WandaVision, the MCU’s first Disney+ show, turns its lens on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, Avengers: Endgame) and the Vision (Paul Bettany, Avengers: Infinity War). With its first two episodes released on January 15, and a new episode being released on each subsequent Friday, the show follows Wanda and the Vision as they try to fit into a new suburban lifestyle.

The show satirizes the sitcom format with a different decade each episode, beginning in the 50s, making many cheeky references to iconic titles such as Bewitched and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Clearly, this unusual approach has garnered a host of unfair reviews from viewers expecting a more typical superhero style and action. The show's style of parody, while entertaining, may make some viewers impatient to get into the meat and potatoes of the underlying plot. As Emerson opined, however, to be great is to be misunderstood.

Although the action does pick up as the show goes on, the weekly episode releases cause the gradual change to feel like it takes much longer. Another contributing factor is the fact that the episodes are typically only around 30 minutes long, and that includes a gratuitous 8 minute-long credits sequence.

The series has all the production quality and polish of a full-fledged MCU film, with high quality CGI and immersive set and costume design that beautifully portrays each of the decades for some grandiose visual storytelling. The chemistry between the two leads, Olson and Bettany, is stellar as always, and their relationship feels like a believable and realistic continuation of their romance in the earlier MCU films.

Bettany especially shines as Vision this time around, bringing new life and personality to a character that has felt static and, well, robotic in the past. Relatable and funny, this incarnation of Vision provides excellent moments of comedy as a supercomputer living in a world before binary code.

However, it’s not all fun and games. The show features an unsettling undertone, leading its audience to guess at the darker truth hidden beneath the surface of its sitcom parodies. From cryptic “commercial breaks” to creepy camera angles and near fourth-wall breaks, the show slowly reveals its underlying message about the nature of grief and how humans cope with it. Wanda Maximoff is the perfect character through which to tell a story like this, with a long history of losing everyone she grows close to and a power set that lends itself perfectly to the unsettling “something is not quite right in suburbia” vibe.

The show seamlessly ties itself in with the rest of the MCU by featuring the return of such characters as Dr. Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings, Thor: The Dark World) and Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park, Ant-Man and the Wasp). Additionally, it also features a now-grown-up Agent Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris, If Beale Street Could Talk), who was seen as a child in Captain Marvel. While all three are only side-characters in their initial appearances in the MCU, they are now able to steal the show here. Their specific role in the story delves too deep into spoiler territory for this review, but their excellent chemistry as a trio adds a new likeability to their characters that had previously been criticized as annoying or unwanted.

Overall, WandaVision may be a step into a new, uncharted creative direction for the MCU, but it’s a step in the right direction. With artful visual storytelling that masters the practice of “show, not tell” and characters that bring a fresh, new style to the established universe, WandaVision delivers a story that is equal parts entertaining, funny, and thrillingly creepy, with an underlying mystery that will have you hooked until the very end. There's no denying that WandaVision is the first of hopefully many more spectacular Marvel shows on Disney+. Hopefully, they too will march to the beat of a different drummer.

It’s safe to say that we’ll all be “tuning in” for the next installment of this spellbinding series.

Grade: A+

With a bold premise and an engaging story, WandaVision is a fresh and fun addition to the MCU that anyone with an open mind will surely enjoy.

By Addison Isely and Bailey Staerkel

February 26, 2021

Oshkosh West Index Volume 117 Issue 5

WandaVision boldly leverages MCU credentials for brilliant suburban parody