Stay Tuned #11: Juan Division
Ticketmaster, in, Ticketholders!
Get ready for WandaVision Wednesday!
Over two and a half years ago, my last entry in the Stay Tuned series did some algorithm-chasing speculation as to what would happen in the fourteenth season of Supernatural. Some things, I was right about, others, I was a season early, but still right about, and others, I was wrong about because they had to wrap things up and (as usually happened with some of the more interesting hints in the series) dropped many plot threads like they were the ratty ends of a bunch of green onions. This past year, following a period of streaming fatigue, I revisited the last two seasons of Supernatural on Netflix. And, also like cutting into a bunch of green onions, the finale made me cry. Well, as close as any sensationalism-numbed member of the male population can get to crying, anyway. My heart thumped, my throat tightened, and a new place in my soul opened out of respect for one of the most enduring young adult series on television getting a proper send-off, despite not being able to entirely explore the staggering breadth and depth of its lore as I and many other fans might have liked.
But now, a new source of algorithm chasing has emerged from the still-smoldering ashes of an industry that has been crippled by unprecedented displays of nature's dominance and humanity's capacity for stupidity and cruelty. Taking full advantage of the increasingly stay-at-home nature of media consumption, Disney has struck out on their own into the streaming market with Disney+ for the beginning of Marvel's Cinematic Phase Four.
Okay, that's all I have to say on that subject. More specifically, if you've done some sound-alike reasoning in your heads, I'm here to talk about the first three episodes of WandaVision. Starting with some explanation on my part: the title of this post is a bilingual play on my real first name, Sean, and the fact that I've been hearing divisive opinions on whether or not WandaVision is any good. Juan Division, WandaVision. Get it? Got it? Good.
The main complaint I have been hearing from my friends and coworkers, who are now dead to me, is that they didn't know WandaVision was supposed to be a sitcom, even though the trailers hinted
that would be a major stylistic direction for the series. Well, news flash, people (because news flashes have worked so well so far): WandaVision is supposed to be a sitcom, with at least the first three episodes each aping the humor, music, canned laughter, staging, costuming, and retro product placement styles, of a particular decade--the 50s, 60s, and 70s, respectively. Yes, most of the jokes boil down to "Wanda is a Witch! Ha-ha! Vision is a robot! Ho-Ho!" (and even in one episode, "Wanda is a Communist! Hee!...Hee?"), but Elizabeth Olsen (who comes from a sitcom family and whose two breakout performances involved psychological trauma and a found-footage horror movie) and Paul Bettany (who has unveiled a potent, dryly British sense of humor since portraying a twisted religious zealot covered in tattoos and ringbolt piercings in The Da Vinci Code) commit heavily to the "old timey" voice affectations, snappy line deliveries, and Broadway-camp face-pulling that are required to effectively sell the retro sitcom atmosphere that makes WandaVision unique. There are other kinds of jokes and production styles, of course, that come out when the world starts to melt around the two main characters, but I'll try not to spoil too much going forward because it's worth watching, especially if you grew up with Nick @ Nite like I did, or you watch MeTV and TCM nowadays.
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| What fans wanted... |
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| What fans got... |
The problem here seems to be a disconnect between certain Marvel fans' expectations--some of whom didn't even know WandaVision was a limited streaming series despite it having been leaked, promoted, and advertised as such since before our own status quo started melting away under the miasmic weight of so much hot garbage two Christmases ago--of getting a weird, action-packed Marvel movie that would put the uniqueness of Guardians Of the Galaxy to shame, and the successful business model that has produced so many things that they have liked and continue to like. That model being: take familiar movie genre and shove in superheroes. Iron Man? Corporate espionage, with superheroes. Captain America? War movie, with superheroes. Thor? Shakespeare, with superheroes. Ant Man? Heist movie, with superheroes. Guardians Of the Galaxy? Star Wars, with superheroes. Captain Marvel? Top Gun, with superheroes. Homecoming? Teen romantic comedy, with superheroes. So, what's the big problem some people are having with WandaVision? It's just an homage to retro sitcoms, with superheroes. "Yeah, but we don't like it when Marvel movies are funny!" Uhh.... Number One, again, WandaVision isn't a movie, it's a streaming series. Number Two, yes, you do! Ant Man, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Homecoming, both Guardians movies. Hell, Avengers was full of jokes, and even Black Panther had that stupid meme moment about Chadwick Boseman wearing Crocs. Every Marvel movie or series has comedy in it somewhere, and now Disney owns everything that Warner Bros. doesn't own. So, with regards to the stupid points such "fans" are trying to make, I ask: What are THOOOOOOSEEEEEE???
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| What fans don't know they're missing.... |
Let me correct myself here by saying that WandaVision isn't just an homage to retro sitcoms. It is an homage to retro sitcoms with Rod Serling, David Lynch, JJ Abrams, Christopher Nolan, Stanley Kubrick, and possibly one of the Marvel interpretations of Satan constantly gnawing at the edges. Remember that Wanda and Vision both got their powers from the Mind Stone in Loki's scepter, and that Vision is supposed to be dead. Now, if you so choose to follow the nutty logic of such things, ask yourselves why a character who lost the love of her life to an intergalactic mass-murderer would suddenly be so happy-go-lucky, why and how said love of her life is now alive, how a woman from a fictional allegory for Soviet Russia and a grown man named Vision can live normal, unmolested lives in the 50s, 60s, or 70s, how a man who is at least two kinds of not real could father two human babies without the applications of magic and/or their framing reality also not being real, how time is rewinding, why and how people are being brainwashed, why and how colorized things are showing up in a black-and-white world, and why someone would raise bees in a sewer.
The most prevalent theory for all of this, given that Wanda will also feature in Doctor Strange And the Multiverse Of Madness, is that some combination of her powerful-but-as-yet-undefined power set and supernatural meddling by Mephisto (that's a Marvel Satan) has given a psychologically scarred Wanda the ability to construct (in a similar manner to Hal Jordan/Parallax) and populate a psychic reality where everything is peachy-keen, but her subconscious is dragging her back to the present and actual reality via the unsettling breaks in character and trippy decade shifts that come about in each episode. Furthermore, many comics aficionados predict that when this is all over, Wanda's moment of clarity will be so traumatizing for her that not only will she be the catalyst for the much-hinted-at dawning of a cinematic multiverse; her role in the next Doctor Strange might be that of the villain.
So, yeah. On the surface. WandaVision might appear to just be a boring sitcom to those who didn't get theirs made Marvel in the way that they thought they wanted their Marvel made for one, fleeting instance in time. But there is more to appreciate for those who like something unique, have reverence for the ways of old, and are willing to be patient and...
Remember to drop a like, Make Mine Marvel, and have a good night.
Ticketmaster,
out.
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