.The show starts on Disney+ this Friday, with the first two episodes.
Here’s an article revealing a little more about the show, including what sitcoms are homaged along the way.
Presumably the Malcolm in the Middle-inspired episode will introduce us to twins Tommy and Billy, thus introducing two more Young Avengers to the MCU.
if these have been covered, sorry but many posts were tl/dr
The sitcom I want most to be parodied is Full House
(speculation)Since the fox/disney split is over, mutants can be used. That said, the kids will disappear at some point and Wanda will snap[avengers disassembled, House of M, No More Mutants]. Only this time instead of removing mutants, she will create them through the use of a dimensional rift. the Rift will be uncontrollable and Dr. Strange will spend his movie dealing with it.(speculation)
More plausible than the Snide cut of Justice League being watchable.
I just checked that DS2 is coming out March2022. so if this is a cliffhanger, we will have to wait a year for a resolution. 
Just watched episode 3. It appears “Geraldine” was just an act and Monica wasn’t under Wanda’s spell, like some of the others appear to be – although the spell is breaking down. The way Monica is treated at the end, it’s hard to say whether Westview is a SWORD construction or some other organisation which she infiltrated. Judging by the commercial, Hydra may be playing a part.
Also, this whole episode was eerily reminiscent of Avengers #200 – not something most comic fans want to be reminded of!
I really hope it starts moving along and they drop the whole “episode within an episode” thing, because those episodes happen to be rather bland and boring.
There are at least 2 more sitcom episodes – a Malcolm in the Middle one and a Modern Family one – maybe more. But the series is about 6 hours in total over 9 episodes, so given that the sitcom episodes are half an hour each, that must mean there are longer episodes towards the end that break out of the sitcom format, and presumably just get on with the main story.
I wonder if this episode is foreshadowing Pietro’s return to the MCU, since Wanda finally acknowledged him and Vision spent most of the episode using super-speed.
And I definitely think Geraldine is an infiltrator – the neighbours said she doesn’t have a home in Westview. She clearly doesn’t belong, hence why Wanda cast her out.
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I actually thought it was quite a bit better this week. The pastiche elements were more downplayed in favour of some actual movement in the story, and the hints we get towards what’s really going on were a lot stronger and more intriguing.
It still feels like it’s taken far too long (90 minutes!) to get to the point where the show feels like it’s just getting started, and I feel like initial opinions would have been a lot more positive if all three of these episodes were released in week 1, but this has me interested enough to continue when I had expected it to be the last episode I watched.
I think a) the future episodes were mentioned in an article in a national newspaper, b) the theme of the episodes isn’t a plot spoiler, c) there are likely two other sitcom homages from the 80’s and 90’s that we don’t know about yet, and d) it’s a spoiler thread, which isn’t limited to what’s shown during the episodes that have aired.
I agree with that stance, I don’t think anyone has done anything hugely wrong as all this material is not leaked but part of Marvel’s publicity, just as the trailer went past the first couple of episodes, but it doesn’t hurt to put any stuff that isn’t in the actual show behind spoiler tags.
Also if Martin is still reading they only mentioned 5 classic sitcoms they were using as templates, that does not mean they are only using 5 (in fact I suspect not because of the time gap between the examples used) so nobody here really knows if the sitcom structure will go 5 episodes or all 9, it’s just speculation. If they are doing ‘decades’ the next one will be an 80s show unknown as of now.
I think Marvel are excellent at keeping a lid on things – they’re great at teasing things but also keeping plenty of surprises in reserve, so I don’t think this has ruined the show for anyone. If you think minor things like what I posted are spoilers, then maybe stay off the internet. I’m certainly not one to post idle speculation here that some dodgy website has posted as “news,” which some people here are more than happy to do, even in non-spoiler threads.
I understand that attitude and I don’t really think anyone has done anything wrong in mentioning that stuff, but like Gar says it’s easy enough to put anything not in the show in spoiler tags, just put {spoiler}Daniel Day Lewis shows up as Paste Pot Pete in episode 7{/spoiler} but with square brackets instead of wiggly ones, then people can choose whether they want to know more about what’s to come.
By the way, I looked back at the trailer and the presence of an 80s head band and 90s flannel shirt suggest pretty strongly they aren’t skipping those decades to get to Malcolm in the Middle
Yeah, I remember Hahn in the sweatbands standing out as a very 80s image. And the flannel shirt feels very Roseanne to me.
I assume one of the 80s shows will be Full House, just for the Olsen connection.
It’s been bugging me that the green part of Vision’s head isn’t green any more, but after this episode it’s a little more obvious why it’s silver. Seems like Wanda is kind of conflating Pietro and Vision in her mind a little bit.
Elizabeth Olsen is fricking amazing in this show, equally at home being a perfect 50’s sitcom housewife or scary as hell when the real Wanda comes out.
And I loved the transition to wide-screen this episode – it added a surprising amount of drama to that moment.
It’s been bugging me that the green part of Vision’s head isn’t green any more, but after this episode it’s a little more obvious why it’s silver. Seems like Wanda is kind of conflating Pietro and Vision in her mind a little bit.
That bugs me too, but it’s got nothing to do with the show… they transitioned to a more chromed/silvery shade of almost-not-green since Civil War I think… I know that it was pretty much that color in IW:
Edit: yeah it seems it’s been like that since Civil War:
Third ep was a lot better. Olsen was terrifically terrifying when she started to remember things. I suppose Geraldine managed to infiltrate Westview in a helicopter that wound up being turned into the toy from episode 2, while she was turned into a supporting character.
I have a feeling that whenever we meet Kathryn Hayn’s husband that shit is really going to hit the fan. Her word choice when talking about him is rather foreboding, even with the jokey delivery.
Too bad they didn’t save Debra Jo Rupp for the ’70s show!
The neighbors certainly must have some sort of independent sentience since they exist separate from Wanda’s consciousness of them AND they apparently have some idea what’s going on. I do believe that Herb was going to say to Vision “We’re all dead.” Before Agnes stopped him. Though, it could have easily have been “trapped” or “imaginary” but “dead” seems like the obvious dramatic choice.
The main improvement this episode was that the conflict sharpened. I still find it a bit clunky.
Another possible hint/Easter Egg. Since the series borrows a lot from Steve Englehart’s 1986 Vision & Scarlet Witch series (Glamor & Illusion were characters in that series and in the show, that’s what Wanda & Vision call themselves during their magician act) the commercial in the latest episode uses the tagline “Find the Goddess Within,” and look who turns up in the mini-series.
Personally, I’d be very surprised if the show took an Asgardian turn, but… who knows! 
Watched the three eps last night in one go, with the kid. We liked it a lot.
I feel that if Disney+ had released the first three episodes together last week, and they were watched together in succession, there would have been fewer complaints. As we’ve progress from ep to ep, the glamor/illusion has developed bigger and bigger cracks, so the most recent episode would have provided a more satisfying conclusion in terms of where the story is leading, and the idea of framing these episodes in the guise of old sitcoms begins to make more sense.
Watched the three eps last night in one go, with the kid. We liked it a lot.
I feel that if Disney+ had released the first three episodes together last week, and they were watched together in succession, there would have been fewer complaints. As we’ve progress from ep to ep, the glamor/illusion has developed bigger and bigger cracks, so the most recent episode would have provided a more satisfying conclusion in terms of where the story is leading, and the idea of framing these episodes in the guise of old sitcoms begins to make more sense.
I agree. The end of episode three is a good moment of intrigue where it feels like the premise of the show has been more clearly set up and everything established nicely. The end of episode two is more of a gentle hint in that direction but not enough to really get excited about.
I still think it’s taken a little too long to get to this point though. A full 90 minutes for something that could have been done (without really losing anything) in half the time.
True – that makes sense to explain why the sitcom format. Also, of course, WandaVision > WestView
Of course Westview is also an anagram of WWI Steve so we can probably expect a time-travelling Captain America to make a guest appearance by the end of the series.
True – that makes sense to explain why the sitcom format. Also, of course, WandaVision > WestView
I agree with what pretty much everyone has said upthread. I found that I had to motivate myself to watch episode 3, expecting more of the same but in a Brady Bunch pastiche instead of a Bewitched one this week. So the episode as is was a very welcome change. The creepiness ramping up worked very well, as did introducing proper cracks in the illusion for both Wanda and Vision. I’m much more positive about the show after this week.
Of course Westview is also an anagram of WWI Steve
Or Wet Wives, which sounds like a popular adult video series on PornHub.
Of course Westview is also an anagram of WWI Steve
Or Wet Wives, which sounds like a popular adult video series on PornHub.
Wait… you’re onto something there… this episode’s commercial was for Hydra’s bubble baths for tired house wives… =P
Of course Westview is also an anagram of WWI Steve
Or Wet Wives, which sounds like a popular adult video series on PornHub.
Wait… you’re onto something there… this episode’s commercial was for Hydra’s bubble baths for tired house wives… =P
And Wanda set off the sprinklers and got soaked!
Fellas…I think we’ve cracked the code!!
Yeah, AIM seems unlikely unless it was always a department in SWORD which could work for the MCU. However, he definitely was in a beekeeper suit with bees around it. What the hell?!
Yeah he appeared as a guy in a beekeeper suit, but remember, the helicopter turned into a toy and Monica seems to have been transformed into Geraldine (like, her clothes insta changed into period accurate clothes, presumably)… seems everything that enters the bubble is somehow changed/transformed to fit into the fantasy, so it wouldn’t make sense for a guy to appear with a modern hazmat suit. Why as a beekeeper with bees (or flies) around it? Who knows… misdirection maybe… or simply, since he’s an outside “danger” from Wanda’s POV, maybe she just imagined him as an ominous threatening thing.
As for SWORD, I was trying to remember what was going on in the MCU with that whole thing… Best I could remember is that, in the movies at least, SHIELD went tits up after Winter Soldier, but Fury was hanging out in the SWORD space station at the end of homecoming, so presumably SWORD is basically a continuation of SHIELD… I don’t know… I mean, I’m ignoring Agents of Shield because no one cares about that show and I doubt it’s gonna be cannonized, so I don’t think we ever saw anything SHIELD-related after Winter Soldier’s events in the movies. Fury showed up with some remnants of shield in AoU, but I don’t think they ever formed it back officially.
The one saving grace is that it seems like they don’t think Wanda is simply doing this herself. It seems like there must be some overarching entity involved that they need to pin down.
I’m of the opposite opinion, and I hope it is all Wanda’s doing and not some “evil” third party doing it, because as much as people are also trying to make Mephisto happen, I think it’s a much more interesting character developpment for Wanda if she’s the one creating this whole mess. And boy, she needs that character developpment… specially after that Captain Marvel dud and the fact that they never bothered doing something greater with Black Widow (yes I know a movie is coming, but feels like too little too late, and mostly like a way of introducing her replacement).
I wonder if, as we come up through the sitcom timeline, we will get an Office style episode with the characters explaining themselves to an invisible documentary crew.
From what I’ve seen of Modern Family they do that in that show as well, so it’s very likely.
There’s the obvious connection to the bees with the honeycomb shape, but beyond that I’m not sure of the exact significance. Is there some kind of beehive aspect to Westview? Is Wanda the queen bee? Is Vision made of honey?
Well, in a sense it is some kind of bee colony with Wanda a s the queen bee and the rest as her lackeys… so, sure, that could also be it…
I wonder if, as we come up through the sitcom timeline, we will get an Office style episode with the characters explaining themselves to an invisible documentary crew.
Nah, I think the environment is too important to use any show as inspiration… they’ll use shows with suburban settings and family themes.
Edit: Oh, unless what Steve says happens… =P
Every example we’ve seen so far, and the ones they said are coming, is a suburban couple/family show. I suspect they’ll stick with that, we’ll see if they also stick to one to represent a decade if we see an 80s one next week. That means the 2000s and 2010s are already spoken for.
Also, if they are explaining this with sitcoms that Wanda watched as a child, then I expect it won’t end up with anything too recent.
Wouldn’t mind a WandaVision version of this:
Thanks, I hate it.
I appreciate the performances of the cast and the production values to recreate classic sitcoms but the show has just been okay for me. While I agree dropping the first three episodes at once would have helped, the reveal at the end of Ep 3 really should have happened at the end of Ep 2. The pace along with the banality of the homages slow the series down.
I think this series may end up working better in a binge versus weekly release.
Yeah the pace is the one major flaw with this show so far… even this episode, while much better because it moved the plot forward, there were still moments where I was like “I got iiiiit… move the fuck on” (that whole chunk with geraldine, the fruit bowl and the crane).
Yeah the pace is the one major flaw with this show so far… even this episode, while much better because it moved the plot forward, there were still moments where I was like “I got iiiiit… move the fuck on” (that whole chunk with geraldine, the fruit bowl and the crane).
It is a headache – the format is paramount rather than the narrative. They can’t easily move the story along without interrupting the very rigid format of each particular sitcom type which would defeat the apparent desire to basically recreate the styles of those archaic shows.
Yeah, it’s essentially when they take the time to actually go through all the motions of an actual sitcom that it feels bogged down and unentertaining.
Because they’re basically riffing on cheesy sitcom gags we’ve seen a hundred times before and not doing anything new with them, but they’re still doing them at length with no additional clever twist or angle.
It’s what hurt the first two episodes most I think. That sense of “yes, we get it. Just get on with it.”
Luckily it feels like the show is finally getting on with it.
Luckily it feels like the show is finally getting on with it
Well don’t count your chickens just yet – as previously discussed, there are a number of sitcom episodes to get through still.
I agree that it’s taken too long to get where we are though. Maybe they could have used the fake commercial breaks to divide the show in half and change to the next type of sitcom – that way we could have halved the amount of time wasted.
Luckily it feels like the show is finally getting on with it
Well don’t count your chickens just yet – as previously discussed, there are a number of sitcom episodes to get through still.
I agree that it’s taken too long to get where we are though. Maybe they could have used the fake commercial breaks to divide the show in half and change to the next type of sitcom – that way we could have halved the amount of time wasted.
That’s actually a great idea, it was a very natural and obvious transition point… at the very least for the 1st and 2nd episodes, since let’s be honest, the differences weren’t all that apparent because of the black and white and those 2 episodes could’ve easily been a slightly longer but thigter one. It would’ve also added to the overall eerrieness of the show if suddenly some things changed without explanation, but still looked overall same-ish… but then again they wouldn’t have been able to do their “cute” openings and all that… u_u
Heck, thinking about it, it would probably work with the rest of the eras too… 70’s and 80’s TV sort of look the same in terms of TV production quality… and the 90’s shows are close enough to the 2000’s too.
Okay so yeah, this is how you fix this:
You combine 2 decades into one episode, each half being long enough to do their schtick WITHOUT overstaying their welcome.
So the first half starts with the opening credits of that decade (say the 50’s one) like they did, then at some point you cut to “commercials”, the commercials serving as a transition point, BUT you use 2 commercials instead of one, but not the complete commercials, the first should cut off halfway through (it should be more than enough to get their “easter eggs” in there) as if someone were channel surfing and transition into the next commercial (of the next decade of course) midway through, and then the second half happens in the next decade (so the 60’s in this instance)… and then, instead of having that monstrous ending credits they have (they’re really fucking long) you just use the end credits with the “cute song and graphics” of that second decade… so they can have their cake and eat it.
Now it could either be one single story-line through both decades, but it could also be 2 as they did them, because let’s be honest, the “plots” were thin as fuck, so if they trimmed some of the fat they could easily fit both into a single slighlty longer ep. Plus think about it, the begining of the 2nd episode with Wanda and Vision in bed would’ve been a much better transition after a commercial break.
A very different episode this week, but frustratingly little new information – just different perspectives on what we’ve already seen. And Darcy is an Asgardian connection…
Yeah, there weren’t any surprises. It’s more or less what I expected to be happening, with the exception of it only being a day or so since all the SWORD stuff was set up and Monica was sucked in.
I thought this week was ok. Maybe a slightly uninspired way to lay out what’s really going on, but I think it sets things up nicely going forward.
Overall I think the series has got better after a rocky start. I’m still a bit baffled by that initial release strategy but they’re turning the show around for me.
A very different episode this week, but frustratingly little new information – just different perspectives on what we’ve already seen. And Darcy is an Asgardian connection…
Yeah, that opening sequence was really well done. The episode in general was well-placed, breaking up what will presumably be a few more sitcom episodes before we get another one centred on the outside world, and it was kinda nice to see the usual MCU look and feel back, for all the stick it gets for being samey, the shared visual language anchors the shared universe – I kinda expected to see Coulson or Daisy from AoS walk into frame
Oh so it’s exaclty what I said… xD
Monica went in to investigate (by accident, but still) and got sitcom-fied, the beekeper guy was indeed a guy wearing a modern hazmat suit going in to get a stirep on Monica, the people are indeed real people who got hijacked into Wanda’s fantasy and it does seem Wanda is both in control but out of it as well. Aaaand there doesn’t seem to be any connection with Hydra or AIM.
Damn, I’m good =P
I really enjoyed this one… I was glad to see some of the un-snappening, I kinda wish they had devoted more time to it… I hope they’ll revisit it at some point. Great to see the absolutely gorgeous Kat Dennings again. Not a fan of “quirky/geeky” Jimmy Woo, and not a fan of the actor either (I mean, I guess he does fine in that role, it’s just the role and therefore the casting is just wrong).
We learnt SWORD is actually an old organization, which is a bit of a retcon, but sure whatever… so it wasn’t technically created as a SHIELD replacement. They made allusions to the SWORD space station too. Uhmm… what else?
Oh yeah, Wanda’s into necrophilia… I mean, sure, fuck it, after rapist Wonder Woman, who cares… xD
Oh so it’s exaclty what I said… xD Monica went in to investigate (by accident, but still) and got sitcom-fied, the beekeper guy was indeed a guy wearing a modern hazmat suit going in to get a stirep on Monica, the people are indeed real people who got hijacked into Wanda’s fantasy and it does seem Wanda is both in control but out of it as well. Aaaand there doesn’t seem to be any connection with Hydra or AIM. Damn, I’m good =P
It’s pretty much the conclusion that everybody had come to by this point, isn’t it? Nothing in this episode was a real twist or surprise, just a “here’s what it looked like from the other side” kind of thing.
I did like though that the show was able to have some fun with the meta aspect of showing people watching the first three episodes and trying to work out what was going on via the various clues. Jimmy Woo’s Whiteboard was basically this thread (including highlighting the whole hexagon thing).
The other interesting thing is they clearly allude to there being more sitcom episodes we haven’t seen, so it isn’t as short a timeline as we may have imagined, clearly a lot of time spent between Monica entering the ‘bubble’ of Westview and being ejected and maybe an entire season of ‘Dick Van Dyke’ before she does.
Episodes 2 and 3 do seem to run directly into each other but that’s fairly easily explained by one being the end of a long run of ‘Bewitched’ era. The are watching Monica for a while before she gets a speaking part.
I love the huge universe they are creating bringing in disparate characters from previous movies.
The other interesting thing is they clearly allude to there being more sitcom episodes we haven’t seen
I loved Darcy’s line, “why does it keep switching time periods? It can’t be purely for my enjoyment!”
EDIT: The Loki TV show features time-travel…
