“WandaVision” blends the style of classic sitcoms with the MCU in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision – two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban lives – begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.
I wasn’t a comic-book kid growing up, my preferences were watching and making movies instead but because of Marvel, I have come to love the big-screen iterations belonging to their exhaustive comic book library. Over the years, Wanda, or Scarlet Witch as she’s also known, played wonderfully and effectively by Elizabeth Olsen, has easily become my favorite character, along with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. While the trailers for the new Marvel show “WandaVision,” have been very secretive with their content, I can tell you right now, as you sit down to watch this show, it will be nothing like you ever imagined, and everything you could have hoped for. And more.
Naturally, I will not spoil this review but just know that each episode is filled with Easter eggs, you just have to know where to look and when to listen. I have read a lot of chatter on the internet about what the theme song to the show might be and what Marvel has done is ingenious. Because each episode changes from decade to decade, starting in the ’50s and moving forward in time, each episode has a new theme song, associated with its corresponding timeframe.
As the show begins, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), superheroes who fought alongside Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and a host of others in “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame,” are settling into their new home in the small, quiet American town of Westview. This episode is a throwback to the ’50s and is shot entirely in black and white. As they try to understand their surroundings, how they instantly just materialized from nowhere, and, at times, their excessively friendly neighbors, they are both aware that they have superpowers, Wanda has telepathy, telekinesis, and mental manipulation while Vision has superhuman strength and durability, superhuman reflexes, density manipulation, and the ability to fly. They never use their powers around other people so as not to attract any unwanted attention but occasionally they have to utilize them when they find themselves in a bind, which happens often.
Throughout the show, Wanda and Vision have the odd indefinable moment where they feel that something is off-kilter, like the world around them isn’t real but they are short-lived as they return to what they consider normal life. With each episode though, these moments become stronger and more frequent. In episode two, the events are set in the ’60s and Wanda is helping a neighbor prepare for a community talent show when she hears a strange transmission trying to force its way over a song being played on the radio. The voice of a man keeps calling out Wanda’s name and ends with him declaring, “Who’s doing this to you, Wanda?” Then the transmission ends.
To keep going would be to spoil it for you, especially if you’re one of those fans who has been salivating ever since the first trailer dropped but even though you might have all these assumptions and ideas on where this is going, believe me, they’re not going to any of those places. This is completely unchartered territory for Marvel, having conquered the big screen, I think it’s safe to assume that they will be doing the same for the small screen as well, and with everything going on in the world right now, that’s a welcome relief. As I stated earlier, there are Easter eggs galore throughout the series, everything from Stark Industries and Hydra make an appearance, plus so much more so keep your eyes peeled and your ears on full alert.
Both Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are perfect in their respective roles and Kathryn Hahn steals the show whenever she appears onscreen. Naturally, they have to adapt to their surroundings, as well as the period each episode unfolds in, and all the TV sitcom tropes from each decade are on full display, with Olsen and Bettany acclimating to them wonderfully. There is even a laugh track that accompanies each episode but the laughter is inserted into each scene meticulously, and deliberately. “WandaVision” is completely bonkers and unlike anything you have seen before so try to go in with no expectation and you will have a blast. Okay, I know for most of you that will be an impossibility but at least try, that way, you can just sit back and let the demented but brilliant story take you along with it. Now I can’t wait to see “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “Loki,” and “Hawkeye.”
Available to stream on Disney+ Friday, January 15th
