Have the people running Disney and Marvel gone mad? Or have they just succumbed to corporate self-indulgence like most Fortune 500 companies? The creation of WandaVision, taking two beloved Marvel characters and placing them in a sitcom, would suggest just plain crazy and greed go hand in hand.
The streaming series takes place after Avengers: Endgame and places Wanda and Vision into a world of classic shows from the 1950s to the 2000s, whose concept isn’t that original, but makes it feel that way.
WandaVision episode 1 starts in black and white, as Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) are driving in a classic car, as a regular newlywed couple, driving up to a house they bought with a flick of Vision’s fingertips. He attempts to carry his bride over the threshold, but instead of opening the door, he walks through it, leaving his new bride sitting on the welcome mat outside the door. He opens it, and she smiles that classic sitcom smile that practically says, “Oh, Vision.” He picks her up, carries her inside, and puts a kiss on her lips that makes a Mad Men housewife glad that she’s a woman.
The couple has a delightful little disagreement as the show opens, with Wanda cleaning the kitchen touchless, which seems like a great idea for the current pandemic. She dries a dish that is floating in the air with a towel, and as she puts the dish back in its sideboard when Vision walks in and the plate smashes on his robotic head (cue the live studio audience noise, which was actually filmed in front of a live studio audience).
They discuss why a heart is drawn on the date August 23rd, and they debate what that means (I searched high and low for the meaning of this date, but the only thing I could find in the MCU had something to do with Groot). As Vision walks out the door to work, Wanda reminds him to change into his fleshy self, with little hand-drawn magic stars to make the point that the audience should now laugh.
After Vision leaves, Agnes (played by Kathryn Hahn) stops by. She is an Ethel type, asks how her bridge game is and tells Wanda about a “cracker-jack” article on how to keep your husband (I then commented, as I turned my head, that the makers of WandaVision really found something there when it comes to a marriage, and found my wife’s glare colder than usual. Who knows what got her pantyhose in a bunch. Maybe she is mad I haven’t told her what to cook me for dinner yet?).
Meanwhile, Vision has increased productivity for computational forms 300%, which makes him management material to his boss, Mr. Hart (In a World’s Fred Melamed). He then reminds him of dinner with him and the missus (That ‘70s Show’s Debra Jo Rupp), who reminds him that new employee’s dinner with their boss is a rite of passage, and his future at the company depends on it. Of course, when Vision calls Wanda to tell her the good news, there is a misunderstanding, and both aren’t on the same page.
Of course, the new Disney+ “program” (cue the progressive commercial guy) is equipped with commercials, with a middle-aged, nicely dressed couple, pushing a toaster from Stark Industries, complete with a bottom toaster and an alarm light that makes a noise that I am certain we will find out more in later episodes — it may not be a toaster at all.
When Vision brings the Harts home, they walk into a dimly candlelit abode. He leaves the room looking for his wife, when Wanda comes in, dress in a nightgown that would be considered prudish today. She sneaks behind Mr. Hart, covers his eyes from behind, and gives him a seductive whisper in his ear, “Guess who?” (as if he didn’t like it in the first place). The young couple plays off the situational comic moment by saying it’s a European greeting, and all is well.
WandaVision season 1, episode 1 ends with Agnes saving the day by having a five-course meal ready for Wanda to cook (coincidently, this is when I reminded my wife about making sure to take the meat out of the freezer to thaw for dinner, but strangely she left the house without saying goodbye. Perhaps she was going out to buy something frilly to wear to keep me happy in our marriage.
I made sure to write down a note reminding myself to buy her a vacuum so she feels special). Wanda, bewitchingly you might say, juggles a dozen or so items in the air, literally, as she attempts to get dinner finished, but loses the lobster, under and overcooks the bird, and Vision tenderizes the steak until it’s pulverized. Wanda even attempts to faint for Mr. Hart to catch her because it is ladylike to do so.
Wanda, though, saves the day with breakfast for dinner, which Mrs. Hart smooths over with her boorish husband because it is European. She asks them a series of questions that range from how they met and why they don’t have children yet.
This polarizes Wanda and Vision in unspeakable ways and the tone of the show takes a complete, bipolar 180-degree turn.
Mr. Hart demands why they won’t answer, demanding answers villain-like until he starts to choke on a piece of pork sausage he took too much of. While lying on the ground, not breathing, the female Hart laughs, telling her husband to stop it as he chokes, each laugh getting more desperate and serious than the next.
The mood turns chilly and we realize that she isn’t talking to her husband at all, but Wanda and Vision, almost as she thinks they are responsible for her husband’s predicament. Wanda then tells Vision to help him and he kneels over the man, reaching through his body, to free his windpipe of the lodged food in his throat.
The show then goes back to its light-hearted style. The Harts thank them for a lovely time, while Wanda and Vision decide to be a real married couple, with a ring for each one’s hand. This cues the ‘50s-style program credits, and as they roll in, the camera pans out and we see someone was watching a program on their monitor, with computers on each side of the television set. She puts down her notepad with a noticeable symbol on the front (that matches one on the computer to the left) and begins to dial a number as the screen goes black.
What did you think of WandaVision season 1, episode 1? Who do you think is watching Wanda and Vision on the monitor? Where do you think the show is headed? Did you spot the “House of M” label on the bottle of wine? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
