Amph Marvel's WandaVision

and witches...

 

I think people would have been more easily accepting of the weird divergence in tone and style if they had come out of the gate with Falcon and Winter Solider like the plan originally was, Wandavision seems like a weird follow-up. But since it's first out of the gate after a year of now Marvel Studios MCU content people are just basically on edge and need dat sweet MCU dopeamine fix.

Anyway, I'm thinking this'll stay on a miniseries, mostly because they can go for that sweet Best Limited Series Emmy that has been rather high profile the last few years. Hell I think they'll have a shot too!

 

I think you're right. If Disney can get dat sweet Emmy win, they may actually start making a profit on the Marvel purchase.

 

I just binged the four episodes. Nice little Mando sized chunks.
It's fun. The big Twist, as it appears in episode 4 anyway, was kind of obvious. The question being whether it's the full extent of the twist, or there is an extra meta layer on it.

And I am fine with them starting with 3 episodes of the TV show. Little 20 minutes episodes don't take up that much time. It sets it a a thorough world to be lived in, and I was wondering how long they were going to keep it up inside TV world... though the screenshot for Episode 4 and the chatter about Randall Park in the Internet gave it away.

Anyway, cool beans. Let's see what games they play with this.

 

Since there's been some back and forth about how un/necessary that first three episode soaking-in period was this seems timely.

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/02/wandavision-creator-tv-series-never-a-film-1234613097/

Head writer and producer Jac Schaeffer wanted to give audiences a new depiction of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). The character who has the ability to manipulate reality itself has been showcased as a villain, a woman in love, and grief-stricken. For Schaeffer, she wanted to give audiences a reason to love the character, not fear her.

“We’ve seen her big power — the head tilt that scares everyone and is so amazing,” Schaeffer told IndieWire. “We haven’t really seen her joy. We’ve never had an opportunity to see her be funny and to see her be in mundane circumstances.”

That echos what I said earlier about the sitcom format being tedious (for some, not me) but also endearing. I've found in an effective, relatively shorthand way of selling what Wanda yearns for versus the reality of what she has. Seeing her and Vision walking around in the simple happiness of old sitcoms works for me. But I can totally see how it won't for some.

 

Wandavision commercial or real credit card commercial?

 

Screen Culture didn't even make that particular fake ad. Some rando on twitter did. They're just using it for channel hits.

And it's not even that person's original idea. Someone made a gif of ATJ running in the frame of the ad years ago.

 

Yeah I’d heard about that one. To be honest, if I were Capital One, I’d be smacking myself for not trying to make a deal with Marvel to promote their Quicksilver card but yeah that is just one of Sam’s normal promotions for the card.

 

I just have to say my wife is awesome. When we started to watch 'We Interrupt This Program' Friday night she claimed a fuzzy memory when Monica was 'unsnapped' in the hospital (despite watching all the movies). So we stopped and watched the movies in in-universe chronological order over this weekend. She's definitely not the geek I am, but I know she remembered more than she let on.

 

The mention of Ultron really woke me up.
I was also living in the semi-dream state that this was a Disney+ show, and playing with its own story a bit apart from the movies, but no, this is solidly MCU. All the stuff that happened in the movies completely matters here. And that means... and that means...

It was a surprisingly powerful moment for me.

 

All 23 friggin' movies???? Geez....I couldn't even do that. I don't even think I could watch 3 SW movies in a row and they're my favorites.

 

There's more and more momentum in the thought I had pondered a while back about the mystery big actor. I thought I was crazy for even thinking about it but it ties in the the House of M. What is Wanda and the Westview anomaly are tied heavy into the multiverse and her origin becomes different. With the rumors of an appearance from

Spoiler

Evan Peters as Quicksilver

we could have a link to a person that Paul Bettany may want to work with (and anyone would want to work with for that matter)-namely the one and only

Spoiler

Sir Ian McKellen.

 

Oh I was thinking of more conventionally Dead Avengers. Tony Stark.

 

yeah, two or three movies in one sitting is usually my limit

 

In a flashback or connection to another reality, perhaps. Someone who is dead would certainly be an OMG moment. And Tony is kind of the Luke of this franchise. But Paul has worked with him so......unless the person Paul has not worked with is different from the OMG moment.

 

it'll be

Spoiler

Christopher Biggins

 

We skipped the Hulk, both Antman movies, (edited) GG2 (which we still loved) we also sped through Age of Ultron, Ironman 2&3 (edited) Thor 2 but we've been pretty prolific in our bingeing during the pandemic.

 

Speaking of Age of Ultron, I got so used to the Russo Bros version of Scarlet Witch from Civil War/Infinity War/Endgame which was basically just telekinesis, I totally forgot while watching Wandavision that she straight up implanted visions into the Avengers head which is a pretty big plot point (and at one point drives Hulk batty)



So that could be an explanation as to how whenever someone breaks the sitcom reality she just fiddles with their mind and they are again blissfully ignorant. Outside of Westview too is possible what with the "Eastview" cops.

 

So, I don't know that this is strictly correct as a reading -- she seemed to magnify their actual fears, which led to their consciousnesses coming up with those visions...

Thor abandoning his people.
Captain America regretting losing everyone he cared about for his new team.
Tony failing to protect the world and the team.
Black Widow not being anything more than a monster trying to mask herself in society.

 

That's true she just amps up their fears but I think they're having more than bummer thoughts, her "mind games" actually physically put out of the fight by the visions or in Hulk's case it sent them on a rampage, or Tony just sorta stood there for a bit, snapped out of it - although he remained haunted by what Wanda made him see for, like, his entire life - then grabbed Loki's scepter.

 

Thing is, who would Wanda be controlling? Everyone in town? Then broadcasting it? If Wanda is mind-controlling everyone, then how would the said mind control change her OWN reality? By just being players in the whole thing? Stand-ins and extras surrounding her white picket fence life with a reanimated corpse of an android?

Sounds intriguing but somewhat complicated. But it could send a message that forcefully re-designing your own past can have massive consequences.

 

I think she definitely got a power up mushroom or something in between her being blipped and then appearing in Westview. Maybe some witch taught her?

 

So, one of the things I've been contemplating is... what happened to the blipped people? We know that when you collect the Soul Gem, you get put in the Soul realm. However, Thanos also inexplicably got there by using the stones -- meeting Young Gamora and talking with her.

What if the Blipped folks ended up in some capacity in the Soul Gem... what happens when someone whose powers are directly manifested from Infinity Stones gets trapped inside one for five years...