I admire Disney’s risk with this series. When they announced the release of all their new Marvel TV shows for 2021, Loki was the one which riled everybody up. It was going to be darker than the usual Marvel but still jam-packed full of action. But I wanted to see Disney actually challenge the Marvel Universe, do something it had never done before. Risk it all to make something either utterly dreadful or something which we would watch over and over. And that was WandaVision.
Marvel sometimes dabbles in romance. But it is only ever in the form of a little side-eye from The Hulk to Black Widow, just to keep the mums in the audience interested. maybe get them trending on Tumblr. But from the trailer, it was clear that Wandavision was going to be full-blown romance, or at least I hoped. But the series showed something different, the first 2 episodes I feel like I am watching a murder mystery, a who-dun-it. But no one is sure what the crime actually is, or who died, or what the murder weapon was. Described by the Critic Consensus as ‘Part loving homage to TV history, part off-kilter mystery’. The superhero duo of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), is shown as a married couple but who never actually got married and they don’t know why which is the first clue that something is wrong. Olsen’s portrayal is exactly out of the recipe book of the strong-minded housewife, a bit cliche but not too much. Whereas I feel like Paul Bettany’s character was lost, the Vision we saw in the movies, intellectual but still a bit dim was replaced by what I can only describe as a Rik Mayall impression.
Each episode is based in a different decade, so far the 50s and 60s, shot in black and white, and takes the mick out of old American sitcoms. I enjoy parodies so I gave it the benefit of the doubt and watched as these two superheroes try to hide their powers from nosy neighbors and work colleagues. The only hint that something is amiss is right at the end of the episode when the previous ‘I Love Lucy‘ tone turns very dark, a minor character starts to choke at the dinner table whilst his wife laughs and the main character Wanda realises something is wrong. The second episode also has an easy tone just like a sitcom, but the atmosphere turns creepy as Wanda sees something in colour in her black and white world, a plotline indicative of Gary Ross’ Pleasantville.
At the end of each episode, the credits roll and the camera zooms back to find it’s on the TV, and men in suits are watching and saying her name. It is clear that as the TV series progresses it will be less and less like a sitcom, more problems will happen and Vision the other of the dynamic duo will become less and less like the Vision we know. It seems like this new and exciting idea for Marvel will soon get trampled in a few episodes and turn into the government, spy, superhero plotline we all know. How boring.
