Yesterday I watched the 4 episodes of the total 9 that are available from the first season of the miniseries “WandaVision”, created for the streaming service Disney+, by Jac Schaeffer, based on Marvel Comics characters Wanda Maximoff (The Scarlet Witch) and Vision and I can already say that the series has grabbed my attention, although I don’t have a deep knowledge of these comics super-powered beings that the series was inspired.
The series is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise, and the events take place after the facts that occurred in the movie “Avengers: Endgame”, according to the pre-release created by Disney + during the launch of the series. The series mixes science fiction, comedy, drama and hero adventure is produced by Marvel Studios, with Schaeffer acting as a head of screenwriter and Matt Shakman as director. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision, respectively, in the film series.
The miniseries depicts Wanda Maximoff and Vision, a couple of two super-powered beings living in disguise, trying to live like normal people in a North American suburb called Westview that, after inexplicably confusing events, they begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems. The idea of the series is original when it mixes two classic elements such as comic book heroes’ journeys and popular television languages like the sitcoms genre – an exclusive mix in an audiovisual production as far as I can remember.
The way the narrative unfolds during the first 3 episodes is not as good as the idea and theme, but it captivated my attention while I was trying to understand the logic within the universe of the series. The series is a beautiful tribute to the history of television and popular sitcoms from the 50s, 60s and 70s. We can see a lot of sitcoms references during the TV show such as “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, “Bewitched”, “A Dream of Jeannie”, “I love Lucy”, “The Partridge Family” and “The Brady Bunch” through the dramaturgical construction of the script and the characters, the cinematographic language adopted by the direction and, the reconstruction of the times by the art direction. Although, I think that tribute to the history of American television sometimes gets boring, dated, through long dialogues, silly situations and not funny gags during the first 3 episodes.
The series includes its own vintage-style commercials, which include intriguing references to elements of the MCU personally significant to Wanda, including Stark Industries (whom she blamed for the death of her parents), and Baron Von Strucker (the scientist whose experiments gave her powers).
Only at the end of the third episode with the storyline that involves Wanda and her mysterious neighbour Geraldine – who knows more than she should know about the secrets of the super-empowered being couple – that the series has a great hook that will lead to the “key of the mystery of the series”. At this moment everything starts to make sense into the series universe.
In the fourth episode, I finally saw the conflict being established: Wanda, Vision and their neighbours live within a parallel reality in comparison to the real world, but why this happens and its consequences are topics for the next episodes, which I am looking forward to watching them. After all, in this series, everything is not as it seems.
Photos Credits: Marvel / Disney+
