You nailed it with Marvel's biggest strength of consistency of tone being also it's biggest weakness after time has exposed the formula and it's diminishing returns
I agree the formula has been stale for a while, but diminishing returns? Marvel has never been bigger. Their returns are massive, giving them no reason to change up their shtick.
@@nickjanz7595 You are right they are still massive. If Marvel is gonna be such a titan in the industry wouldn't it be nice if their films were more than just good.
@@okdthefmv Yeah that would be nice, completely agree with you there. The fact that their returns are not diminishing, but are actually increasing makes that far less likely though. They go for the broadest appeal possible on every project. I'd personally love to see them take risks and change it up, but they don't need/want to because that's not their goal. Whether we like it or not, they're a titan because of their formula.
@@moonlitebrite9317 I am happy that they subverted their formula for quite a bit, just sucked to see how much their formula can spoil, what's good for the main story's needs.
well said. i wish we could've followed vision's story of figuring out what's going on from the inside instead of getting all the information shoved down our throats by the SWORDies, none of whom are remotely compelling characters. in terms of story, the wanda/vision relationship was the most interesting thing for me and i would've loved to see a real conflict there
I guess I was pleasantly surprised by the finale because, for better or worse, I’d had lower expectations from the start. One of the first featurettes Marvel released about the show featured Paul Bettany literally saying “it starts as this crazy sitcom and then it devolves into the Marvel spectacle and action we all know and love.” I wasn’t very happy to hear that - but I always knew that’s what things were going to boil down to be. My main question going into the finale was whether they’d be able to conclude Wanda and Vision’s relationship in a satisfying way...and despite my better impulses, I was really invested in the two of them as characters by the time the show ended. So I can’t say the generic CGI final battle bullshit was good, but I did find myself surprised that anyone had expected anything *other* than that. Maybe I’m just a broken man.
I just can't believe that they went to all that trouble of getting Evan Peters back to reprise his role as Quicksilver, only for him to be... A random guy with a crude name?! 🤦🏽♀️
@@_mylo_xyloto_1816 Yeah, if you're going to have a final cgi battle AT LEAST inject the sitcom aesthetic with it! Have the battle be more intimate and small-scaled but with the decades of sitcoms glitching around them! Imagine how visually stunning and unique that wouldve been. WandaVision is just a bundle of missed opportunities and half-assed writing
I think the finale being essentially "Act 3 Marvel formula" for the entire episode is what hurt my viewing of the series. Up until then I really loved it, ignoring some aspects like the SWORD scenes and weird meta-humor, but the finale being an entire viewing experience of 100% the thing that I'm tired of with Marvel was pretty exhausting. Also thank you for pointing out how surface level the Ship of Theseus discussion was, I felt like I was going insane when everyone acted like it was the most intelligent thing on the planet.
What made WandaVision really work for me was it was ultimately a story about Wanda processing her grief and trauma. The villains and other supporting characters were superfluous to that. The sitcom parts and the MCU parts all feed into the exploration of grief in different ways.
Wanda's arc was about processing grief, but how does she process it? She fights Agatha, wins, and then is suddenly totally willing to let go of her loved ones and move on. No emotional epiphany. No insight or growth. She just decides at the end she's suddenly totally cool with losing Vis again as well as her two kids, and then Doctor Strange 2 comes along and completely retcons that and makes her the Wanda she was at the start of WandaVision again.
Yeah i really didn’t give a fuck about S.W.O.R.D, i felt like that stuff really went nowhere and Agatha is not a good villain either. The real conflict could have been Vision leading Wanda to face what she did head on and help her through her grief. I feel like the S.W.O.R.D stuff was just there to introduce Monica’s future arc. The show is good but yeah it suffers from Marvel’s usual issues, badly written villains and sometimes focusing too hard on introducing future stuff instead of making a cohesive stand alone product.
If anything I would have liked more interaction between Monica and Wanda since they shared a somewhat similar grief. They only had Monica go into the Hex to get her powers, but do nothing with it once she gets in.
for me personally problem is not fact that villain is bad written but fact that story had villain at all. because of first episodes I thought that wanda would be her main antagonist, one who is making problems and in finale she would release all she was doing was wrong , would grow and be able to live with fact that vision died but no series really needed random 17-th century witch who would turns out to be behind everything and cliche military who will do anything to get strong weapon as villains.
I think it would be more interesting if Agatha, even as super witch, actually was trying to be wanda's friend. They both being insane witches, but Agatha like pushes wanda to the side onde day and is like "oh wow wanda my bewitched friend you really knocked it out the park by enslaving and torturing a whole town could you teach me such trickery", as if it was as natural a thing as trading recipes. Still on the rune chamber but this time for being able to talk not because uh kidnapping. Kind of what Pietro did by being able to make wanda confront what she did without her ignoring him like with Vision, but instead of being a product of her own self delusion its a third party who recites back to wanda her own words and deeds by what it actually is, some grim shit. And wanda wouldnt even be able to shut her up because of the rune stuff. Wanda would be either unable to condemn Agatha for what she wanted to learn or she would condemn agatha for being sick before realizing she's sick as well. Now without her tool for violence she uses to escape everything. Im doing fanfic by now but it would add a layer of a trauma ridden person turning abusive and literally rounding themselves with yes-men being shocked when "am i the baddie?" isnt just a joke anymore. TLDR: Agatha actually being wanda's friend instead of surprise villain would be cooler.
It just has so many odd choices that by the end just doesn’t amount to anything but a set up for a few characters. I didn’t hate the show entirely nor did I love it. Just kinda left a little disappointed.
I'm a Marvel comics fan so seeing Wanda resembling even a portion of her full capacity in the MCU excites me, but what really, really makes me enjoy the show was how well Elizabeth and Paul played their roles.
@@sloppnbiscuiitz I said it cuz they’re showing “true potential of female characters” yet they trash out male characters Loki, hulk , thanos , thor are some examples If it were to based on comics thanos should’ve one shotted scarlett witch
I was excited in the first few episodes because I thought they were gonna make Wanda the villain which would have changed the Marvel formula but they ended up having the same standard faceoff against the reverse-versions of the heroes.
I feel like they really could have improved it by just slowing it down. Like I could have watched a whole season of Wanda sitcom-land with weird stuff getting more prominent, and the finale being the reveal that the whole town is fake. That reveal in the show was just too soon to be impactful.
My problem with the show is the character of Monica Rambeau who states to Wanda in the finale and I quote, “They’ll never know what you sacrificed for them.” Are you kidding me? You mean the hundreds if not thousands of innocent towns people who were mentally raped by you and taken from their loved ones, including children, just so that you can live out your sitcom fantasy. Another issue I had is that Hayward, the head of S.W.O.R.D. is presented as the villain and has his authority constantly challenged by Monica and her cohorts. He is arrested for rebuilding Vision which he had a right to do to challenge threats such as Wanda.
Tho I understand Hayward's anxiety but did u forget Vision's will was not be reanimated after his death bcz he didn't wanted to a mindless killing robot? Hayward literally framed Wanda for stealing Vision and disrespecting Vision's will when in reality he himself was doing it.
Ok i definitely agree that wanda didnt seem to fully appreciate that she hurt all these people, i feel like they skipped a step and jumped straight to her having empathy for herself for being a hurt person who ended up hurting others because of it. But i also think the show explored trauma in a more interesting way than other marvel movies, and even had some anti patriotic, and even kind of terrorist empathizing scenes (like exploring how wanda had ended up as part of that organization) which i appreciated and didnt expect from marvel.
agatha's whole storyline was just so weird she was... not a Big Bad at all but narratively they treated her like one to make the blame FEEL less on Wanda when it entirely was.
I wish they wouldn’t cut the sword angle and made it all about Vision figuring out what he’s dealing with. It would’ve made the mystery more compelling.
I don’t agree that this becomes a Monica origin story since they abandon her so much by the end of the series. It’s a weird B plot. She gets her couple focused episodes but that’s it. And yeah they failed to give pretty much everybody a good arc in the finale
The phrase "Wow, Marvel is finally doing something different!" starts to loose it's meaning when I've heard this phrase said about like 8 different Marvel movies in the past few years.
@@chardrive Yeah even I liked Ant-Man and can't figure out what makes it *different*. White guy cracks jokes while learning to be a hero and there's some fun visuals. Kind of a generic marvel movie.
I find your take on this very interesting because a lot of people I've talked to found the sitcom portion to be the most boring part, which makes sense. Some people came to Wandavision for a marvel show, and so by that metric the first four episodes would be a bit of a drag. Some people came for the sitcom aspect or the assumed creativity of the show, and so naturally the SWORD aspects would be disappointing. I think it really depends on what you wanted from the show, and for that, I think Wandavision was a great exercise in managing our expectations.
Kevin Feige said 4th phase going to be different and so I watched it with same mentality. As a result neither the sitcom nor sword disappoint me. Overall it was fine but I do feel in finally the side characters conclusion could have been better.
Wow, Wandavision sure was a show that I watched. It was there. The effects looked good. The acting was good. The story was ok. The theme was probably something about grief. I don’t know, in all seriousness I think the show could’ve been a lot better but you can’t hate marvel for just hooking you in and then maintaining good ratings. I wanted more from it but I’m not mad with what I got.
When you talk about how wandavision combines the episodic nature of tv with the dramatic arc of movies, it reminded me of Maniac, which is an absolutely amazing miniseries if you haven't seen it yet
lol that comment about the duff beer is my life, I remember years ago seeing a Los Pollos Hermanos mug in a shop and thinking oh cool it looks like the mug Gus Fring ha- oh great there's a big Breaking Bad logo on the other side to ruin the immersion
I have a couple of Los Pollos Hermanos tee shirts. I'm very grateful they had the sense to put the Breaking Bad logo on the inside where you can't see it.
Ok last comment- i thought it was really weird that wanda ended up putting agatha back under the spell at the end, it just seemed like a pg way to deal with her instead of killing her or something- but as we learned being put under that control is practically worse than death, and whether its applied to a villain or random civilian, i feel like that showcases that wanda didnt fully respect the severity to which she hurt people by doing that to them and it showed in how ok she was to do it to agatha
I could be wrong but it feels like they are setting up to use Agatha again- maybe in Multiverse of Madness. Especially with her line, "you're gonna need me you know" (or something like that), to me it felt on the nose like "I'LL BE BACK". From what I know of her comic character, she acts as a sort of teavher/mentor to Wanda, so I'm guessing that's what will happen in future Marvel movies.
Yeah I didn't like that. I feel like Wanda never really learned a lesson during the show. She gave up Vision but still searches for the kids at the end, she learns that the mind control is wrong but just does it anyways. I feel disappointed that they tried to make her sympathetic at the end. It feels like Hayward and Agatha were just there so Wanda didn't have to be the villain, which she still is.
@@helloill672 yeah i get that. i wasnt really disappointed that they tried to make her a sympathetic character at the end but i think they definitely should have spent more time showing her feeling remorse and seeing herself as the bad guy before she had compassion for herself
"Wanda should have killed Agatha"- * Wanda kills Agatha * fans : She is villan! Wht a waste of Agatha ! "Wanda mind controls Agatha" - fans : Wanda didn't learn anything! She should have killed Agatha! Seriously wht u guys want?!
@@Vor567tezwe want a consistent character arc that lines up with the story... also youre quoting different peoples conflicting opinions like all fandoms have...
I think the overlying issue with all of the show’s problems: the tone, mystery, structure, multiverse, villains, etc. is an unwillingness to commit to anything
It was so interesting to me that some people HATED the first two/three eps and “it only started getting good” when “everything was explained”. It was so weird because I thought the complete opposite!!! Thanks so much for an amazing vid. You said it perfectly icon
Objection! Agatha killed all of the other witches, including her own mother, by using her magic to steal their magic before they burned her for betraying their coven. Wanda never tried to kill everybody in Westview, even though Sharon Davis wanted her to do that.
It's difficult for me to judge the show as a whole entity knowing just how much Covid effected the filming of episode 9 and outright eliminated episode 10. Would I still have been disappointed if they hadn't been forced to push 2 episodes worth of story into one? I don't know. I thought Agatha and Monica could have become really interesting by the story's end but we'll never know because it seems like a lot of their stuff had been cut. Many scenes in the finale feel awkaward because the show went back to filming as soon as soon as they were able to and restrictions were at their highest. I don't think that really changes a lot of the fundamental issues I have with the show, because there are certainly more problems than just the final episode, but it does make me want to give the creators more of the benefit of the doupt.
I wish I'd known this going in. Episode 9 is my only major gripe with the show because of how rushed and chaotic it felt (and not the style of chaos you could say they were going for). So yeah hearing that it's actually 2 episodes squashed together because of covid makes a lot of sense
2 episodes were not squashed together because of COVID! It was all filmed by March 1st, before the pandemic lockdown hit us. I mean, they probably went back for some reshoots in September, but even before the lockdown, a whole scene had been filmed with Agatha's rabbit, Señor Scratchy, morphing into a gigantic monster when Darcy, Ralph, Monica, Tommy and Billy tried to steal Agatha's dark witch book. March 19, 2021, 1:34pm
The first three episodes were great fun, and I still enjoyed the rest of the series for the same reason I tend to enjoy every popular show: I hear about how bad it is, naturally lower my expectations, and end up focusing on the positives instead. It's not sophisticated, but I'm just some lady trying to enjoy watching stuff. Really liked your analysis. :)
I clocked out after the hand was played. I just wanted something interesting that doesn’t connect with the entire MCU, just a small vignette of a character that had little screen time. But no. Marvel’s gotta marvel.
That's kinda a weird thing to ask from a film franchise that's be explicitly not that for it's entire existence... I don't understand why you thought that's what you would be getting? Did something in the promo make it seem like it would be that? I'm genuinely confused and mean zero hate. I'm just wondering where you're coming from. If you want something with Marvel characters that isn't connected to the MCU, anything made by the defunct Marvel TV studio is exactly that. Such as the Netflix shows or the Runaways on Hulu
Wanting Power for Powers sake, was a let down for Agatha and the SHIELD director. If it was Agatha's apprentice that turned the coven on her, that would be better motivation for her not trusting others and not wanting to be in a vulnerable position of weakness. But all her backstory showed was she was power hungry then, and she's still power hungry now.
Or something cool like yeah she was batshit insane all along, actual disney villain brain making her do evil stuff, and as a mirror wanda has made the case that shes doing... evil stuff because she "has a reason" this entire time. But then making a point that... is it reaaally less evil or more understandable to enslave and torture a city because you "had a reason" instead of not. The just-evil person is totally down to teaming with you so...? I needed a "wanda did turn abusive through trauma but trauma isnt a reason to turn abusive." just a little condemnation but no they got to make her a girlboss they cant they cant do it
I believe I remember someone from the show saying the CGI looked off at the end because they shot it during the pandemic. All the things leading up to it were shot in 2019.
Honestly it would have been much more interesting if Agatha hit a bit more personal and was the main villain and then during the final episode Sword takes notice because there was a disturbance or something. Sword just takes up way too much and adds literally nothing. Also mind control is one of those things I feel like Hollywood never fully commits to. Like they show me some tears and tell me it's bad, but like just fucking put me in those people's shoes and emotionally scar me.
literally almost every marvel movies/tv show has some government agency involved as either a neutral moderator of superheroes or like a secret corrupted entity. I figured this out after watching Wandavision and wondering why SWORD had to have such a big role and why it felt like it was limiting its characters and the story itself. Black Panther had the CIA, which it didn't need, and Captain Marvel was bogged down by the intro of Shield AND the Air Force. Even that Loki show has some weird agency controlling him, i bet that Falcon and WInter Soldier show will too. :/
Marvel is the embodiment of Occam's Razor which is what made Wandavision so disappointing to me. They made it seem like there was all these allusions and Easter eggs and mysteries, but the main villain was the person people figured out the identity of when the first trailer dropped, nothing came of any Easter eggs, and it just ended up a big dud. I don't even think the sitcom format was ambitious because marvel is known for humor. They had a chance to really make people think, but either they don't trust their audience or themselves to go beyond doing the obvious. By the end of the final episode I was extremely annoyed and disappointed. I only liked a few episodes truly. Things were either ignored or not actually explained (Darcy calling it a hex but us never learning why we actually were seeing hexagons everywhere, for example. including hayward's office). Such a missed opportunity of a show.
I also find it interesting that you included watchmen, because I often referred to how that show was handled: it was smart, and everything mattered from the dialogue to the visuals. most of wandavision was wasted. this could have been a 90 minute movie.
I was so underwhelmed with the final, and it had nothing to do with having insane expectations or fan theories. The whole episode just felt rushed and a massive drop in quality compared to the rest of the series. The CGI and direction were awful, the writing and dialogue was inferior, and the villains felt so one-dimensional. Agatha has about as much depth as a Saturday morning cartoon, and Hayward goes from a jackass with sound motivations to a full on psychopath that tries to cap two ten year olds. There were also barely any consequences for Wanda's actions as they quickly blow over the fact that she took an entire town hostage and she offers no apologies to any of the townspeople despite possibly causing them an immense amount of mental trauma. Don't even get me started on the whole Quicksilver plot. I honestly refuse to believe that they would cast Evan Peters for the role and string us along for 5 episodes teasing a multiverse plot, just for it to be a one-off dick joke.
“Barely any consequences” did you even watch the show? And the implications of the ending? Oh right because we’re too busy throwing a tantrum over Evan Peters being no more than what the story needed him to be 🙄
Great to see a video like this. I don't tend to enjoy MCU movies (though I'm always open to enjoying them), and that often feels alienating when so many of my peers get so excited about them. Good to hear some well thought criticism on it, which unfortunately is kind of brave to do.
Your tone of voice and cadence is quite ambiguous and intriguing; sardonic and thoroughly unammused but not hostile or aggressive even if what you're saying is rather scathing. Genius balance! Great review!
I freakin love your analysis. You find the perfect words to say everything I think, but as if for a film school essay instead of just ranting for fun. I love it
Jimmy's missing witness was Adrian Toomes (vulture)... he was arrested in spiderman homecoming, put into witness protection for flipping on his criminal counterparts, then he flew the coup, just like Jimmy said and we will see him reappear again in spider-man no way home as part of the Sinister Six
I'd give it like a 7/10 or 8/10. Loved the first 6 episodes but the other 2 were really just ... fine. I thought some characters were well developed but i guess it's a story about wanda and vision and i think they were great in this and i think they did a great job with making these two characters interesting.
I agree. The Marvel (TM) elements of the show engulf the product and devour all the things that made it interesting and unique. The saddest part is that the segments with S.W.O.R.D are every bit as cliched and over the top as the TV parodies... except they are being framed as "reality." The off-putting cringe of that whiplash was very distracting.
I really liked the sitcom stuff too, the first couple episodes were my favorites and then... it got too Marvel-y. Lmao thought they were doing something different.
I thoroughly enjoyed Wandavision. I think the show explores trauma and grief in such a compelling way. While Wanda's actions are horrifying, it's difficult not to sympathize with her. I agree that Agatha and the "sword boss" (whose name I couldn't be bothered to remember) are rather one-dimensional in that they appear to simply be power hungry. In contrast, there is almost an innocence or purity attached to Wanda's motivations. She desperately craves the love, connection and intimacy that has been stripped from her time and time again. Her method of coping is horrifying yet understandable given her trauma. I am always delighted at the chance to witness the humanity of the "villain". They allowed us to sympathize with Wanda, without sugarcoating the damage (for instance, the single tear flowing from one of her victim's who is barely moving). I never expect cinema/television to be flawless but it was a compelling story and meaningful to me personally. I appreciated that the dialogue/comedy changed along with the style. When people say that the "jokes aren't funny" in the first couple episodes I wonder if they realize that the show is merely mimicking the dialogue and humor of the decade. I Love Lucy is great but it wouldn't get many laughs out of me today. Overall, I thought it was excellent. I enjoy these critiques but as someone who would like to further understand cinema, it would also be interesting to hear what you would do differently rather than only what went wrong. What would make it a masterpiece?
I disagree a bit. I feel like Wanda's actions were too brushed off. Monica says at the end "they'll never understand what you scarfaced for them" and Wanda just gets to fly away with out even saying a sorry to mind control civilians.
@@helloill672 Wanda replies to Monica “It wouldn’t change how they see me”. An apology is a waste of breath at this point. She’s done apologizing for who she is. Everyone grieves in their own way. That’s not an excuse, it’s an explanation. Now she’s alone, feared, misunderstood...again. Only this time, she has the tools to become something more. Her actions weren’t brushed off, it was acknowledged that people can’t hurt her anymore. That’s her victory, a pyrrhic one, but a victory all the same.
I read this on my instagram explore page so I do not know if this is true, but there was a CGI fight scene between Pietro, Monica and the Twins vs. Agatha's Demon Bunny that was cut due to COVID? The post said that there were removed scenes from the final episode because they couldn't be animated in time since the show was wrapping production when COVID started. Is that true?
The moment I saw the trailer with the two people literally watching it on a screen, and the lady says to the guy “It’s a sitcom” I knew it wasn’t gonna be great.
I definitely agree that as the show went on it just blended back in to the typical marvel style, but i honestly went into wandavision expecting to have a bunch of nitpicky issues with it and i didnt. It would have been cool if it had delved deeper into the experimental side, but i dont hate the typical marvel style so i thought it was fine that it ended up going into that anyways. Overall i still thought it was the best thing marvel has done in a while, and does give me some hope that theyve seen going in different directions can still get a good public response and maybe theyll do more off the wall things in the future
Wanda should have become the main villain of WandaVision, but for marketing issues (meaning she was the only female avenger that remained) it didn't happen probably. Marvel has a villain problem too, comic books were written with certain rules in mind, like 'In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.' (check Comics Code Authority) and that translated to the movies aswell. Sure you can say that was applied to a different genre but most of inspiration and things we see in movies came from comic books although they aren't following the rules anymore, its impact remains. That's why the most definitive victory from a villain doesn't last longer than 2 movies.
the moment they tried to like,, explain why wanda was LITERALLY creating a 60's inspired black and white world was when the show kinda started going south for me. i wish it would've just been an stylistic choice, not a literal thing that was happening and a scientist was trying to explain. it felt so lame
I think we should've been kept in the sitcom the whole time and the only breaks in that be from wanda or vision's view. We should've been mostly kept in the dark about what's happening outside but still have the breaks they cause
I liked the show the most during the creative sitcom episodes and I think the concept would have been stronger if it wasn't tied to the MCU, with the final few episodes feeling more generic. That said I think the major focus of the show was an exploration of Wanda as a character, and it absolutely succeeded at that. Yes she didn't reconcile with what she'd done, but I see that as a step in her development, not a mistake in the conclusion.
There was so much hype around this show that I almost thought it was worth watching - however, I didn't hear any reasons about why it was actually good. So now knowing the twist (which I put together knowing there's a twist and from my cursory knowledge of the comic books) and that every episode is a recreation of old sitcoms (which I don't care about), there's nothing exciting for me And I guess everything else you say is also true, so thanks for explaining it to me
The first two episodes were my favorites and I loved the Halloween episode because, well, Malcolm in the Middle lol. I think I’d agree that they spoon-fed the explanations at times and the SWORD scenes were not always great. Overall, I really liked the series. I think it’s in the top five for the MCU. I totally understand the criticisms though. My biggest complaint with the finale had to do with Ralph. In retrospect, I think it’s a good idea that they didn’t make him Fox’s Quicksilver bc that would mean I’d have to watch those movies lol. On the other hand, it felt anticlimactic that he just sort of disappeared after Monica took his necklace off...? Anyways, I love the concept of literally using TV/media as escapism. It’s been said before but it sure felt relatable haha. I do think this would have been different if this concept was not used in the MCU. Idk if it would’ve been better (especially without all the previous context) but it would’ve been different.
As someone who does like the MCU, I disagreed with a lot of stuff aside from finale being disappointing. It just left me feeling nothing about it, so seeing so many people say “I liked it” just confuses me. Did we watched the same finale? Or is it just me?
I liked that Wanda got to say good by to vision on her own terms but I think it really could’ve been better, I just hope that if they do go for a second season that they focus more on Wanda’s emotional arch and less on whatever the rest of the world is doing. (They said they’d be open to a second season which is the only reason I bring that up)
I find it really hard to hate on the show because of the finale. It wasn't a good finale but still the rest of the roller coaster was fun. And if they had just gone with the comic plot of Agatha was messing with her to force her to come to terms with her grief instead of flashy powers time it would have worked.
I thought it was wonderful, to see Wanda's journey of grief. It was done so well. I too felt like it was becoming the Monica show for awhile, until it pulled back. I also wish the finale wasn't a CGI battle of the witchcraft. I think ultimately that's what went wrong with the series. Otherwise, loved every second of it.
Wanda Vision were well written . But I don't understand what u mean by the CGI battle btw the witches was not there? Bcz how else will they show 2 witch fighting.
The sitcom aspects were the show’s biggest strengths and if they had stuck with that, WandaVision could have satisfied me. By the end of the show, we were right back to “sky beam, CGI fight scene” that happens in every single MCU production. If tried to retain what made the show unique, it would have worked better. Also, fuck the finale. What the hell was that??? I was so many issues with that episode. Between the terrible CGI and generic battle, I was so disappointed
the thing is that the final fight sequence gave us Nothing. they recreated Vision in this sick fight sequence that ends in a cool convo: what a nice switch from the regular that really made sense for the characters! then the end fight was exactly what we've already seen, and especially with the format of releasing one episode at a time, people speculated and found fun clues and theories, they couldn't live up to it. they really dug their own grave with the ending they chose.
Imo Agatha was such a bland 1 dimensional character. The first couple episodes were decent but after Agatha was introduced (with that annoying song), it just went kinda eh, the scene of vision and Wanda sitting on the bed watching tv and talking was the best scene in the show for me, that's sad. It's amazing to have a complex character with flaws as a main character , but all wanda was was a flaw. They took it too far trying to make a good character and made a bland character in the other direction of what normally see. And season 9 was... why. In all they had a bad villain, a main character with so much promise but they went too far with her flaws that it became stale, vision was great imo. And a wasted quicksilver
Nothing like finding a video one year later. If you liked the first few episodes of WandaVision, but were ultimately dissatisfied with how it used the premise (i.e. how it caved to generic MCU setup junk), you should read Tom King's Vision maxiseries. Far more emotionally satisfying.
*YOU PUT MY THOUGHTS INTO WORDS. ALL OF THEM.* Although somehow I can forgive the Duff Beer thing because Universal tries. Marvel's logo looks so bland.
From the very first episode I basically knew what it was about what theme it was going to explore which kind of made the first few episodes a slog and the last few already spoiled.
I personally think the evan peters boner joke is actually a joke on the die hard fans who dissect theses movies frame by frame to build crazy ass theories and produce clickbait thumb nails. And honestly? I laughed at that.
I can't believe I was supposed to think Evan Peters who plays Quicksilver in the X-men movies showing up on this show which is leading up to a movie called In the Multiverse of Madness and is playing Quicksilver was not actually Quicksilver yes I'm very upset my theory didn't pan out lmaoo
Could you maybe make a video about Loki? You make some really interesting points about Wandavision that I really vibed with. I disliked Wandavision and Falcon & Winter soldier but so far I believe that Loki is actually very fascinating and diverges from other marvel media.
Yeah, overall I agree. I would like to add another dimension to this discussion, though, that might lead you to revisit some of your talking points: the comics. I think you might enjoy the source material
I don't know how anyone else feels about this type of content, but I'm becoming disillusioned with types of "video essays". The author of this video talks about his perspective as if it's an inherent flaw in the narrative when really it just comes down to personal preference. Okay, so you're not into all the stuff about Monica and think it's boring, that doesn't mean that story itself is bad because of it. And before you say I'm some crazed Marvel fan who can't take anyone saying anything negative about any piece of media relating to the MCU. Let me say that I welcome anyone who can take Marvel down a peg. But what I don't like is the pseudo-intellectual, pretentious, and bad faith arguments made by people who need to feel superior to those who consume pop entertainment. I just want good media criticism, and let's be honest most media criticism during the current day (whether it's on TH-cam or anywhere else) is dogsh*t.
Agreed. Most criticism of this show in particular can be translated to “I had expectations based on what I convinced myself this would be instead of listening to the people who have spent years making this telling me what this is going to be.” Arguably one of the big advantages MCU fans have is that these projects are announced years in advance, and because it’s so interconnected and these projects do wear their influences on their sleeve, we know we can expect certain things. Like, for example, we knew Wanda would be able to just walk away. We know her next appearance in the MCU and the main reason why she’s involved. We know about Marvel Studios’ plans to reboot the X-Men, so when a Fox character comes in before the Multiverse is introduced proper, how is that anything but a decoy? Marvel projects get slammed when they’re trying something new and when they’re just doing Marvel stuff. It’s a lose-lose at this point. People have stopped paying attention to the thing itself, only caring about cute comic book references and fan theories that ultimately mean nothing.
You nailed it with Marvel's biggest strength of consistency of tone being also it's biggest weakness after time has exposed the formula and it's diminishing returns
I agree the formula has been stale for a while, but diminishing returns? Marvel has never been bigger. Their returns are massive, giving them no reason to change up their shtick.
@@nickjanz7595 You are right they are still massive. If Marvel is gonna be such a titan in the industry wouldn't it be nice if their films were more than just good.
@@okdthefmv Yeah that would be nice, completely agree with you there. The fact that their returns are not diminishing, but are actually increasing makes that far less likely though. They go for the broadest appeal possible on every project. I'd personally love to see them take risks and change it up, but they don't need/want to because that's not their goal. Whether we like it or not, they're a titan because of their formula.
@FMV Studio Er, how ever you feel about Wandavision it actually subverted the Marvel formula, at least through most of it's run.
@@moonlitebrite9317 I am happy that they subverted their formula for quite a bit, just sucked to see how much their formula can spoil, what's good for the main story's needs.
well said. i wish we could've followed vision's story of figuring out what's going on from the inside instead of getting all the information shoved down our throats by the SWORDies, none of whom are remotely compelling characters. in terms of story, the wanda/vision relationship was the most interesting thing for me and i would've loved to see a real conflict there
I guess I was pleasantly surprised by the finale because, for better or worse, I’d had lower expectations from the start. One of the first featurettes Marvel released about the show featured Paul Bettany literally saying “it starts as this crazy sitcom and then it devolves into the Marvel spectacle and action we all know and love.” I wasn’t very happy to hear that - but I always knew that’s what things were going to boil down to be. My main question going into the finale was whether they’d be able to conclude Wanda and Vision’s relationship in a satisfying way...and despite my better impulses, I was really invested in the two of them as characters by the time the show ended. So I can’t say the generic CGI final battle bullshit was good, but I did find myself surprised that anyone had expected anything *other* than that. Maybe I’m just a broken man.
I just can't believe that they went to all that trouble of getting Evan Peters back to reprise his role as Quicksilver, only for him to be... A random guy with a crude name?! 🤦🏽♀️
I loved the show but that pissed me off. So much potential, don’t know why do it at all if you’re not gonna do something big.
I thought that was fine, a little funny even. The biggest sin of WandaVision is that fact that it had two full length exposition dumps.
@@donovanwiebe2495 when did they exposition dump?
Well he wasn't back to reprise his role of Quicksilver.
I still cannot bring myself to believe that he wasn't a set up for X-men...I still think they're gonna take this somewhere
The worst part of this Marvel show was when it went back to being Marvel
Episode 1 and 2 was boring compared to the rest
@@darkswaggboss9059 I absolutely disagree but de gustibus non disputandum est ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@darkswaggboss9059 Episode 1 and 2 were very Twilight Zone. That's infinitely more interesting than typical Marvel bullshit.
They had the chance to do something unique, quirky, mysterious and *different*
Then they had the suoerhero chique again
@@_mylo_xyloto_1816 Yeah, if you're going to have a final cgi battle AT LEAST inject the sitcom aesthetic with it! Have the battle be more intimate and small-scaled but with the decades of sitcoms glitching around them! Imagine how visually stunning and unique that wouldve been. WandaVision is just a bundle of missed opportunities and half-assed writing
6 is generous. The writers clearly didn’t understand their own characters. Motivations don’t make sense, and there’s hardly any real resolution.
I think the finale being essentially "Act 3 Marvel formula" for the entire episode is what hurt my viewing of the series. Up until then I really loved it, ignoring some aspects like the SWORD scenes and weird meta-humor, but the finale being an entire viewing experience of 100% the thing that I'm tired of with Marvel was pretty exhausting. Also thank you for pointing out how surface level the Ship of Theseus discussion was, I felt like I was going insane when everyone acted like it was the most intelligent thing on the planet.
Funny how reading 5 words on top of my screens changes my entire plans
Me too, I know that I'm just going to procrastinate to watch Taylor's video instead! 😉
What made WandaVision really work for me was it was ultimately a story about Wanda processing her grief and trauma. The villains and other supporting characters were superfluous to that. The sitcom parts and the MCU parts all feed into the exploration of grief in different ways.
Yeah. The theme was nice, even if Wanda getting Vision and her children back kind of defeats the point.
The commercials were a perfect example of that being done well.
There was like 3 good scenes total in 9 episodes
Wanda's arc was about processing grief, but how does she process it? She fights Agatha, wins, and then is suddenly totally willing to let go of her loved ones and move on. No emotional epiphany. No insight or growth. She just decides at the end she's suddenly totally cool with losing Vis again as well as her two kids, and then Doctor Strange 2 comes along and completely retcons that and makes her the Wanda she was at the start of WandaVision again.
Yeah i really didn’t give a fuck about S.W.O.R.D, i felt like that stuff really went nowhere and Agatha is not a good villain either. The real conflict could have been Vision leading Wanda to face what she did head on and help her through her grief. I feel like the S.W.O.R.D stuff was just there to introduce Monica’s future arc. The show is good but yeah it suffers from Marvel’s usual issues, badly written villains and sometimes focusing too hard on introducing future stuff instead of making a cohesive stand alone product.
If anything I would have liked more interaction between Monica and Wanda since they shared a somewhat similar grief. They only had Monica go into the Hex to get her powers, but do nothing with it once she gets in.
Agatha was never the villain
for me personally problem is not fact that villain is bad written but fact that story had villain at all. because of first episodes I thought that wanda would be her main antagonist, one who is making problems and in finale she would release all she was doing was wrong , would grow and be able to live with fact that vision died but no series really needed random 17-th century witch who would turns out to be behind everything and cliche military who will do anything to get strong weapon as villains.
I think it would be more interesting if Agatha, even as super witch, actually was trying to be wanda's friend.
They both being insane witches, but Agatha like pushes wanda to the side onde day and is like "oh wow wanda my bewitched friend you really knocked it out the park by enslaving and torturing a whole town could you teach me such trickery", as if it was as natural a thing as trading recipes. Still on the rune chamber but this time for being able to talk not because uh kidnapping.
Kind of what Pietro did by being able to make wanda confront what she did without her ignoring him like with Vision, but instead of being a product of her own self delusion its a third party who recites back to wanda her own words and deeds by what it actually is, some grim shit. And wanda wouldnt even be able to shut her up because of the rune stuff.
Wanda would be either unable to condemn Agatha for what she wanted to learn or she would condemn agatha for being sick before realizing she's sick as well. Now without her tool for violence she uses to escape everything.
Im doing fanfic by now but it would add a layer of a trauma ridden person turning abusive and literally rounding themselves with yes-men being shocked when "am i the baddie?" isnt just a joke anymore.
TLDR: Agatha actually being wanda's friend instead of surprise villain would be cooler.
Sword just sucks and their name is stupid
Maybe the real Wanda vision was the friends we made along the way
It just has so many odd choices that by the end just doesn’t amount to anything but a set up for a few characters. I didn’t hate the show entirely nor did I love it. Just kinda left a little disappointed.
I'm a Marvel comics fan so seeing Wanda resembling even a portion of her full capacity in the MCU excites me, but what really, really makes me enjoy the show was how well Elizabeth and Paul played their roles.
Lmao female power my ass 😂
@@sylver1146 ? Tf
@@sloppnbiscuiitz I said it cuz they’re showing “true potential of female characters” yet they trash out male characters
Loki, hulk , thanos , thor are some examples
If it were to based on comics thanos should’ve one shotted scarlett witch
@@sylver1146 gotchu. Ya I feel u the way they did Thor n hulk to show off danvers was whack asf
@@sloppnbiscuiitz ikr and they did dirty to my boi thanos aswell
I was excited in the first few episodes because I thought they were gonna make Wanda the villain which would have changed the Marvel formula but they ended up having the same standard faceoff against the reverse-versions of the heroes.
I feel like they really could have improved it by just slowing it down. Like I could have watched a whole season of Wanda sitcom-land with weird stuff getting more prominent, and the finale being the reveal that the whole town is fake. That reveal in the show was just too soon to be impactful.
My problem with the show is the character of Monica Rambeau who states to Wanda in the finale and I quote, “They’ll never know what you sacrificed for them.”
Are you kidding me? You mean the hundreds if not thousands of innocent towns people who were mentally raped by you and taken from their loved ones, including children, just so that you can live out your sitcom fantasy. Another issue I had is that Hayward, the head of S.W.O.R.D. is presented as the villain and has his authority constantly challenged by Monica and her cohorts. He is arrested for rebuilding Vision which he had a right to do to challenge threats such as Wanda.
Tho I understand Hayward's anxiety but
did u forget Vision's will was not be reanimated after his death bcz he didn't wanted to a mindless killing robot?
Hayward literally framed Wanda for stealing Vision and disrespecting Vision's will when in reality he himself was doing it.
Ok i definitely agree that wanda didnt seem to fully appreciate that she hurt all these people, i feel like they skipped a step and jumped straight to her having empathy for herself for being a hurt person who ended up hurting others because of it. But i also think the show explored trauma in a more interesting way than other marvel movies, and even had some anti patriotic, and even kind of terrorist empathizing scenes (like exploring how wanda had ended up as part of that organization) which i appreciated and didnt expect from marvel.
agatha's whole storyline was just so weird she was... not a Big Bad at all but narratively they treated her like one to make the blame FEEL less on Wanda when it entirely was.
I really liked the show, but the finale was disappointing...
It wasn’t disappointing at all it just missed a few things….
I wish they wouldn’t cut the sword angle and made it all about Vision figuring out what he’s dealing with. It would’ve made the mystery more compelling.
I don’t agree that this becomes a Monica origin story since they abandon her so much by the end of the series. It’s a weird B plot. She gets her couple focused episodes but that’s it. And yeah they failed to give pretty much everybody a good arc in the finale
They only had her go into the Hex to get her powers, but they never intended to integrate with the main characters or story.
@Jared What exactly would have been a good arc?
@@AmaHater8 That felt forced as hell. Not to mention, she did *NOTHING* to deserve her powers and had no good character development!
The phrase "Wow, Marvel is finally doing something different!" starts to loose it's meaning when I've heard this phrase said about like 8 different Marvel movies in the past few years.
But they have.
Spider-man homecoming, Thor Ragnarok, Guardians, Ant-Man all really did do something different at the time
@@chardrive what different things did ant-man do? The others I can get behind but like ant-man?
@@chardrive Yeah even I liked Ant-Man and can't figure out what makes it *different*. White guy cracks jokes while learning to be a hero and there's some fun visuals. Kind of a generic marvel movie.
@@beansfebreeze its a heist movie
I find your take on this very interesting because a lot of people I've talked to found the sitcom portion to be the most boring part, which makes sense. Some people came to Wandavision for a marvel show, and so by that metric the first four episodes would be a bit of a drag. Some people came for the sitcom aspect or the assumed creativity of the show, and so naturally the SWORD aspects would be disappointing. I think it really depends on what you wanted from the show, and for that, I think Wandavision was a great exercise in managing our expectations.
Kevin Feige said 4th phase going to be different and so I watched it with same mentality.
As a result neither the sitcom nor sword disappoint me. Overall it was fine but I do feel in finally the side characters conclusion could have been better.
Wow, Wandavision sure was a show that I watched. It was there. The effects looked good. The acting was good. The story was ok. The theme was probably something about grief. I don’t know, in all seriousness I think the show could’ve been a lot better but you can’t hate marvel for just hooking you in and then maintaining good ratings. I wanted more from it but I’m not mad with what I got.
i think its really all about taste, on what any individual person is hoping to get out of wandavision
@DO DO which “mystery”?
Yeah we were hoping for a better written show instead we got the mandalorian
@@adorasock3104 the mystery of (come) vision
There is good taste and writing and then there is wandavision. It is pretty bad
@@RebornVengeancex yep
When you talk about how wandavision combines the episodic nature of tv with the dramatic arc of movies, it reminded me of Maniac, which is an absolutely amazing miniseries if you haven't seen it yet
lol that comment about the duff beer is my life, I remember years ago seeing a Los Pollos Hermanos mug in a shop and thinking oh cool it looks like the mug Gus Fring ha- oh great there's a big Breaking Bad logo on the other side to ruin the immersion
I have a couple of Los Pollos Hermanos tee shirts. I'm very grateful they had the sense to put the Breaking Bad logo on the inside where you can't see it.
Ok last comment- i thought it was really weird that wanda ended up putting agatha back under the spell at the end, it just seemed like a pg way to deal with her instead of killing her or something- but as we learned being put under that control is practically worse than death, and whether its applied to a villain or random civilian, i feel like that showcases that wanda didnt fully respect the severity to which she hurt people by doing that to them and it showed in how ok she was to do it to agatha
I could be wrong but it feels like they are setting up to use Agatha again- maybe in Multiverse of Madness. Especially with her line, "you're gonna need me you know" (or something like that), to me it felt on the nose like "I'LL BE BACK". From what I know of her comic character, she acts as a sort of teavher/mentor to Wanda, so I'm guessing that's what will happen in future Marvel movies.
Yeah I didn't like that. I feel like Wanda never really learned a lesson during the show. She gave up Vision but still searches for the kids at the end, she learns that the mind control is wrong but just does it anyways. I feel disappointed that they tried to make her sympathetic at the end. It feels like Hayward and Agatha were just there so Wanda didn't have to be the villain, which she still is.
@@helloill672 yeah i get that. i wasnt really disappointed that they tried to make her a sympathetic character at the end but i think they definitely should have spent more time showing her feeling remorse and seeing herself as the bad guy before she had compassion for herself
"Wanda should have killed Agatha"- * Wanda kills Agatha *
fans : She is villan! Wht a waste of Agatha !
"Wanda mind controls Agatha" -
fans : Wanda didn't learn anything! She should have killed Agatha!
Seriously wht u guys want?!
@@Vor567tezwe want a consistent character arc that lines up with the story... also youre quoting different peoples conflicting opinions like all fandoms have...
I think the overlying issue with all of the show’s problems: the tone, mystery, structure, multiverse, villains, etc. is an unwillingness to commit to anything
It was so interesting to me that some people HATED the first two/three eps and “it only started getting good” when “everything was explained”. It was so weird because I thought the complete opposite!!! Thanks so much for an amazing vid. You said it perfectly icon
When you think about it, Agatha is the lesser of two evils between her and Wanda. We only side with Wanda because we are familiar with her.
Objection! Agatha killed all of the other witches, including her own mother, by using her magic to steal their magic before they burned her for betraying their coven. Wanda never tried to kill everybody in Westview, even though Sharon Davis wanted her to do that.
@@adampkalb Agatha killed in self-defense, after begging for mercy.
It's difficult for me to judge the show as a whole entity knowing just how much Covid effected the filming of episode 9 and outright eliminated episode 10. Would I still have been disappointed if they hadn't been forced to push 2 episodes worth of story into one? I don't know. I thought Agatha and Monica could have become really interesting by the story's end but we'll never know because it seems like a lot of their stuff had been cut. Many scenes in the finale feel awkaward because the show went back to filming as soon as soon as they were able to and restrictions were at their highest. I don't think that really changes a lot of the fundamental issues I have with the show, because there are certainly more problems than just the final episode, but it does make me want to give the creators more of the benefit of the doupt.
I wish I'd known this going in. Episode 9 is my only major gripe with the show because of how rushed and chaotic it felt (and not the style of chaos you could say they were going for). So yeah hearing that it's actually 2 episodes squashed together because of covid makes a lot of sense
2 episodes were not squashed together because of COVID! It was all filmed by March 1st, before the pandemic lockdown hit us. I mean, they probably went back for some reshoots in September, but even before the lockdown, a whole scene had been filmed with Agatha's rabbit, Señor Scratchy, morphing into a gigantic monster when Darcy, Ralph, Monica, Tommy and Billy tried to steal Agatha's dark witch book. March 19, 2021, 1:34pm
marvel fan like: they deserve Emmy
I loved the sitcom parts, BUT, for what I can see online, almost EVERYONE hated it and thought it was too long and boring
Same. Like, ngl i was kinda shocked when I found out most people hated the sitcom parts, i personally really liked them
I loved the sitcom stuff and wish we got more.
The first three episodes were great fun, and I still enjoyed the rest of the series for the same reason I tend to enjoy every popular show: I hear about how bad it is, naturally lower my expectations, and end up focusing on the positives instead. It's not sophisticated, but I'm just some lady trying to enjoy watching stuff. Really liked your analysis. :)
I clocked out after the hand was played. I just wanted something interesting that doesn’t connect with the entire MCU, just a small vignette of a character that had little screen time. But no. Marvel’s gotta marvel.
exactly!
That's kinda a weird thing to ask from a film franchise that's be explicitly not that for it's entire existence... I don't understand why you thought that's what you would be getting? Did something in the promo make it seem like it would be that? I'm genuinely confused and mean zero hate. I'm just wondering where you're coming from.
If you want something with Marvel characters that isn't connected to the MCU, anything made by the defunct Marvel TV studio is exactly that. Such as the Netflix shows or the Runaways on Hulu
Wanting Power for Powers sake, was a let down for Agatha and the SHIELD director. If it was Agatha's apprentice that turned the coven on her, that would be better motivation for her not trusting others and not wanting to be in a vulnerable position of weakness. But all her backstory showed was she was power hungry then, and she's still power hungry now.
Or something cool like yeah she was batshit insane all along, actual disney villain brain making her do evil stuff, and as a mirror wanda has made the case that shes doing... evil stuff because she "has a reason" this entire time. But then making a point that... is it reaaally less evil or more understandable to enslave and torture a city because you "had a reason" instead of not. The just-evil person is totally down to teaming with you so...?
I needed a "wanda did turn abusive through trauma but trauma isnt a reason to turn abusive."
just a little condemnation but no they got to make her a girlboss they cant they cant do it
I believe I remember someone from the show saying the CGI looked off at the end because they shot it during the pandemic. All the things leading up to it were shot in 2019.
Honestly it would have been much more interesting if Agatha hit a bit more personal and was the main villain and then during the final episode Sword takes notice because there was a disturbance or something. Sword just takes up way too much and adds literally nothing.
Also mind control is one of those things I feel like Hollywood never fully commits to. Like they show me some tears and tell me it's bad, but like just fucking put me in those people's shoes and emotionally scar me.
literally almost every marvel movies/tv show has some government agency involved as either a neutral moderator of superheroes or like a secret corrupted entity. I figured this out after watching Wandavision and wondering why SWORD had to have such a big role and why it felt like it was limiting its characters and the story itself. Black Panther had the CIA, which it didn't need, and Captain Marvel was bogged down by the intro of Shield AND the Air Force. Even that Loki show has some weird agency controlling him, i bet that Falcon and WInter Soldier show will too. :/
Marvel is the embodiment of Occam's Razor which is what made Wandavision so disappointing to me. They made it seem like there was all these allusions and Easter eggs and mysteries, but the main villain was the person people figured out the identity of when the first trailer dropped, nothing came of any Easter eggs, and it just ended up a big dud. I don't even think the sitcom format was ambitious because marvel is known for humor. They had a chance to really make people think, but either they don't trust their audience or themselves to go beyond doing the obvious. By the end of the final episode I was extremely annoyed and disappointed. I only liked a few episodes truly. Things were either ignored or not actually explained (Darcy calling it a hex but us never learning why we actually were seeing hexagons everywhere, for example. including hayward's office). Such a missed opportunity of a show.
I also find it interesting that you included watchmen, because I often referred to how that show was handled: it was smart, and everything mattered from the dialogue to the visuals. most of wandavision was wasted. this could have been a 90 minute movie.
I was so underwhelmed with the final, and it had nothing to do with having insane expectations or fan theories. The whole episode just felt rushed and a massive drop in quality compared to the rest of the series. The CGI and direction were awful, the writing and dialogue was inferior, and the villains felt so one-dimensional. Agatha has about as much depth as a Saturday morning cartoon, and Hayward goes from a jackass with sound motivations to a full on psychopath that tries to cap two ten year olds. There were also barely any consequences for Wanda's actions as they quickly blow over the fact that she took an entire town hostage and she offers no apologies to any of the townspeople despite possibly causing them an immense amount of mental trauma. Don't even get me started on the whole Quicksilver plot. I honestly refuse to believe that they would cast Evan Peters for the role and string us along for 5 episodes teasing a multiverse plot, just for it to be a one-off dick joke.
“Barely any consequences” did you even watch the show? And the implications of the ending? Oh right because we’re too busy throwing a tantrum over Evan Peters being no more than what the story needed him to be 🙄
The show sucked and mommy Wanda ain’t gonna let you hit
Great to see a video like this. I don't tend to enjoy MCU movies (though I'm always open to enjoying them), and that often feels alienating when so many of my peers get so excited about them. Good to hear some well thought criticism on it, which unfortunately is kind of brave to do.
Your tone of voice and cadence is quite ambiguous and intriguing; sardonic and thoroughly unammused but not hostile or aggressive even if what you're saying is rather scathing. Genius balance! Great review!
I freakin love your analysis. You find the perfect words to say everything I think, but as if for a film school essay instead of just ranting for fun. I love it
Jimmy's missing witness was Adrian Toomes (vulture)... he was arrested in spiderman homecoming, put into witness protection for flipping on his criminal counterparts, then he flew the coup, just like Jimmy said and we will see him reappear again in spider-man no way home as part of the Sinister Six
I'd give it like a 7/10 or 8/10. Loved the first 6 episodes but the other 2 were really just ... fine. I thought some characters were well developed but i guess it's a story about wanda and vision and i think they were great in this and i think they did a great job with making these two characters interesting.
I agree. The Marvel (TM) elements of the show engulf the product and devour all the things that made it interesting and unique. The saddest part is that the segments with S.W.O.R.D are every bit as cliched and over the top as the TV parodies... except they are being framed as "reality." The off-putting cringe of that whiplash was very distracting.
hey guys its rakso25 here
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The show started of so well, but it took a left turn downward with the writing.
I really liked the sitcom stuff too, the first couple episodes were my favorites and then... it got too Marvel-y. Lmao thought they were doing something different.
I thoroughly enjoyed Wandavision. I think the show explores trauma and grief in such a compelling way. While Wanda's actions are horrifying, it's difficult not to sympathize with her. I agree that Agatha and the "sword boss" (whose name I couldn't be bothered to remember) are rather one-dimensional in that they appear to simply be power hungry. In contrast, there is almost an innocence or purity attached to Wanda's motivations. She desperately craves the love, connection and intimacy that has been stripped from her time and time again. Her method of coping is horrifying yet understandable given her trauma. I am always delighted at the chance to witness the humanity of the "villain". They allowed us to sympathize with Wanda, without sugarcoating the damage (for instance, the single tear flowing from one of her victim's who is barely moving). I never expect cinema/television to be flawless but it was a compelling story and meaningful to me personally. I appreciated that the dialogue/comedy changed along with the style. When people say that the "jokes aren't funny" in the first couple episodes I wonder if they realize that the show is merely mimicking the dialogue and humor of the decade. I Love Lucy is great but it wouldn't get many laughs out of me today. Overall, I thought it was excellent. I enjoy these critiques but as someone who would like to further understand cinema, it would also be interesting to hear what you would do differently rather than only what went wrong. What would make it a masterpiece?
I disagree a bit. I feel like Wanda's actions were too brushed off. Monica says at the end "they'll never understand what you scarfaced for them" and Wanda just gets to fly away with out even saying a sorry to mind control civilians.
@@helloill672 Wanda replies to Monica “It wouldn’t change how they see me”. An apology is a waste of breath at this point. She’s done apologizing for who she is. Everyone grieves in their own way. That’s not an excuse, it’s an explanation. Now she’s alone, feared, misunderstood...again. Only this time, she has the tools to become something more. Her actions weren’t brushed off, it was acknowledged that people can’t hurt her anymore. That’s her victory, a pyrrhic one, but a victory all the same.
I read this on my instagram explore page so I do not know if this is true, but there was a CGI fight scene between Pietro, Monica and the Twins vs. Agatha's Demon Bunny that was cut due to COVID? The post said that there were removed scenes from the final episode because they couldn't be animated in time since the show was wrapping production when COVID started. Is that true?
Yes, it's true. Watch Fatman beyond Matt Shakman interview there he said it.
@@Vor567tez Thanks I will watch that!
The moment I saw the trailer with the two people literally watching it on a screen, and the lady says to the guy “It’s a sitcom” I knew it wasn’t gonna be great.
I definitely agree that as the show went on it just blended back in to the typical marvel style, but i honestly went into wandavision expecting to have a bunch of nitpicky issues with it and i didnt. It would have been cool if it had delved deeper into the experimental side, but i dont hate the typical marvel style so i thought it was fine that it ended up going into that anyways. Overall i still thought it was the best thing marvel has done in a while, and does give me some hope that theyve seen going in different directions can still get a good public response and maybe theyll do more off the wall things in the future
Best thing in awhile?Endgame infinity war? Even far from how was good
@@darkswaggboss9059 endgame and infinity war were trash and terrible writing 😂
Wanda should have become the main villain of WandaVision, but for marketing issues (meaning she was the only female avenger that remained) it didn't happen probably.
Marvel has a villain problem too, comic books were written with certain rules in mind, like 'In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.' (check Comics Code Authority) and that translated to the movies aswell. Sure you can say that was applied to a different genre but most of inspiration and things we see in movies came from comic books although they aren't following the rules anymore, its impact remains.
That's why the most definitive victory from a villain doesn't last longer than 2 movies.
The last episode was the weakest for sure. A clusterfuck.
the moment they tried to like,, explain why wanda was LITERALLY creating a 60's inspired black and white world was when the show kinda started going south for me. i wish it would've just been an stylistic choice, not a literal thing that was happening and a scientist was trying to explain. it felt so lame
I think we should've been kept in the sitcom the whole time and the only breaks in that be from wanda or vision's view. We should've been mostly kept in the dark about what's happening outside but still have the breaks they cause
I liked the show the most during the creative sitcom episodes and I think the concept would have been stronger if it wasn't tied to the MCU, with the final few episodes feeling more generic. That said I think the major focus of the show was an exploration of Wanda as a character, and it absolutely succeeded at that. Yes she didn't reconcile with what she'd done, but I see that as a step in her development, not a mistake in the conclusion.
There was so much hype around this show that I almost thought it was worth watching - however, I didn't hear any reasons about why it was actually good. So now knowing the twist (which I put together knowing there's a twist and from my cursory knowledge of the comic books) and that every episode is a recreation of old sitcoms (which I don't care about), there's nothing exciting for me
And I guess everything else you say is also true, so thanks for explaining it to me
I just hated the bait and switch with Evan peters
I think Monica's character could have been written better. She was cool a first but once she walked through the hex thats where it went downhill.
Guys, if wanna something different and interesting from Marvel universe go watch "Legion".
oh I remember wanting to watch it back when it first came out, but for some reason I never did. Definitely gonna give it a try :)
I liked it as soon as they started showing another perspective (S.W.O.R.D.) and I hated it once they introduced villains.
Great video also love the appearance of a certain someone’s little red book in the background
Agents of SHIELD was a Marvel tv show that changed its characters and environment constantly, specially after season 3, and never kept a status quo.
i found you off the florida project review and i just wanna say i love you keep it up
I know this is small but I love watching your water glass slowly empty over the course of the video
The first two episodes were my favorites and I loved the Halloween episode because, well, Malcolm in the Middle lol. I think I’d agree that they spoon-fed the explanations at times and the SWORD scenes were not always great. Overall, I really liked the series. I think it’s in the top five for the MCU. I totally understand the criticisms though. My biggest complaint with the finale had to do with Ralph. In retrospect, I think it’s a good idea that they didn’t make him Fox’s Quicksilver bc that would mean I’d have to watch those movies lol. On the other hand, it felt anticlimactic that he just sort of disappeared after Monica took his necklace off...? Anyways, I love the concept of literally using TV/media as escapism. It’s been said before but it sure felt relatable haha. I do think this would have been different if this concept was not used in the MCU. Idk if it would’ve been better (especially without all the previous context) but it would’ve been different.
As someone who does like the MCU, I disagreed with a lot of stuff aside from finale being disappointing. It just left me feeling nothing about it, so seeing so many people say “I liked it” just confuses me. Did we watched the same finale? Or is it just me?
I liked that Wanda got to say good by to vision on her own terms but I think it really could’ve been better, I just hope that if they do go for a second season that they focus more on Wanda’s emotional arch and less on whatever the rest of the world is doing. (They said they’d be open to a second season which is the only reason I bring that up)
I find it really hard to hate on the show because of the finale. It wasn't a good finale but still the rest of the roller coaster was fun. And if they had just gone with the comic plot of Agatha was messing with her to force her to come to terms with her grief instead of flashy powers time it would have worked.
I thought it was wonderful, to see Wanda's journey of grief. It was done so well. I too felt like it was becoming the Monica show for awhile, until it pulled back. I also wish the finale wasn't a CGI battle of the witchcraft. I think ultimately that's what went wrong with the series. Otherwise, loved every second of it.
Wanda Vision were well written .
But I don't understand what u mean by the CGI battle btw the witches was not there? Bcz how else will they show 2 witch fighting.
@@Vor567tez nah the dickeating is crazy tho
Comoletely agree. First three episodes were brilliant. Then proceeds to cookie cutter marvel stuff :(
The sitcom aspects were the show’s biggest strengths and if they had stuck with that, WandaVision could have satisfied me. By the end of the show, we were right back to “sky beam, CGI fight scene” that happens in every single MCU production. If tried to retain what made the show unique, it would have worked better. Also, fuck the finale. What the hell was that??? I was so many issues with that episode. Between the terrible CGI and generic battle, I was so disappointed
yes there was a lot missing in this series and I’m happy you brought it up
Blame Disney
Not wrong there. They don’t do anything original(a few examples are Disney remakes, copy and paste marvel movies and Star Wars sequels)
the thing is that the final fight sequence gave us Nothing. they recreated Vision in this sick fight sequence that ends in a cool convo: what a nice switch from the regular that really made sense for the characters! then the end fight was exactly what we've already seen, and especially with the format of releasing one episode at a time, people speculated and found fun clues and theories, they couldn't live up to it. they really dug their own grave with the ending they chose.
Woah your joined an 80s-hair-metal-band-that-reformed-in-the-90s
Imo Agatha was such a bland 1 dimensional character. The first couple episodes were decent but after Agatha was introduced (with that annoying song), it just went kinda eh, the scene of vision and Wanda sitting on the bed watching tv and talking was the best scene in the show for me, that's sad. It's amazing to have a complex character with flaws as a main character , but all wanda was was a flaw. They took it too far trying to make a good character and made a bland character in the other direction of what normally see. And season 9 was... why. In all they had a bad villain, a main character with so much promise but they went too far with her flaws that it became stale, vision was great imo. And a wasted quicksilver
I personally liked the monica stuff, but I do agree that the handling of the real world characters could've been better
Nothing like finding a video one year later. If you liked the first few episodes of WandaVision, but were ultimately dissatisfied with how it used the premise (i.e. how it caved to generic MCU setup junk), you should read Tom King's Vision maxiseries. Far more emotionally satisfying.
That Duff Beer analogy was perfect in explaining what I was thinking.
*YOU PUT MY THOUGHTS INTO WORDS. ALL OF THEM.*
Although somehow I can forgive the Duff Beer thing because Universal tries.
Marvel's logo looks so bland.
From the very first episode I basically knew what it was about what theme it was going to explore which kind of made the first few episodes a slog and the last few already spoiled.
Great take on this
I haven't watched WandaVision but I love you
I liked Wandavision but I think when it dipped too much into Marvel’s style it wasn’t as good
love this video
ah, alliteration in the title
I personally think the evan peters boner joke is actually a joke on the die hard fans who dissect theses movies frame by frame to build crazy ass theories and produce clickbait thumb nails. And honestly? I laughed at that.
I can't believe I was supposed to think Evan Peters who plays Quicksilver in the X-men movies showing up on this show which is leading up to a movie called In the Multiverse of Madness and is playing Quicksilver was not actually Quicksilver yes I'm very upset my theory didn't pan out lmaoo
Could you maybe make a video about Loki? You make some really interesting points about Wandavision that I really vibed with. I disliked Wandavision and Falcon & Winter soldier but so far I believe that Loki is actually very fascinating and diverges from other marvel media.
Yeah, overall I agree. I would like to add another dimension to this discussion, though, that might lead you to revisit some of your talking points: the comics. I think you might enjoy the source material
THEY deleted daredevil,jessica jones and the punisher to do that
They cast ruined quicksilver with evan peters character change (the character personality, not just him)
I think you pretty much got the show licked. We share in the delusion with Wanda and the joy that gives us. All good things come to an end...
Ok so there's Logan/Shane and Joker/Taxi Driver (I assume)... What's the other one? I didn't recognise it.
Dark Knight/Heat
Finally, someone said it !
floridian wolverine type beat
I don't know how anyone else feels about this type of content, but I'm becoming disillusioned with types of "video essays". The author of this video talks about his perspective as if it's an inherent flaw in the narrative when really it just comes down to personal preference. Okay, so you're not into all the stuff about Monica and think it's boring, that doesn't mean that story itself is bad because of it. And before you say I'm some crazed Marvel fan who can't take anyone saying anything negative about any piece of media relating to the MCU. Let me say that I welcome anyone who can take Marvel down a peg. But what I don't like is the pseudo-intellectual, pretentious, and bad faith arguments made by people who need to feel superior to those who consume pop entertainment. I just want good media criticism, and let's be honest most media criticism during the current day (whether it's on TH-cam or anywhere else) is dogsh*t.
Agreed. Most criticism of this show in particular can be translated to “I had expectations based on what I convinced myself this would be instead of listening to the people who have spent years making this telling me what this is going to be.” Arguably one of the big advantages MCU fans have is that these projects are announced years in advance, and because it’s so interconnected and these projects do wear their influences on their sleeve, we know we can expect certain things. Like, for example, we knew Wanda would be able to just walk away. We know her next appearance in the MCU and the main reason why she’s involved. We know about Marvel Studios’ plans to reboot the X-Men, so when a Fox character comes in before the Multiverse is introduced proper, how is that anything but a decoy?
Marvel projects get slammed when they’re trying something new and when they’re just doing Marvel stuff. It’s a lose-lose at this point. People have stopped paying attention to the thing itself, only caring about cute comic book references and fan theories that ultimately mean nothing.
Yeah I completely agree, lot of his points were hit and miss and were just way beyond the scope of what this show was meant to be.