A TV show that shows its ambition by comparing itself to a great movie is a former troupe. WandaVision, the new limited-edition series about Disney + that is a major turning point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its intricate relationship with the small screen is just the latest to use. “I was like, ‘Oh, I thought we were doing a little show,'” said actor Teyonah Parris. Entertainment weekly in the cover story in November illustrating the production. “But no, those are six Marvel movies that are included in what they present as a sitcom.”
Under similar circumstances, this analogy is frustrating because it deserves a look at critics who are tired of explaining that ‘X-Hour movie’ is not the compliment most creative people think it is. Aside from the implied condescension, there is the fact that the distinction between movies and TV shows is on the verge of collapse, making comparisons almost meaningless. The same platforms often distribute both, including Disney +; each year brings more brain subjects like Steve McQueen’s Small ax, which has aspects of each category, without falling neatly into one of the two. You can only see so many repetitions of The Hateful Eight: The Miniseries before defeating your hands.
In the case of WandaVision, it’s all a bit of a brainstorm. The program, of course, takes place in the Disney-run MCU, which has been immersed in TV before: some procedures on ABC; a quartet of Netflix shows set in New York after the climate war of the first Avengers. But WandaVision is the first show to exist under the creative control of Marvel Studios, the elite squadron under Captain Kevin Feige, who transformed a link from the IP comic into a wildly profitable constellation of collapsing stories – a structure that borrows heavily from the blueprint of TV. What does it mean for a TV show to be like a movie when the TV characters are interpreted from movies, which appear in series and are co-written as a TV show, and when the TV show itself is a film essay? (Feige said the events of WandaVision will the plot of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, released in 2022.)
Happy, WandaVision is well suited for such meta-tongue knotters. The program is TV over TV, or at least is committed to portraying the aesthetics of vintage TV in extensive detail, as it takes time to uncover a larger mystery. In the three installments to critics, two of which landed on Disney + last Friday, WandaVision takes the form of houses sitcoms ’50s and 60s à la I love Lucy or Betower and a family show from the 70s à la The Brady Bunch; these faux shows happen to play an important supercomputer and a European witch in the lead role. It also helps WandaVision is mean to be a little dizzy. Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) do not know why they live in a generic simulacrum known only as Westville, or how they got there, or how Vision lives after living twice in Infinity War, or even that he is supposed to be dead. They only experience their adventures as they come, and this is also the way you should approach this latest expansion of the MCU so that you do not get headaches.
Last edited by Game of Thrones‘ Matt Shakman, showrun by Captain Marvel‘s Jac Schaeffer, and derived from a concept by Feige, WandaVision is the official crossroads where the MCU can no longer be distinguished from its satellites. Both the ABC and Netflix series were visibly detached from the main franchise – the broadcasts show in their clear budget constraints, the currents in their dark and eager aesthetics, a clear counterpoint to the MCU’s Technicolor palette and PG-13 ratings. WandaVision, also has a unique look and feel in the larger Marvel ecosystem. But in character, story, and above all, production value, the message is clear: it is a lateral expansion, not a step down.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, WandaVision even substitutes for Marvel movies rather than supplementing them. After the pandemic caused theatrical releases in chaos, Disney put the entire 2020 lead of Marvel on ice, including the highly anticipated Black widow; it’s now more than a full calendar year since fans received a full Feige sanction update on the master story he braided out of a confused heap. WandaVision even has a jump on other Disney + series like The falcon and the winter soldier, the program was originally intended to establish the TV branch of the so-called Phase 4 WandaVision who leads a lead that will soon include Loki, the anthology series What if…?, Hawkeye, Me Marvel, and at least half a dozen more.
To his credit, WandaVision does not feel like connective tissue, at least to begin with. Compared to Marvel’s other flirtations with genre, it’s actually wonderfully dedicated. The MCU has long liked hyperbolic comparisons such as “Captain America and the Winter Soldier is a conspiracy thriller from the 70’s ‘or’Ant-Man is a heist movie. In fact, these influences more often manifest as a faint aftertaste than a full-fledged tribute. Thanks to all the superpowers, WandaVision can never be confused as an actual repetition of The Dick Van Dyke Show. But it doesn’t just contain the press release: the first two episodes are shot in black and white in front of a live studio audience and use retro effects like a shattered record rewinding into a whole. The third link of gears with bowls and side panels.
WandaVision is also at least one key TV genre: the chapters are discrete and differentiated, if not entirely alone. Schaeffer and the writers borrow and watch classic tropes such as ‘the boss and his wife come to eat’ (Fred Melamed and Debra Jo Rupp, the latest character actors to collect those Marvel checks) or ‘pregnant woman gives birth within seconds.’ The show is not an elaborate story that has been arbitrarily cut into parts, but a collection of readable pieces – not unlike the MCU, but without paying $ 20 to see those pieces in the theater every few months. TV’s episodic storytelling is where the MCU first got the idea to translate comic series on screen, which WandaVision a perfect content of our content.
This isolation begins to break as the series continues; Wanda and Vision cannot stay in a hermetically sealed area forever. And the whole program relies on the viewer to understand in the first place who the title characters are when they come up with complicated back stories; Vision, for example, is a combination of two existing characters powered by a MacGuffin. Parris ‘character is known as’ Geraldine ‘in the show-in-a-show, but we already know that she’s the adult version of Monica Rambeau, who was first introduced as a child in the’ 90s set. is. Captain Marvel.
When names like Ultron and Pietro Maximoff start popping up, WandaVision loses the peculiarity that makes it an interesting, if coincidental, introduction to the Disney + era of the MCU. But these nouns also serve their purpose: to give both legitimacy WandaVision and the streaming service it broadcasts. Just like The Mandalorian is now in the upper level of the Star Wars universe, blessed by the appearance of the first family of the franchise, WandaVision is not a detour for the MCU. This is a transition – you need to sign up to stay up to date.