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WandaVision Episodes 1-3 (2021)
A common complaint about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that its films often come off as the homogenous product of an anonymous assembly line. The superhero comics that they're derived from are often the formulaic result of journeymen frantically scrambling to meet deadlines for an audience of undiscerning eight year olds, but the longevity of certain characters have meant that creative teams have interpreted them through many different perspectives. Superheroes are a mash-up of a number of 1930's pulp adventure tropes and many other aspects of genre fiction have been applied to them over the decades. For instance, over the course of a month's worth of stories, Batman can solve a locked room mystery, fight a vampire, search for lost treasure in the Amazon, and topple an alien dictator with his buddy Superman. The superhero story can often be run-of-the-mill, but it can also be this weird sponge that absorbs and adapts to a striking variety of narrative formats.
WandaVision is the MCU's attempt to reclaim that weird sponge energy by placing a couple of second string Avengers into a pastiche of American TV sitcoms. Ryan is joined by Sarah as they deconstruct the first three episodes of this ambitious miniseries. Talking points include the show's comics origins, the charming rapport between stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, the careful attention to detail used by the creative team when they evince I Love Lucy or The Dick Van Dyke show, how the relationship between Wanda and Vision was shortchanged in the MCU films, how WandaVision approaches its main character's trauma, and the parallels between WandaVision and things like Pleasantville, The Truman Show, Too Many Cooks, Blue Velvet, and Twin Peaks.
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By Ryan Valentine
5
44 ratings
A common complaint about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that its films often come off as the homogenous product of an anonymous assembly line. The superhero comics that they're derived from are often the formulaic result of journeymen frantically scrambling to meet deadlines for an audience of undiscerning eight year olds, but the longevity of certain characters have meant that creative teams have interpreted them through many different perspectives. Superheroes are a mash-up of a number of 1930's pulp adventure tropes and many other aspects of genre fiction have been applied to them over the decades. For instance, over the course of a month's worth of stories, Batman can solve a locked room mystery, fight a vampire, search for lost treasure in the Amazon, and topple an alien dictator with his buddy Superman. The superhero story can often be run-of-the-mill, but it can also be this weird sponge that absorbs and adapts to a striking variety of narrative formats.
WandaVision is the MCU's attempt to reclaim that weird sponge energy by placing a couple of second string Avengers into a pastiche of American TV sitcoms. Ryan is joined by Sarah as they deconstruct the first three episodes of this ambitious miniseries. Talking points include the show's comics origins, the charming rapport between stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, the careful attention to detail used by the creative team when they evince I Love Lucy or The Dick Van Dyke show, how the relationship between Wanda and Vision was shortchanged in the MCU films, how WandaVision approaches its main character's trauma, and the parallels between WandaVision and things like Pleasantville, The Truman Show, Too Many Cooks, Blue Velvet, and Twin Peaks.