A visionary new age of television.
WandaVision is a 2021 superhero sitcom created by Jac Schaeffer. It is now streaming straight to Disney+. The series will run for nine episodes until March 5, 2021. The series stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. It is based on various Marvel Comics. This series is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, acting as the first of the original MCU shows. The next will be The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
"This is our home." -Wanda Maximoff
Plot
As newly weds, Wanda and Vision move into the suburbs and try to fit in as normal people while concealing their powers. When strange occurrences begin taking place, Wanda and Vision realize something is very off with their new life.
Episode 4 "We Interrupt This Program" Review
This episode of WandaVision is the first of the episodes that is not a sitcom. Without getting into spoilers, this episode is true to its title. This episode, in a way, does feel like an interruption to this program. The episode is not about Wanda and Vision. It doesn't really move the plot forward. But it does give us some very interesting and key information that provides context for what we've seen in the previous three episodes. We do get a couple of extremely creepy scenes and the tone is growing increasingly dark. This episode is basically a prequel episode to the show. It's like the Revenge of the Sith or the Captain Marvel of WandaVision. You see all the pieces fit into place. To that point, it also feels more like something from the MCU. Obviously, WandaVision has been a sitcom up until this point, which is something that Marvel has never done. This episode definitely feels like part of the MCU. We get some characters that have appeared in previous movies and shows, references to previous big Marvel events, and definitely bigger connections to the world outside of Westview. This episode is here to provide answers to the questions that we've been asking, and it does so very well. It doesn't provide enough, because we still don't really know what's going on, but we definitely have a much better idea. With that said, the plot does not move forward. There is one big reveal at the end of the episode, but besides that, it's pretty much here to give us context to the previous three episodes. If you haven't liked the sitcom-y stuff, then this is a great episode for you.
Fun Factor: 8.5/10
Acting: 8.5/10
Story: 9.5/10
Characters: 7.5/10
Quality: 8.5/10
"We Interrupt This Program"
Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis
Randall Park as Jimmy Woo
Teyonah Paris as Monica Rambeau
Josh Stamberg as Director Tyler Hayward
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
Paul Bettany as Vision
34 minutes
Aired on January 29, 2021
IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN WANDAVISION EPISODE 4, STOP READING!!!!!!
Episode 4 Spoiler Section
So, obviously, this is not the typical episode of WandaVision, but it did provide some cool answers. I liked that it started off by showing us what happened with Monica Rambeau. We see the effects of the snap (or The Blip as they actually call it in the MCU) as Monica comes back. There is chaos everywhere, which shows how even the good snap where everyone comes back can create terror and confusion among regular people.
We get quick confirmation of S.W.O.R.D. as they skip a month forward in time. Monica is now working with them and she gets assigned to the case in Westview. We follow her to Westview, where the forcefield is invisible. Jimmy Woo, the guy who was keeping Scott Lang in check in Ant-Man and the Wasp is there. There are a couple of police officers who say that Westview doesn't exist, and that immediately clicks a switch, showing that something is very, very wrong.
Monica flies the helicopter that we saw in the second episode that was in color (which we still don't know why it's in color), and it disappears. Then she approaches the forcefield and gets sucked in. This was cool. It showed how she entered the reality and got transformed into Geraldine. Then we cut to Darcy Lewis from the first twoThor movies, and she is the one who discovers Wanda and Vision in the sitcom. It was really fun to have Darcy and Jimmy back in this episode. It made for some nice, fun banter between the two.
We get a big montage of everything. Darcy was the one sitting in front of the TV in the first episode. Jimmy's voice came from the radio. The beekeeper was a S.W.O.R.D. agent in a hazmat suit that got transformed into a bee suit. There are still some blanks that aren't filled in, though. We don't know why or how these characters break from the reality. We don't know why or how they got in there. What we did find out is that all of the people inside the reality is a person in the real world...except for Agnes. Agnes didn't have an ID card next to her picture on the S.W.O.R.D. board, and I found that very interesting.
Then we move into Westview for the final two or three minutes. We see Wanda viciously toss Monica out of Westview. This scene had the two actresses continue their amazing performances from episode three. Then Vision comes in. This was insanely creepy. He's basically a zombie. He walks in and we see his gray, pupil less face with a big hole in his head. This was how he looked when Thanos tore the stone out of his head. Wanda looks down, then looks back up, and Vision is regular again. Then Wanda convinces him that Westview is their home and they can't leave.
The last fifteen seconds are Monica telling Jimmy that the reality is "all Wanda". This freaked me out. That's basically confirmation that Wanda is controlling the reality. And, to be honest, I haven't decided if I liked that or not. Scarlet Witch is a superhero. She is a good guy. I do not want her to become a villain after she had a great redemptive arc. I'm fine if Vision's dead. I'm fine if Agnes is the villain. I just really don't want Wanda to be the antagonist of this series.
I am still extremely excited for episode five and can't wait to see what happens with all of this new context that we have from this episode. We'll see next week.