by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
Wanda and Vision, a couple in love, settle down into town when strange things start happening. Can they figure it out before it is too late in the MCU Disney+ television show WandaVision?
Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and her husband Vision (Paul Bettany) are just settling down in the town of Westview. They meet their neighbors especially an extremely intrusive “neighbor on the right” named Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) who seems to serve as Wanda’s guide through this new world of suburbia. Yet as things progress, so do the oddities that would be more than a little disconcerting if it were not happening in the context of a television sit-com.
WandaVision is one of the most anticipated events of the last two years because it promises to be the true launching point for Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The show itself is the most weirdly confusing show of the MCU. Each episode seems to take place in a different decade of family comedies starting with the 1950s and an “I Love Lucy” takeoff. And while each episode has some madcap hijinks that seem pretty apropos to the setting in which they are portrayed, there is an obvious and evident subplot of something larger happening within the story.
There are some surprising cameos with Monica Rambeau, Darcy Lewis, Jimmy Woo and Billy, and Tommy (if you don’t know who they are I won’t tell here) and some other surprises including the introduction of S.W.O.R.D. (SHIELD’s space counterpart) which seems pretty obvious since the rumors about Phase 4 have been mostly extraterrestrial in nature. But the nature and purpose of the show are a little nebulous. Is this a coping mechanism for Wanda over the loss of Vision in Infinity War? Has Wanda been kidnapped and attacked for information? Is being held in some government facility (in space?) to keep her from destroying the world?
Rated TV-PG for scenes of mild violence and intense scenes, WandaVision is a trippy visual experience that will mean more to adults than to children in the beginning because the throwbacks to old TV shows won’t mean much to those who haven’t seen them. The fun is in the discovery and revelations.
Grade: B-