WandaVision

Figured it deserved it's own thread since we two episodes are out.

Let's share our thoughts and theories on the show so far.

Whenever Agnes talks about her unseen husband I get the same vibes as this tweet◊.

Scattered thoughts:

Maybe I’ve watched too much I Love Lucy (and nothing of Bewitched), but man the sudden shift from Episode 1 being filmed from a distance on a stage and a live audience to Episode 2 being shot on location with closeups and a laugh track was jarring.

Vision and Wanda’s chemistry here is so much better than in the films. They feel like they actually enjoy each other’s company! Whether as the films tried too quickly to make them “tragic” and “soulful”.

Elizabeth Olsen has been an awkward fit for Wanda in the past, in my opinion, lacking much in the way of menace or creep factor and then being rather bland as a hero. She fits right into the sitcom tone though (I guess being an Olsen helps) with real comedic chops so we’ll see if she’ll get better material when the dramatic inevitably comes.

I know the dialogue is supposed to be old timey corny, but to be honest a lot of it would fit perfectly fine in the MCU’s more indulgent “50 quips a minute” works.

SY ABLEMAN?!? ...did he appear in the second episode?

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Jan 15th 2021 at 3:18:05 AM

I really like that they're going more for recreated sitcoms rather than parody of sitcoms.

Since I'm more used to 60s sitcoms like Bewitched, Addams Family, Dream of Jeannie, etc. than 50s sitcoms episode two felt more like the kind of old sitcoms I was used to.

Edited by BigMadDraco on Jan 15th 2021 at 3:22:44 AM

A different decade / sitcom era per episode, maybe?

Probably since we're getting into color next week.

One thing I've heard that's an interesting observation is that the Parody Commercials reference events in Wanda's past, with the toaster being the bomb that killed her parents and the watch being Strucker's experiments on her. Anyone have any guesses for the next ones?

Someone I know noted that in both commercials cases, both the toaster and the watch started beeping / ticking more quickly near the end.

Maybe symbolizing that the entire scenario is a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode.

Happy Days style, maybe? I"ll admit I'm not quite that familiar with late 60's sitcoms outside of Bewitched, so the more risque jokes and references in Ep. 2 threw me.

I remember clips that looked kind of like Malcolm in the Middle in the trailer, so that's probably coming up a bit later.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 15th 2021 at 3:34:22 AM

It also seems like S.W.O.R.D. is trying to reach Wanda, so it doesn't seem like any of this is their doing, at least so far.

Somehow, I thinks this all ends with an entire small town suing the hell out the Avengers.

There are promotional posters of six different eras, from the 50s to the 00s, so I guess it's going to be decade jumping until it runs out of decades and after that we just don't know what to expect.

Ok, so... give or take, Honeymooners, Bewitched, Cosby Show, Roseanne, Malcolm In The Middle, and How I Met Your Mother (just to give a general example of the styles the eras look like)?

Of all the creepy things that have happened so far, what got me the most wasn't even the overtly dark moments with Mrs. Heart or Dottie, but Wanda suddenly being pregnant at the end of Episode 2. So many terrible implications.

I wonder if the Wandavision kids are going to be in the later episode and we just weren't made privy to them in the ads. It's definitely possible we're going to get a parody of SORAS, since in the 80's and 90's romantic sitcoms were on the way out and family sitcoms - functional to dysfuntional - were the norm. Romantic sitcoms, usually "hip young friends becoming romantic" stories, didn't really come back in a major way until the 2000's.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 15th 2021 at 4:00:02 AM

I don’t remember where I heard this but I think I remember office comedies and mockumentaries being mentioned as a possible parody source.

I would like to see the babies, but if we do see the older kids I’d surprised they got cast without a hint of social media buzz considering Endgame couldn’t even conceal the casting of the Stark and Lang kids.

If I remember correctly, the I Love Lucy set was the opposite of this one, with the kitchen to the left and the living room to the right.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Jan 15th 2021 at 4:09:59 AM

I'm going to say The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, and The Brady Bunch for the first three. Full House is in there too, don't know what the remaining two will be.

Trope note: the series page says the first set is based on I Love Lucy but to me it looks a lot more like the Dick Van Dyke set, with the raised front entrance to the back left. They both had the shutters between the living room and the kitchen.

I only watched sitcoms from the 90's onwards (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friends, etc) so I'm completely blind to that aspect besides Pop-Cultural Osmosis.

Lol how did I forget about the Brady Bunch. Yeah, that makes more sense as a source. They could have two boys and one girl - Wiccan, Speed and Viv - as a stand-in for the standard sitcom slew of children (one kid, one young teenager, one old teenager).

My wonder is this: I'm already suspecting this will end with Wanda having to let go of Vision somehow. But if they have kids, will they also disappear or whatever might happen to Vision when this tear in reality is finally stopped?

Cause they seem to be leading up to Young Avengers and I wants me one or all of those characters in that project.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 15th 2021 at 4:15:10 AM

So, supposedly Grim Reaper's helmet shows up in-between the floorboards when he phases down to leave the house in the opening theme of the second episode.

I'm gonna guess he's the young dude in Vision's office. Not sure why, I just think he's the one.

I was just thinking that hardly anyone who saw these shows first run are going to be in the audience for this show. I'm in my fifties and first saw them in syndication in the 1970s. I'm thinking most of the people who have seen these shows watched them on Nick at Nite/TVLand.

Didn’t in the comics the souls of Wanda’s kids survived and were birthed to different families and that’s how we got Billy and Tommy?

If Grim Reaper is in the series I wonder what his beef is considering this Vision isn’t based on Wonder Man (if there ever was one.)

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Jan 15th 2021 at 4:18:34 AM

Was his name Erick?

Theory: Monica Rambeau’s Spectrum powers will either be derived from the television broadcasts messing with the electromagnetic spectrum, or transplanted and exaggerated from Wanda’s memories of Quicksilver.

Random observation: There is exactly one scene in either episode that doesn't take place in either Vision or Wanda's point of view: the brief snippet in Episode 2 where Agnes talks to Dennis, the mailman, and gives him the finger guns. That bit was instantly jarring, as given the setup a bit that we see but Wanda or Vision doesn't is suspicious.

I had already noticed that Agnes - as the Drop-In Character pastiche - seems to constantly be pushing Wanda into the episodes' plot, whereas Wanda herself strikes up more of a connection with "Geraldine" (who we know is actually Monica Rambeau), somewhat going "off script." So at the moment, one of my theories is that Agnes is involved in whatever's going on.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 15th 2021 at 4:41:03 AM

Agnes also dropped in right in time to take Wanda's thoughts off the toy gold and red SWORD helicopter.

My theory is that Wanda suffering a mental breakdown and hallucinating/creating all of this (Vision might be an echo she managed to get in touch with thanks to their connection to the Mind Stone), which would explain how she's able to rewind time.

I just realised that Vision does not seem to carry the Mind Stone on his head.

There's like a 90% chance that her husband Ralph is the Big Bad, whether it be the Grim Reaper or Mephisto, in my opinion.

Edited by EmeraldEmperor on Jan 15th 2021 at 4:43:01 AM