretty good, but its always towards the end of the episodes I’ve watched where it starts to get really good. This last one more than the others. So far it’s just gotten better with each episode. We’ll have to see with next week’s episode, but it looks like the curtain is finally being pulled open.
I can’t believe the way they just stopped the search Party recaps in the middle of Season 3 out of nowhere. Really pisses me off
it’s weird how our screennames vibe
Hahahahaha
Something that interests me – if SWORD is trying to understand things why would they be so obvious in displaying their logo? I can’t see them causing this since it really looks like they are either studying it or trying to stop it so why be do obvious as to hang their logo around Geraldine neck?
Seems like they may be trying to ease Wanda out of…whatever it is that’s happening
I like that theory. I like better that finally something approaching water cooler TV is back.
I wonder too if losing your memory/sense of reality is common when you enter and the necklace is supposed to help her remember who she is?Or maybe, like the helicopter, Monica’s SWORD uniform transformed into something pocket-universe consistent when when entered the dome too.
I dont think they(sword) hung the sword around Monica’s neck. Wanda remakes this world as she sees fit consciously or subconsciously. I think the necklace was one part of her mind recognizing and warning her that Monica was from sword.
So, I know that we’re definitely supposed to think that Wanda was the one who banished Monica — but given how fast and loose this show is playing with “reality” we don’t actually know if it was her or a still-unseen third party.ALSO! In re: Hydra Soap (aka “Hydra, take me away!”):
Bingo. That’s definitely an AoS easter egg, especially since they already had Hydra referenced in the Strucker Watch commercial, so that part isn’t even new.
The Hydra/Stryker stuff is from her MCU origins as well though, but yes, the soap is a nice egg.
That is a deeep cut.
THAT, my dude is a Cosmic Cube – if Hydra is involved, there may be more than one – there just happened to also be one that had an Infinity Stone hidden inside of it. That can be part of the problem : Wanda has a psychotic break which creates a false reality, they are trying to “reel her in” with the Cosmic Cube – or maybe Kobik? Since Adam Warlock didn’t get the Stones, he didn’t purge Good/Evil and create The Goddess so THANK GOD we don’t have to see THAT follow-up to Infinity Sagafucking nerds
> cites Kobik & a storyline that non-comic readers would never know
> insults other people for being nerds
No no, no. US. WE . I and YOU and ALL OF USI’m not just insulting others, please understand. WE are all the mentioned nerds, myself especially for pulling out Kobik, and – The Goddess? That’s the jokecalm down, rest those chicken wing arms there and nerd out with the rest of us imagining how things could go with this because we are enjoying it and how it is like nothing else so far – OK?effin nerds…
Hydra Bath has a real “Tahiti” vibe.
You ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie:
I forgot how nuts he was that season!😂
Wandavision is giving me some serious season 4 of Community vibes.
Kathryn Hahn stars in WandaVisionIn a vaguely spoilery promo image from next week’s episode, I guess.
It annoys me that they didn’t use a photo from this week’s ep which had a lot of great visuals
Sad as it was to not have enough Kathryn Hahn in the episode, Teyonah Parris as Geraldine made up for it. Looking forward to seeing what else is outside of Westview.
I mean, her getting pregnant wasn’t the mystery; she & Vision got frisky at the beginning of the episode. The mystery part was her suddenly being so far along.My buddy the Monkees nut pointed out that they used the ‘86 remix of “Daydream Believer”, thus keeping the progression of the decades moving forwards.
Well, no they didn’t because Vision isn’t a human man and he can’t have sexual intercourse with a woman (or anyone else)
Vision isn’t a human manAre you sure? Because Wanda said he is a human man in the first episode. 😉
…….you’re aware Vision can’t actually be their biological father, them having sex or not, right? In the comics it was either “Wanda reality warped them in existence” or “the devil actually implanted his midi-chlorians in her”. At the moment I’m betting it’s the former in WandaVision, but honestly who knows.
Hail HydraSoak!
“Hydra Soak” from the makers of “Nazi Wash”
“Nazi Wash” – when you want things to get extra white.
“The Final Solution to your BO problem”
This is basically ‘Too Many Cooks’ but a real TV show and I’m loving it.
I was disappointed that Lars Von Trier never made a cameo as Pie in this episode.
This show is a great counterpoint to the Martin Scorsese-type folks who detest superhero movies for dumbing down popular entertainment. This is ambitiously odd on a scale that has usually been reserved for Twilight Zone / Black Mirror, except that its the next entry in the most profitable “cinematic” franchise in the world. And creative storytelling has always been a strength of sci-fi / fantasy, the mainstreaming of this sort of thing feels like an artistic step forward much more so than it fells like a step back (from what, mob movies?).
Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are kicking ass. I haven’t seen Olsen in much, so am kind of stuck on the fact she’s the younger sister to the Olsen twins. And as we approach the 90s era with twin kids in the picture, I’m eagerly watching out for some kind of nod to Full House.
I mean… really? It’s a off-beat series and more interesting than most Marvel fare, but this isn’t really ambitiously odd – it’s that kind of safe “experimentalism” that Marvel tends to do that never goes anywhere. The recent Legion TV series came the closest, but even that ended up playing it pretty safe. WandaVision has been a lot of fun, but it’s pretty derivative (in both the obvious intentional way as well as the meta way), and “ambitious” isn’t something that can ever be said about Marvel.
I’m not 100% sure Wanda was responsible for the time skip in this episode. We got a very definite “NO” and a look with last episode’s rewind, but this one was different. I’m sure Wanda is contributing to the strangeness of Westview, but I don’t think we can assume she’s in complete control.Also, Elizabeth Olsen is doing amazing work here — the changes in her voice alone are noteworthy. One minute she’s chirping away as a sitcom-wife wannabe, the next she’s speaking in her normal range with a hint of a Sokovian accent. It’s fun to watch even when the sitcomy-ness of the show is grating.And I love the homage to hiding actresses’ actual pregnancies on TV shows by having them wear giant clothes or hide behind the scenery. Having Wanda carry a fruit bowl in front of her giant belly was a funny extension of that.Otherwise, I agree with some of the commenters here — let’s get on with it. I’m usually all about the weird, but the sitcom conceit is largely uninteresting.
The sitcom conceit is the only thing I like. Once it’s figured out what’s really going on it’s likely just gonna be normal Marvel stuff with two of the least interesting characters in the MCU.
Yeah, that is my fear as well…once the puzzle is solved we get to watch a Marvel TV movie with everyone I’m interested in left out.It’s like if JJ Abrams started consulting o the MCU.
I loved the sitcom conceit in the first two episodes. Here it was a bit more grating. But I have some childhood affection for shows like Bewitched, while I have no love for 70s TV. Since it’s basically a sincere reenactment of old-fashioned sitcoms, I think it depends on whether you enjoy those. Most of us are familiar with 90s, 00s, and 10s sitcoms, so, as we move through time, I’m guessing this will become less irritating for people.
Or more irritating, if like me you hate most (network) TV comedies after the ‘70s—especially the ‘80s. (Although I’d be fine with homages to Married…with Children, Mad About You, Frasier and Cougar Town.)
Dang. Yeah, I think this is going to be rough viewing at best for you, then. Considering the set-up, I’m guessing they’re sticking at least a little to sitcoms through the whole show.
I doubt they’re going to be that interesting. Since the whole theme seems to be “Wanda makes an idyllic life for herself” it’s probably going to be way more Home Improvement or According to Jim than Arrested Development or even Seinfeld.
You’re probably right, but if her “idyllic” choices start to go haywire along with her consciousness, at least one of those I mentioned *might* happen.
I don’t know, sitcoms from the last thirty years or so were as dull as can be so I dread seeing them take on classics like Full House or Everybody Loves Raymond.
Honestly I don’t think these homages ever work super well and most overstay their welcome even if it’s just a single episode (like Mr. Robot). The only one I remember liking is Scrubs.The show’s cute and clever, and I’d go the opposite of some commenters – I don’t particularly care what the big “reason” is behind everything but I do wish each episode were a bit richer. We get shades of Pleasantville or, to be more modern and darker, the Black Mirror USS Callister episode (if we think Wanda’s controlling this “perfect” world and keeping everyone against their will), but the characters aren’t particularly well-drawn and there’s not much sense of drama or character-building within each episode, just a general sense of a mystery unraveling and vague dread.Overall a fun experiment, but when movie people make TV I think they don’t understand the strengths of TV, which is imo luxuriating in the world and the characters. All of which is to say it’s too plot-heavy as a season and not plot-heavy enough episode to episode.
‘Randy Oglesby’ is a great 70s porn name
The commercial for HYDRA Soak had me thinking of AoS season four Framework episodes, where Coulson mentioned HYDRA mind control soap.
I mentioned this below in response to another comment. We were trying to guess what sitcom kitchen is in the 80s photo in the article above. There has been Cosby Show, Cheers, Growing Pains, Who’s the Boss, and finally Family Ties. It has to be Family Ties as the most representative sitcom about a family and their kitchen right? But what if?!…..Ohhhhh shit! Would they go there!?!?!?!?! It Doesn’t look like the house, but would they maybe throw in a Full House reference?
Oh shit again! Wanda the sister of the Full House twins just gave birth to twins. They have to acknowledge Full House right?
If the kids age as quickly as they gestated, Family Ties would also be a good fit, with its fourth child who famously aged years between seasons.
Aging kids. Great call. Didn’t the Olsen twins agre pretty quick between their first appears probably as rando babies to Olsen toddlers in the second or third season. You know they have to ackowledge the Olsen family and twins conneciton.
So, is Doctor “Nielsen” another TV reference? Someone else in Westview monitoring the experiment?
First: I totally agree about the downgrade from early-to-late 60s to 70s, in terms of the characters’ hair and clothing. I do love the 70s house, though. I don’t even mind the ugly green couch. 🙂
Second: Did anyone else notice the eye roll Wanda gave Geraldine when the doctor said she’d be a great nurse? I loved that.
Are there supplemental webisodes? I feel like we’ve gone past some things from the trailer that probably would have been shown by now unless there’s a breather episode. And I’m not in the mood for an episode at SWORD HQ unless it parodies a period-appropriate mystery show or something.
Criminal non-use of Rupp in a 70’s episode. Maybe next week.Hydra Soak sounds slimy and is not a pleasing brand name, and using the name outright seems weird when the logo was on the sinister fake product last week. I look forward to what the next sinister product will be. Most importantly, I had wondered after the 2nd episode if the question is not just Who are the prisoners and who are the guards? but Do the guards know they’re the guards? I guess that’s been pretty much sorted out for now.
The name was on the watch also.
Hmm, just realized they didn’t use the traditional 1:50 or 10:10 hand positions for watch ads.
Not sure if I missed that or just completely forgot since I saw the logo quite clearly. Still, that’s a bit different than HYDRA SOOOOOOAP without a more prominent but less obvious reference pulling your eye away. Also, alas poor The Gifted, having about as much lasting presence in the pop culture sea of consciousness as their grandfather did actual screen time.
Nice catch. Now I wonder if variations of 2:42 have significance.
I wondered about the trailer footage too— if there’s one decade each episode then they run out of decades at some point yet we’ve seen some shots of characters in outfits they already wore once but they didn’t ultimately end up in those episodes.I’m not sure if that means there are going to be any episodes taking across multiple eras at once or maybe an episode featuring specific characters. (Like Agnes is seen riding her bike in this 70s outfit but I don’t remember that being in this one.)
I maintain this is a ruse and Agnes will be her character from Into the Spiderverse, not because there’s any proof (y’know, unlike all the other wild guessing about the show) but because it’s what SHOULD be true.But I do think there has to be a format break episode somewhere down the line, fun as it’d be to try to have them solve this mystery in the style of a sitcom from this year.
Okay watched the episode and calling my shot on the plot. AIM has somehow kidnapped Scarlet Witch and is manipulating her for some sort of scheme. The outcome of which is this world she seems to have control over and is guiding. People in this world are real people and trapped as well. SWORD is actually trying to save her. The birth of the twins is probably still very much a case of bad magic being used and rumor is Mephisto is gonna show up too. I think the whole series is going to end up being a catalyst to cause Wanda to break and go full evil and maybe be the big bad of phase 4 Marvel. Using her nonsense powers to justify rewriting the universe enough to bring in mutants and make way for the F4 as well. I don’t like this actually. I hate the scorned woman goes crazy trope. But it is true to the comics and I think it might go there.
I’m wondering, when Geraldine got kicked out she kept her 70’s getup. So maybe the babies can somehow continue to exist once this is all over?
Well they do eventually exist for real on the comics but it’s such a silly amount of comic book nonsense that I don’t even know where to start
I really, really hope they don’t have Wanda go utterly crazy like she does so often in the comics. She’s generally been treated like shit in the runs that have focused on her. The show is obviously taking a lot of inspiration from those runs, like House of M, but I’m really hoping she resolves whatever is happening through her own agency rather than destroying reality because she’s got the sads and can’t control it. I doubt they’d go with Mephisto. My guess is they’d use Dormammu as a Mephisto stand in, which then links nicely to Strange showing up in the show.
You know, I take it back. I was just reading more about the various hints about Mephisto in the show and there’s more than I remember (there even seems to be an image of him in the Loki trailer) an now I’m leaning towards Ralph actually being Mephisto. It didn’t even dawn on me that Agnes’ (who is clearly some version of Agatha Harkness) rabbit was named Senor Scratchy. Mr. Scratch was one of Mephisto’s aliases. I could look past Agnes whispering to Wanda that the devil is in another place too, but this is now a more than one Mephisto reference.
I haven’t seen mention of the hexagons in each episode:- Ep 1: framing Wanda and Vision at the end of the episode
– Ep 2: the six stars around the moon at the beginning of the animated intro
– Ep 3: the frames in the intro
AIM has used a hexagon as a logo in the comics, not to mention their outfits look like beekeeper suits (though the beekeeper had a SWORD logo on is back). Then you have Wanda’s abilities being “hex” powers in the comics.
Can you please review Painting with John? I think many AV folks would enjoy it.
“The laugh track is even more intrusive this week, providing guffaws when none are justified”
Well, that was how laugh tracks were, TBH.
Laigh tracks never bothered me if I found the show funny. On the other hand, I always thought The Big Bang Theory was laugh-tracked, as laughter seems to happen not after jokes/gags but after every line a person speaks, but apparently it’s live.
The one episode closer where a piece of paper blows onto Sheldon and then sticks there (a happy turn of fate) while he’s stonefaced, the audience goes absolutely wild.
Audiences are told when to laugh though, so it may as well be a laugh track. I’m also always suspicious that they add a few laughs on top of the live audience as well.
We’re enjoying the show but I don’t know if it’ll be one we ever watch a second time. The stand-alone episodes are only interesting because of the sinister, slowly building mystery. Once that bubble pops, will there be anything about each episode worth seeing again?
Some may complain but I say it’s good actually that someone is using the pre-sold nature of MCU stuff to just make old sitcom episodes. If you’ve got the audience built in you may as well just do whatever and take them along for the ride. Loved that this one was the classic “hide everything” farce even more than the first episode was, complete with Wanda throwing the fur coat behind a curtain. And it actually managed to be a little heartwarming, despite the disturbing and illusory nature of everything. Disappointing that we didn’t see more of the guest cast.
It’s not very hard to follow they r basically doing a reverse house of M storyline…It’s a slow build horror…We have had a twilight zone, outer limits, night gallery, etc in each decade…. which the writers are alluding toWanda basically wished Monica/Gerardine into a cornfield and called her a bad man!
So this is basically Avengers: Standoff but trippier? I’m in.
I see a lot of complaints about this show being mostly old sitcom tropes and slow burn mystery reveal and I am completely opposite. I’m here for the sitcoms and I am not looking forward to when the show introduces “reality.”
Same here. I’m not a Spandex movie fan so I’m enjoying the take on old sitcom tropes a lot, and I’ll probably start losing interest when it becomes a super-hero show.
It’s almost as if all of this has been laid out somewhere before… like in some kind of illustrated book… and if people are confused on the show, its themes or plotting; they could reference said material.
It’s an aesthetic downgrade, if you’ll forgive my bias. I already miss Wanda’s capri pants and Laura Petrie hairstyle.Wanda as Laura Petrie >>>>>>> Wanda as hippie mom.
This show is a good reminder that 70s and 80s aesthetics were hideous.
The whole scene with the stork wandering around while Wanda tried to shoo it and make it disappear was perfect—it could have been lifted right from an episode of “Bewitched.”
i just want everybody in these comments who is saying this show is holding its cards too close and intentionally alienating its viewers from any larger frame or context for the narrative device is correct and that doesn’t make you a neckbeard badguy fanboy, it makes you literate lolthe show IS holding its cards too close, and that intentionally alienates viewers. until Wanda vision becomes whatever it supposed to be, all it is now is an homage, a pastiche, and an intentionally sealed mystery box. that’s not exciting or subversive, its shitty writing and boring to watch.
I’m wondering if they’re doing the Pleasant Hill storyline, just with Wanda as the reality altering device rather than a Cosmic Cube.
I suspected from the beginning Wanda’s 100% responsible, but I’m now starting to think the other residents already know this, even if they’re perhaps not entirely sure how or why they know.
The only thing that bothers me is the framing device – I could buy the old-fashioned TV sitcom conceit if it was consistent (eg. stayed set in the 70s) but I don’t see the reason for it changing/evolving, other than the actual showrunners deciding it’d be technically impressive to pull off.
However, I definitely appreciate how the laugh track is becoming gradually more ill-fitting. This is the kind of off-kilter I like, as it suggests reality itself is starting to revolt against what’s being done to it.
I’m not sure Wanda is going to end up being 100% responsible. Agnes, who is definitely Agatha Harkness, has dropped a few hints that Mephisto is somehow involved. I’m just not sure how. I doubt it’s going to be the same way he was in the comics, but it seems like they’re going for some variation of that.
That Hydra Soak was a small reference to Agent of Shield.
I have been spoiled by binging, so I don’t do the whole week-to-week mystery stuff well anymore. I am waiting for whole series to watch it at once. But I am eagerly awaiting diving into this. Seems different enough to keep it interesting. And I’ll watch about anything with Hahn in it.
Wanda is going to pull a reverse “House of M” & bring mutants- and the X-Men – into the MCU
Kind of love that this episode starts off in 4:3. Didn’t even notice it until about 10 minutes in.
I’m enjoying this show, but I can see how people who want more action are turned off by it. The solid recreations of the sitcoms of different eras with the increasingly disturbing cracks in the fake reality? Hook it right up to my veins.
Wish you hadn’t given away the name of Teyonah Parris’s character. Sure one can find it on IMDB, but one also has to be looking for it. Bummer.
Yeah I’m not looking this show up on IMDB until it’s over.
the Avengers I want to are:Wasp, Vision, Panther as Leadersfemale Thor, Photon and Hulk as Tanks War Machine, Captain Falcon and Hawkeye as Gruntsno Iron Man, no Cap
no fucking Khamala KhanSHE’S MR FANTASTIC, jesus am i NOT SUPPOSED TO NOTICE?
Marvel for me has been on a downturn for a while now, but WandaVision? Truly remarkable “television” here. I’ve been loving this series and believe this is the most creative thing Marvel has done in a long while.
Wanda is the Big Bad, and things are gonna get real dark. This story ends badly for EVERYONE. And not just the people on this show. EVERYONE.
So I guess, depending in chronology, one implication is that Vision is not real, or maybe exists only in this reality, which is one reason Wanda wants to stay. Which adds some legit emotional levels to this thing.
Teyonah Parris is billed in IMDB as playing Monica Rambeau, who appeared as a child in Captain Marvel. SWORD stands for the Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division, a subdivision of SHIELD. Was Rambeau an undercover agent? Parris plays Geraldine like she’s the lead in Foxy Brown before subtly breaking character in stressful moments. During the “previously on” segment, Geraldine asked, “I don’t know what I’m doing here.” Yes, that was a big honking clue.So once again I’m glad I’m ahead on the show. If this had been spoiled for me I would’ve been ticked. I hope the reviewer quits this. I want to get caught up with the reviews and join in but that’s a reason to bounce.
Loving this show
“Vision notices that his neighbor, Herb (David Payton), is trying to cut through his yellow brick fence with a chainsaw.”Wasn’t this a hedge trimmer? He was cutting his hedges but then moved the blade into the brick wall. He wasn’t cutting his hedges with a chainsaw.