Review: WandaVision is a gloriously strange experiment

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been at the center of the pop culture landscape for over a decade now, with a whopping 23 feature films that managed to interconnect and tell an overarching story in a way that no other franchise has been able to come close to matching. Yet even as the films dominated the discourse for years, Marvel’s recent TV offerings — from ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to the run of Netflix shows including Daredevil and Jessica Jones — never managed to capture the zeitgeist in the same way. With most blockbuster films on hold indefinitely (Marvel’s Black Widow has had its theatrical release date pushed back numerous times), Disney is going all-in with a huge slate of upcoming Marvel shows for its Disney+ service, including its first offering, the gloriously strange WandaVision, premiering on January 15.

An ode to classic sitcoms of the past, WandaVision stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision, the unusual couple fans first met in the Avengers films. Wanda is a witch with the power to manipulate reality, and Vision is a “superpowered synthezoid,” or an android, in simpler terms. Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision features the newly-married couple living a typical 1950s suburban existence. Wanda is a homemaker, while Vision (in his human guise) has a 9-to-5 office job where he naturally excels at numbers (he is a computer after all). Despite their seemingly idyllic lifestyle, something is clearly amiss — they can’t seem to remember any details about their lives, and there’s a growing sense that something is very wrong with their current situation.

WandaVision is devised as a 1950s sitcom and the show really nails the look and feel of shows like I Love Lucy and Father Knows Best. From the black and white 4:3 presentation to the real laugh track (the first episode was actually filmed in front of a studio audience), WandaVision has all the hallmarks of a classic sitcom about a wacky couple trying to fit into their new surroundings, while trying to keep their true identities under wraps from their new friends, neighbours, and co-workers.

If anything, the show might dedicate itself too hard to recreating those early sitcom conventions. The first episode features Wanda trying to throw together a last-minute dinner party for Vision’s boss (the great Fred Melamed) and his wife (Debra Jo Rupp), a typical plot that gets increasingly strange as Wanda uses her powers to discreetly move dishes and recipe cards through the air in a hapless attempt at cooking a huge meal. While there are some genuinely funny moments (it’s truly incredible that Fred Melamed is now a part of the MCU), most of the action is played fairly straight — if you’re not enamored with 1950s sitcoms, there isn’t much to latch onto initially.

Disney made the first three episodes of the nine-episode run available for review (the first two debut on January 15, with one per week following that) and the show progresses in an interesting way over the course of the first three episodes. Without giving anything away, the focus begins to move towards the larger mystery at hand as the show progresses, and the third episode may be the best of the bunch.

Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany do a solid job of playing the seemingly normal married couple with a secret. They’re able to charm their way through their new life while sidestepping any questions about their past (that they aren’t able to answer anyway). The show gets much weirder after the first episode and we begin to see the cracks showing as Wanda tries to assert some control over their new life while Vision does his best to fit in as an average suburban husband.

Director Matt Shakman manages to accurately mine the classic sitcom-style while overlaying tones of unease as the characters begin to uncover that something is very wrong with their situation. Head writer Jac Schaeffer has created a unique blend of eye-rolling dad jokes and dated TV conventions that allow audiences to spend time with these characters in a new way. It’s refreshing to be able to breathe with these characters for a moment without the world literally falling apart around them — Wanda and Vision were given fairly short shrift in the globe-spanning pandemonium of Endgame, and they really get to shine in this weird series.

That said, WandaVision may be asking too much of audiences –  unless you’re familiar with the acclaimed Tom King Vision comics run, there may not be enough here to hold the attention of casual MCU fans — the episodes truly play out as vintage sitcoms, with only the slightest hints of the larger mystery at play. With only a 9-episode run, things are likely to pick up fairly quickly, but it’s a tough initial ask for audiences to sit through this mystifying blend of The Truman Show and I Love Lucy to see how things fit into the larger Marvel Universe.

WandaVision debuts on Disney+ on January 15.