Spoiler-Free (Mostly) Look At WandaVision So Far
The Disney+ Marvel Studios series WandaVision launched on Jan. 15 with the first two episodes available to watch. It’s fair to say that, with the pandemic in 2020 making such a mess of Marvel’s plans that no MCU products were released at all, anticipation for WandaVision was huge. It was breaking the drought after all. It’s also fair to say that it is even weirder than what the trailers made it seem. To explain why I have to talk about the overall structure, which is a kind of spoiler, even if it doesn’t spoil any plot elements. So, mostly spoiler-free.
In fact, it is a kind of a spoiler to say that I could explain everything that happens in the first two episodes and it would contain almost no spoilers for the overall larger story of the series. That is because of the structure of the series.
WandaVision is, at least for the first two (and I’m told at least the first three) episodes, presented as a show within a show. We watch a pitch-perfect recreation of a mid-20th century TV sitcom each episode, also called WandaVision. And as someone old enough to have grown up on Bewitched and Leave It To Beaver and the like, I can attest that they are spot-on tonal and structural recreations. The show-in-the-show is presented in 4-3 aspect ratio like pre-HD television. There are laugh tracks and even (fake) live studio audience laughter. The quality of the recorded black-and-white video improves from episode 1 to episode 2, as does the audio quality, although it maintains a tinny quality.
At first I was put off by the almost slavish fidelity to the humor, story beats and even production values of the TV sitcom. Mostly because, while there are some hints as to the bigger mystery of the town of Westview that Wanda and Vision reside in, they are so scarce as to be seemingly immaterial to the show. It really felt like watching a pair of slightly bizarre, long-forgotten episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
After I had some time to process my thoughts, I realized that it was both more innovative, and more bizarre than I first took it to be. The weirdness that happens in each episode that clues us in to the fact that something is not right in Westview is at times incredibly subtle (almost everything the amazing Kathryn Hahn as Agnes says probably has two or three meanings) and at times slaps you in the face.
To get into more typical reviewer territory, Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen as Vision and Wanda respectively, are as good as ever, and their chemistry is the best it has been. Also, while Bettany has done some comedic roles before (Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale comes to mind), he really shines as a 1950s and ’60s TV comic actor. He’s tall and lanky enough to pull off physical schtick well, if not as brilliantly as the master, the aforementioned Dick Van Dyke. The supporting cast is solid with the so far limited roles they have, with Hahn outshining everyone. Of note is Emma Caulfield Stone as town socialite Dottie.
I am solidly in the camp of those that can’t wait for more episodes of WandaVision. But I still have one gripe — the episodes are roughly a half-hour long. Again with the slavish devotion to the TV sitcom format, but I wish they were one hour each, like the show’s Disney+ cousin, The Mandalorian.
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