Review 600: WandaVision

WandaVision is a remarkable miniseries and the dawn of new weird and wonderful age of Marvel TV.

Set three weeks after the events of Avengers Endgame, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban lives begin to suspect that not everything is as it seems.

Two things occured to me whilist watching WandaVision: 1. None of what's happening in the Sitcom world that Wanda and Vision inhabit is real; it's all a fake reality.

2. This is a story that could only take place in a post Infinity War/Endgame world.

Because WandaVision uses it miniseries format to explore and pay tribute to many different eras of Sitcoms, each episode has it's own unique tone and style which was a joy to explore and watch unfold. 

In terms of comic book influences, WandaVision draws from the 2005 House of M storyline by Brian Michael Bendis and Oliver Coipel, The Vision and the Scarlet Witch as well as The Vision (2015). The primary theme of that particular storyline was "Trying to recreate the past is a bad idea. Trying to do so using other people is an even worse idea." As well as "Acknowledge your own "normal". Trying to conform to someone else's idea of "normal" will only result in heartache." Throughout the miniseries we see Wanda create and attempt to hold on to this idyllic suburban sitcom life for herself, Vision and their two boys Tommy and Billy but in doing so, she (albeit unknowingly) forces her reality upon the residents of WestView.

As funny as it is to watch, there is an underlying sadness to the sitcom reality that Wanda and Vision inhabit because while Wanda puts on a show of being a happy, smiley and relatively carefree housewife and mother. However, as the series goes, small cracks in the facde start to show such as when she gets reminded of a previous tradgedy.

According to director Matt Shakman, WandaVision is a story of grief and trauma and how we hold on to our hope. Those Five Stages of Greif are represented throughout the run of the miniseries:

• Denial is represented in the 50's and 60's eras by the start of Wanda's delusion that everything is fine in spite of appearances to the contrary.
  
• Anger is represented in the 70's era by Wanda lashing out and expelling Monica from her sitcom reality when she confronts her with the all true reality that her brother died in Age of Ultron.
• Bargaining is represented in the 80s and 90s by Wanda and Vision raising their two children, Tommy and Billy and reuniting with a seeminly-alive Pietro (Evan Peters), while trying to assuage Vision's concerns as he begins to recognise some is wrong in Westview.
  
• Depression is represented by Wanda's deteriorating mental health as the reality of the situation sinks in for her in the 2000s era and in various flashbacks to her life.
  
• Acceptance is represented in the finale by Wanda realising that she's causing the inhabitants of Westview pain and that she needs to let go of the imaginary family she never had.
  

The sitcoms setting/reality that WandaVision takes place in represents Wanda’s deepest desires, the idealised life that she had hoped for with Vision but was snatched away from her.

The title "WandaVision" is also open to multiple interetations especially as the Series unfolds and more information about the overarching mystry is unpacked.

• The most obvious meaning is that it's combining the shows two titular heroes, Wanda and Vision.
• The title is also play on "Television," which makes sense given the sitcom homage premise. As a homophone to "WonderVision," it also sounds like a film format introduced around the time the initial style is set (i.e. CinemaScope, Technicolor or VistaVision)
• The title also suggests that it's "Wanda's vision" of the world, implying that her reality warping powers being explored. This is reinforced bu Ep. 7: Breaking the Fourth Wall's The Office style opening which end with WandaVision: Created by Wanda Maximoff.
• The Vision that we've seen interacting with Wanda could simply refered to as "Wanda's Vision."

The Series Finale is a very mixed bag, an effects heavy two way battle between "Vision", Wanda and Agatha takes up almost half the episode, Harkness is reduced to spouting exposition, but the action scenes still held my attention and were skillfully done, the emotional beats still hit home hard   

Matt Shakman's direction is  the score by Christophe Beck is erie and lovely, the production design (recreating Westview, Jersey in all these different time periods) is fantatic and briming with detail, the costumes are fabulous, the make up is rich and beautifully detailed. The cinematography is

Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are marvellous in this miniseries playing Wanda Maximoff/Scarlett Witch and Vision. Having played second fiddle to their fellow Avengers on the big screen here they're given a proper chance to shine in the spotlight.

In a performance that's clearly channeling Julie Bowen and Lucille Ball

At the same time, WandaVision drives to the core of Wanda Maximoff's character where we learn that she has lived a life riddled with trauma and that this sitcom setting is a way of her coping with all that loss. She's pursuing some form of happiness. As a child, she adored sitcoms and they became her comfort zone whenever she would suffer spells of depression later in her as her go-to escapism.

With this miniseries we're introduced to a more cheerful and dorky version of Vision, one with no memories of his original life as an Avenger and who is simply doing his best to be an ideal sitcom husband and father as well as conceal the fact that he's an synthezoid. He's forced to live out a script that he increasingly realises is nothing but fake and he's scared by the fact that he doesn't know anything outside his life in Westview.                                                                                                                        One of the central mysteries at the core of WandaVision is how Vision is inexplicably still alive following his death in Avengers: Infinity War so his arc becomes a tale of self-discovery which is juxtaposed to Wanda's arc of moving on from her grief as he's forced to question the morality of Wanda. As the miniseries progresses, he shows more and more resistance to the script and shows genuine concern for the inhabitants of the sitcom life. Even when he finds out the truth about his "restoration" he holds no resentment towards Wanda and stands by her side. A performance that is clearly channeling Dick Van Dyke and Hugh Laurie. Throughout the miniseries, Vision represents that embodiment of Wanda’s sadness, love and hope. 

Matt Shakman has said of Vision "Even though he's not human, he seems to be more human than any of us".

Kathryn Hahn is a hoot playing Agnes, Wanda and Vision's nosy neighbour as well as a mysterious individual with ulterior motives. Hahn has described her character as the type of neighbour that won't get off their couch at the end of the night. Unfortunatly, however, I do feel that her character is short changed by the Series Finale as we don't get sense of who she is beyond a power hungry individual who wants Wanda's powers. When she announced "I take power from the undeserving. It's kinda my thing." I thought "Oh that's it". That coupled with the finales heavy focus on action made her character a little underwhelming in the long run.

WandaVision sees the return of Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) as well as a grown up Monica Rambeau (Mad Men's Teyonah Parris).

Monica's journey is also juxtaposed to Wanda's sense of loss so she has a lot of empathy for Wanda and wants to help her in any way she can. 

At the other end of scale we have Josh Stamberg playing Tyler Hayward, acting director of S.W.O.R.D. He brings a human perspective to what life was during the Snap; he was forced to take charge of what was left of the organisation and run it during five years of zero hope. Whilst his intentions initially may have been noble, it becomes increasingly clear as the miniseries goes on that those five years have warped his moral compass. 

WandaVision is a visionary new age of Marvel Television, 4.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.