Note: In order to explain my exact feelings and problems with this series, I’m going to have to get personal with my own issues with a very specific medium and everything that has spun off from it in particular. It’s going to be longer, and it may not inspire love from a really big group of people. I can live with that.
I’ve never liked comic books. Not when I was ten, certainly not now. I’m not the kind of elitist that so many of my ilk are – I think that there are too many critics who’ve decided to reject anything comic book based sight unseen. But the fact, ever since I was young, I’ve always seen a flaw in them. Frankly, it’s so obvious, I’m rather surprised so few people have dwelt on it when they criticize them.
The basic problem with a comic book is the same problem with a lot of the comic strips that are still going on: they don’t end. Now it’s one thing for Peanuts and For Better or Worse to be going on, they are basically joke a day strips. But when you have a series like Superman or Wonder Woman that has been going on for decades and while the world outside has changed and the central characters haven’t aged a day, there’s a certain level of implausibility that was always hard to handle.
Even the fact that the plots for the lion’s share of the comics are the same today as they were in 1955, there’s a far bigger problem. Nobody ever dies. And I’m not talking about the fact that Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker are still the same age, give or take a few years. I’m young enough to remember the way the world basically stopped in 1992 when The Death of Superman came out. It was a huge deal. The media made a big deal of it, there was even an SNL sketch parodying the funeral. And it would’ve been a big deal – if Clark Kent and Superman hadn’t come back in about a year’s time. With no ramifications in any of the other comics.
That is when more or less I realized what all superhero comic books are: soap operas for teenagers. They tell basically the same story for years on end, there are evil twins in some cases, former loves coming back, and if a character dies, he or she will come back to life in a few months. There is no beginning, middle or end. And as someone whose entire love of entertainment is based on the idea of that, how can a comic book really be about anything?
I’ve had this feeling for the lion’s share of every comic book movie that’s come out in the last thirty years. The only exceptions have been the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. It wasn’t just that Nolan and his group of filmmakers created a world as close to one where comic books and the current world meet; it’s that there were consequences. Ras Al Ghul was just as evil as he is in the world, but he wasn’t immortal. Nolan only brought him back in the final movie in flashbacks and as a ghost. Harvey Dent became Two-Face, was killed, and not only did Nolan not bring him back; he used his death as the catalyst for The Dark Knight Returns. There were elements of some well remembered comics in quite a few of the movies, but Nolan didn’t use them as Easter eggs but rather to try and explore the real-life ramifications of how this work. There were almost no references to previous characters or alter ego; Selina Kyle never called herself Catwoman once.
No other comic book movie – certainly not in the Marvel-verse - has ever tried anything like that. All they have to try to be is entertainments. In some cases, they have succeeded immensely – Civil War and Black Panther were extraordinary well-plotted and written movies which had stirring motivations for its characters – but I didn’t really see anything like a deeper meaning. Some critics have tried to read that into them, but I can’t exactly see that logic at all. Basically, they have been the same kind of stories we get from your typical action movie – great stunt, good dialogue, some great villains – but ultimately ephemeral.
I’ve had similar obstacles with almost every comic book based TV series. The best ones have always been the animated ones – Batman: The Animated Series made the villains come to life in a way the earlier movies never had; Spiderman: The Animated Series was the most effective portrayal not only of the title characters and his villains, but basically every other Marvel crossover to that point. Unfortunately, we’re now drowning in that them, and instead of trying to be episodic they tend towards one overarching plot.
Similar obstacle impugned almost every comic book based series since. Smallville worked brilliantly for a very long time, mainly because it was focused on the life of Clark Kent and tried very hard to revise the mythology. Unfortunately, it was still locked into the comic books and we had to have endless seasons involving Lana Lang, a character who had no purpose in Superman’s mythology. And frankly, the closer Clark came to becoming Superman, the less interesting he became (though to be fair, there were a quite a few interesting stories going on).I have praised the Arrow-verse for being exceptional at times, but sadly the longer every show in the first group stayed on the air, the more trapped into formulas they became, not so comic book formulas but the recycling of the same plots, season after season. (Stargirl, please prove me wrong.) And if I’ve had some patience for DC based TV, I’ve had nearly none for Marvel. Agents of SHIELD was a complete mess the two seasons I watched it. (I’m told it got better; I’ll never check to find out.) And I barely even glanced at all the Netflix Marvel series that aired from 2015-2019. I’m told that some were extraordinary, but given the option of watching Jessica Jones or Bloodline it wasn’t a contest.
So when Disney+ started its Marvel based shows earlier this year, I had as much as enthusiasm to watch them as I did to start looking at The Mandalorian last year. (At some point, I’ll probably have to get back to that series, but I’d rather binge watch all of Grey’s Anatomy first.) Even as the Emmy talk grew exponentially louder for Wandavision and after it did so well at the MTV TV and Movie awards, I had very little desire to start down a rabbit hole I’d spent the last decade pretty much avoid. But I knew I had to. So in June, I started watching it. And honestly, I’m mostly glad I have.
The series supposedly takes place after Wanda Maximoff (Elisabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) were killed in the Blip that took place at the climax of Infinity War. Now, they seem to be in the town of Westview, New Jersey trying to live a ‘normal’ life. This life seems to be being lived in the terms of a sitcoms with a laugh track playing in the background as Wanda and Vision try to live like a normal married couple, without you know, revealing their superpowers. Then the kinks start in. In the pilot, set in the 1950s, Vision’s ‘boss’ starts choking and Wanda orders Vision to ‘save him’ supernaturally. In the next episode, there seems to be a burglar trying to break in the pilot. Westview is still black and white – then Wanda spots a red helicopter. At a town meeting, someone breaks a glass and red blood appears. The radio starts broadcasting directly to Wanda. And near the end of the ‘episode’ she sees someone trying to enter through the sewer. She says ‘no’ and the ‘episode’ goes back, and ends with her becoming pregnant and the world going to color.
The third episode reveals the biggest changes so far. Wanda’s pregnancy, which started the day before, advanced at such a rapid rate she was giving birth within hours. The labor pains ending up bringing the roof of the house down, and Vision literally flew over to the doctor’s house to bring him back. Wanda was visiting by her African-American neighbor Geraldine (though even I, who know almost nothing about the Marvel-verse know that’s not who she really is) who ends up helping Wanda deliver her twins. But afterwards, things got even stranger. When Vision left the house, the doctor said no one leaves. Then his neighbors told him, Wanda should be alone with his Geraldine that’s she ‘strange’ though they stopped just short of telling her why. Then Wanda mentioned she had a brother named Peter. Geraldine then says: “He was killed by Ultron, wasn’t he?” Wanda blinks a couple of times. Geraldine then says: “What happened to Pietro?” Wanda turns around, and when Vision enters the house Geraldine is gone. The last shot of the episode is of ‘Geraldine’ back in the real world with apparently every police car approaching her.
Now I know by now everybody in the world knows what’s really going on and what the secrets are. I still don’t and for the benefits of those of you who haven’t seen it yet, let me tell the reasons I really like Wandavision so far.
First of all, it’s really funny. Paul Bettany had to be a robot as part of his act and Elisabeth Olsen had a mostly tragic history, so it’s actually wonderful to see just how good they are at comedy. As they try to explain how they are while they use their powers, there’s actually quite a lot of laughs to be mined out of this that would not be out of place in a comedy of this era – that you know, would never get made. The openings of every episode are a deliberate satire of the theme and intros to so many comedies and they’re equally entertaining. I was reminded very often the work of Darin Morgan, the satirist-deconstructionist of The X-Files and quite frankly could see quite a few of the lines being written by him. I’m well aware that the series won’t stay this way, but it’s a lot of fun.
And since I know nothing about the plotline about the comic book this is supposedly based on, I can appreciate the mystery that’s being laid out before me. It’s very clear that Wanda is doing something to manipulate this universe and that Westfield is some kind of illusion. But who exactly is controlling this illusion? Is it Wanda or is someone else trying to save her? For the first time in I don’t know how long, I actually care about what happens to the characters in a comic book movie/TV shows.
And it’s easy to see why the Emmys – who have spent the better part of their existence ignoring anything comic book based for recognition –decided to give Wandavision a whopping twenty-three nominations. Technically, every aspect of it from the cinematography to the music is brilliant, the direction is top-notch, and all of the performances are brilliant, particular as it comes to straight satire with deeper meanings underneath. The one I’m particular happy about is Kathryn Hahn’s work as ‘Agatha’, the kooky next-door neighbor who clearly knows a lot more than she’s telling. I know that Hahn’s role in this is very deep (she took the prize for Best Villain from MTV in April) but as someone who has been in awe of her work for the last decade, I really hope that she uses this to get the Emmy she has been more than owed since at least Season 4 of Parks & Rec.
Will I still like Wandavision when I get to the end? I’m honestly not sure. Comic book arcs (I’m old) are often disappointing when they’re resolved. But for the first time in a very long time, I honestly want to get the end. Wandavision is a joy to the senses and a delight even to those – like me – who want nothing to do with comic books. That being said, I’m not entirely sure I’d want to go down this path again – I’m kind of relieved The Falcon and The Winter Soldier basically got ignored.
My score: 4.5 stars.
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