WandaVision Isn’t That Good: A Review Nobody Asked For

Unlike most of the world, I didn’t start watching WandaVision as soon as it came out. If you remember, lockdowns were in full swing and nobody had seen a Marvel movie in a long time, so people dove right in when it launched. I think audience opinion was artificially inflated by the gap in MCU content created by the pandemic. A 91% on Rotten Tomatoes? Come on.

…But it isn’t Bad

I’m not here to tear the show down, just to start a dialogue about a flawed show so people can start being honest. It does not live up to the hype. The IMDb rating is 8/10, which I think is a lot more fair, even if I would still rate it lower.

WandaVision vs other Disney+ Shows

Putting it in context with its 2021 peers, I can’t call it the best or even average compared to Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye. Sure, this is my opinion, but I enjoyed all of the other shows more. It’s not like I don’t have reasons why, I’ll just get to those later. All of the other 2021 Disney+ Marvel shows, no matter how lighthearted or deep their themes were, got their stories off the ground faster, got their characters developing right away, and didn’t rely as heavily on gimmicks.

Look for sections marked with [spoilers] if you haven’t seen all of the 2021 Disney+ Marvel shows yet.

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What WandaVision Does Right

Before I get too critical, here are the show’s strong points:

• Episode length– Episodes are nice and short, sitting around the 22-25 minute mark (excluding credits) for most of the 9 episodes. If your show is based around sit-coms, this is the right way to do it. The longest episode reaches 41 minutes, but this is the season finale, so It makes more sense. Episode 5, where the show actually starts trying to be good is longer as well.
• Paul Bettany- While I dislike the character of Vision, Paul Bettany’s performance is incredible. When people think about why they like this show, I bet he’s one of the biggest reasons. It’s especially fun to see Vision change to Bettany’s real face as he tries to fit in.
• [Spoilers] Agnes- Incredible actress, memeable expressiveness, and a talent for fitting into each of the decades better than probably any of the other actors. When she did reveal herself to be Agatha Harkness, I was ready for it. Perfectly hateable character and likeable performance at the same time. She was a far more convincing witch than Elizabeth Olson was, or has been. I haven’t seen Multiverse of Madness, so I’m not going to count her out for future stuff.
• [Spoilers] Pietro Maximoff– The MCU cannon Quicksilver was okay, but Evan Peters excels in the role, especially with the spin that the show put on him as the fun, troublemaking uncle. Fox knew what they were doing when they cast him in the first place, so I feel vindicated for championing the good X-Men movies that he was in. I’m sure Disney had all the money in the world to get Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but they didn’t, and good on them for picking Evan Peters for this show.
• [Semi-Spoilers] Age of Ultron Callbacks– Avengers: Age of Ultron was a pretty bad movie by MCU standards, so it was nice to have the story elements from it handled better than the movie itself did. I would fit Infinity War callbacks into this category too. Dealing directly with Wanda’s grief regarding Vision’s death was a great choice, as well as her brother’s death. I’ve been disappointed that Marvel movies have lately been dancing around real-world grief and not exploring deeper themes because… what, Disney gets afraid kids won’t watch it? Kids are gonna watch it either way. Tasteful treatment of grief and loss is what I would consider responsible fiction. To ignore these would make the whole show lose its soul.
• [Spoilers] Radicalization and Experimentation (HYDRA)- Depicting Wanda and Pietro as political radicals after the war in Sokovia is another example of responsible fiction. This added depth to Wanda, which is great, because I usually hate the character. She usually seems milquetoast and a bit like a Mary Sue, so building on her past was important. Although I’m admittedly confused as to the timeframe that allows HYDRA to experiment on her with Loki’s spear, it made enough sense.

The Flaws of WandaVision

• Slow, Slow Start– I don’t have a problem with slow shows and movies, but it shouldn’t take FOUR WHOLE EPISODES TO GET TO THE ACTUAL STORY. I was taught in a creative writing class that a GOOD story should make its audience ask “What’s going to happen?” not “What is happening?” Guess which one WandaVision did in spades? The second one. How can you go FOUR EPISODES before we actually start to understand what the real conflict and motivations are? Our only concrete indications that the first episode is something other than a gimmicky sitcom loosely based on Wanda and Vision’s relationship is the red light on the Stark toaster, the choking scene, and the credits. Ideally, we should have been introduced to S.W.O.R.D.’s presence and the anomaly at the end of the first episode. Removing the letterboxing, adding color and showing a TV screen just makes the audience ask “what’s going on?” again, instead of investing people in the real struggle that’s developing in the background. It made everything before episode 5 feel like a slog.
• [Spoilers] Deus Ex-Monica– The scene where Monica Rambeau gets her powers is fun, but I am left scratching my head as to what her powers are, how going through the barrier gave them to her, and what her mother had to do with it. I have theories that it was an X-Men-like emotionally-awakened powers situation, but that’s weak unless your whole mythos is based around it. She just gets the powers because it’s convenient, and it’s not really all that important in the end that she have those powers… whatever they were. To clarify, I’m referring to the powers showing up as being a deus ex machina for Monica, not for Wanda, because Wanda obviously defeats Agatha through her own powers alone.
• [Spoilers] Definition of Powers- In this day and age, especially with a television show format, I don’t see any reason why the writers don’t do something to explain Wanda’s powers. If the foundations for how magic works in the MCU was addressed in an early/middle episode (for example, her teaching her son after finding out he had magic powers) that would make Agatha teaching Wanda how runes work feel less like a moustache-twirling villain accidentally giving away the secrets their plan. Wanda clearly knows how magic works already, so why wouldn’t she know about casting runes? They took a soft magic system and started adding rules to it. We also don’t understand why Agatha was more powerful than the witches that tried to kill her. Did Loki’s spear give Wanda her powers? If so, how can powers bestowed by the mind stone be powerful enough to destroy the mind stone in Infinity War? Is her power simply manipulation of matter, or the power to alter reality? If its both, WHY WOULDN’T YOU EXPLAIN THAT? I just feels like old Superman comics where they just gave him a new power when they wanted to. Considering that the entire plot of the series is set in motion by Wanda using her powers, an explanation of her powers is at least expedient, if not essential.
• [Spoilers] Where did the white Vision Go?- While not critical to the story, I am confused as to where the white Vision went. I am sure it will be relevant to season 2 (if they do one) or a later movie. Also, on that same topic, how did (regular) Vision escape Wanda’s spell? I get that he started to fall apart as soon as he left, but shouldn’t he have disintegrated the moment he reached the edge of her spell? He doesn’t really exist, and it doesn’t appear that he is constructed from Vision’s animated remains. If he was, it would have made more sense if we saw the remains (complete with head wound) reach out and try to talk to the people outside Westview instead of a magical projection existing outside of its bounds, however momentary. Isn’t it also a bit strange that the US military would reproduce the same android that Tony Stark created in every way except its purpose and color scheme? why not make him look like someone else? Yes, I admit this bullet point is way less significant than the other points, but these things still bother me.

End rant, unless I think of more gripes and add them later.

WandaVision Verdict

All things considered, WandaVision is a watchable, enjoyable show, even if the start is slow. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. It’s just good. The older I get the more I feel like that’s the MCU’s M.O., making good content consistently while DC makes both the best and the worst content consistently. That’s why I place the mock sitcom/reality adventure series at 6.5/10. The flaws hit hard, and weaken other aspects of the show, and I feel like most of my favorite parts don’t really pull enough weight to keep the show out of middling territory. If 4/9ths of your show feels more like a gimmick than an ongoing story, you have a problem. Those remaining 5/9ths won’t save it. I don’t want people to ignore its flaws just because it scratched an increasingly desperate itch in its time. I doubt the series will be remembered in the future as entertainment that released at just the right time to capture the hearts of pandemic-weary audiences. It will be judged without that very specific and unique context. If you liked WandaVision, that’s fine, but I think, in this situation, historicity just doesn’t matter as much as it might with other shows, video games, or movies.

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Reviews of the other Disney+ Marvel shows to come later.