WandaVision - Help me Wanda, is it a Vision?

Let me open by saying I miss all y'all.  I've moved twice since Maplewood and have never found the same sort of community. 

Now on to the discussion (which may have already been started?).  I have to say that I love this new series, but I question the audience they are going for and who they are shutting out right from the start.  While I think the premise is very smart, my teenage daughter did not get it at all.  Not only did it turn her off to trying, but she could take a hard pass on the whole thing.  No spoilers if you haven't watched yet, as I won't say any more right now.  

We happened to watch the first episode last night.  It's a funny enough, one note joke - take Avengers superheroes and turn them into a throw back sitcom couple a la the Dick Van Dyke Show - but where can this go?  

Clearly they plunked a good deal of money into where it can go.  The second episode is Bewitched, then it moves in a whole different direction at the end.  My issue is not what they are doing, but how many generations back they had to go to create the premise.  If they are trying to capture an older audience (as in anyone that remembers black and white TV shows and that decade in general), then they are in the zone.  They will tie it in fairly quickly, but it's a bold move to start like that.  The black and white episodes reminded me a bit of all the SNL skits through the years that have done just this sort of thing to good purpose.  For me it's more a head scratcher that they would go in this direction at all.  There is so much rich source material, yet they are trying to reinvent the wheel here if you ask me (and no one did).

Don't want spoilers, please, but the obvious first question was why are they in the 50s or early 60s?  If there is an ambitious story arc that eventually reveals this to be more than an SNL skit, I'll stick with it.  Otherwise, I'd rather watch the Dick Van Dyke show than this.

Yeah, I'm with you there.  You hit the nail on the head, as it's an ambitious story line taken from a one shot comic storyline and riffed on a little.  My problem is I'm an old school comic book nerd, and even I don't get why they would do this.  My 13 year old daughter is out until it 'gets good'.  It does reveal to be much more than just a SNL skit, by the way.  I promise, no spoilers until you have watched both episodes that are in the can. 

I think there's a lot more "Twilight Zone" coming.  We watched the first two episodes and (without spoiling anything) it's pretty clear in the second episode that there's a lot more going on here that a one-note joke about putting these two in a 50s sitcom.

Think about the first episode ... things get really weird at one point during dinner when their guests ask them where they're from, why they've moved there and why they don't have children.  And then at the "end" of the sitcom episode, we're clearly seeing a hint of some kind of framing story.

I think there's a lot more to Agnes (the Kathryn Hahn character) that we'll find out as we progress.  And if you look at the IMDB page, one of my favorite Marvel supporting characters will be appearing soon.

I agree with all your points, and will have to check out that IMDB page.  I'm still not clear on the why part of the execution, knowing the rich stories they could have tapped into about these two characters from the Marvel universe.  It's an intriguing way to tell a story, but the audience they are tapping into is very small comparative to who they are actually reaching.  You're talking to someone who can sit and watch old Twilight Zones in black and white all day, but is this who they want to really attract? 

Their inability to answer the background questions suggested there was something more going here.

Their inability to answer the background questions suggested there was something more going here.

Where can I find this series?

galileo said:

Where can I find this series?

 Disney+

Remember that this takes place AFTER Endgame, so all cannot be as it seems, and there is a lot of trauma underlying the sitcom front (Thanks to my kids for marching me through the entire Marvel cinematic universe in order during COVID).  

There are hints and Easter eggs throughout, which kept my 14 and 21 year olds fully engaged as we oldsters were enjoying the spoofing of shows that our parents watch.  Next week we shift more fully into my childhood, and presumably drop more hints as to why our characters are in this series of simulations.  

Now that Mandalorian and Star Trek Discovery have wrapped their seasons, this show is the one that will gather us all on release day. 

susan1014 said:

Now that Mandalorian and Star Trek Discovery have wrapped their seasons, this show is the one that will gather us all on release day. 

We finally got on Mandalorian just before Christmas and have run out! 2022 seems so far away.

Star Trek Discovery is one we just started, but in a roundabout way.  We still subscribe to the Netflix DVD service, and you can get a surprising variety of stuff on there.  I didn't feel like subscribing to CBS All Access.

I’m not a streamer nor a devoted Marvel fan. But thanks for my Easter egg in the thread title.

mrincredible said:

We finally got on Mandalorian just before Christmas and have run out! 2022 seems so far away.

Star Trek Discovery is one we just started, but in a roundabout way.  We still subscribe to the Netflix DVD service, and you can get a surprising variety of stuff on there.  I didn't feel like subscribing to CBS All Access.

We cycle in and out of CBS All Access, cancelling each time a Star Trek series ends, and resuming for the next one. (We did the same for Apple+)

DaveSchmidt said:

I’m not a streamer nor a devoted Marvel fan. But thanks for my Easter egg in the thread title.

 Wait, what? I thought I was just being clever on my own, though no one commented but you.  Always all about you, eh Dave?  Same as it ever was 

You lost me at Talking Heads.

Thanks again for [possessive pronoun of your choice] Easter egg!

DaveSchmidt said:

You lost me at Talking Heads.

Thanks again for [possessive pronoun of your choice] Easter egg!

 Thanks for getting me.  

Yes, the Easter egg that has turned into an ear worm.  Thanks, sorta.

You all are WAY too smart for me.  Missing Maplewood.....

Without spoilers -- I know the next episode is supposed to be based on a slightly more recent show (never aired in black & white and is probably still on in reruns and lives on in pop culture so both my kids are familiar), and I am absolutely positive I recognized the set of an 80's sitcom in a trailer for the show, and I THOUGHT I saw something that looked like a show that just ended in the past year or two, as well. So they're definitely moving forward. 

My 14 year old has probably seen one episode of the Dick Van Dyke show and none of Bewitched, but I just paused them to give him a quick basic rundown of the premises, so he was fine -- but yes, I do think it's a little risky to premiere it SO far back in TV history and with shows that don't really run non-stop in syndication these days. Still, the nice thing about streaming is that it's all there, so people who maybe didn't get it at first can come back and watch it from the beginning when their friends say "holy crap, this is so good, go back and watch from the start, trust me, and look out for x, for y, for z, it's all gonna matter."

Watched the 2nd episode.  Encouraged to see that there is something "more" going on.  I do hope that the "more" reveals itself at a decent pace.

kenboy said:

Without spoilers -- I know the next episode is supposed to be based on a slightly more recent show (never aired in black & white and is probably still on in reruns and lives on in pop culture so both my kids are familiar), and I am absolutely positive I recognized the set of an 80's sitcom in a trailer for the show, and I THOUGHT I saw something that looked like a show that just ended in the past year or two, as well. So they're definitely moving forward. 

My 14 year old has probably seen one episode of the Dick Van Dyke show and none of Bewitched, but I just paused them to give him a quick basic rundown of the premises, so he was fine -- but yes, I do think it's a little risky to premiere it SO far back in TV history and with shows that don't really run non-stop in syndication these days. Still, the nice thing about streaming is that it's all there, so people who maybe didn't get it at first can come back and watch it from the beginning when their friends say "holy crap, this is so good, go back and watch from the start, trust me, and look out for x, for y, for z, it's all gonna matter."

 Thanks for this, I'm on board with you 150%.  I know here in my house nobody is interested in those shows, and never will be.  I'm still convinced it was a reach and will be lost in the grand story they are setting up.  Those who got it (like everyone here) will appreciate the set up, but only as a fading memory in the grand scheme of things.  

I'm getting a sense that this thread is almost over, so I'm going to tap into some of the 'old timers' that have participated in this thread.  Do you remember a game we used to play almost twenty years ago on here called 'Thread Killer'?   Someone would start a thread, and then we would see how fast we could stop the conversation.  I haven't been back on here long enough to see if it's still around, but it was one of my absolute favorites.  To that end, I just read an article on a Fliboard feed that will absolutely kill this thread, or open up a whole new conversation here.  Is anyone interested?  

TheJmon said:

I'm getting a sense that this thread is almost over, so I'm going to tap into some of the 'old timers' that have participated in this thread.  Do you remember a game we used to play almost twenty years ago on here called 'Thread Killer'?   Someone would start a thread, and then we would see how fast we could stop the conversation.  I haven't been back on here long enough to see if it's still around, but it was one of my absolute favorites.  To that end, I just read an article on a Fliboard feed that will absolutely kill this thread, or open up a whole new conversation here.  Is anyone interested?  

 Nah, I was hoping we could just, you know, talk about the show as the episodes are released.

OK, cool,  I'm down for that.  

OK, no major spoilers, but what did y'all think about episode 3?  I absolutely LOVED it, as it's starting to open up what is really going on here.  As they won't talk about it (but we should), they are beginning to set up something called the Multi-Verse.  It's clear that Wanda has created this universe in response to her grief over the loss of her husband Vision.  I'm not actually all that well versed in the comics this stems from, as I don't read comics anymore.  They are delving into 'older' characters as well, but not in a way you would need to have read any of the comics.  

OK, grab a cup of coffee and let your inner geek free flag fly.

We enjoyed it, but I'm getting a little impatient to know what the heck is going on. Is Wanda trapped in a reality of her own creation? Is she trapped by someone else? Is she doing the equivalent of Dr Strange reviewing millions of possible timelines?

TheJmon said:

OK, no major spoilers, but what did y'all think about episode 3?  I absolutely LOVED it, as it's starting to open up what is really going on here.  As they won't talk about it (but we should), they are beginning to set up something called the Multi-Verse.  It's clear that Wanda has created this universe in response to her grief over the loss of her husband Vision.  I'm not actually all that well versed in the comics this stems from, as I don't read comics anymore.  They are delving into 'older' characters as well, but not in a way you would need to have read any of the comics.  

OK, grab a cup of coffee and let your inner geek free flag fly.

 Thanks for this explanation. I watched all 3 eps, and haven’t got a fricking clue what is happening. Then again, I lost interest in the MCU after the one where they punch each other and smash a lot of things, so my mileage may vary.