![]() ![]() The homages are merely a mechanic to deliver - and often disguise - its true intentions.Both Vision’s mortal state and the couple’s existence in the ever-changing sitcom town of Westview is initially presented without context or explanation, which makes the show as much of a puzzle box mystery as it is an emotional drama disguised as a comedy. WandaVision is not a sitcom set in the MCU. This manifests in numerous different ways but starts in earlier episodes by delivering a sense of unease through dramatic irony, as the audience understands Vision to be dead, despite his seemingly very much alive on-screen actions. This emotional darkness plays off against the wholesome sitcom comedy, creating frequent moments of turbulence. WandaVision is actually an exploration of grief, acting as an extended epilogue to the trauma experienced by both Wanda and Vision during the events of Avengers: Infinity War. The homages are merely a mechanic to deliver - and often disguise - its true intentions. ![]() You see, WandaVision is not a sitcom set in the MCU. Most importantly, though, all this creates a sharp tonal contrast with the other half of WandaVision’s design. Episodes set in earlier decades can come across as charming more than laugh-aloud funny, but there’s always something to admire, even if it’s just the replication. While knowledge of the original shows does help make those jokes more successful, the humour generally manages to transcend the homage. ![]() Aside from creating a genuinely unique approach for both the MCU and TV in general, it provides WandaVision a new delivery format for its all-important humour that allows for fresh interpretations of similar jokes each episode. This is an unusual choice for Marvel, especially considering the importance of young audiences among its demographic, but the concept plays out successfully. From multi-camera, live-audience set-ups to the energetic mockumentray formats of modern favourites, most episodes sport their own unique look and feel and tap into nostalgia for the classics - even among those of us who’ve only seen reruns. With each successive episode the time period advances, recreating the aesthetic and directorial style of shows like The Brady Bunch and Family Ties. Rather than deal with explosive conflict, WandaVision places its titular duo - Elizabeth Olsen’s magic-wielding Wanda and Paul Bettany’s sentient android Vision - into loving homages of classic US sitcoms such as I Love Lucy and Bewitched. Filmed in monochrome and 4:3 ratio, the opening chapter of WandaVision looks like a recovered relic from the 1950s instead of glossy superhero cinema. This is evident from the very first shot of the series. Free to write its own rules, WandaVision goes to places few would have expected the world’s biggest popcorn franchise to explore, and more often than not its themes of the grief and love between Wanda Maximoff and Vision help it find its footing. And yet surprise it does: the MCU’s first true venture into television constantly morphs between surreal sitcom, puzzle box mystery, and superhero dramatics, indicating that Marvel’s confidence in a post-Endgame world remains strong. It should come as no surprise, then, that WandaVision is also bold and experimental. Despite its frequent reliance on formula, its very existence - a series of storylines told across more than a decade’s worth of multiple interconnected movies - is unlike anything else. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been bold. ![]()
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