I really enjoyed the earlier episodes - the sitcom concept was clever and the slow unravelling of Wanda’s world was well done. I thought the SWORD storyline and acting was weak and Agnes alternating infinite powers with Wanda made no sense. I guess without those latter two there isn’t much of a plot though.
I appreciate that they went small plotwise in the end, and generally quite enjoyed the series.
I get that this wasn't satisfying for everyone though. The series started in a way that could have gone in very different directions, and it's natural that a lot of people in a situation like that are going to be disappointed that it didn't go somewhere they hoped to see.
That's kind of "the problem" when you do a series like this where you deliberately keep audience in the dark about what's going on and what the show is about exactly. A lot of good entertainment is about setup and payoff, and in a series like this, the payoff can basically never match the setup, because the audience really knows where the whole thing was going only after hey've seen the whole thing, and that's just not as satisfying as when you've been lead to expect the exact thing that you get in the end.
To me though, I don't mind. I thoroughly enjoyed the show for what it was, I appreciated what it did in the early parts, and even though those first episodes kind of had no relevance to "the main plot", I thought this was a a fun akd interesting (if not super original) comic book fantasy depiction of trauma and grief and their sometimes very unhealthy connection to nostalgia. Not dumb, but also not trying too hard for a superhero tv series.
I also enjoyed the meta stuff about nostalgia, outsider/insider dichotomy, independent women and people of colour crashing into the nuclear family fantasy etc. It wasn't super deep, but it was good enough to add some layers of flavor and extra meaning to everything.
In other words, because the exploration of themes and characters worked and they at least did some good stuff with the concept, I don't personally care at all that the plot itself was kind of just there.
I liked Agatha as a villain to a point where I would have liked more of her. I also really enjoyed how they successfully flipped the hero/villain thing upside down, where "the hero" was hurting a lot more people and was generally much more of a threat for the world, while the villain, though selfish, mean and clearly indifferent to other people's suffering, had plans that were overall a lot less destructive. It's far from the first "what if the super villain was on the right side" storyline, but this is instantly one of my favorites because for once the whole thing followed naturally from the setup, and they did it without in any way redeeming the villain, which I do think is kind of a first.
Agatha and the dick agent who's name I cant remember basically did save the people of Westview, even though they obviously weren't good people especially at the time when they were doing the world saving. That's just interesting and unusual and I appreciated it, even though the mechanics of especially the SWORD stuff was so disposable it was in some moments almost painful.
Biggest negative was Monica Rambeau, she shouldn't have been in this at all. She had no purpose in the story, no personal arc or even good lines. Cutting her character completely out and giving her Westview scenes to Darcy would have clearly been the right thing to do. As an origins story for her, this was just bad.
Overall, solid 4/5 series on my books, and I think I'll enjoy rewatching this at least a couple of times.
The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Itse For This Useful Post:
The Jeff Goldsmith Q&A podcast episodes with the showrunner Jac Schaeffer is pretty good, look it up.
They did one part halfway through the series and another when the whole thing was out, obviously pt. 2 is better because they can actually talk about everything.
Biggest negative was Monica Rambeau, she shouldn't have been in this at all. She had no purpose in the story, no personal arc or even good lines. Cutting her character completely out and giving her Westview scenes to Darcy would have clearly been the right thing to do. As an origins story for her, this was just bad.
Rambeau will likely be a crossover character in many of the TV series, and she has to get her powers somewhere.
Well obviously, but just because you have to do something is not an excuse to do it badly.
There was no story to it, and the whole barrier thing was just pretty dumb.
I don't disagree. The resurrection of Vision wasn't the best either. If a small portion of Wanda's power can "power" vision, then why didn't she think of that. They were a bit too inconsistent with Wanda's powers. Other posters touched on this too. The writers basically just made Wanda's powers do whatever they needed them to do.
If a small portion of Wanda's power can "power" vision, then why didn't she think of that.
I mostly agree with you but I think this one has a couple reasonable explanations. Wanda didn’t know she had the power. She can’t control it, or at least couldn’t. The White Vision was created by SWORD over the past five years and didn’t have a big hole in his heads like the real one. The White Vision didn’t really become Vision until he talked and mind melded with the fake one. And probably most importantly is that Wanda got back Vision. Based on the timelines, Wanda was probably only without Vision for like two weeks tops before making Westview her own “dream reality”. So why go with plan B when plan A worked?
Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
They were a bit too inconsistent with Wanda's powers. Other posters touched on this too. The writers basically just made Wanda's powers do whatever they needed them to do.
Chaos magic baby!
The Following User Says Thank You to Oling_Roachinen For This Useful Post:
I don't disagree. The resurrection of Vision wasn't the best either. If a small portion of Wanda's power can "power" vision, then why didn't she think of that. They were a bit too inconsistent with Wanda's powers. Other posters touched on this too. The writers basically just made Wanda's powers do whatever they needed them to do.
Wanda's wildly scaling powers are pretty accurate to the source material though. So in away thats good.
The Following User Says Thank You to Duruss For This Useful Post:
Wanda's wildly scaling powers are pretty accurate to the source material though. So in away thats good.
It's a major problem with all live action material. Drastically varying scales of power work better in comics and cartoons. It was always a bit silly to see guys like hawkeye battling the same villains as guys like Hulk.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to blankall For This Useful Post:
You know, the more I think about it, the more I think this was a bad show that got a pass because it was Marvel. If this was DC people would be dumping all over it.
This nine-episode show was about seven episodes too long. None of the build-ups had any real payoff, especially the X-Men Quicksilver climaxing with a Boehner joke.
You know, the more I think about it, the more I think this was a bad show that got a pass because it was Marvel. If this was DC people would be dumping all over it.
This nine-episode show was about seven episodes too long. None of the build-ups had any real payoff, especially the X-Men Quicksilver climaxing with a Boehner joke.
Agreed, but this is the grace they’ve built for themselves. Like I said in my post after the finale, it was meh, but because I like the characters I still enjoyed it.
I looked at the mediocre to bad Marvel movies as just not great episodes in a
Long running series that is still great despite the odd misstep. DC just hasn’t engaged an audience in the same way.
You know, the more I think about it, the more I think this was a bad show that got a pass because it was Marvel. If this was DC people would be dumping all over it.
This nine-episode show was about seven episodes too long. None of the build-ups had any real payoff, especially the X-Men Quicksilver climaxing with a Boehner joke.
Quicksilver being a Dick joke was awesome. It was a perfect meta troll by Marvel. They knew exactly what people would expect and said #### you. To me that is a group of people knowing their material and their audience perfectly.
I think people’s expectations about scale were out of whack with what the show delivered.
The DC comparison is kind of apt becuase to me their failing is being too concerned about the chess board and not enough about the current story. (Especialy BvS and Justice League).
People’s expectation of this series seem to be reintroduce the X-men, establish the multiverse, bring in the fantastic four, explain Mephisto’s role as the Devil in Marvel while also telling the Wanda story. That’s too much for the show to do so I’m glad it didn’t.
Instead my criticism is that they left the show too broad. Getting rid of the outside the Hex parts and restricting to just the sitcom delivery could have made it even better. The core story of Wanda understanding the consequences of her powers and processing grief is what I found enjoyable.
Unpacking the mystery box while fun never pays off.
Although it really doesn't matter, I believe that Boehner was the missing person from witness protection who Jimmy was looking for originally.
People don't laugh at their own silly names because to them, they're not silly. Someone whose birth name was Boehner likely wouldn't giggle about it because he would have spent his whole life having people make fun of it. Someone who was given the name by witness protection would probably still find the name funny.
__________________
Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
Its just tough I compared Wanda Vision to the new Superman TV series, and somehow they made a really dark Mopey Superman story where the characters have little to no charm and the teenagers make you want to stab them.
At least Wandavision had a lot of charm, and the characters weren't the same old muah poor us.
I loved the batman with Keaton, when everyone said it was cool that it went dark and didn't have the optimistic over the top superhero. But people (like me) demanded darker and more serious, but at some point it crossed the mendoza line to instead of darker and more serious it became make it with more angst and throw in some of that depressing stuff that people deal with every day. I don't think I want that, I ahem deal with it every day, I don't want to watch a super powered version of me.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
When you follow up Age of Ultron with Ant-Man, Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, and Infinity War instead of following up Batman V Superman with Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League, and Aquaman you might just earn a benefit of the doubt over your competition.
Both the MCU and DCEU have earned their reputations, and it's not difficult to see why WandaVision receives leniency over anything DCEU has done to this point. And I thought WV was good to great.
__________________ "It's a great day for hockey."
-'Badger' Bob Johnson (1931-1991)
"I see as much misery out of them moving to justify theirselves as them that set out to do harm." -Dr. Amos "Doc" Cochran
The Following User Says Thank You to Yamer For This Useful Post:
You know, the more I think about it, the more I think this was a bad show that got a pass because it was Marvel. If this was DC people would be dumping all over it.
This nine-episode show was about seven episodes too long. None of the build-ups had any real payoff, especially the X-Men Quicksilver climaxing with a Boehner joke.
I like a lot of DC stuff, and as far as Marvel/DC content this show was much better. Production values and acting alone put this over the top.
The main issue for me is that they had some totally wacky and out of control powers and premise to work with, and provided the most straight forward plot possible. It was a show that dealt with altering reality, and everything ended up being just 100% face value. We had a House of M style plot with jumping through time and false realities, and we didn't even really get a twist, let alone a major change in the universe.
I liked the show overall, but would put it pretty far behind recent series like the Boys, the Umbrella Academy, or the Watchmen. The Boys and the Watchmen are both DC properties. So they can make great stuff....as long as it's not part of their main continuity.
