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Do not adjust your television. Marvel and Disney+ are in complete control. What you are seeing with the launch of the eagerly anticipated WandaVision may not be what you’re expecting. Yes, it’s here, the first television series from Marvel Studios (Agents of SHIELD and the former Netflix series all hailed from Marvel Television, which is no more), the first TV series to purposefully link the cinematic MCU with a television property (yeah, SHIELD tried but mostly ignored events in the movies). But the new series starring characters Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Vision may baffle younger Marvel fans with its stylistic choices.
Why? Well, each episode runs in the 30 minute range, and the first three (at the very least as only three have been released to the media for review thus far) are firmly set in classic TV sitcom territory. So unless you’ve spent a lot of time watching TV Land or over-the-air neworks like MeTV or Antenna TV, you are going to be scratching your head and wondering why this 4K Dolby Vision series is in black and white and, gasp, square with black bars on the left and right side of your widescreen TV. Well, that’s how TV was back in the day. With that being said, what do the first two episodes entail?
Episode 1 :: Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience
The series starts with the traditional Marvel Studios logo, but by the end the full screen picture has shrunk and turned black and white. Then we’re plunged into a pretty spot on opening title sequence that would be right at home on a 1950s sitcom, although the show the first episode borrows from is quite obviously The Dick Van Dyke Show which premiered in 1961 (each episode is obviously meant to reference a different decade of TV sitcoms), from Vision not tripping over a piece of furniture to the layout of the couple’s home.
The plot is odd, sticking the pair into this odd black and white universe. It becomes apparent that it’s beginning to feel odd to them as well, particularly when the date on the calendar that Vision has drawn a heart on doesn’t register with them. Why that date? Is it a birthday, their anniversary? They honestly don’t know, but Wanda’s nosy neighbor Agnes decides it must be their anniversary, and Wanda goes along with her to plan a romantic evening for Vision. The outcome is the classic sitcom mix-up when the true nature of the date is revealed. Vision also has no idea what the company he works for does … and apparently no one else there does either, which confuses the physical embodiment of Tony Stark’s AI to no end. A very serious incident with Vision’s boss seems a triggering moment for the couple, but by the end it’s all’s well that ends well. Except … as the fictional show in which the couple are starring rolls its closing credits, the aspect ration of the image changes to a full color, cinematic widescreen image revealing someone is watching them. But who?
Episode 2 :: Don’t Touch That Dial
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With the first episode set in a late ’50s-early 60s sitcom, the second episode is firmly set in the still black and white 1960s with a very cute animated opening title sequence taken directly from Bewitched. The couple’s home is even designed after the home of Samantha and Darrin Stevens, and they also face the same issue of not letting the neighbors know they have a real witch living among them (or a walking, talking computer for that matter). While Vision goes off to a ‘neighborhood watch’ meeting at the library (the town they live in is Westview), Wanda goes to a meeting with the neighborhood housewives who are planning a talent show, lead by the extremely uptight Dottie (Emma Caulfield) who wants everything done to her exacting demands. There Wanda meets Geraldine (Teyonah Parris), a young Black woman who is terrified of crossing Dottie. She and Wanda, both outsiders in the group, quickly bond.
Vision finds out that his ‘neighborhood watch’ group is just an excuse for the men to sit around and gossip about their neighbors. They really don’t want to let Vision into their private chat but he manages to ingratiate himself and shares some gossip of his own about one of the men at the table — he’s a Communist. Everyone is stunned for a moment but they laugh it off and think Vision will fit right in. Talking about food, Vision slips and says he doesn’t eat … between meals but does accept a piece of chewing gum, which he accidentally swallows and, through more animation, we see how it ‘gums up his works’ resulting in him appearing drunk.
And being drunk when you’re supposed to be performing a magic act at the talent show in the town square is another classic sitcom trope. Unaware of what’s affecting Vision, Wanda has to try to secretly use her real magic to save the day and find out why her husband is behaving so out of character. Later at home, the couple discover Wanda is pregnant, and like a couple of months pregnant when she wasn’t earlier. But something else odd happens. Earlier while in their beds (sleeping separately just like TV couples back then), a loud noise startled them both, thinking someone was trying to get into the house. They believed it was just a branch hitting the side of the house, but at the end of the episode they hear it again. Going outside, they see a man coming from a sewer in what looks like a beekeepers outfit. On the back, Wanda sees a symbol of an inverted cross in a teardrop shape. She looks frightened and just says ‘no’ which rewinds the scene to when they see she’s pregnant, ending with the happy couple enjoying the thought of having a baby, the black and white image becoming full color (as Bewitched and other sitcoms did in the mid-1960s). But we now know that whatever this is that the pair are experiencing is not their reality.
Before transforming into full color, there had been some instances of color in the episodes. Both episodes include clever ‘commercials’. The first episode’s TV ad is for the ToastMate 2000 from Stark Industries that somehow has a blinking red light as the toast is being prepared. The second episode features an ad for a Strüker watch — complete with a Hydra insignia on the face. The same actors from the first commercial are in the second one as well, but there is no color. Instead, the color comes from some moments with Wanda. She finds a toy helicopter in a shrub that is conspicuously red and yellow like Iron Man’s original suit, and when Dottie cuts her hand, Wanda sees the blood bright red leaving her very confused.
Viewers may be confused as well since there are no real answers, yet. It’s surprising Disney+ didn’t drop the third episode this week as well since it was screened. I feel like all three play better together, but you’ll have to wait a week for more secrets to be revealed. Until then, we have to assume the folks at Marvel know exactly what they’re doing (and Episode 3 will bear that out, I believe). So perhaps we can all use the week to rewatch the show and see if there are any more clues embedded within the episodes. If you find something, let us know in the comments section below!
New episodes of WandaVision premiere Fridays on Disney+.
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I’m torn between absolutely getting what they were doing and not being entertained by it in the slightest. If the third episode is required to enjoy the first two, they’d’ve done well to release all three at once.
Having screened the third episode, it absolutely would have made for a more cohesive and slightly less puzzling premiere. Stick with it!
Okay, they get me for one more week.