WandaVision S1 Spoilers

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I am not into comics and haven't even seen all the MCU films much less all the various TV shows (did love Agent Carter). So, my wife and I sat down to watch these two episodes today. My wife found the "laugh track" (I have read there was a real studio audience) grating and walked out for a while during E1. I appreciated what they were trying to do and recognized the homages to both Dick Van Dyke and Bewitched (I'm old enough to have seen them when they were on the air.)

It was clear from the beginning that this world was off-kilter, and that neither Wanda nor Vision quite understood their place in it. I enjoyed the humor and the subtle ways that the mystery was inserted, along with the splashes of color (I also remember shows switching from B+W to color.)

The Grace Randolph video was helpful in telling me that I had no clue about the back story here, but I am interested in seeing where they go with this.

 

"Who's doing this to you Wanda?"

-smak-

 

As a fan of the 1980s Steve Englehart comic book series where Wanda and Vision did move to live in the suburbs (and thank you John Byrne for completely destroying that series), I'm liking this series.

And as someone who's seen episodes of the Dick Van Dyke show and Bewitched, I can appreciate what they're doing here.

Obviously there's a lot more going on here than Olson and Bettany doing sitcom parodies but I can see the first episode turning off people who weren't paying attention.
(Also, I don't think Bewitched or the Dick Van Dyke show had that many people of color.)
And no, I didn't miss the SWORD logo and the Strucker watch either.

Spoiler: Speculation based on a casting spoiler

I know that Kat Dennings is supposed to appear in this as well so I wonder if some type of attempt at rebuilding the Vision and Darcy is part of that team.

 

Veeery few. On one of those rare instances on the Dick Van Dyke show, it was a flashback episode to when Rob thought their new baby had been switched with another couple's at the hospital.

At the end of the episode the other couple arrives for a visit, and it turns out they're Black. The producers were so worried about this, they had Asian actors standing by to reshoot the scene depending on how the audience reacted. But the audience thought it was great, and howled with laughter at Rob.

Then there was the time on Bewitched when Tabitha wanted to be sisters with a black friend, so she makes a wish and the two girls wind up polka-dotted.

 

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I really liked the 2 episodes, especially the 2nd, and figuring out a bit of what's going to happen, I don't mind the way they are going about it.

But, my one query is, does Wanda from Sakovia know Bewitched, and Dick Van Dyke, and Family Ties, etc... to create a perfect replica.

Does she even know the 50's and 60's enough?

So maybe my thought that she has created this bubble herself isn't right.

Also, I don't think we talked much about Monica Rambeau being here. I'm pretty sure she's got to be working for SWORD, or some place similar, so how and why is she in there?

-smak-

 

She's very annoying but also very informative. It took me about 13 minutes to stop paying attention to how humongous her glasses are.

I'd never heard of S.W.O.R.D. and had to Wikipedia it.

 

The first two episodes were fun. I wasn't sure where they were going with this format, but it's pretty clear that there's an underlying mystery waiting to reveal itself. I'm in.

 

Yeah I enjoyed them. The homage to past TV is endearing and just enough mystery to keep me in. I can’t wait until they do the homage to the Brady Bunch.

 

The internet seems to think so...

 

It'll be very interesting how they've inserted people into her illusion. I guess one way is through "the sewer". Did she come in on that tiny helicopter some how?

-smak-

 

Keep in mind Marvel spent 10 years and 22(?) films before giving us the payout in Xfinity War and Endgame. I am more than willing to watch and rewatch because I trust these folks who have provided so much already.

 

We watched the first two episodes last night, and it feels so weird. They really did nail the old sitcoms--not just the look, but the tropes and mannerisms from the shows they were emulating. It actually left me a little uncomfortable, watching and enjoying them for the nostalgia value (I *love* the Dick Van Dyke Show, so the first episode was wonderful), knowing that there's something bigger going on behind the scenes.

Spoiler tag for a theory/worry of mine

Spoiler

Apparently a lot of the numbers shown in the episodes reference comic issues where Vision is rebuilt/repaired/etc. I'd love to see Vision come back and he and Wanda be able to go live their lives again, but I also worry that would weaken the ending of Infinity War. I felt the same way when Spike came back for the last season of Angel; after a heroic and pretty heart wrenching death in the Buffy finale, he just magically came back.

 

So far, I'm really digging the show. It's like a cross between The Matrix, The Truman Show and Pleasantville, three movies that I absolutely love. I thought the first two episodes were really solid, and I wasn't bored at all. In fact, I thought some of the jokes were actually quite funny. I was particularly impressed with Paul Bettany. I've never seen him in anything outside of the MCU, and he has much more range than I would have thought. Olsen was quite good as well at capturing the nuances of a character from that era.

I spent the whole second episode trying to figure out why the actress who played Dottie seemed so familiar. Sure enough, it was Emma Caulfield from Buffy.

 

Also, Kathryn Hahn must have the best agent in Hollywood. I swear, it seems like she's in every other show I watch these days.

 

In the comics, in an entirely unrelated story-line,

Spoiler

the Scarlet Witch went insane and magically altered the universe so that there were no more mutants. There's a theory that something similar is happening here...that Vision's death drove her insane, and she has created a reality in which he still "lives" (and in which they are living in domestic bliss). In the comics story her action had unexpected wider repercussions that had people contemplating killing her. It's possible that whatever she's doing here is also causing problems, which is why Hydra and SWORD (and Stark Industries?) may be trying to infiltrate her world.

 

This is me. I have seen a few of the movies, mostly the early Iron Man and Spider Man (not the second set of movies and I didn't like the last one), and Captain America, but this series intrigued me when someone mentioned it here, because of the homage to the sitcoms of the 1960s which I grew up on, and at that level I loved it. I watched Age of Ultron since my son said it would be a good intro to the two main characters (and fell asleep through about half that movie, but got the gist. Perhaps it plays better to folks that aren't shoulder deep in the MCU universe? I don't know, but I had fun with it. I noticed that in the first episode that they lived in a ranch house and in the second it was a split level, so that tells me that they are somehow "put" in these sitcoms rather than the second being a continuation of the first. I'm guessing it will all tie together at some point.

 

Check him out in "A Knight's Tale" for more demonstration of his acting range. (That movie also features an entertaining supporting role for Alan Tudyk.)

It's currently available on TBS.com if you have a cable/satellite subscription.