TV Series Review: WandaVision (2021) *Spoiler Free*

TV Series Review: WandaVision (2021) Spoiler Free

Marvel Studios continues the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the small screen with the nine part series, WandaVision, now streaming on Disney+. Initially released weekly during January and February 2021, the entire series is now available to stream with a Disney+ subscription.

Set a few weeks after Avengers: Endgame, superheroes, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olson) and Vision (Paul Bettany) appear to be living an idealistic life in a black and white 1950’s sitcom. However everything isn’t as it seems in this new reality.

WandaVision is an unusual story about love, loss, grief, and healing told through the lens of witches and superheroes. It’s a fairly original concept with plenty of humor, interesting character development, and quite a few surprises.

I don’t usually review television series, despite watching quite a lot of them through various streaming services, however WandaVision is definitely worth an exception. For me, the series was the closest yet to watching a live action version of a modern comic book come to life.

Quite possibly the shorter episode length combined, with at least five major story threads, kept the writing tight and the pace moving. I was never waiting for something to happen.

Some viewers may find the first three episodes to be a little slow, if you’re more into superhero action, but they really serve to ground the premise of the sitcom world as an actual reality and not just a light hearted magic trick.

While the show is likely infinitely better for fans of the MCU, since it does directly continue events from the films and is filled with Easter eggs, it holds up as a stand alone story. I’ve heard of many people, for who WandaVision is their first MCU story, and they’ve enjoyed it. It hasn’t been a problem for them to follow at all.

Personally I enjoyed the weekly release experience with every episode leaving me wanting more. It was also fun to hear all the fan theories during the week from people way more knowledgeable in the comics that inspired the series.

I’m continuously amazed by comic book readers who proclaim to know the events of future episodes, giving very detailed, blow by blow accounts of how the story will play out… and then it happens nothing like that because the MCU is not a rote retelling of the comics. Sometimes these fans get a little too married to their theories, which is a bit unfortunate.

I’m not that kind of fan. I’ll certainly theorise but the fun for me is watching how plotlines play out as the show creators reveal the story they’re telling. I was very satisfied with each episode and the finale. I look forward to seeing where many of the characters show up in the MCU next.

As the MCU’s proper first TV series I enjoyed seeing a longer story, featuring actual characters from MCU films as the lead characters. This is what Marvel Television should have been all along (Agents of SHIELD could have been so much better if it really was ‘All connected’ with more than just cameos from the occasional secondary characters of the films).

You’ll be hard pressed not to binge watch it if it hooks you in. The first two episodes may leave you wondering what is this, but they’re important to the story, which really begins to pick up by episode three. Especially worth a watch if you grew up on sitcoms. You’ll really appreciate the nostalgia or at least have some fun guessing the sitcom influences.

Did you watch WandaVision? Let me know what you thought in a short sentence or paragraph in the comments below.

Comments

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