IR TV Review: WANDAVISION - EPISODES 1 & 2 [Disney+]
The texture of "Wandavision" in its first two episodes seems to be branded in a texture of wanton psychosis. The sitcom setting which has been much heralded in the advance materials is seemingly just the tip of the iceberg. Episode 1 is the entry point to establish the idea of what could be. Idealization is the name of the game though it might just be trapped in Wanda's head. The first episode is seemingly early 50s, nuclear family build...the idea of chaste love...gender roles...perceived innocence. The texture without giving anything away is that Vision wants to impress but is doing unconsciously whatever he can to mask his true nature.
Letting Paul Bettany's earnestness as Vision come out with his real face is an interesting irony. Elizabeth Olsen brings such an enthusiasm to Wanda in this episode that the undeniable possibility of the breaking of this Garden Of Eden is bound to happen because it must. That is why all the talk of flowers creates that harkness of loss because they will fade. Powers can be seen but what is most telling is a dinner, not because of how Vision and Wanda react while staying in their characters but what the inhabitants of the world around them are pointing to.
Episode 2 rests in the nature of illusion as a literal metaphor with a talent show still seemingly at the center. With some animation at times that is a literal "Bewitched" reference, it harks to that sitcom in undeniable and rightful ways. Cogs always come about in the wheel...the wanting so bad to fit in...with an edge of comedy to make it not hurt so bad. As Vision is told at a guy's hangout at a library, they thought he was "square" but he says he is "round". Wanda, at the same point, interacts with the ladies of the neighborhood, one of which is Kathryn Hahn who really gets the irony of what she is playing up, perhaps too much.
There are allusions to the outside world pushing in but done in very genre specific ways without messing too much with the construct. Different characters speak to almost rules that must be respected but again it might possibly be in Wanda's head. Color and metaphor start to take certain shapes. A very specific mechanism is used at one point which pivots on where this idea might be coming from. There are also commercials too as this still plays to the sitcom stylings and one specific detail in one of them gives a context of where the darkness might reside.
"Wandavision" is doing within the Marvel Universe what perhaps could not be done on the big screen: be experimental. Now granted the underlying tension points to this whole thing getting out of control in starting as a small atom that likely grows into a supernova. A
By Tim Wassberg
