WandaVision: We Interrupt this Program Review

WandaVision "We Interrupt this Program"

"So you're saying the universe created a sitcom starring two Avengers?" - Jimmy Woo

Whether the fictional Marvel universe did or not, the filmmakers behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe certainly did. That tension between the text and metatext of WandaVision is constantly at play in "We Interrupt this Program", an episode that contextualizes what we've seen so far and gives the audience a riveting look at events in the "normal" world; that is, events outside the sitcom Westview bubble.

Geraldine, expelled from Westview at the end of last week's episode, is seen expelled again, this time through a recognizable burst of Wanda Maximoff's power. (That familiar CGI effect depicting her telekinesis appears for the first time in the show.) But this time, we have a new perspective. Geraldine is actually S.W.O.R.D. agent Monica Rambeau, sent to investigate the uncanny events in the town.

One of the chief pleasures of the episode is catching up with events on normal Earth. For a fan of the MCU, each character reveal is a crowd-pleasing moment, no action sequence required. Monica Rambeau! Jimmy Woo! Darcy Lewis! Monica is formally introduced to us through tragedy. The S.W.O.R.D. organization was founded by her late mother Maria, who died in hospital while Monica was blipped for five years. As for the other two competent but comedic characters, Jimmy is seen to have kept up with his close-up magic lessons when he presents his FBI business card, and Darcy has now finished her PhD!

After Monica is subsumed into the sitcom, Jimmy and Darcy observe, becoming audience surrogates. Darcy becomes "invested" in the story. The two gradually identify the supporting cast by their real-world identities and pin their headshots on a whiteboard, in a meta take on assembling a cast for an actual TV show. Jimmy namechecks the show's production design, which actually becomes a plot point, as clothing and objects are transformed into something era-appropriate when they cross the bubble's threshold.

The comedic tone of the previous three episodes is thrown on its head in this episode. We're back to an equilibrium of a standard wry procedural rather than a comedy with canned laughter. The sober tone is set with Monica re-materializing in a hospital, which is desperately over capacity (sound familiar?), and even in the sitcom world, we are privy to more of the darkness underneath it: Wanda briefly sees a vision of Vision as she really left him, an empty, grey husk.

The show continues to nimbly sketch out an intriguing scenario and go some way toward justifying the comedy pastiche within the plot itself. This episode in particular gets a lot of mileage from casting Darcy and Jimmy as ersatz audience members, further developing a unique meta quality. An 80s setting is likely next week, as the focus will probably swing back to Wanda. 8/10.

Stray observation:

- In the audio montage that accompanies Monica's reappearance after the Blip, we hear clips from Captain Marvel, from Maria Rambeau and Carol Danvers herself.

WandaVision: Now in Color Review

WandaVision "Now in Color"

A lot of "Now in Color"'s humor comes from the acceleration of Wanda's childbirth. A suddenly pregnant, suddenly showing, suddenly due Wanda gives birth to twins, and her birthing pangs interact with her powers by wreaking havoc with nearby appliances and household items. Paintings spin on their axis on the walls, an effect you might see in a theme park dark ride like The Haunted Mansion. Or the set of a 70s sitcom. So the show highlights the artificiality of Wanda and Vision's reality by highlighting the artificiality of sitcom reality. But of course, on this show so far the two have been one and the same.

Beyond the gags (maybe even broader than last week), there is a vein of stark emotion, standing out even more by contrast. The birth of twins is played initially for laughs, but even as Wanda brings new life into the world, she is reminded that she and the late Pietro Maximoff were twins. When Wanda remembers her departed brother with true sadness, there's the sense that this is a poignant and heartbreaking glimpse of the "real" Wanda, not a construct of her from the show-within-the-show. In fact, that theme of "who you really are" runs through the episode. See the touching moment when Wanda invites the human-guise Vision to meet his son as his true, synthezoid self.

The unsettling elements on the fringes are even more pronounced, and it's surprising just how much of a peek behind the curtain we get. Geraldine is essentially kicked out of the show, after threatening to break the characters' suspension of disbelief with her talk of the pesky real world. She falls onto a field staked out by an entire military/scientific operation. My guess is that a succession of characters from outside the "TV world" will infiltrate it to try to burst Wanda and Vision's bubble.

Geraldine's invocation of Ultron's name, as the murderer of Pietro, is jarring in context. But the plain-spoken, hard-to-hear truth is preferable to the mask of joviality worn by Agnes, who's revealed as a subtly malevolent force for the first time. Her conspiratorial neighborhood whispering touches a specific Twilight Zone nerve.

Kristen-Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez are three-for-three in writing new theme songs for each installment, paired with variously styled title sequences that take pastiche to the level of an art form. WandaVision can't be accused of not committing to the bit, and maybe that also goes for Wanda herself. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- Despite Vision being referred to as a synthezoid in publicity materials since Avengers: Age of Ultron, this episode is the first time in the MCU the word has been spoken aloud.

- Wanda accidentally turns the baby's mobile into living butterflies. This is reminiscent of the moment in Avengers: Infinity War when Thanos uses the Space Stone to send a Mirror Dimension shard vortex at Doctor Strange, who turns it into harmless paper butterflies.

- Pietro Maximoff is mentioned by name for the first time since Age of Ultron. He was last alluded to via his picture in Wanda's room in Captain America: Civil War.

- Last week's episodes were retroactively given titles: "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" and "Don't Touch that Dial".

WandaVision Episode 1 & 2 Review

WandaVision Episodes 1 & 2

So it came to pass, that the first Marvel Cinematic Universe release since July 2019 was not Black Widow, nor Captain America follow-up The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but a half-hour sitcom - this week, in black and white, and filmed before a live studio audience. Wanda Maximoff and Vision are shown in the familiar yet incongruous confines of a suburbia-set 1950s sitcom, complete with era-appropriate theme music and Bewitched-style sparkle effects when phasing powers are used. The opening salvo of WandaVision is a pleasure to watch, a refreshing change of pace for comic book storytelling that unlocks the comic potential of Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as performers.

Indeed, the two leads' adaptability to broad comedy is a delightful discovery, especially because their careers to this point haven't paved much of a path towards this. (Ingrid Goes West is the closest thing to a precedent in Olsen's case, but still an inadequate comparison.) Their mugging for the camera pairs with solid comic timing, and without this element of genuine performance quality, the sitcom pastiche would ring false.

Interestingly, Olsen drops Wanda's Sokovian accent in the show so far, but her powers are present and correct, telekinesis rendered with disguised strings. Hiding Wanda and Vision's powers from their neighbors is what a lot of the episodes' action is concerned with, but that doesn't keep at bay the strange elements on the fringes that make it clear something is very amiss. (The talent show is a benefit "for the children", to a cult-like extent, but actual children are nowhere to be seen.)

A clear template for these early episodes is I Love Lucy, including a subversion of that show's "standards and practices" two bed setup. (There are also vintage ads for fictional products.) The episodes function as effective pastiche precisely because they commit to those shows' setups, the first episode a particularly tight execution of a simple comic premise.

Cast members like Kathryn Hahn and Emma Caulfield Ford modulate their performances well, so the show would function even without the rug-pull we know must be coming. But that rug-pull is unavoidable, and as well-done as the retro comedy is, it achieves the effect of an eerie rictus grin simply by being so relentlessly good-natured. But for now, WandaVision is breezily entertaining. It's ironic that one way to be radically unconventional is to embrace the conventionality of a different era. 8/10.

Stray observations:

- Nice to see Frozen song masterminds Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez contributing the two pieces of theme music.

- The voice saying "Wanda? Who's doing this to you, Wanda?" sounds to me like Randall Park as FBI Agent Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man and the Wasp. 

- There's a new Marvel Studios logo (!), but ironically given that it arrives with WandaVision, it seems to have dropped Wanda from it?!

Star Trek: Discovery - That Hope is You Part 2 Review

DIS "That Hope is You Part 2"

What a difference 30 years makes. In the 90s, Trek shows generally employed a classical point-and-shoot technique. There were 26 hours to fill, and only so much time in which to do it. In "That Hope is You Part 2", season finale of Discovery year 3, director Olatunde Osunsamni spins the camera around like it's on a pendulum. The communication of chaos and disorientation is clear, and the injection of energy as the season comes to a climax. While not hitting the dizzying heights of last season's "Such Sweet Sorrow" finale, "That Hope is You Part 2" satisfyingly closes the book (pun intended) on the season, with full-circle story elements and engaging action.

The main emotional component of the episode comes from Saru, Culber, Adira, and the briefly corporeal Gray, stuck on the dilithium planet with Kelpien arrested development case Su'Kal. While the other characters are running and gunning, Saru helps Su'Kal to uncover an inevitable, poignant truth: Su'Kal's grief at losing his mother manifested in empirical form and caused the Burn. A voiceover from Burnham casts in iron the thematic takeaway, that Su'Kal's isolation mirrored the galaxy's turn toward surviving-not-thriving, and his rescue by empathetic sentients parallels the nascent rebuilding of the Federation.

The connection, however, comes off as slightly more an intellectual one rather than hitting as profoundly emotional. Burnham calls Su'Kal's moment of trauma one of "disconnection". Indeed. But that seems a clinical or detached way to sum up a boy losing his mother and becoming terribly alone. To be sure, "disconnection" certainly captures his years of isolation, but seems inadequate to describe the single moment of trauma that caused the Burn. Not a serious issue, just a nitpick on semantics.

The Su'Kal thread comes with a bunch of ticking clocks. There's the radiation poisoning, the holo-program degrading ("dream is collapsing", you might say), and the structural instability of the ship itself. Su'Kal, a Kelpien constantly surrounded by a simulacrum of reality meant to educate and entertain, is not unlike Peter Sellers' character from the movie Being There, a socially unadjusted recluse who only in middle age leaves his house and who only knows the world as filtered through his beloved TV channel-surfing. Saru shows Su'Kal Kaminar, a planet past its Dark Ages with technologically advanced cities. Unlike in Being There, Su'Kal won't become an advisor to the Federation President. At least, I don't think.

Back on Discovery, Tilly and the bridge crew deal with oxygen deprivation and a desperate plan to drop the ship out of warp. Tilly impressively gives a rallying speech while totally out of breath. Elsewhere on the ship, Burnham and Book take on the villains head on, which is where the episode takes on the comforting shape of an action movie. Lead Burnham vs. main villain Osyraa, sidekick Book vs. henchman Zareh. And Zareh makes the rookie mistake of threatening the man's cat, which rallies Book into dispatching him. Unforced error.

A lot of this action makes inventive use of the turbolifts, which freely hover through the ship like the ride vehicles in Disney World's Tower of Terror. After a fight in the data core, Burnham kills Osyraa, takes control of the ship, hooks Book to the spore drive, and for the coup de grace detonates the warp core to destroy the Emerald Chain flagship.

The end of the episode is an optimistic one. Burnham is promoted to Captain, revealing the show's true commitment to one Captain per season. The crew get new 32nd Century Starfleet uniforms. Aditya Sahil, the lone sentinel Federation desk jockey from "That Hope is You Part 1" at the beginning of the season, is brought to Federation HQ. Trill rejoins the Federation, with Ni'Var considering it. And Discovery starts boldly going again. "That Hope is You Part 2" wears the mantle of climactic season finale well, and leaves the show in a good place for the future. 8/10.

Stray observations:

- Another Star Trek show promoted its lead character from Commander to Captain in the finale of its third season: Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko.

- Gray Tal is briefly rendered corporeal by the Kelpien holo-program, setting up Culber's promise that he will find a way for Gray to be "seen". Very intentional choice of words.

- I failed to mention this last week, but the episode "There is a Tide..." was the 800th episode of Star Trek aired. An incredible milestone. And that makes the throwback to Alexander Courage's original series theme at the end of the finale even more apropos.

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks Review

DW "Revolution of the Daleks"

Fascism is in the Daleks' DNA, in-universe and out. While originally more of a Godzilla-esque warning of atomic mutation, occupation imagery in "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" and explicit Nazi callbacks in "Genesis of the Daleks" cemented an allegorical connection to the Third Reich. But in a show as long-running as Doctor Who, the villains change with the times. In "Revolution of the Daleks", the title pepper pots are recast as tools of a militarized police. It's an ingenious update of the concept for modern concerns, albeit one the episode introduces like a stick of dynamite then discards for a generic theme of "security". But sometimes one idea is all you need to make an impression, especially when the episode around it is mostly concerned with delivering a solid romp. Nothing "revolutionary", but the episode succeeds as ideal New Year's Day viewing.

The Doctor is still in a Shadow Proclamation prison for crimes committed by her past incarnations, that list of past lives having grown significantly by the revelations in "The Timeless Children". The Doctor must reconcile her sense of self, with help from a jailbreak staged by Captain Jack Harkness, and a pep talk from Ryan. Of course, the conclusion is inevitable. Just as the Twelfth Doctor wondered for a whole season if he was a good man and ended up reaffirming his Doctorishness with humility, the Thirteenth finds her definition of simply being the Doctor who saves the day, by opposition to her oldest enemy.

That enemy have a bit of a twist for most of the episode. The Daleks' sleek, black/silver/red design is human-made, empty of all but vestiges of mutant DNA. Chris Noth's Jack Robertson (returning from "Arachnids in the UK") and Harriet Walter's Prime Minister Jo Patterson chortle evil to each other in a conspiracy to use Dalek casings for crowd control. It's another "Power of the Daleks"/"Victory of the Daleks" situation, hapless humans thinking they can control something beyond their understanding. Eventually, secretly made Dalek mutants take over the casings and all hell breaks loose. The episode is a sequel to "Resolution", and continues the concept of the mutants controlling humans like puppets; one mutant goes all face-hugger on Captain Jack, also recalling the dream crabs from "Last Christmas".

Captain Jack is firmly in his "cheesy" Doctor Who characterization, late of the torture he underwent in Torchwood. He's essentially a fourth companion in the episode, joining Yaz, who maybe craves and needs TARDIS companionship a little too much, and the departing Ryan and Graham. Ryan says he needs to look out for his planet, conjuring memories of "Can You Hear Me?", when his insecurity at abandoning his human friends was also tied to the threat of climate change. But it turns out Ryan means it in more of a fantastical Doctor Who way, so he and Graham are bestowed psychic paper by the Doctor to help with adventuring. That's a first. But do they have the money to jet around the globe, righting wrongs?

The episode provides composer Segun Akinola plenty of time to trot out his Dalek motif from "Resolution". Unlike Murray Gold's choral apocalypse, it's a slightly more traditional action movie villain theme. Breaking out of prison fairly early, the Doctor thankfully has plenty of time to bop around and be the hero. Jack Robertson is a bit of a pleasant surprise; because he's such a caricature, it's easy for the calibration of his role to go awry. Granted, he has his cartoony moments, but at least there are no explicit Trump jokes this time around. "Revolution of the Daleks" is a straight-ahead Doctor Who adventure, an effective fastball that finds its target. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- Captain Jack (off-screen) checks in Gwen Cooper and her kid. Nice to see some Torchwood continuity still in the picture.

- The Shadow Proclamation prison is a bit of an alien menagerie. There's a Pting ("The Tsuranga Conundrum"). And aliens appearing for the first time in the Thirteenth Doctor era (Ood, Sycorax, Weeping Angel, Silent). The Silence haven't appeared since "The Time of the Doctor", seven years ago. But then again, you wouldn't remember them even if they did.