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Creator: Matt Shakman
Star Rating: 4/5 stars
WandaVision Review (Full Season): What Is It About?
It takes no mad scientist to decode it’s a love story of two people named Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Now that you’ve got this, let me say it without spoiling anything for you – it’s not that simple (see, simple. Didn’t spoil anything). It starts with showing Wanda and Vision as a part of a sitcom, which changes its theme with every passing episode and is set in Westview. Beginning in the ’50s, it ranges up to the shows like Modern Family, The Office exploring every decade’s flavour of sitcom-history.
But how all of this is connected to the happenings of today’s time? For those confused, today’s time = post-blip = time after we lost Iron Man and every fan cried with ‘I love you 3000’. How are these occurrences connected to whatever shenanigans Wanda & Vision are pulling off in Westview? Well, for now, just know that the writers are using the best of their ability to connect real and reel, but what happens next is what the show is all about. (PHEW! It’s too hard to talk about a Marvel project without giving out any spoiler. I feel you, Tom Holland!).
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WandaVision Review (Full Season): What’s Good?
What’s good is the potential of the writers who didn’t just envision something this wholesome but also execute its packaging with emotions, fun and nostalgia. Or just as Vision said, this show is a ‘memory made real’. An approximate team of 14 writers led by the marvellous Jac Schaeffer are in a constant tug-of-war between two alternate realities the script is narrating. The best thing is, you don’t need to beat your brain to understand even the complexities of the script. Even the most twisted arcs are explained in a manner even a non-fan would get the happening on-screen.
‘Drama’ in superhero projects is the highest hanging fruit resulting in many filmmakers touching and going. Seeing Wanda’s track-record of losing her family, boyfriend, regaining him to bid-adieu again, I knew drama would take a front seat amid all the action and magic chaos. What I didn’t expect was to get so emotionally invested despite being a Martin Scorsese fan.
The constant meddling of multiple realities allows the makers to do some batsh*t crazy things, like rolling the credits even before the episode ends (no, I’m not talking about the post-credit scenes here). Also note, how the aspect ratio changes as per the different scenarios of the show. A special mention about how every character shifts certain mannerisms, as they get transferred from one decade to another in between the episodes. All these small things together make a huge impact overall.
WandaVision Review (Full Season): What’s Bad?
When you have the final-edited content of more than 5 hours (35 minutes/episode × nine episodes), it gets complicated to distribute a fair amount of thrills and chills in between them. Not every episode ends on a cliffhanger, and hence the emotional aftermath for those who binge-watched this will be slightly better than those who didn’t. Not saying it’s a flaw, but that’s how such shows work. You’ve to watch this all together for that adrenaline rush to kick in the finale.
WandaVision Review (Full Season): Star Performances
This just gave Elizabeth Olsen a lifetime ticket to be our Wanda. Certain roles cement the identity of an actor, and this is the one for Elizabeth. We’ve seen her as Wanda before, but big guns were overshadowing her track. This gives her the liberty to just get out and cast her magic spell on the rest of us. From a caring mother, an obsessed lover to a sweet neighbour, Elizabeth lives many roles in one.
Paul Bettany just didn’t get any chance to play around with Vision in the Avengers’ saga, but here he’s a lot more than a synthetic humanoid robot. Paul, with a minimal number of expressions and costumes (due to the nature of his character), proves to be a reliable backing to Wanda’s varied character arc.
Kathryn Hahn as Agnes serves in an assorted tray of character traits. From this animated nosy neighbour to a Hela-like villain, she gets major things on-point. Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau showcases a teaser to what is coming next. She has every peculiarity of becoming an Avenger, and that’s what Captain Marvel wants. From the supporting members, Randall Park as Jimmy Woo and Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis impress the most.
WandaVision Review (Full Season): Last Word
All said and done, WandaVision is not your regular/routine superhero show where you’d see grown men and women in uniform fighting to save the world (i.e. the US). While you still have grown people fighting in a uniform here as well, you also have a lot of solid reasons to watch them fight and maybe even root for them. Even if you aren’t a Marvel fan, go for this and watch till the end!
Four Stars!
Must Read: WandaVision Finale: Mark Ruffalo AKA Hulk Is Going Through Major FOMO & We Can Relate To Him!
