Marvel’s WandaVision is a series that’s difficult to analyze. The nine-episode story wrapped up on Disney+ and overall it was an entertaining journey that should satisfy most viewers. But, as is the case with any show that spawns theories and speculation, some viewers are going to be left disappointed.
Spoilers ahead! We’re going to discuss WandaVision in its entirety.
WandaVision thrives when it tries to tell the personal story of its characters in a unique format. The concept of showing Wanda’s grief after losing Vision and rounding out her character’s backstory is fantastic. Telling that story through decades of beloved sitcoms is simply brilliant.
The best aspect of WandaVision is the depth it adds to characters that were lacking development to this point. Vision’s death in Endgame may have lacked the emotional punch it needed as it was difficult to resonate with Wanda’s grief. WandaVision‘s story adds a new angle for both Vision’s death and her appearance in Age of Ultron. Their story here adds an entirely new dimension to earlier Marvel content.
Speaking of characters, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany were superb in this series. They shined regardless of the scene or setting. Credit to both for some of the best performances Marvel has seen to date.
WandaVision‘s twists and turns, the subtle horror elements and the irregular format made the bulk of the show outstanding. It wasn’t clear where things were going to go, which is usually not the case in Marvel content. The road is usually fairly linear – see bad guy, punch bad guy.
Here, Marvel mostly told a new story in a new way, but they unfortunately leaned on familiar crutches in the conclusion. The first guess at what’s happening – Wanda is doing this to herself through her own grief – was the final answer. The show hinted repeatedly at something more, and yet they settled on the conclusion most viewers worked out before the first episode aired.
Marvel proved they’re capable of telling a really good story. That’s why it’s so disappointing to see familiar tropes resurface. Director Hayward is the most obvious example as his final actions don’t follow any logic. Why is he immediately shooting at kids? Why is he getting arrested for, seemingly, only trying to save a town? Hayward became a one-dimensional villain that was handled in a one-dimensional way.
Speaking of one dimensional, shouldn’t two extremely powerful witches have a bit more up their sleeve than colored balls of light? Wanda’s confrontation with Agatha felt a bit formulaic and needed some extra spice. They’re witches!
We won’t even get started on Monica’s comment of “they’ll never know what you sacrificed,” to Wanda after she dropped the hex. Wanda held a town hostage in a literal nightmare. Of course they won’t, Monica. Shouldn’t there be some consequences for torturing these poor people?
WandaVision opened up a world of possibilities. It should have opened up a multiverse of possibilities.
One of our largest complaints lands on the decision to cast Evan Peters as Quicksilver for a one-off joke. A lot of viewers knew who Peters was (the X-Men version of Quicksilver) the moment he appeared. This opened up the idea of the multiverse and whether Marvel was finally bringing the X-Men into the primary storyline. Instead, they used Peters as nothing more than a dick joke. What a nonsensical decision. What a waste.
Of course, some fans got a little carried away with themselves. Some of those fan theories got pretty far out there. But, Marvel needs to realize that fans are expecting movie-quality twists to accompany a movie-quality series. The idea that “it’s just a TV show, of course nothing big is going to happen,” is foolish. There’s a genuine risk Marvel could damage its overall universe if it fails to deliver on logical storytelling. How bad does Dr. Strange look after all of this went on under his nose?
All of that being said, we thoroughly enjoyed our time watching WandaVision. It was a quality show that we looked forward to every Friday. It’s some of the best content Disney+ has released so far and we’re sad it’s over. We hope Falcon and the Winter Soldier takes the baton and runs with it next.
WandaVision is solid TV. But, there’s some decent missteps in the finale that unravel some of the fresh ideas that made the previous episodes so good. Now, we hope Disney was closely paying attention to the response to WandaVision with the goal of capitalizing on what worked and finally eliminating the pitfalls that plague Marvel content.
