TV Review: WandaVision
Welcome Back, Marvel
As the first series to usher in a new slate of original content on Disney Plus and the first Marvel Cinematic Universe project to grace our screens in over a year, WandaVision has a lot riding on its shoulders. And it’s largely excellent. Those critical of Marvel’s workmanlike superhero fare will find that WandaVision taps into some of the MCU’s wildest potential with two of its most compelling characters. Three episodes watched for review.
Reports of an avant-garde Marvel Cinematic Universe have been greatly exaggerated; WandaVision is hardly the weird, surreal puzzler that early reviews have pegged it as. And while there may be nothing “Lynchian” about Marvel’s new series on Disney Plus, that doesn’t mean it isn’t great. Inspired and creative, WandaVision upends the tried-and-true Marvel formula by combining loving - and at times wacky - homage with some disturbingly sinister undertones.
Centered around Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and her android love Vision (Paul Bettany), WandaVision finds the super-powered couple in an inexplicably mysterious new environment. Considering that the last time we saw Vision was in Avengers: Infinity War having the Mind Stone plucked from his lifeless husk, and the last time we saw Wanda was in Avengers: Endgame giving Thanos a taste of her reality-warping powers, it’s obvious that not all is what it seems. The first three episodes are in no rush to fill in any gaps or really explain what’s happening, instead using their refreshingly brisk runtimes (20-30 minutes each) to lovingly pay tribute to classic sitcoms through the decades. The Honeymooners, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Bewitched all get clever nods, and the show does an admirable job of running the gamut of classic sitcom tropes, now intertwined with super-powered stars. Admittedly, for the first three episodes, your mileage will vary depending on your fondness for classic TV comedy as well as your patience with the initial slow-drip of answers, but there’s no question that WandaVision taps into a creativity not often seen in mainstream superheroics.
“Inspired and creative, WandaVision upends the tried-and-true Marvel formula by combining loving - and at times wacky - homage with some disturbingly sinister undertones.”
With some of its most memorable films adding the zest of creativity, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always fared best when stepping outside the bounds of genre convention: Captain America: The Winter Soldier works primarily as a conspiracy thriller, Thor: Ragnarok improves upon its predecessors by leaning into buddy sci-fi, and the first act of Avengers: Endgame finds potency through its contemplative tragedy-slash-drama. Wandavision is cut from a similar cloth, and then some - in fact, the first three episodes feature almost no superhero antics of any kind. Showing some all-too-rare restraint, the series’ first 80-plus minutes commits to its sitcom pastiches - Wanda scrambles to impress Vision’s boss with a dinner party, Vision accidentally swallows gum that throws his machinery for a loop, and the couple puts together a slapstick magic act for the community talent show. And while it may sound grating and cheesy, it just plain works thanks to Olsen and Bettany’s charming performances. The chemistry between the two has always been one of the most engaging - but fleeting - aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and to see it on full display in a series tailored just for it is an absolute joy.
But just because WandaVision leans heavily into its sitcom routines doesn’t mean there isn't anything for comic book fans. With thinly veiled references to S.W.O.R.D. and A.I.M., and a nosy neighbor (the always wonderful Kathryn Hahn) who just might know more than she lets on, the show is ripe for speculation and theorizing. And while we wait for the MCU to give us its first dose of cinematic horror in the form of Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, WandaVision gives a glimpse of the universe’s creepy potential: From malfunctioning dinner guests to phantom beekeepers to some developments in the third episode that are better left unspoiled, there’s plenty of unsettling imagery that places the series in unexplored comic book horror territory.
In many ways, WandaVision is what fans and critics of the comic book movies have been clamoring for - a bold departure from the workmanlike superhero formula. It may not be the absurdist masterpiece that hyperbole has built it up as, but there’s plenty under the hood to take things in exciting new directions. Comic book history is weird, convoluted, and creative - and it’s about damn time the Marvel Cinematic Universe followed suit.
