Wanda + Vision = WandaVision!
BQB here with a review of Disney Plus’ foray into Marvel based TV.
At first, I thought this show was a gimmick. It begins with Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlett Witch (Elisabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), basically the two lowest ranking Avengers, on a 1950s era sitcom. In each episode, the sitcom shifts a decade – i.e. Brady Bunch style for the 1970s, Growing Pains style for the 1980s, Malcolm in the Middle style for the 90s, and everyone stops once in awhile to give a documentary style interview ala the office for the early 2000s.
How the heck did this happen? For those who forgot the last Avengers film, Vision croaked so its a mystery as to how he’s alive and of course, there’s the greater mystery of how these two are living in a sitcom world.
Where was I? Oh right. Why did I think this was a gimmick? I thought it was just a set-up where Olsen and Bettany stopped by to do a few sitcom skits while lesser knowns do all the non-sitcom action. While Vision and Wanda hang out in the sitcom world, Avengers sidekicks like Monica Rambeau (i.e. Captain Marvel’s BFF’s all-grown up daughter), Jimmy Wu, the FBI agent who kept tabs on Ant-Man or Darcy Lewis, Jane’s intern from Thor) investigate, setting up shop outside the town that has been taken over by the sitcom world.
So admittedly, I groaned at this. It reminded me of the disappointment that was Agents of Shield. I thought that show was going to be awesome but it was just like, an occasional Avengers sidekick would stop by and be like, “Ha ha, I just talked to Thor” but then you never see Thor.
Spoiler Alert – I was wrong. As the series progresses, you get a lot of Wanda and Vision action and a lot of movie quality effects, fight scenes and superhero action. So I take it all back. This show is worth a watch.
I am curious as to where the Marvel cinematic universe is going next. The last Avengers films were great but they wrote themselves into a corner, with the main avengers riding off into the sunset. Sometimes it feels like they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel. I mean, Wanda and Vision are great here but then again, come on Vision is a freaking red robot man and that’s kind of silly, isn’t it? Then again, if you think about it, it’s all silly.
Bonus points that Kathryn Hahn, criminally underutilized by Hollywood, really gets a chance to shine here.
STATUS: Shelf-worthy.
Bookshelf Battle 
Meh. They write themselves into a corner every single movie.
I don’t know. I think they made some dramatic choices that resolved what happens to the main characters but you know, spoiler alert, some of them died because like, this has been going on a decade and Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans etc. can’t do this forever. So it kinda looks like they’re going to just dredge up every little known obscure character rather than reboot or go one with new actors playing Capt America, Iron Man, etc.
It’s okay. They’ll definitely reboot with younger actors at some point in the future.
Yeah, but they’ll just redo the old stories, how everyone became what they are, that we already know. I think they should just assume we know and jump into new stories. Like, Superman is always held back from doing awesome things because there’s 100 movies about baby supes crashing in his adopted parents’ backyard but like, no movies where he punches a dinosaur or something.
🤔
I mean they’ve been building up to endgame since the first iron man movie. One thing I’ve learnt is Marvel know what they’re doing and they’re lowkey geniuses.
I agreed they did a good job. I wish DC had followed their movie formula. Marvel movie universe is kind of winding down now and if DC had done it right, they could be filling the void now.
That is very true, yeah! I think DC have good Tv shows but not so much movies.