The Marvels (2023, Nia DaCosta)

The Marvels is a sequel to Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson, which came out four years before but takes place thirty years before. It’s also a sequel to the TV shows “WandaVision,” which introduced Teyonah Parris (though her character appeared as a little kid in Captain), and “Ms. Marvel,” which introduced Iman Vellani as a teenage hero who idolizes Larson.

Through celeritous convenience and contrivance, Marvels gets the three together, along with Samuel L. Jackson (who also starred in Captain, CGI de-aged, and is back here in a combination comedic relief and exposition provider role) and Vellani’s family, also coming back from the “Ms. Marvel” show. Marvels spotlights mom Zenobia Shroff and dad Mohan Kapur the most, but does give older brother Saagar Shaikh some great comedic bits. Shaikh’s wife is mysteriously absent like they filmed Marvels before all of “Ms.”

It doesn’t matter, of course, because the point’s getting the trio together. Fangirl but still professional superhero Vellani, government scientific investigator turned reluctant metahuman Harris, and intergalactic world-saver (and world destroyer) Larson, who’s not really aware of how her celebrity works on her home planet. Thanks to villain Zawe Ashton, Vellani, Harris, and Larson find their powers intertwined; if one uses their power, they change locations—across the galaxy—with another. While the film does an excellent montage sequence with the three learning how to use the “Marvels leaping” to their advantage (the movie doesn’t make that joke; I made that joke, blame me), it never explains the rules.

Marvels opens with Ashton and her sidekick Daniel Ings (who supposedly has a name in the movie, but I don’t think so) finding an ancient space artifact—a bangle like the one from “Ms. Marvel,” now streaming exclusively on Disney Plus. It never occurred to Ashton one of the bangles would end up on a desolate planetoid, and the other would just be on planet Earth in Pakistan. One of Marvels’s subtlest recurring plot points is how little people look at things from the other person’s perspective. See, Ashton might not have been in Captain Marvel, but only because they didn’t know they would need to have a character mad at Larson for what she did at the end of that movie.

Thirty years ago in story time. In between, there was half the universe disappearing and coming back, which features into Parris’s backstory but no one else’s. It presumably would have also affected Ashton’s scheme. Ashton’s scheme is unclear for a while. When we find out exactly what she’s got planned, it’s maybe Marvels’s biggest plot contrivance. The film runs a nimble 105 minutes, with profoundly precise cutting by Catrin Hedström and Evan Schiff. Director DaCosta likes doing some nice sci-fi establishing shots, too—lots of space superhero grandeur on display, but she never holds the shot too long. Marvels is clearly on a schedule, and DaCosta doesn’t miss any stops.

Things get a little clunky in the second act, which has Jackson dealing with a grim and gritty tribbles “Star Trek” episode. At the same time, Parris and Vellani discover Larson’s space adventures are a lot weirder (and more “Doctor Who,” frankly) than they were expecting.

But then the third act’s a powerhouse. Even as the film ignores plot thread after plot thread—I’m not sure any of the outstanding ones get resolved, the movie instead just floors it, relying on Vellani, Parris, and Larson to get the finale through. And it works just right, even though the film’s got three cameos from elsewhere in the franchise, with one deep—but modern—cut and then another deep and surprising one. They’re all effective—though only the surprising one doesn’t require franchise literacy. It can stand alone, whereas the first two only make sense if you’re up on the lore.

But there’s not much lore otherwise. It’s like the screenwriters—director DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik—all realized there’s just no way to do a straight sequel to Captain Marvel so they might as well treat it as a legacy crossover sequel. With Vellani’s family playing such a large part (besides them, the only other regular characters are Leila Farzad and Abraham Popoola as Jackson’s flunkies), it feels a little like a legacy sequel, a little like “Ms. Marvel Goes to the Movies,” and then… well, no, just those two things. It does feel like there were cuts, whether filmed material or just cut from the script and while some of them were undoubtedly delightful, Marvels works better as a leaner picture.

Larson, Parris, and Vellani are trying to save the universe, after all; they’re going to be in a rush to get it done.

Vellani’s delightful, Larson and Parris are both good—Larson gets the least to do of the three; she’s the stoic one. Jackson’s always funny, even when he’s stretching the bit; Shroff, Kapur, and Shaikh are great. Ashton’s fine. Could she be better? Sure. Does the movie need her to be better? Nah. She’s a good foil, but not too good of one because it’s not about anyone and their nemesis; it’s about people and their… friends, family, country-people? None of the terms really work, but it’s about people who care about one another working together (which makes Jackson’s secret space military organization even weirder since they’re just a bunch of lovable nerds).

Anyway.

The Marvels is a great time.

Also, if you like cats, you’ll have an even better one.

Unless you want the thread resolved, of course. No time for tidying up here, just warping ahead.

Sorry, wrong franchise.

Five Nights in Maine (2015, Maris Curran)

So, it turns out sometimes you do actually need a story. No matter the locations, no matter the photography, the music, the actors, the editing, even the directing, sometimes you can’t get away with eighty minutes without some kind of narrative.

Five Nights in Maine is the story of newly widowed David Oyelowo. He becomes severely melancholic after his wife, Hani Furstenberg, dies in a car accident. Unfortunately, writer and director Curran putting Furstenberg in at the beginning ends up being utterly pointless, especially given the later flashbacks and reveals. The first sign the script’s not there.

Her estranged and dying mother, Dianne Wiest, calls and leaves an ominous voice mail telling Oyelowo to come to visit her in Maine; no need to call ahead. He lives in Atlanta. It’s a twenty-one-hour drive, and there’s no driving montage footage at night, so presumably, he stops somewhere at least once; we don’t see it because, despite being an ostensible character study of Oyelowo, Curran’s got no idea what’s going on with the guy.

The film sets up a bunch of pieces—Oyelowo’s been pressuring Furstenberg to get pregnant, Wiest didn’t like Oyelowo because he’s Black, her lily-white neighbors are at the least weird to him, something happened on Furstenberg’s last visit to Wiest, Oyelowo’s driving around with Furstenberg’s ashes. Now, if Curran set up that chess board and then inspected it, Five Nights wouldn’t have an epical arc, but it would have a purpose. Instead, Curran just sets things up and moves past them. Only two of the aforementioned items matter, and only during the end-of-second-act blow-out. It’s a shockingly thin film.

Curran’s able to imply a lot more depth thanks to Oyelowo. However, he works his ass for nothing. The camera spends most of the film inspecting him, and he’s always doing something relevant, but it adds up to nothing. Not even for his performance—when Oyelowo’s at the big payoff, Curran goes to long shot. It’s a not surprising miss. Because Curran wastes Wiest, there’s nothing she can do to disappoint.

Oyelowo spends, presumably, Five Nights staying with Wiest. The first four nights, she’s barely around. They probably have dinner together, but the only first and last times are important. We don’t even find out home healthcare worker Rosie Perez doesn’t spend the night until the third night. Maybe fourth night. The film doesn’t count them; it’s not worth the effort for the audience either.

Wiest goes from rude to mean to rude to meaner. She has a couple moments of levity, which the film doesn’t know what to do with; like, they seem accidentally okay, with Wiest getting to do some character development. There’s minimal character or character development in the film. Curran can’t be bothered.

Curran does appreciate her actors, however. She holds her shots forever, letting Oyelowo and Wiest act, react, emote, pout, all sorts of things. Sweat—Oyelowo has a very dangerous jog. Smoke. He starts smoking a lot the last night to gin up conflict. As the film winds down, Curran does what she can to jumpstart the act change, and it’s all desperate and all weird. The last night is entirely different from the other nights, but it’s supposedly all routine.

Though Wiest does have cancer, and she’s not getting better, and she’s maybe having mental health things going on. She doesn’t have a doctor in the movie, and Perez’s medical duties are opaque. Perez is there to talk to Oyelowo and make Wiest dinner.

However, since she doesn’t have a genuine part, Perez’s performance can’t come up short. She’s fine. It’s an extended cameo. Fine. Bill Raymond’s good in a scene, and Teyonah Parris’s good in a couple scenes. It’s unclear if Furstenberg’s any good—Curran’s unreliable when presenting her.

Good photography from Sofian El Fani, great editing from Ron Dulin. The Maine locations are lovely. The music appears not to be original; it’s solid. Manipulative but well-selected; Chris Robertson supervised. Unfortunately, the original song at the end, which uses lines of dialogue from the film as lyrics, is not good.

Five Nights in Paris seemed like an easy proposition, and Curran’s a fine technical director, but she did not have the story. At all. It’s a waste of everyone’s time: Oyelowo’s, Wiest’s, the audience’s, Curran’s.

WandaVision (2021) s01e09 – The Series Finale

Not even halfway through “WandaVision,” it became clear the show’s pass or fail was going to be how well it treated lead Elizabeth Olsen by the end of it. Despite top-billing, she was secondary to Paul Bettany for a while because he was the viewer’s angle of entry. Once it did get to centering on Olsen, the plot violently twisted around itself in order to make it seemingly impossible to unravel without demonizing Olsen. It forecast it wouldn’t—even making Josh Stamberg’s entire character motivation about the fair of that demon (maybe I should’ve gone with witch)—but as things got more and more entangled, even as Olsen got better and better material, culminating in last episode’s “Secret Origin of the MCU Wanda,” it seemed almost impossible they—director Matt Shakman, show runner Jac Schaeffer, brand guru Kevin Feige—would be able to pull it off without a monumental cop out. And such a cop out would throw Olsen under the bus. Or the car. Or the house from Kansas, as it were.

So, while there are a handful of loss ends a narrative should’ve tied if it weren’t part of a billion dollar umbrella franchise, some glazed over intensely tragic, dramatic moments, way too little for the supporting cast who sold the show while Olsen was subject and oddity, not to mention a (not really but they had to know it’d remind of it) concerning return to a self-exile location—Ed Norton knows that cabin, just saying—“WandaVision” passes. Succeeds. In many areas excels. Olsen’s gone from being the sidekick in the C plot to the only actor who’s gotten to do actual character development in the Marvel movies. Turns out the best way to do character development for characters made for many part serialized installments is to do many part serialized installments, utilizing different narrative styles and distances to do it. The thing about the Marvel movies—the (entirely commercial) magic—isn’t their comics accuracy in the costumes or origin stories, it’s their ability to translate the experience of reading the superhero comic to watching the superhero comic. They pull it off with “WandaVision,” complete with epilogues reminding you to pay attention to the next limited series to buy or maybe you’re supposed to head over to Avengers.

“WandaVision” is the Marvel movies biggest success—conceptually—since Infinity War, which was putting the two-part Marvel Graphic Novel to film. “WandaVision” proves the limited series on film. Well, streaming video—also, have to say, it’s really great to see a TV-first project not afraid to use lots of extreme long shot in their superhero fights. Even if some of the medium shot composites during the witch fight could be better. The episode does a nice twist on the Marvel movies super-people throw digital fireballs at each other thing to make up for it.

But it takes Olsen, who’s always been in these movies as someone else’s plus one–she’s been someone’s sister, someone’s girlfriend, someone’s problem employee, someone’s protege, someone’s wife, someone’s mother—combines the best of those things and drops the unimportant ones. Well, it drops the ones it can’t possibly cover. Like, we can guess the weight of killing civilians because of Olsen’s, you know, acting, but “WandaVision” can’t cover it. One assumes Disney+ knows most parents don’t know how to lock by ratings. So they skip the biggest “adult themes.” Particularly with kids Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne, who the show keeps starting to leverage because they’re good and fun—they could’ve done five more minutes hanging out with Teyonah Parris but the episode can only really handle two superhero fights, not three—but then has to hit the brakes on because Hilliard and Klyne need to be handled very delicately, without raising too many questions. Much like Kat Dennings going from trusted, leveraged B plot sidekick as protagonist, to maybe an Argyle nod from Die Hard (definitely a nod to something, but I’m not a hundred percent it’s Die Hard). There’s not room for her, there’s not room for Randall Park. Because it’s Olsen’s show.

It’s a big superhero origin story and it’s all Olsen’s. The episode makes the most room for Bettany, because he’s Olsen’s dude—the superhero-sized melodramatics are appropriately affecting and glorious—then Kathryn Hahn because she’s in a thirty minute superhero fight with Olsen, then in a distant third, Parris. Other than Olsen, Bettany gets the best material; he gets his Superman III junkyard fight with his evil clone, but with a very Bettany Vision resolution—Schaeffer clearly loves the sound of his voice. But she’s just as enthused when he gets to talk all soulful and deep to Olsen. The show’s able to get away with a lot thanks to Olsen, Bettany, and Hahn. Lesser productions would be, well, Supergirl: The Movie.

Hahn’s victim to a few more bad special effects composition shots than anyone else, but she’s still a mesmerizing villain. The show does well in not doing an alter ego thing for her and Olsen; I think the superhero fight banter off between them has to be the best acted one as yet to put film. Runner up is Bettany versus Bettany. The character development behind it all, “WandaVision” and beyond, adds depth, but also it’s just Hahn and Olsen are really good.

Like, the scene where Olsen toggles to leading her superhero family from cosmic witchery? Awesome. She’s also able to imply a lot of the dark the show can’t explicitly describe during the many set pieces in her fight with Hahn.

Overall, the show hinges on Olsen, Bettany, Olsen and Bettany, and Hahn. The final episode lets Hahn off the hook a little because she’s “just” the bad guy at this point and not being an alter ego with the hero… she only plays into so much. Everything she does is a delight, of course. Though I do remain unconvinced on the eyeshadow.

It’ll be at least two years before the standing “WandaVision” questions get resolved—it’s off to the big screen for a couple of the cast members (the timeline’s Covid-permitting)—and who knows what they might bring up again even later. It would’ve been nice to know Marvel movies could do this kind of longer form project either—especially in the years it seemed Olsen and Bettany were utterly wasted—but “WandaVision” portends a successful Marvel movies streaming show future. It does seem unlikely we’ll get to see performances of Olsen and Hahn’s caliber on a regular basis, but it turns out Olsen being singular in the Marvel movies is kind of the point.

Though, you know, beware that cabin.

WandaVision (2021) s01e07 – Breaking the Fourth Wall

I’m going to be very basic about “WandaVision” and the reveals in this episode. The show’s been very subtly leveraging one of the cast for a big turn—with this alternating intensity device—and it works and it’s the only easy out I’d be okay with. It was rumored a few weeks ago but I didn’t pay attention, even though apparently it’s very comics accurate. At least per a little bit of Googling. I hadn’t realized there was a comics accurate thing they could do, figuring they’d just, you know, do House of M a little different. Bit smaller.

But it does certainly foretell a not particularly deep conclusion to the series. While my knee jerk is it’s Disney, what were they really going to do, I do have sympathy. I did once scream “are you <insert expletive here> kidding me” at Vanilla Sky. So I get it.

Now I just want to bask in the tone-shifting glory of “Breaking the Fourth Wall.” Their sitcom riff this episode is what I assume is “Modern Family;” single camera, interviews with the characters as asides, occasionally risqué jokes run through a couple filters. Elizabeth Olsen spends some of her part of the episode reflecting on the previous one—we don’t get a resolve to the cliffhanger, picking up the next morning—and while she’s doing absurdist pastiche, she’s really good. Not as a “Modern WandaVision Family” mom caricature, but as her character trying to reason through it. It just occurred to me during the episode we’ve never determined how she’s experiencing life in the Hex either, outside the instinctual controls.

I’ll bet the series is going to rewatch well. Though I’ll also bet the scene where we find out Kat Dennings somehow has seen Avengers: Infinity War so she can tell Paul Bettany how he died in the movie plays just as shrug. Like… was it broadcast? Can they establish it? It goes on for so long it’d have worked better if Dennings had turned to the camera, winked, and reminded us we could watch it on Disney+ whenever we wanted.

Otherwise, Bettany and Denning are fantastic together. We’re in the endgame of “WandaVision” now and Bettany knows something’s really wrong and knows he can’t leave the Hex, so he’s impatient and confused but still in a sitcom. It works out. And Dennings can easily handle this comedy stuff. Her timing’s wonderful.

Meanwhile, we get some big developments on Teyonah Parris’s arc, including a perfectly eighties—perfectly Marvel Comics—sequence in a superhero origin story, complete with affecting Captain Marvel sound clips. It’s awesome bigger scale superhero stuff confined quite naturally to a TV screen. Really cool.

Other regular cast members are gearing up for duty in the rest of the series presumably, with Josh Stamberg not learning anything and starting to concern his subordinates as his secret plan becomes clear, Evan Peters getting a part-time job subplot (though you have to wait through credits to find out what, so make sure to stick around), and then Kathryn Hahn babysitting Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne while Olsen does her mindfulness sitcom mom thing. Hahn’s so good. Just so good. She gets to do a lot of winking at the camera thanks to the format and it’s incredible.

“WandaVision”’s got two more (I thought it was eight, it’s nine) and it seems very likely they’ll get it done inventively and successfully. They could tank it, sure, but they’ve ably weathered their biggest reveal and have come through fine.

WandaVision (2021) s01e06 – All-New Halloween Spooktacular!

I’m not going to write it but there’s a very good academic paper called “The Blipped Hero: Why Marvel Can’t Do a Heroic Age, in Comics, Film, or Streaming.” Also this would be the perfect time for Sentry to do the hero stuff, because then Randall Park can do an “Agents of Atlas.” More than anything else so far in the Marvel movies… “WandaVision” is getting to the verisimilitude. And it’s actually incredibly impressive. This episode’s really impressive for a number of reasons, but the way this episode in particular addresses the “reality” of the Marvel stuff… Josh Stamberg’s able to do a person as a caricature as a person and it covers a whole lot.

Though the episode also starts the deep dive in Elizabeth Olsen’s headspace, thanks to guest star (or new cast member) Evan Peters. While husband Paul Bettany is way too busy being suspicious about the whole suburban paradise thing, Peters is cool with it (as in cool with Olsen having apparently engineered the whole thing) and he’s there to give Olsen a sympathetic ear.

But the episode doesn’t open with the resolve on Peters’s surprise appearance in the previous episode’s cliffhanger—instead there’s a “Malcolm in the Middle”-esque (I think) opening titles sequence, quickly centering on the antics of twins Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne. The episode opens with them trying to figure out what’s up with their weird slacker uncle Peters while mom Olsen and dad Bettany get agitated with one another and try to mask it for the children’s sake. Hilliard and Klyne only have to run the episode for a while but they’re really good. The script—credited to Chuck Hayward and Peter Cameron—does an excellent job with the kids, particularly at the beginning, particularly since the episode delays any resolution at all to Peters.

It’s Halloween, after all, and everyone’s getting ready for trick-or-treating. Except Bettany, who’s got neighborhood watch duty even though Olsen doesn’t want him to go but isn’t willing to have a free will conversation with him. Of course, it’s going to turn out Bettany isn’t on duty and he’s instead investigating their strange suburban paradise, finding its uncannier cul-de-sacs and avenues, where Olsen apparently can’t keep the Matrix running at full power and the mind-controlled people just stand in place. It’s an excellent sequence, with Kathryn Hahn’s (sadly) only scene being the capper. There’s some excellent acting this episode from Olsen and Bettany, but nothing really compares to Hahn’s sequence. The episode relies heavily on Hahn for haunting and disturbing and she does wonders.

There’s also all the stuff with Olsen and Peters, where he talks to her plainly about the situation—Olsen seemingly mind-controlling a whole town, not to mention resurrecting first a dead Bettany, then a dead Peters (umm, with an asterisk I’m not sure “WandaVision” is ever going be able to address but at this point skies the limit)—and it gives Olsen a lot of excellent dramatic acting gristle. This episode is the one where I’m getting much more confident “WandaVision” knows all its doing. It’s just doing more than Marvel movies have ever done so… brave new worlds and all that.

I haven’t even gotten outside—literally—to Stamberg’s military operation to take out Olsen and save the day. Though apparently he’s more concerned about getting Bettany back because then they won’t have to buy vibranium from Wakanda or something. There’s a little lot for Teyonah Parris, Randall Park, and Kat Dennings to do—including some forecasting about Parris’s (potential) superhero future and the promise of another guest star next episode—as they have to rebel against Stamberg. After Parris and Park sort of running the subplot, Dennings gets the emphasis and is quite good in a very different setting.

“WandaVision” has taken it up another notch (there’s also a whole thing with the Halloween costumes, including a very appropriately cringe-y look into the kinks of Olsen and Bettany as nineties sitcom parents) and it hasn’t just easily surpassed its source material, it’s refined them into something real and good. For the first time, I’m confident they’re not going to screw Olsen over by the end of it (which I also realize means I could end up extremely bummed).

But no spoilers.

WandaVision (2021) s01e05 – On a Very Special Episode…

There are a couple moderate surprise choices in the episode—first is when Randall Park (who gets some really good moments even though the action thriller aspect of the episode is very secondary) makes a Captain Marvel mention and it gets a reaction from Teyonah Parris, which is the first acknowledgement of her being the little kid from that movie grown up and there being something going on they’ll need to put a pin in until the sequel and then when Elizabeth Olsen breaks the fourth wall to confront Parris, Park, and the rest of the action thriller team. They’re only surprises in being flexes; with Parris it’s some character development we don’t need in “WandaVision” (or do we) and with Olsen it’s some agency we’ve been sorely missing. And a return to the Sokovian accent she’s been missing for a few movies. The show’s taking some big bites and showing off it can chew them without any milk.

But then there’s the finale one and it’s such a big, weird bite, such a multi-layered flex… I’ve been worried about how “WandaVision” is going to do what it’s doing and get to a satisfactory resolve and not to a proverbial refrigerator but… this episode ends with an exceptional, singularly possible gotcha moment of the show all of a sudden winking at the audience and saying, “Guess you rewatched the wrong movies.”

It hadn’t even occurred to me the “right” movies would be on Disney+.

End spoiler hints. But it’s going to be exceptional if they can get away with it. Or even figure out what to do with it. All of a sudden “WandaVision” goes from being one thing to being something else, even as Paul Bettany gets to exercise a lot of agency too. He’s realizing he’s not in the right place either and just as he’s going to get some answers….

Well, worlds collide. Whoops, wrong comic company reference.

There’s a bunch of good stuff with Park, Parris, and Kat Dennings as they get together as Team Rational against agent-in-charge Josh Stamberg, who’s turning into a generic dick of an agent-in-charge. Stamberg’s fine at it but it seems like a missed chance. Doesn’t end up mattering.

The episode in the episode—so the sitcom pastiche—is late eighties sitcom, kind of “Family Ties” but, frankly, “Step by Step” crappy. Partially just because of Bettany’s jeans. But it works, especially Kathryn Hahn as the neighbor, who’s updated to late eighties style. Though events are letting Hahn and other “sitcom” co-star Asif Ali do some character development. Marvel Studios has produced a lot of hours of content at this point, but “WandaVision” is the first project where I’m desperately interested in the behind the scenes. Lots of decisions had to be made and I want to know about all of them.

It’s also nice because after foisting Olsen off on a subplot with the twin sons, she ends up with a lot to do in the third act. The kids are fine enough at acting like eighties sitcom kids but it’s rarely interesting without Bettany around because Olsen’s still “in-character.” Even without the big surprise finish, there’d be a lot to resolve next episode, but now there’s even more.

I’m still relatively confident I’ve got “WandaVision”’s ambitions identified but if it’s able to succeed with all the hurdles it’s giving itself… it’s going to be an achievement more than a success. And potentially improbable Marvel Studios on Disney+ is going to be able to surpass it.

If they can pull it off.

WandaVision (2021) s01e04 – We Interrupt This Program

The most important success of this episode of “WandaVision” is not Randall Park not just returning as Jimmy Woo—he previously appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp—but the show “fixing” his character (he was incompetent comic relief in Ant-Man 2), thereby laying the potential ground work for an Agents of Atlas adaptation; it’s probably not even the second most important success. It’s just my favorite one because Agents of Atlas is a sublime comic and Jimmy Woo is a great character in it.

The most important success is also not Kat Dennings coming back from Thor 2 and running the literal show with complete ease. After the episode gets caught up a bit—however the present action of this episode works versus the previous three episodes… some of it’s just going to have to be “well, it’s magic,” or Soul Stone energy or whatever. It’s fine because it means better material for Dennings and Park, but the hinky timeline stuff is just going into a cart with the other potential series problems; this episode, which resolves the previous one’s cliffhanger, does nothing to get the show out of its biggest possible problem (the spoiler-y one I’m not talking about)…

But it’s an excellent lead-up to that big potential problem. Every minute of We Interrupt this Program is spot-on, starting with getting to see Teyonah Parris come back after five years when they un-Thanos snapped everyone. Parris, who’s been fine and likable on the show in a decent but limited part, is a great lead. Parris is playing a character from a previous Marvel movie and they reference all the pieces but it’s never explicitly stated. It’s done in Easter eggs, which is fine. Maybe even appropriate. It’ll depend on what happens with Parris.

But it definitely works.

Parris goes back to work at S.W.O.R.D., which is like S.H.I.E.L.D. but doesn’t have a terrible ABC show dragging the brand down, where she now works for previous underling Josh Stamberg (who reminded immediately how much I like Josh Stamberg). He sends her off on a mission where she has to liaise with FBI agent Park and they pretty quickly find themselves in a major situation, with Parris missing and Park calling in the calvary.

Dennings is in the calvary—she’s part of the Andromeda Strain scientist crew put together to figure out what’s going on—and pretty soon they’re all sitting around watching the same “WandaVision” episodes we’ve seen. Only they don’t get them on Disney+, they get them over old style low-def TV broadcast.

By the end of the episode, which starts at least three weeks before the previous one’s cliffhanger, all the timelines are in sync and the show’s had a couple big reveals for Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen.

Based on how well they do with this episode, I want to be super confident everything’s going to go fine or better but… we’ll see.

Excellent direction from Matt Shakman again; it was impressive how he did the sitcom riffs and was able to change tone, but his handling this science fiction thriller episode is even more so.

Fingers crossed.

WandaVision (2021) s01e03 – Now in Color

This episode does an excellent job changing the tone—first with color (the show looks and sounds very “Brady Bunch,” but without the kiddie antics), then with a big reveal in the finale. Director Matt Shakman has been doing a good job with the show so far, with this episode the first time where he’s been downright impressive. He got close last episode, but so much of “WandaVision” has been keeping the show on the rails, this time it jumps at least two tracks and Shakman keeps it in place. Especially once there’s a lot of suspense action while never leaving that “Brady Bunch” setting.

However.

It’s also the point where I’m getting concerned—again, going to be hard to maneuver through talking “WandaVision” without talking expected spoilers—but the show makes some big changes and it’s going to need to really come through for it to work out. Especially for Elizabeth Olsen, who does get to do a bunch of comedy this episode, but usually playing off someone else (mostly Teyonah Parris). Meanwhile, Paul Bettany once again gets to be a comedy superstar, including using his superpowers in front of people (while Olsen’s jokes revolve around her having to hide hers), and even getting the de facto protagonist slot when it comes to investigating the reveals.

It starts with him worrying neighbors Kathryn Hahn and David Payton are gossiping about he and Olsen, but it turns out to be something far more peculiar and potentially sinister. If my suspicions about “WandaVision”’s source plot line are correct—and they certainly seem to be after the cliffhanger—they’re walking an extraordinary tightrope and Olsen’s the one who’s going to make the biggest splat if it doesn’t go well, which really isn’t fair.

Also it’s a bummer the stylized opening titles promise a lot more fun than the episode turns out to be, particularly for Hahn, who plays second-fiddle exposition to Payton in her single scene. She and Payton are both good and all, they’re just under-used.

Nice supporting turn from Randy Oglesby as Olsen’s bewildered doctor.

“WandaVision” is getting close to its make or break point, rushing towards it with a whole lot of bravado. Hopefully it’ll make it. But whatever it’s going to do… even a successful (albeit cast underutilizing) episode like this one doesn’t presage overall success. Fingers crossed.

Also the detail of neighborhood social grand dame Emma Caulfield Ford being married to goofball David Lengel is great.

WandaVision (2021) s01e02 – Don’t Touch That Dial

When this episode started—again in black and white, with a glorious animated title sequence (homage to “Bewitched”), I was a little confused because I thought they were doing a different sitcom style every episode. But it turns out it’s part of the narrative, which is rather a nice turn of events given the alternative is they’d be doing a painful Pleasantville rip. But they are not and it all works out, which is kind of “WandaVision”’s thing… it just works out.

This episode gives Elizabeth Olsen the better part (between her and Paul Bettany); it’s the neighborhood magic show, just like neighborhoods have—we also establish Bettany’s coworker Asif Ali lives presumably on the same block, ditto boss’s his Debra Jo Rupp—and Olsen and Bettany are doing a magic show.

But they’re not going to be using any of the actual magic they can do, because they don’t want the normies to know they’re special. Actually, thanks to rewatching Olsen and Bettany’s Avengers outings, I know continuity would have them be “enhanced,” not “special,” but we’ll see if they bother with that one.

Except Bettany starts malfunctioning and so Olsen’s got to save the magic show and her burgeoning relationship with the neighborhood’s society boss, Emma Caulfield Ford. It all works out in fine sitcom fashion, getting to a somewhat surprising (though also very foreshadowed) conclusion. And a save on that Pleasantville concern.

There’s a good subplot about Bettany and Olsen being scared of loud noises, leading to some fine sitcom moments. Less successful is Bettany’s outing with the neighborhood watch group, though David Payton’s good as the group leader and Bettany’s new pal. Kathryn Hayn’s awesome in her scenes, no surprise, and Olsen gets another friend in Teyonah Parris, who seems just as discombobulated in the sitcom setting as Olsen.

And, once again, a very nice sense of the uncanny when they’re forecasting eventual reveals (which seem to have something to do with the in-universe—in-universe-in-universe?—TV commercials).