https://twitter.com/MarvelStudios/status/1307847813443629057?s=19

FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER was supposed to be first, but COVID-19.

Leads directly into DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS.

I’m ready to get back in the MCU groove. I’m ready to see ANYTHING. And, I’m ready for D+ to ramp up and show & prove on the value side because the one-year Verizon deal is about up and I’ve only watched The Mandalorian.

Even more so after reading this Guardian interview: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jan/13/weird-is-good-paul-bettany-elizabeth-olsen-superhero-sitcom-wandavision

but the Vision series from a few years back is fucking amazing.

If they had straight up adapted that, it would have been nominated for some Oscars b.

The show itself is very good though, especially if you spent a lot of time confusedly watching Nick @ Nite.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

https://twitter.com/rulerofmyself/status/1350000124643192832?s=20

I'm not intimately familiar with 50's era US television, but from what I can tell they nailed the atmosphere, and the humor ties into the Marvel side of things just enough to prevent the old fashioned jokes from feeling stale.

The parts where reality seeps in are a welcome break from the zaniness and keep you guessing as to what is really going on. Olsen does a terrific job of switching up her performance when the moment calls for it.

Bettany is great too, he reminded me a bit of a less obscene Rick Mayall with his demeanor and appearance in episode 2.

Obviously things will need to start moving along from her on out, since the 50s schtick wouldn't work for a whole season, but these first two episodes are really encouraging.

I'm loving to see where the illusion is breaking down.

It's kinda hard to accept the comedy when you kinda know literally nothing is real. That choking scene got kinda creepy.

so i ended up skipping through looking for action, which ever came. maybe i just wasn't in the right mood. i just didn't think the writing or jokes were any good, but I do think the concept is brilliant.

It's a sitcom but with surrealism in it with a very sister undertone.

Obviously everyone is trapped in some kind of mind construct.

Very excited to see this week to week.

Calling it Lynchian is a bit much but for a Marvel show it’s definitely a satisfying off-kilter start

If you didn't grow up with Nick at Nite/after-school syndication, I don't know if this hits the mark. I don't know if the references work, or if they hit as hard.

I found it to be fascinating as a sitcom. I don't know if I care about the rest of the interweaving thats happening, but I'm sure I'm enjoy that as well. They never explained the show to me from the beginning, so I came in with no expectation of any action.

its like they took the 1 weird/surreal/dream/hallucination episode of the season that some shows do (which tend to be provocative and/or over much of the audiences head) and they are making it the premise of an entire season.

it feels like it could be exhausting tryna sniff out the references to make everything make sense.

but its fresh/ambitious and i support that. i do hope it works out in the end.

but the whole sitcom thing does nothing for me.

Couple of decent easter eggs in the first two eps are enough for me. Also Olson and Bettany are doing great with the sitcom hubby and wife trope, K. Hahn as the neighbor is great.

Being a long time fam of these characters, I didn't expect to jump into a super powered brawl. I assumed this series would be much more subtle in it's storytelling. I think this series is playing the long game, which fits Vision & SW.

That being said, they run the risk of letting it go on for too long. The Netflix Marvel runs had the terrible habit of being about 4 episodes longer than necessary. And I get how people unfamiliar with the characters could be completely lost.

But as of now, I'm definitely intrigued.

Especially since that was one of the more common criticisms leveled against the Marvel stuff on Netflix. Everybody thought it dragged, I'm sure Feige & co. took note.

If the quality remains consistent, I think moving into more recent and recognizable TV eras will do a lot to reel people in. I don't think there's a lot of Marvel fans (or Disney+ subs, even) that have a lot of memories of 50's or 60's TV beyond a few reruns.

Even now it's sitting at a comfortable if not terrific rating of around 7.5 on IMDb and Metacritic, which isn't bad for something that's essentially a big experiment and quite a deviation from what Marvel fans are used to.

I love it so far. But I can understand all the hate it getting. I thing by ep 4 there will be a shift in tone and focus that will pull everyone in.

I liked when shit got real when the laugh track stopped. The façade is cracking and Wanda keeps erasing them where she can. I kinda wanna check an Easter egg video but the last one I saw gave way too much info for me.

I’m ready to see my bae Kat Dennings.

Something's happening.

You get the feeling this show was a lot of fun to write/make, I bet it'll be cool for the bingers to come to in a couple months and watch how the actors change up their performances, the writers change up the dialogue and the camerawork gets more involved sll in an evening.


You do kinda wish the show was actually funny but oh well.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

>You get the feeling this show was a lot of fun to write/make,
>I bet it'll be cool for the bingers to come to in a couple
>months and watch how the actors change up their performances,
>the writers change up the dialogue and the camerawork gets
>more involved sll in an evening.
>
>
>You do kinda wish the show was actually funny but oh well.
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~
>"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
>http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
>Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

in tone.

>in tone.

Yeah the Hooded Justice portions.

>Yeah the Hooded Justice portions.

Also the neighbor transporting etc, a lot of Regina King "wtf" moments in this ep.

>in tone.

Feels like Bewitched with a tiny touch of X Files LOL

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

I thought they'd take more time to show the cracks slowly appearing but I think I'm glad that they switched over to a more recognizable MCU setting in order to move the plot along. I wonder how they're going to handle the two realities from here on out.

It's nice to see Jimmy Woo return as well, and I'm looking forward to Monica Rambeau's character arc, even if I know jack shit about her role in the comics. She's supposed to become a superhero too, right?

Also, what happened to bee keeper dude? Did he get expelled just like Rambeau?

Be interesting to see how they use her in the MCU since you'd imagine Brie figures to be a bigger part of this next phase.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

So is the sole reason that Wanda creating all that so she can be with Vision even though he is dead in the real world? Are the children real? Lots of questions. LOL. Obviously there must be more to it than that.

out of Wanda’s reality she still had all of her “Geraldine” wardrobe and hair - which means that it’s possible for things in Wanda’s Westview to survive back in the real world. So does that mean her kids will end up being real once this is resolved? Possibly...

I liked it and the opening was good, it was a great take on what happened to people during the blip. Spiderman did it for laughs but this one gave you a sense of confusions people dealt with.

I think the episode is doing a good job of explaining part of what's going on. Which I think it needed to do to keep viewers. I've see a lot people talking about trying to figure it all out and it was moving slow. Now we're starting to see how Wanda is actually doing this. .

The intro of Monica Rambeau and S.W.O.R.D. was great. The gave a nod to both the film Capitan Marvel legacy and Comic reality version of the organization.

but as stand alone episodes, the first two were pretty boring. i haven't watched the third or fourth because the first two didn't hold my interest. might just wait until all episodes are out and the full story is told.

.

..quietly becoming one of the best written/directed shows on any platform.

Now that the world has adjusted, we'll see just how far/deep this rabbit hole of a show decides to go.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

I grew up without cable so those were the shows you could catch on one of the 4 broadcast stations our tv got.


So I wonder if that's why I had a higher tolerance for the throwback format. I was surprised to read people found it boring.

In general it seems like the whole show is premised around that one Twilight Zone episode which is the ultimate nod to old tv.

Maybe the audience is too young to appreciate all that.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I wondered how they’d go back to the sitcom format while still pushing the story outside the hex along- well they did an outstanding job of just that.


















And the ending????? The multiverse is here. At this point, I’m anticipating that we end up getting something huge like Professor X played by Patrick Stewart, or Ian as Magneto.

I seen some stuff about how this is gonna tie into the next Dr. Strange movie

Fuck Marvel came to play this time. Can't wait to see how this affects everything moving forward. This has to be what kicks off the next slate of movies.

I'm pretty sure I have an idea on where this is all going and what Feige might be doing to bring all the Marvel properties together since the merger with Fox.

On another note, this cast is great. Just all around great acting by everyone involved. This might be my favorite episode of the series so far.

>On another note, this cast is great. Just all around great
>acting by everyone involved. This might be my favorite episode
>of the series so far.

Paul Bettany BROUGHT it in this episode. All of the slow realization of what's going on, escalating to actual anger at Wanda when she tried to roll the credits on him, etc.

Also what is SWORD doing? They showed the scene of Wanda taking Visions corpse back from them - but it looked like they were experimenting on his body. The director mentioned in the last episode that SWORD had moved from focusing on space to AI, nanotech, robotics, and sentient weapons. Are they trying to develop weapons based on Vision's technology? Is the reason he's pushing to go hard at Wanda as the villain just because he needs to get Vision's body back to continue their research?

>Also what is SWORD doing? They showed the scene of Wanda
>taking Visions corpse back from them - but it looked like they
>were experimenting on his body. The director mentioned in the
>last episode that SWORD had moved from focusing on space to
>AI, nanotech, robotics, and sentient weapons. Are they trying
>to develop weapons based on Vision's technology? Is the reason
>he's pushing to go hard at Wanda as the villain just because
>he needs to get Vision's body back to continue their
>research?

He was torn apart in that lab. I'm guessing they want to reverse engineer that tech, especially since it's STARK Tech. Maybe apply it to other stuff. I think he's going to be the true villain of it all and we're just watching Wanda go nuts, trying to apply her own type of therapy over the loss of Vision. I'm trying to figure out how they acquired his body since we last see it in Wakanda during Infinity War.

But back to Olson and Bettany, that end credits scene was so damn good. I"ve always been a huge fan of Bettany and I'm glad he got to show off his talents with this episode.

Last thing, I'm trying to figure out Kathryn Hahn's character in all of this. She obviously knows that this is fake based on her asking Wanda if she should re-run her lines. They showed in the last ep she's a resident of the town, but she's not under the Hex like the rest of the townsfolk.


Oh and that openning was 80's as fuck, I could see references to like 4 different shows from the 80's. I'm even curious if they had Olson and Bettany sing that into song.

Wouldn’t be surprised to find out it was actually them.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Definitely gonna watch this one again.

I agree that they handled going back and forth from the sitcom greatly. Probably part of why I really enjoyed this episode the most even before the mind blowing parts.

I'm definitely excited to see where this goes. I'm kind of worried about what the answer will be for why there are no kids in Westville.

The cameo might not end up being the obvious but I think if it's not actually him they still end up opening the door to the multiverse by the end of the show. Going to make too many people angry if they tease it then come back with a different explanation lol

My theory, so that version of Quicksilver in the xmen was taking place in the 80's, and everything that comes into Wanda's show matches the time period, so I think between the 80s time period and multiverse they will use that to explain why this version of him is there. Not a full intro of the xmen and mutants into the MCU yet, but just a wink and nod that they can return to at another time. Or I could be totally off base lol.

everyone is reading whatever they want to see into this, and who knows, it could all blip away in the first five minutes
www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Also I called the hightop fade

Another great episode. They are killing me with the cliffhangers - gonna be tough waiting for next week.

i dont want to risk spoilers so i watched it as soon as i woke up lol last one i read a headline about a special cameo. i didnt click, didnt see who it was but ruined the surprise of a big cameo happening lol

this episode didnt really have moments that could be spoiled. some big developments that are setting up some reveals in later episodes.

i was kinda disappointed there wasnt really the 90s nostalgia i was looking for. seemed like it was more focused on late 90s. still definitely want to see where this goes.




**somewhat spoilers**








i wonder if the hex works like terrigenesis from agents of shield. with so many people getting swallowed into it i wonder if some will come out with abilities. we all expect monica will but will others too?

what is up with "pietro"? theyre obviously indicating hes a spy but would that mean it is pietro but hes not on her side? i was thinking maybe its a skrull or mystique but can they also get his abilities?

is vision moving out? how much of him is left?

agnes was just acting right?

I think once it's confirmed that she's a villain that scene will totally show that she's pretending on rewatch.

During the intro, she has "Naughty" written on the back of her pants. Plus, she's the only one who says that it's Wanda who's controlling everyone. The guy last episode just said "She."

And something is definitely up with Pietro as well. I thought at first he might have been the guy who SWORD sent into the Hex, but I'm guess he might be one of the villains as well.

the rest of the townspeople, so she was definitely overacting after Vision undid his mind thing and she drove off like everything was fine.

I think Pietro is Mephisto.

I think Hayward is a Skrull.

I think Agnes is working with Pietro/Mephisto but since things started going left, he had to show up.

i say there are definitely convincing clues for all those. i kind of feel like theyre making hayward seem like a villain to throw us off. maybe thats just his personality. i would bet more that he is a villain of sorts though.

pietro having powers is throwing me off. is she just imagining that or how can someone replicate his powers?

emergency awesome is saying hes just a regular dude that wanda has acting as pietro. again, is she that powerful that she can make him have powers? if so, is she really making vision do everything as well? i guess at least in the hex she could have that much control.

when he showed up we all thought that meant multiverse and fox xmen are now part of the mcu. with this episode it seems like theyre saying its a fake out. they could be doing the good old double fake out though lol. i figured that it wouldnt be as simple as him showing up last week meaning multiverse but i do still think they will bring it in before the show is over.

either way they have set up so many possibilities so im definitely excited to see what things end up being.

random thought.
if disney never bought fox could they had hired evan peters in this role?

a skrull or someone who is actually the mastermind. I think he’s just a shady SWORD director who was doing experiments on Vision’s corpse to try to create new weaponized AI based on that technology. I think his actions in the series have just been about trying to get Vision’s body back, and that he doesn’t actually know any more about the hex than what we see at face value. He’s blaming Wanda since she took Vision’s body, and he wants it back.

I definitely think Agnes could be more of the actual main villain. Some of the craziest stuff that’s happened has been when she was around. Wanda herself may be turning into an antagonist, but I think she genuinely doesn’t know how all this started which would indicate that someone else set it into motion. Pietro is the mystery to me - he could be either a red herring who won’t even really show up again, or he could be the one behind all of this - Mephisto or some other big bad.

Hayward is like the stereotypical general the use in a lot of sci-fi/action movies (e.g. Donald Sutherland in Outbreak): Wants to weaponize new technology/disease to help U.S. military supremacy. SWORD is supposed to be the proactive brother to SHIELD. He might be motivated by the perception of a real threat (Skrull presence on Earth, the Kree, fear of the appearance of another Thanos-level entity), but I don't he has an agenda beyond that.

Only thing that's preventing me to think Pietro is someone like Mephisto is that he was asking Wanda how she got her powers. Like, he doesn't know himself and he's trying to find. Which leads me to beieve that Agnes is a gender-swapped Mephisto, if anything.

got them Malcom in the Middle vibes with this episode. And just the genius of how they shoot each episode to look like a show from that era. As much as I love the spoilers and it's connection to the next phase of the MCU...I'm just enjoying this as a series itself.

Now on to the MCU connections and etc... I can't wait to see what happens next, they keep teeing up these reveals. Shout out to Randall Park getting down as Jimmy Woo.

So, I'm curious to see where this is going to go now. I think all the rumors on the net maybe wrong after this one.

I wonder if they may do something like an extra long last episode

(from what I found, the source is feige originally saying how many hours the show would be vs. what has aired, if there's more detailed info available lmk)

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

But yeah It would make more sense for just the finale.

cant wait for these final 3 episodes.

not that the first two episodes were bad but i just didnt get it. im glad they didnt take much longer to start revealing what was happening.

in a way i think my initial reactions to each episode are exactly what marvel was intending lol

as a whole i have enjoyed it. i have definitely had moments and episodes i enjoyed more than others. i think my interest on where theyre going with it just keeps growing. i plan to rewatch it all when its over.

>in a way i think my initial reactions to each episode are
>exactly what marvel was intending lol

The characters in-universe (outside of the hex) were just as confused as we were, to the point that they were asking the same questions as the audience. Which is the other reason this REALLY worked as a TV series vs. a movie. Having the audience have to wait another week while asking those questions was an important component of the feeling they wanted us to have when things start being revealed. If it had been done in a movie, or even a TV show dropped all at once to binge, that space wouldn’t have been there and it would feel much more like typical MCU.

Not that “typical MCU” was bad, but post Endgame they needed something different from the regular formula.

I think if this wasn't MCU related, many people would have dropped off never to return after those first two episodes. I'm kinda curious how something like the Mandolorian would have fared if they had waited longer to introduce Baby Yoda, for example.

this level of risk. Mandalorian premiered a month or so before Rise of Skywalker, and post Last Jedi and Solo the fan base was all over the place. Mandalorian and Grogu definitely united that fan base and brought in to a of casual fans at the same time. It's interesting to think about how the reception would have been without Baby Yoda/Grogu. I remember some reviews of that first episode (which only have him in at the very end) saying that it seemed foo fan film/fan service heavy. (Those same reviewers went on to LOVE the show.)

That being said, I think WandaVision proves that it’s okay for Disney to take some risks on these shows to an extent. It’s on their own platform, and if a show takes a bit to get going, at worst you’ll have some fans thinking this one isn’t for them, but when they hear about how things have evolved, they can check back in and binge to get up to speed.

I went back to it ONLY bcause its marvel. First two episodes were just weird and I was like WTF is going on with this? WHY?

So many things!

-Kat Dennings crush increased this week.
-The “Modern Family” style was hilarious.
-I thought the lead SWORD guy got sucked into the hex, but I guess not.
-Loved Monica’s transformation.
-Agatha’s reveal song was acceptably cheesy. Gotta hear her bad guy monologue reasoning.
-End credits!

I love the fuck out of this show.

this show man

fuck

this is some good shit

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Lot of good stuff this last episode. Now were' coming towards the end of all of it and finding out who the mastermind is.

>-Kat Dennings crush increased this week.
Agreed, she was already on the team but this week upped it. Also Kathryn Hahn....I'm leaving it in.

>-The “Modern Family” style was hilarious.

Did a great job with the Modern Family style, I wonder if they got some of that crew to consult or shoot those scenes.

>-I thought the lead SWORD guy got sucked into the hex, but I
>guess not.
Nah, it was the strong man that was Hayward muscle that got sucked in.
>-Loved Monica’s transformation.

>-Agatha’s reveal song was acceptably cheesy. Gotta hear her
>bad guy monologue reasoning.
they gave it a real the Monsters opening with the theme song.

>-End credits!
So is that Pietro real or was that Agatha controlling him as her muscle?

>I love the fuck out of this show.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, NO ONE SHOULD EVER DOUBT FEIGE!! This show is amazing, giving I can understand the complaints about not feeling the first couple of episodes. They are hard to get into if you didn't grow up watching those shows, but other than that, we got one of the best Disney + originals out there.

>
>>-End credits!
>So is that Pietro real or was that Agatha controlling him as
>her muscle?
my first thought was it is mephisto! but after thinking it over i think it is more likely he is nightmare and theyre saving mephisto for dr strange. basically emergency awesome had it right. although i guess there is a rumor that nightmare will be a woman in dr strange so i dont know. there is a slight chance its just pietro but i really doubt it.



>
>>I love the fuck out of this show.
>I've said it before and I'll say it again, NO ONE SHOULD EVER
>DOUBT FEIGE!! This show is amazing, giving I can understand
>the complaints about not feeling the first couple of episodes.
>They are hard to get into if you didn't grow up watching those
>shows, but other than that, we got one of the best Disney +
>originals out there.
>

i dont think my issue with the first two episodes has anything to do with understanding the humor or references. who didnt watch nick at nite? i just didnt know where the show was going and if that was going to be the pace for the show. caught me off guard. then when i accept that theyre going to just have a slow pace ep 3 and 4 kick it into high gear lol overall id say i am loving the show.

During that Agatha reveal song she said "And I killed Sparky too" literally the instant after I said "she killed Sparky too" in my head.

They must have completely audience tested the show while in production to make little tweaks. So many subtle things like that (for example writing on the whiteboard "why sitcoms? why a hex shape?) They are breaking the "5th" wall at this point - not just talking to the audience but reacting to the audience's responses in real time.

makes the next episode even more intriguing.

I was tired of sitting through them like a sucker every week.

n/m

so glad i did, im sure spoilers are abound.

https://twitter.com/Lyrikris10/status/1364231602436526080

If you are wondering why you were so ready for the last song, it’s because, you were hearing the same song week after week.

https://youtu.be/mIS8P6plRvM
www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Now I want to go back and check the soundtrack for Civil War and Infinity War to see if that leitmotif originated there...

the whole cast is really but yeah shes killing it.

(redacted)

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Between this and Mrs. Fletcher...her name has been huge.

I've been on her team since SNL and I'm glad to see her talents paying off in big ways now.

Like, I'm still enjoying it, the developments this episode were fun (if not unexpected at all)... but I still feel like all of these episodes are 15-20 minutes of show in a 30 minute episode. Downside of this format is there's just not much for Wanda and Vision to play in most episodes besides "something seems weird here!" and "we don't talk about that." Am I alone in thinking this?

That's why the Malcolm in the Middle episode was so great-- Wanda had real developments to deal with, and Vision had an actual task to complete. Now that the sitcom format is falling apart (by design), it means the episodes don't feel as complete anymore with their character stories within each episode-- so now it's just like watching the next chapter in a movie. Which is fine, I reckon... but also makes some scenes feel like they'd be on the cutting room floor if this was a movie.

The Monica stuff is the clear root of the show at this point, because she's a character who's changing, growing, learning, making things happen. Whenever she's on screen, the show is definitely at its best imo. Now that we have Agatha revealed, I'm hoping Wanda will have more to do and Vision will have active conflicts to deal with-- I'm not sure that they'll have three hours of things to deal with, if it's true that the next episodes are an hour each, but the potential is certainly there for a lot of great ending stuff.

I didn't write all this to be "that guy," since I know most of you are loving it. I'm loving parts of it too, definitely enough to keep watching... I just didn't know if I was totally alone on still feeling like it drags some. Maybe I am. Still a good show. Just keep wanting it to be a great show-- hopefully the conclusion will kick it up to that level for me.

i am enjoying it and the twists are working for me. i am getting more and more engaged.

i feel with agatha being revealed we will see which parts she was controlling and which parts wanda was and the weirdness in the episodes will make more sense.

i thought there were only 2 episodes left. is it going to be 10 total? if there are 2 episodes left i feel like thats a good amount to wrap this up. for a third we will need to see where they take us next.

Which would be welcome at this point, imo, since Monica has been the most interesting character over the last couple of episodes.

I may be wrong about the number of episodes. I don’t read a lot about the show, since I’m not into all the theorizing about who’s coming or what’s going down. I thought I saw there were three hour-long eps somewhere, but I could be mistaken.

i think with the comment about them losing the signal then the agatha reveal the sitcom part is over. i do expect some flashbacks or explanations for some of the things that happened. so we might get more alternate views of the previous episodes but not really any new content in the sitcom format.

based on a comment by feige about the minute length of the season, but I don't think anyone has actually said how long any of the episodes are

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I believe there are 2 episodes left and there’s still plenty of ground to cover.

They’ve revealed Agnes as Agatha, but how much is she controlling and what is her actual goal?

With Wanda, similar question - how much is she controlling, and where does she fall on the victim/villain spectrum?

With Pietro I thought he was a one episode red herring, but with him showing up in the post-credit scene we still have no idea who he actually is, why he’s there, how he will end up, etc.

Wanda’s twins - right now they are missing - are they under Agatha’s control? Are they part of her entire plan here? Will they survive outside of the hex after the show?

Monica - she now has her powers, but she doesn’t fully know that yet or understand how to use them. Will it happen during this show? Why did she fall out with Captain Marvel? Who is her engineer contact?

Darcy is inside the hex but not currently under it’s control. She’ll probably find some way to communicate with Jimmy Woo outside the hex to help Monica. But can Wanda or Agatha feel that Darcy isn’t being controlled?

Vision - he knows that he’s in a reality created by Wanda, but he doesn’t know about what he Agnes/Agatha reveal or what will have to happen. I thought the convo Darcy explaining to him his own backstory was telling - his consciousness was created by Stark as Jarvis, his physical form by Ultron to control humans, he was destroyed by Thanos to get the mind stone, had his body experimented on by SWORD to try to create new weapons, and has now been “resurrected” by Wanda because she refused to let him go and move on past her trauma. So he’s never had any agency on his own existence (besides the one moment he told Wanda to kill him to save half the universe, but this was quickly undone by Thanos before killing him again.) I think that at a climactic point of this show he’ll end up having some kind of option of “living” on, or sacrificing himself to save Wanda and others, and that’s how he gains agency and closure.

The one issue I have with the show is the timeline - it happens before Spider-Man: Far from Home which means that whatever happens here doesn’t end up having a big impact on the MCU would itself. We have all the above questions for these characters, but at the end of the day the world itself will be okay.

I think the show has done a great job of keeping us guessing the entire season, while revealing along the way times we were right, and times we err completely wrong - and that’s made it fun to keep watching on a weekly basis in a way that the MCU couldn’t really do before just through films.

That's never been my concern. I know there's plenty they're saving for the end, and I'm interested to see how the end is executed.

It's just the structure of the episodes individually-- not the structure of the season as a whole. There's plenty for all of these characters to do and learn over the course of a season, but sometimes there's not much for them to do and learn in individual episodes. Which, again, doesn't inhibit my overall enjoyment of the show-- it just leaves me a bit frustrated over what could've been if they'd tightened it up.

But the big moments have all delivered. Marvel's always been terrific at the big moments.

at this point in the season to me, everything feels completely intentional. Even the slower pacing of come of the episodes and certain characters being dragged out a bit, because that's the way many of the characters are actually feeling in universe.

That was clearly the intention of the first couple full sitcom-style episodes, but I feel like it's carried deeper into the season that they are playing with the audience on multiple levels throughout.

With there being so many characters which have unique perspectives on the hex and their own place in/out of it, they kinda have to have some of those characters not have much movement in some of the episodes. But I think that once it's resolved it will have all been worth it.

im definitely curious on whats up with them right now and where they end up at the end of the show. obviously agatha is trying to do something with them.

i think based on the last episode you would think tommy is the one that is trouble and billy is the dorkasaurus that always behaves. after this episode i could see agatha turning billy and tommy being the one that tries to save him.

pain in other characters being controlled by the hex (except Agatha, since she isn't being controlled), I wonder if he ends up being the key to saving Wanda an/or stopping the hex.

I need to go back and watch some of the previous episodes before next week. They clearly revealed that Agatha was controlling many of the things that previously appeared to be Wanda - I'm guessing there are some clues to exactly what that is based on what happens only while she's around.

maybe billy is playing agatha too. he might be playing along making her think hes getting attached so he can see whats happening. yeah i definitely want to see where this goes lol

>pain in other characters being controlled by the hex (except
>Agatha, since she isn't being controlled), I wonder if he ends
>up being the key to saving Wanda an/or stopping the hex.

I don’t see the twins or this version of Vision making it out of the hex. I can see him going to his cold, white pupil comic book version, if he’s alive at all.

Maybe not Vision, but Young Avengers is happening, and this is their origin for that.

>I didn't write all this to be "that guy," since I know most of
>you are loving it. I'm loving parts of it too, definitely
>enough to keep watching... I just didn't know if I was totally
>alone on still feeling like it drags some. Maybe I am. Still a
>good show. Just keep wanting it to be a great show--

If you're enjoying it and you know you're gonna keep watching, why does it need to be 'great' instead of 'good'?

not snarking at all..i'm just trying to understand

d



"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly

It can just be good.

I just end up thinking about a lot of streaming shows that they’d be great with two fewer episodes, and they end up being just good instead. And especially for something like Marvel comic stuff, which I love, it just ends up as a minor frustration.

I don't think we all have to love it though

this is a WEIRD show.

whatever issue you take with it dragging, you can't say that they aren't experimenting with the format. the netflix shows had straight up filler episodes and story arcs that didn't matter to anyone, and I don't see any of that here.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I can't say that I'm ever invested minute to minute, but overall I'm just interested to see where things are going because I like the concept, I like the characters and I'm fascinated by the attempt to keep the MCU train rolling.

But just aesthetically speaking WandaVision has been a prime example of how easy it is these days to nail the look of something without hooking the feel of it as well. All of their sitcom homages look and sound like the things they're referencing, but the scripts just aren't there. And like you said, aside from the Malcolm episode and all the character stuff with Pietro, on a pure plot level this show sure is making an argument for the continued relevance of movies.

IMO the only reason the storytelling here works at ALL is thanks to the franchise it's nestled in. And all props due to Feige for that because he/Disney have me sitting here thinking I'd be alright with a season 2 despite coming this close to presuming this show would be a mid-season cancellation if it had to stand on its own.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

"The continued relevance of movies"


what world is this a real convrsation in?

There are movies. There are also TV shows. movies don't prove the relevance on TV and TV doesn't prove the relevance of movies. jesus christ you motherfuckers need to put down your lattes and just watch something you enjoy

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I hate lattes.

I kinda wished Judas and the Black Messiah was a miniseries.

I kinda wish WandaVision was a movie, or at least less repetitive.

Sorry you're mad.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

>I kinda wish WandaVision was a movie, or at least less
>repetitive.

it just seems dope the way they let the story develop, introduced/exposed characters, etc and how theyll prolly never touch this exact storyline again.

just an mcu side story that makes 2 relatively uninteresting characters very interesting for now.

these people don't want to admit they're only watching the show because other people are watching it and are frustrated they have to watch every week.

just free yourselves and do something else for 30 minutes a week

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

but i can think of plenty of examples where i thought a movie woulda been better served as a series.

I'm probably splitting hairs here, so there's that.

I've always seen them as interesting, but underutilized. Vision was reduced to a MacGuffin in Infinity War.

Wanda was largely a political tool in Civil War, but her incredible display of power in IW/Endgame, particularly the scene where it's pretty clear she might have been able to take out Thanos all by herself?

That's interesting as fuck to me.

Granted, I have some familiarity with her comic character, but I think they showed more than enough to make me want more of her story.

And I don't know these characters at all.

What I meant to say was, I was happy with this show when it was a weird experimental oddity. The jokes didn't (and don't) hit, so the sitcom aspects are cool TV nerd shit but also a way to help pad out a narrative that doesn't demand, IMO, the four hours we're giving it. All the great ideas wind up in the last five minutes of each episode.

BUT, I liked when it was doing bad early sitcom stuff, because it was weird for this franchise. So do I want more of the connective tissue stuff or more of the standalone, freewheeling, probably more true to the nature of comic book story arcs stuff that comes before that?

Elizabeth Olsen, Kathryn Hahn and Paul Bettany are all killing it, so am I really upset at this much of them? No.

BUT, something I liked a lot about the MCU is that the stakes always felt big and the chains were always moving, even in the standalone movies. WandaVision feels like it's spinning its wheels to make a TV show - I'm fully ready to admit I'm still just riding the high of phase 3 too.

I just found it funny that what I said might be wrong or unthoughtful. I think it's great to see an IP not worship itself. WandaVision still feels a little undercooked to me - doesn't mean I don't enjoy it or dislike talking about it for hours over IPAs.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

THE STAKES ALWAYS FELT BIIIIIIG

....this isn't a movie, and an entire town has been taken over for an unknown reason.

sorry that's not big enough for you

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

>"The continued relevance of movies"
>
>
>what world is this a real convrsation in?
>
>There are movies. There are also TV shows. movies don't prove
>the relevance on TV and TV doesn't prove the relevance of
>movies. jesus christ you motherfuckers need to put down your
>lattes and just watch something you enjoy
>
>www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

>IMO the only reason the storytelling here works at ALL is
>thanks to the franchise it's nestled in.

I can't disagree more. With very minor tweaks that would otherwise be necessary, this would easily work as a non-Marvel show. If this were
"Hex" or whatever, sans the MCU baggage, but, say, the same or comparable cast, with the same story, this would be a hit.

It trades on Lost-style high strangeness mystery. It's quirky, but the fact remains, even people that don't like it are still watching, regardless of their criticisms.

LOL.

This is what I'm saying. Great acting all around, though.

Stinger had some First Contact vibes that are probably gonna be pretty cool. I'm curious if the implication is that Wanda IS the Mind Stone also? They really made it feel like she loves that jewel and Vision was just a convenient manifestation of it.

Curious if the kids survive this whole thing as well - kinda sounds like Pietro is out of the picture?


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Now I’m definitely thinking that both Vision and the twins will make it out of this. Since we’ve seen that she really is a manifestation of the mind stone and was able to recreate his consciousness out of nothing, I think that version of Vision will combine with Hayward’s physical rebuild of the old Vision body to bring Vision back fully.

so the vision we've seen so far is just her construction of him? thats why it physically couldnt escape? the body we saw at the end isnt inside the hex yet? that definitely confused me.

for the White Vision version of Vision that SWORD created from his corpse. It’s outside of the hex now. When Wanda when to the SWORD facility to see Vision, she just wanted to get his body to bury it (and didn’t leave with the body like he lied about). Hayward tried to get her to use her powers to see if that was the missing element of activating Vision.

Hayward might be aware that Wanda has the essence of the mind stone within her, so he needs to use her to get his White Vision active. Maybe it worked from when she was there, and now it’s ready to launch.

The version of Vision inside the hex was created by Wanda from nothing, using chaos magic along with power from the mind stone. So I think that either those two Visions will combine to bring Vision back fully, or Wanda’s hex version of Vision will sacrifice himself to destroy White Vision.

when i saw that scene i thought it took place before where we are in the show. it being in real time makes much more sense. i didnt even notice the color of vision, just figured he was discolored due to the lighting or being offline for so long.

i was wondering how the body ended up with her if she didnt take it lol

The white version of Vision was the first one I knew of, from the Avengers arcade game. Then the red/yellow/green version came back and I was confused.

But, this is how I thought he would be brought back. As the white, emotionless version, until someone reprogrammed him to have feelings again.

i was hoping we would see what happened with monica this episode.

it does seem like theyre saying pietro is just a random dude that agatha was controlling.


why would agatha lead wanda back outside instead of into her little protected area?


id have to go back but did darcy and them see the commercials or are those just for us?

So the way this is set up at this point, I don’t think we’ll be getting any more “answers” in the finale next week. They’ve let us know about enough to support a massive battle in the finale which will probably be most of the episode.

I’m guessing we’re about to see White Vision vs. Wanda’s hex Vision along Agatha vs. Wanda. I’m also guessing that Agatha ends up actually helping Wanda - she’s obviously not working with Hayward and really just wants to learn Wanda’s chaos magic. So maybe they partner up and they ends up going into the next Dr. Strange. Also in the battle you have Monica with her new powers, plus the twins, plus Darcy and Jimmy helping in some way.

I mentioned up above that Vision will either make it out of this by combining with White Vision, or he’ll sacrifice himself. But I’d also forgotten my earlier point about the timeline - this is before Spider-Man Far from Home and at the beginning of that Vision was one of the heroes shown in the memorial montage. So it’s more likely that he sacrifices himself here, and Wanda either gets the full closure she wanted or she is driven even into even more grief and becomes the villain (along with Agatha) in the next Dr. Strange.

But it turns out it was just stunt casting. lol.

I don’t really have any theories, as I’m way less familiar with SW/Vision from the comics than most of you, it seems. Good episode, as it dove into a lot of emotional stuff— and while little of it was new or unexpected, it was still good to see. Interested to see how the finale unfolds.

... but it’s bullshit that Wanda drives a Buick. She can’t upgrade that shit to look like a Benz?

Even if Stark could get me a new, fly Audi every 3 months.

-Agatha as a babbling exposition machine is corny. Although...
-Hearing Wanda is stronger than the Sorcerer Supreme is pretty dope.
-It was cool to see every character get a little piece of fun.
-I thought the Visions could’ve merged to make it out of the hex. How fucking expensive is it to lose 2 Visions?
-Ralph fucking Bohner?! Huge whiff there.
-I would liked to have seen Dr. Strange come check out such a huge disturbance of magic all in one place.
-I guess we’ll see Monica on Fury’s show?
-Stay for AWLLL the gotdamn credits.
-Based on Agents of SHIELD, she’s gonna be crazy as all the fucks after reading the Darkhold.

so yeah i definitely prefer agnes over agatha. both in episode 8 and 9 a few things about agatha bother me. her snarky comments dont hit the same when the mask is off. she instantly processes what is going on and has the need to explain it out loud. erm okay. it is a kids show.

wanda powered up big time. this was a great way to show how powerful she is and make her interesting.

i definitely was ready to see the visions merge but i think that would have been too easy of a solution.

i had figured we werent really getting quicksilver but i did think we would get at least an opening into multiverse/xmen. im not mad we didnt though.

it is weird dr strange didnt pop in but i guess he can all the possibilities and saw hes not needed?

monica was the big character introduced in the show, cool.

yeah i guess darkhold could really turn her into a villain. i took that scene as she is finding her peace and will find a good way to bring back the kids/vision but youre right. its probably going to make her go off like in AOS.

i came into the show wanting to watch it mostly to see what it would set up. i havent read the comics so wanda and vision only mean to me what theyve showed in the movies. which to me has been blah. this show made me care about both of them and im glad the ending was focused on them and not on some cameo or reveal. i also like that wanda wasnt able to just keep the kids and vision. it shows there are consequences and even trying to revert things will result in other consequences.

im planning to rewatch now that my brain wont be overthinking everything lol

Maybe we get Ghost Rider again?????????????????????

That arc on A.O.S. was so super dope - but the Dark Hold is just way way way OP.

it caught my attention when they said dark hold but i didnt make any connections. i read a recap after i watched the episode and they mentioned it and how it has been brought up before on AOS and some other show. didnt really remember what it did in AOS though until i read this post.

i guess thats part of how they are setting up the future of the mcu. i would think we get into it in dr strange 2.

The finale was good, but I was left with a feeling that it (and the entire show) could have been GREAT. Part of that is on me - I fell into the pit of trying to come up with theories on what was happening, which usually leads to unmet expectations. But at the same time I feel like part of that is on Marvel and the way they structured this show. There were several story elements that were purposefully there to generate buzz around predictions, like casting Evan Peters.

I don't mind having red herrings and misdirects, but I feel like they should pay off in some way. In the case of this show those misdirects served to make the stakes seem higher than they actually were. I came to that realization a couple episodes ago (I posted this above as well) that since this is in the timeline before Far From Home, the stakes were never really that high here with the MCU world just moving along at that point like nothing happened.

Longo was also right about the secondary story lines. Monica was the most interesting, and yeah that character is set up for something more in the future, but we didn't get much here at all. Never found out who her engineer contact was. Same for Darcy - she was just gone for a while even though she was in the hex and not under Wanda's control (Vision had released her from that) and then just showed up at the end to stop Hayward. They had the huge White Vision reveal last week, and resolved that with a quick philosophy question (I did love that scene however.) Again, definitely set up for the future, but eh. What happened to the beekeeper dude who'd been a SWORD agent? What happened to Jimmy Woo's missing person?

Once Agnes was revealed as Agatha, most of the stakes/tension was lost to me and it felt like everything was just being drug out unnecessarily. I had a lot of fun along the way, and my opinion may change with time, but at this point I'm just like "eh.."

“This character from the comics will be the big bad!”
“This expansion of the Marvel Universe will happen!”

Basically none of that happened. It was very straight forward. Which I respect. But that also means a lot of subplots wrapped up insanely tidily. Which makes me kind of wonder what people will think about this finale.

And yeah, the ending for Monica was a huge whiff imo. Give her more to do. She’s been the most interesting character to date.

So yeah. Enjoyed the whole of it. But all the people I see on social saying it’s one of the best things Marvel has done? I... do not get that. At all. It was a fun TV show with a few cool moments and a few interesting character developments. A very welcome diversion from continued quarantine.

“THIS episode is how they introduce the X-Men!” for 9 fuckin episodes.

Just a stern talking to by the commoners? A knowing glance from a black woman? There had to be some stronger justice in this for what she did to the town.

America has imported more warlord theocracy from Afghanistan than it has exported democracy.

glad i binged b/c i might have tapped out after 1st two eps. my wife definitely would have.

but ep 3 and 4 started peeling back the veil and it got really good.

olsen acted her ass off.

really inventive story telling.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

and completely pulled it off

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

This post however, started great ended crappy.

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/wandavision-director-says-popular-fan-theories-were-correct-until-last-minute-changes?utm_campaign=complexmag&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2JB-dZAnW_kKWGKxn4aNKcia9ZxOV_16EiksNlinzuk1WiDiYpv8DirfU

Reed Richards was never intended to be the Easter egg.

would have changed my initial thoughts on the show some. once episode 3 finished it made much more sense to me. in the end i dont think it mattered too much though.

i do think 10 episodes might have been better because the pace seemed to pick up too much towards the end. you have people saying they wanted this cut into a movie though.

while the season was airing that would definitely have a big impact on some of the hints that were being put out there in the earlier episodes. I do wish they'd been able to include the additional Monica Rambeau/Evan Peters content though.

Is there a name for that lake? It seems like the same spot as the opening shot from The Shining. Pretty perfect for what Wanda is up to.

to my recollection, White Vision made it out. Not sure what he went to do, but Vision implanted his memories in him so he seemingly will be able to "take over," if you will.

really enjoyed this though. for the 4345 time, Marvel wins because it spends time getting you to invest in character development. you really felt all the loss she suffered time and time again.

i'm sure i'll catch 100 more things on rewatch.

however....FATWS next nigga!!!

and it wasn't about going going in a different direction from expectations/theories. Things just felt uneven because it seems like they didn't want to fully commit to making Wanda the villain here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eYsz8mSWxI&t=1144s