I thought I would start this up, especially after watching the two episodes and really liking it a lot.
Some of you know, I like writing things about series that really grab me. Agents of Shield, Battlestar Galactica, etc. This one caught me because off of the start its so different and unique. I've placed this in spoilers because there's some speculation in here.
Spoiler!
The first one was played as a straight 60's style sitcom, and it was brilliant in its execution, right down to the acting style of Wanda and her new neighbor Agnes. When you watch Wanda and her talking with the exaggerated style of acting that used to happen in those old shows you can't help but laugh.
There's a wicked sense of humor in this show when it comes to the source material. Vision works at a huge company, that nobody knows what it does, and Vision questions that. But it brings back the old shows where the husband would go to work at some anonymous monster company and sit around having conversations all day. But I started to wonder if this company has a more sinister agenda, just based on the fact that its a computational company.
Meanwhile Wanda bonds with her new neighbor in a delicious traditional woman's role rift from that era. By the way Elizabeth Olson is adorable in this role, as is Katherine Hahn.
The plot circles around to the typical chaos ensues dinner when the boss and his wife are bought over and Vision's future depends on it (Another typical 60's sitcom rift) But the show takes a hard turn to the mystery at hand, when Vision and Wanda can't remember their backstory and the boss starts choking and the boss' wife starts repeating over and over again for him to stop it, until Vision saves his life and gets his promotion.
Then we go to the typical sitcom credits but its interrupted by a mysterious figure watching them from a color universe.
I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the ad for the Stark toaster, for a minor insertion it created incredible tension as you almost expected it to explode when the toast was done.
The first episode was charming and funny and well written and acted. But outside of the end sequence and the choking sequence, it was mainly there to establish that they were trapped in an environment, but weren't aware of it.
At the same time you have to ask the question of how Vision was even there after being destroyed in Infinity War in a final death.
Episode two starts ramping up the mystery. Vision and Wanda are preparing to participate in a magic show for a fundraiser for the children . . . of the elementary school, however the first thing that I noticed, there are no children . . . but more on that later.
We go through the preparations as Wanda takes part in the planning committee run by the domineering Dottie, meanwhile Vision takes part in meeting of the neighborhood watch and has his first experience with gum which jams up his works and makes him basically drunk.
Its important to note that things have started to shift in this reality. Wanda finds a toy helicopter with a Sword Logo on it that's in color. Dottie cuts her hand and bleeds red blood. We get that creepy chant that they're doing this for the Children, and its repeated several times. Also we hear the song help me Wanda coming from a radio with a voice asking "Wanda who's doing this to her"
The magic act was hilarious and well done, Vision uses his real powers and Wanda covers for him brilliantly, and they win the inaugural comedy act of the year, which was another piece of strangeness.
After the show Wanda and Vision return home to celebrate and we see a pregnant Wanda, and then hear a banging outside, and see a mystery figure coming out of a manhole in a bee keepers suit with another Sword logo surrounded by bees. We then see that Wanda can control her environment in the show as she forcefully yells "No" and rewinds to the pregnancy reveal followed by the set going full color as well as the characters.
We also got another amazing commercial for a hydra watch with the name Strucker a name that is prominent with Hydra, also we have the same actors from the toaster commercial.
So the question remains. what the hell is going on? The early speculation is that Wanda is in some kind of mind prison or experiment, and the flaws in the environment, like the radio, and the color, and the helicopter etc are being caused by efforts to break them out. While Hydra is effectively defeated the Strucker name is prominent because he's the man that created Scarlett Witch and her brother. Also its easy to say that the Vision not eating is due to him being synthetic, it could also be a nod to him being dead and this might not be the real Vision.
Other speculation, Agnes is more then what she seems. In the MCU comics there was a character named Agatha Harkness. Link, maybe.
Its maybe too simple of a speculation that Wanda's in a prison, but its clear that someone is doing something to her to put her in this sitcom and that there is a war happening for her consciousness.
Other thoughts
Emma Caulfield who played Anya in Buffy was great, also Anya had a great fear of Bunnies, and we had a bunny in this episode. Maybe its random, but it struck me.
When Wanda switches to color she's wearing red like her Scarlett Wich persona.
I read that one of the lamps was in the shape of Whizzer Wanda's father in the comic books.
Loved the Bewitched style intro in the second episode, I wonder if they're going to riff on other sitcoms from that era.
In the scene where Dottie cuts herself she tells Wanda she knows everything about her, then after cutting herself seems to forget it and has a look of panic on her face. Maybe Wanda's not the only real character trapped in the sitcom universe?
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Really enjoyed those two episodes. The first was based on 50’s sitcoms, the second was early 60’s. They did a wonderful job replicating the feel of the eras with the acting, sets, costumes, and even tone of the black and white.
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Really enjoyed it to start. Not quite enough weirdness for me yet. The performances are strong all around.
Who do we think the voice on the radio is? Sounded a bit like Hawkeye to me at the end, but I don't think so.
I think Wanda is in a self-exile, living a version of life where Vision is still alive and people are trying to break in. Shes going to bring Vision back into the real world.
Posted a reply in the other thread, but moving it here.
It's kind of a funny show, because they are clearly riffing of weekly serial sitcoms through the ages, but I'm not certain the episodes will hold up on their own, as sitcom episodes are usually designed to do.
I'm going remain pretty optimistic it can hit Marvels high standards, and these two episodes just had to do some heavy lifting on the world/relationship building. So far it's missing that narrative action, aside from the excessively direct foreshadowing, I think once our characters really start to feel the sense of mystery or action or threat along with us, the pace will pickup, it seems clear the bee keeper was the first step in that direction.
I'm also thinking there is some Awareness/Self Denialism going on with Wanda. The rewinding clearly shows she is hiding from something she doesn't want to face, and has some level of control over this world.
I'm hoping one of the more interesting mysteries become weather of not this is Visions consciousness trapped somewhere, or a simulation of Vision being generated somehow. I think there is space for a key plot conflict there.
What's with the 7 minute long credits for a TV show? There giving every episode feature film credit treatment. I fast forwarded through them in case they were pulling an MCU on us, with a joke at the end. They aren't
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Really enjoyed those two episodes. The first was based on 50’s sitcoms, the second was early 60’s. They did a wonderful job replicating the feel of the eras with the acting, sets, costumes, and even tone of the black and white.
Guesses for subsequent homages? 70s, maybe All in the Family? 80s, Family Ties? Should be interesting to see.
What's with the 7 minute long credits for a TV show? There giving every episode feature film credit treatment. I fast forwarded through them in case they were pulling an MCU on us, with a joke at the end. They aren't
Yeah I saw the 5 min left on the credits and I was like “oh must be an after credits thing.” Nope. Just giving love to all the different voice translations it seems.
Guesses for subsequent homages? 70s, maybe All in the Family? 80s, Family Ties? Should be interesting to see.
Based on the trailer, the 70s looks like the Brady Bunch. There were a lot of similar family sitcoms in the 80s that they could pay homage to, but Family Ties would be a good one.
For the 90s, most of the big sitcoms weren't oriented around a married couple -- like Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier. Full House would be funny because of Olsen, but it didn't really have a prominent woman until the later seasons. Maybe they could do something like Mad About You. An animated episode in the Simpsons style would be interesting too.
Maybe Everybody Loves Raymond or King of Queens for the late-90s/early 2000s.
For the 2010s, it will likely be Modern Family style.
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IMDB has a picture up for Episode 5, and it looks early to mid 80s. I'm not sure we will get a clean decade by decade string. I think it will be more a riffing of a couple sitcoms of a specific archetype, then moving forward in time.
EP1 was I Love Lucy / Dick Van Dyke ~'51-'62
EP2 was Bewitched / Dream of Jeannie ~'65-'72
So we have 2.5 - 3 episodes to travel 10 to 15 years coming up.
I also think there might be a strong desire to go to family sit coms that had a bit of magic in them, because it obviously fits the characters well, as we saw in the 60s inspiration they went with. First example I can think of for Ep 6 or 7 is going to something like the Urkel Transformation Chamber.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
I wonder
Spoiler!
Is this related to Taihiti? Or that mind sifter that the Chronicoms used?
Or some Hydra version of it?
Spoiler!
Isn't SWORD the good guys? That could eliminate Hydra. I also think that plan to leave the AOS series as semi-canon, not sure they will full on canonize it anytime soon
Based on the trailer, the 70s looks like the Brady Bunch. There were a lot of similar family sitcoms in the 80s that they could pay homage to, but Family Ties would be a good one.
For the 90s, most of the big sitcoms weren't oriented around a married couple -- like Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier. Full House would be funny because of Olsen, but it didn't really have a prominent woman until the later seasons. Maybe they could do something like Mad About You. An animated episode in the Simpsons style would be interesting too.
Maybe Everybody Loves Raymond or King of Queens for the late-90s/early 2000s.
For the 2010s, it will likely be Modern Family style.
I think the 90's is looking like a Rosanne sort of style. Wouldn't be surprised to see the intro be the spinning camera in the middle of the table.
Spoiler!
Also I'll admit when I saw Debra Jo Rupp I wished they had cast Kurtwood Smith as her husband.
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IMDB has a picture up for Episode 5, and it looks early to mid 80s. I'm not sure we will get a clean decade by decade string. I think it will be more a riffing of a couple sitcoms of a specific archetype, then moving forward in time.
EP1 was I Love Lucy / Dick Van Dyke ~'51-'62
EP2 was Bewitched / Dream of Jeannie ~'65-'72
So we have 2.5 - 3 episodes to travel 10 to 15 years coming up.
I also think there might be a strong desire to go to family sit coms that had a bit of magic in them, because it obviously fits the characters well, as we saw in the 60s inspiration they went with. First example I can think of for Ep 6 or 7 is going to something like the Urkel Transformation Chamber.
Spoiler!
Isn't SWORD the good guys? That could eliminate Hydra. I also think that plan to leave the AOS series as semi-canon, not sure they will full on canonize it anytime soon
Spoiler!
The second commerical with the Strucker Watch and the hydra logo, and the question of who's doing this to you Wanda.
I also wonder if this is taking place after End game and the death of Vision or is this event that happened before it during the Age of Ultron?
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I took the commercials a jokes, not as plot devices. But I could be wrong.
I thought it was confirmed to take place shortly before the forthcoming multiverse of madness. Which I think puts it after all of the existing movies.
I don't know if I can take the commercials as jokes, just because of the easter eggs in there, and the terrifying sense of doom with the Stark toaster and the countdown buzzer.
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