Wandavision
Jul. 5th, 2022 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraWandavision. I wasn't sure I was going to watch this, but I had the unprecedented opportunity of two days with the house to myself, and it turns out 6 hours of television over two days isn't actually that crazy! Well, plus the movie yesterday, but even still! Watch an episode, do a chore, watch an episode, prep a meal... I've always been baffled by how people manage to watch all these different shows, but suddenly I was living this totally different life where it was possible. (Well, I had to watch the last ~90 minutes on my laptop because everyone came home, but, muahaha, now I have the ability to do that too, which I guess I could have all along, but hadn't. I guess I've sometimes watched Amazon stuff there? But now I also have our Disney+ password! I could watch anything! All the Pixar shorts I've been wanting to see! Incredible!)
Anyways, this show. I have thoughts and I'm going to put them all behind a cut.
This is exactly an inverse example of what I just said about Shang-Chi, that these stories are so much stronger when nobody's trying to make them part of some big arc, and weakest at their arc-iest. I thought the basic premise here was really clever, with the different eras of sitcoms, and the basic Twilight-Zone-esque conceit of the grieving person controlling this dream-world was strong (the transmutation of outside things into thematic things was so well done! I love that stuff!), but it was such a disappointing anticlimax to have this big reveal of "actually, protag, you're this cape name that comic book fans will be excited to hear, but which we've done exactly zero to establish in *this* work, and this whole thing was to get your character into position for your next movie appearance", someone wrote some jam yesterday and someone's going to write some jam tomorrow, so we don't need to serve any today, this is just another bridge between "remember when" and "coming soon". So I thought the last couple of episodes dragged. It doesn't help that I have never had even one tiny bit of interest in Vision - it still confuses me that they "made him" from a beloved and interesting character like JARVIS and then never referenced or did anything with that again. (Well, I guess he did say "I used to be a voice without a body" to Wanda - is that the first time he's even indicated that he has the JARVIS memories?) This show did get me to care about *Wanda*, which was new, so, props for that, but I just did not care about Vision and his versioning control problems and his lurve and apparently Wanda's got part of one of the magic rocks and these stories are always at their most tedious when they're going on about the magic rocks again.
Other stuff: I was unhappy that they chose to kill off Maria Rambeau in a couple of lines in a flashback. Like, I know Carol/Maria isn't actually canon, but at the same time they are totally the Marvelverse's best lesbian couple, and it's such a waste of a character! Imagine if after the first Captain America movie we had just heard that oh yeah no Bucky died of cancer while you were in the ice, Steve, sorry, let's get on with the plot. (Haha, now I am imagining it and it's great, maybe we would have gotten more Peggy. Uh, anyways.) I did really like the closing line to Monica that "they want you in the theater", like, that is very cute and also yes we fucking do, whatever is going on with her (does she have a mimicry power?) is interesting and she clearly has some unfinished business with Carol, let's have some family drama! Captain Marvel 2 let's go! Ok, I guess that's also sort of arc-y, but, I don't know, I care about Monica (and Carol, and Maria) from the story that was actually told about them on the screen that I watched, not something I was supposed to already know or was told I would eventually get to see. (Similarly, the "recasting Pietro" thing worked because he was the best thing about those movies, like it was collecting on something that had actually had the investment put in.)
Anyways, this show. I have thoughts and I'm going to put them all behind a cut.
This is exactly an inverse example of what I just said about Shang-Chi, that these stories are so much stronger when nobody's trying to make them part of some big arc, and weakest at their arc-iest. I thought the basic premise here was really clever, with the different eras of sitcoms, and the basic Twilight-Zone-esque conceit of the grieving person controlling this dream-world was strong (the transmutation of outside things into thematic things was so well done! I love that stuff!), but it was such a disappointing anticlimax to have this big reveal of "actually, protag, you're this cape name that comic book fans will be excited to hear, but which we've done exactly zero to establish in *this* work, and this whole thing was to get your character into position for your next movie appearance", someone wrote some jam yesterday and someone's going to write some jam tomorrow, so we don't need to serve any today, this is just another bridge between "remember when" and "coming soon". So I thought the last couple of episodes dragged. It doesn't help that I have never had even one tiny bit of interest in Vision - it still confuses me that they "made him" from a beloved and interesting character like JARVIS and then never referenced or did anything with that again. (Well, I guess he did say "I used to be a voice without a body" to Wanda - is that the first time he's even indicated that he has the JARVIS memories?) This show did get me to care about *Wanda*, which was new, so, props for that, but I just did not care about Vision and his versioning control problems and his lurve and apparently Wanda's got part of one of the magic rocks and these stories are always at their most tedious when they're going on about the magic rocks again.
Other stuff: I was unhappy that they chose to kill off Maria Rambeau in a couple of lines in a flashback. Like, I know Carol/Maria isn't actually canon, but at the same time they are totally the Marvelverse's best lesbian couple, and it's such a waste of a character! Imagine if after the first Captain America movie we had just heard that oh yeah no Bucky died of cancer while you were in the ice, Steve, sorry, let's get on with the plot. (Haha, now I am imagining it and it's great, maybe we would have gotten more Peggy. Uh, anyways.) I did really like the closing line to Monica that "they want you in the theater", like, that is very cute and also yes we fucking do, whatever is going on with her (does she have a mimicry power?) is interesting and she clearly has some unfinished business with Carol, let's have some family drama! Captain Marvel 2 let's go! Ok, I guess that's also sort of arc-y, but, I don't know, I care about Monica (and Carol, and Maria) from the story that was actually told about them on the screen that I watched, not something I was supposed to already know or was told I would eventually get to see. (Similarly, the "recasting Pietro" thing worked because he was the best thing about those movies, like it was collecting on something that had actually had the investment put in.)
no subject
Date: 2022-07-05 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-07-05 07:39 pm (UTC)> these stories are so much stronger when nobody's trying to make them part of some big arc, and weakest at their arc-iest. I thought the basic premise here was really clever, with the different eras of sitcoms, and the basic Twilight-Zone-esque conceit of the grieving person controlling this dream-world was strong (the transmutation of outside things into thematic things was so well done! I love that stuff!), but it was such a disappointing anticlimax to have this big reveal of "actually, protag, you're this cape name that comic book fans will be excited to hear, but which we've done exactly zero to establish in *this* work, and this whole thing was to get your character into position for your next movie appearance", someone wrote some jam yesterday and someone's going to write some jam tomorrow, so we don't need to serve any today, this is just another bridge between "remember when" and "coming soon". So I thought the last couple of episodes dragged