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TV review
Life in a box: The Wanda-Vision gimmick is also its big downside
The first TV series in the Marvel TV era, shows a lot of love for TV at a time when we are all running away to it for some comfort from the madness outside.
But amidst the load of references, reflections and gestures, she leaves too little time for the beautiful and heartbreaking story hidden within her
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Wanda-Vision
Marvel
TV review
Disney Plus
Ilan Kaprov
Sunday, 07 March 2021, 08:29 Updated: 08:45
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Trailer for the series "WandaVision" (Disney Plus)
TV is a bit like tofu: in its simplest and most basic layer it is a neutral square of material.
Its meaning for us is what we put into it.
Thus it is at once a very collective and also an unparalleled personal experience.
The series we sat down with with our relatives and loved ones at the fixed time of the week, the one we gathered immediately after to talk to friends from the forum or Facebook group or school.
On the other hand, it is also the series that taught us something about ourselves, the one that made us identify with someone who finally understands what we are going through, or that led us to do something we never dared to do before.
This connection of the personal and the universal has only intensified in the last year.
As the world around us tightens and shuts down, television has become more than ever a refuge.
We all fled to it together, but also very much alone - find in it separately the medicine that will calm the anxieties and uncertainty.
There is something almost sacred in this experience, a ceremony that is between a person and his friends and also between a person and his screen.
"Wanda-Vision" was not born as an answer to this great emptiness, it was long ago completed and planned to ascend after "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", but then came the corona and its delays.
And a series that indulged in television and its consolation, went out to hit the iron just when it was hot.
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We ran away to the TV in times of distress.
"Wanda-Vision" (Photo: Disney Plus)
It is no coincidence that a series that loves TV so much has become the most talked about in the world in the last two months.
Although Disney entered the medium considerably late, it arrived well prepared.
Her first two original series, "Wanda-Vision" and "The Mandalor," were a seasonal system instead of a perfect storm.
After Netflix got us used to swallowing series without chewing, Disney Plus mentioned the experience of a meal.
She harnessed the immense power of social media, of countless blogs and cultural sites, and enjoyed seeing us arguing, dreaming, deciphering and getting excited for the future to come.
This is not a new invention, of course, but it is of great importance.
In the relationship between us and the small screen, the journey and what characterizes it are no less important than reaching the finish line.
"Wanda-Vision" is a story about loss and dealing with it, about loneliness and heartbreak, about emptiness and the desperate attempt to fill it before it overflows.
Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) lost her parents, her twin brother throughout the Marvel movies and at the end of "The Avengers: The End of the Game" - after which the events of the series take place - also her favorite, Vision (Paul Battani).
But its marginal role in the constellation did not allow us to delve into the intensity of this loss.
Jack Schaefer, the creator of the series, ties him in with the sitcom story.
A light and easy-to-digest circular pattern, in the midst of which challenges are always solved in the blink of an eye, and everything is put back in place in peace until the subtitles come up.
Thus, she hints, "Wanda-Vision" is not only the combination of the names of the two lovers and friends of the Avengers, but also a pun on Wanda's unfulfilled vision of a better life, a broken American dream, and of course the bread of her name and of the television she used to Escape the difficulties as a child.
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Prominent exaggeration.
"Wanda-Vision" (Photo: Disney Plus)
But here is also the first and significant weakness of the series.
"Wanda-Vision" is completely immersed in its sitcom world for the first three episodes, and in significant parts of the episodes that follow.
At some point the idea the series seeks to convey is already understandable and clear, but it continues to insist and demonstrate to us how much it understands, masters nuances, pays homage to tropes and also mocks them.
In other words, the nostalgia of "Wanda-Vision" feels industrial instead of intimate, it is quantitative and even a little cynical, as if it will not rest until it has finished explaining to us the evolution of the genre.
It's a sick evil that has evolved from cinema, where Marvel has become synonymous with self-awareness, winking at genres and twists on twists that are supposedly made for fans - but actually allow it to fly over itself and its control over pop culture.
The difference is that there is limited screen time, whereas here the exaggeration is much more noticeable.
When "Strange Things," a series whose magic secret lies entirely in nostalgia, tried to capture the past - it did so through an idea that represented the 1980s.
These are not the videotapes or the weird haircuts, not even the rare cans of Coca-Cola - this is a sweeping and unexpected adventure with best friends.
Into this collective truth, the references, winks and monsters naturally entered.
When "Wanda-Vision" devotes so much time to its sitcom, it robs it of the complex and fascinating story that lies beneath it, and here of course it does not end
(spoilers from here on out)
.
"Wanda-Vision" is based in part on the comic "House of M" and constantly plays with references and characters from it, winks at previous films in the extended universe, plays on fan expectations related to the reunion of forces with X-Men members and so on.
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We will not rest until you have finished explaining to us the evolution of the sitcom genre.
"Wanda-Vision" (Photo: Disney Plus)
To the credit of "Wanda-Vision" it can be said that these characteristics were also evident in the "Mandalori" - although significantly less powerful.
In both cases there are platforms that are supposed to launch content or promote much larger plots, and in both cases the series comes with an almost unreasonable amount of homework of connections to other works.
The result is a relentless pursuit of rabbit burrows.
In the case of the Star Wars series these were names and concepts like Asuka Tano, Theron, The Dark Sword, whereas here it is Mephisto, Dormamo, Opal Books and so on.
These are not just fan theories worn on the series, "Wanda-Vision" is constantly engaged in a game about all of these, whether in dialogues ("Make them hell, they want devils", says Pietro to the twins in the Halloween episode, the return of all the town members After Dottie in "For the Kids" in the second episode), or in castings (the inclusion of "The Wrong Pietro" in the series).
The result of all this, is a completely unnecessary rejection of the Wanda plot, for which we eventually came together.
Elizabeth Olsen only recently finished a similar role as a young mourner in Facebook's sensitive and beautiful series, "Sorry for Your Loss."
When "Wanda-Vision" finally allows her to demonstrate her abilities in the eighth episode - she suddenly rises to the level of a truly extraordinary work.
Through the eyes of Wanda looking at her past, the connection to television and grief is formed, the pursuit of escapism and the desire for comfort naturally.
Beside them, of course, is the grief price of her victims, the original residents of the city, who were forced to become extras in the utopian show of her life.
These base materials have such great power that it is frustrating to understand how little use is made of them in the end.
Teasing like "this was Agatha all the way" (though it wasn't, since Westoyo's universe was indeed created by Wanda, and Agatha was just an uninvited guest), only highlights how much "Wanda-Vision" wasted until it finally arrived Regarding.
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Unnecessary rejection of Wanda's plot.
Elizabeth Olsen, "Wanda-Vision" (Photo: Disney Plus)
The ninth and final chapter also suffers from the projection of this choice, when naturally it is required to tie a lot of ends in a short period of time.
The result is too easy solutions to big problems: Darcy who arrives at just the right moment to block the ward, Monica who easily overcomes the fake Pietro, the kids who take for granted the fact that they are required to fight to develop armed invaders and more.
Beyond that, even after nine whole episodes, it's not really clear to us what the full meaning of being Wanda "the other witch" is and what the full extent of her powers are.
The easy answer to all of this is that "Wanda-Vision" is ultimately another stage in the endless chain of the expanded Marvel Universe, and as such it is committed to continuing what comes before it and building what will come after it.
But a TV series does not have to be, certainly not a series that claims to be unusual in the Marvel creative landscape.
A series in which one of the protagonists wonderfully recites "grief is actually a lasting love" deserves more than that, even if it were required to shorten it significantly and give up some of the twists, contexts and head games with the fans.
After all, that TV that the series is wrapped in so many longings for, was just like that: a work that stands on its own.
"Something is not beautiful just because it lasts," Vision tells Wanda in another episode, testifying a lot about the series starring him.
"Wanda-Vision" could have had all this indulgence in the past, the broken dreams and comfort on the small screen, if it had bothered to remember the purpose for which we all came together: a story about dealing with loss.
Trying to shoot so many fronts in parallel makes her less impressive and original than she sees herself.
No matter how cute Darcy jokes, clown cars and post-credit scenes she contains.
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