The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: One World, One People Review

TFATWS "One World, One People"

For the show's run so far, the title has been The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In a final flourish, "One World One People" recapitulates it as Captain America and the Winter Soldier. And that tracks with how the episode leans into the iconography of Captain America with the new Wakandan stars and stripes wingsuit, and furthermore the idea of Captain America. Cue an awed bystander calling Sam Black Falcon, and a fellow citizen correcting him with, "That's Captain America!" It's a welcome bit of superhero cheesiness, in this climactic episode of the miniseries.

The threat of the Flag Smashers leads to the GRC evacuating their facility before their resettlement vote, leading to a January 6th type of imagery as politicians huddle in fear. The sequence progresses on multiple fronts, Sam dealing with Batroc then taking to the air, and Bucky engaging the super soldiers on the ground. Sam's helicopter rescue maneuver, enlisting hostage Ayla Perez to take the stick, makes for a fine companion piece to Tony Stark's rescue of falling civilians in Iron Man 3.

The sequence also takes in the partial rehabilitation of Walker, who chooses to help save a vehicle full of hostages rather than blindly pursue revenge on Karli Morgenthau. In the big picture, it's questionable whether the whole project of rehabilitation is worth it given what Walker represents in the thematic framework of the show, but in any case, he's apparently "legit" again. This time he gets his handle from the comics, US Agent, working for "Val".

Also a major player in the conflict: the corrupt Sharon Carter, revealed as the mysterious "Power Broker" of Madripoor. By episode's end, she gets her pardon, but she fully intends to abuse her authority in the CIA. Over the course of the episode, Sharon kills Batroc and Karli. To outward appearances, these were necessary countermeasures. But when looked at from her perspective, she's covering for herself. Sharon gets rid of loose ends and bad actors with ties to her own criminal enterprise, and comes out looking like a hero. So Sharon Carter is essentially the Sheev Palpatine of this story, and the whole show has been her Phantom Menace. It's a downright dire turn for a character who started out a hero.

After the dust settles, Sam as Captain America discusses events with the GRC politicians. It's certainly positioned as a centerpiece moment, but when the whole situation of the refugee camps has been the victim of tell-don't-show storytelling, it's hard to parse how the show intends to frame audience sympathy in this debate. And without more information, it's hard to parse how to engage with it.

Zemo has his butler kill the arrested Flag Smashers, Bucky tells Yori Nakajima the true circumstances of his son's murder, and in a very "Vincent and the Doctor" from Doctor Who moment, Sam shows Isaiah Bradley his new room in the Captain America Smithsonian exhibit. It's a piece of poignant punctuation in a finale that brings closure and plenty of action, but still exposes holes in the presentation of the show's overarching story. The character work for Sam, Bucky, and Zemo has been largely excellent. The cases of Walker, Karli, and especially Sharon are more mixed. But that doesn't stop the crystallization of Sam's hero moment, bursting through the window as a Captain America for the 21st Century. 7/10.

Stray observation:

- Isaiah Bradley says Sam is "no Martin". Indeed, but Anthony Mackie played Martin Luther King Jr. on TV in All the Way.

- One of the reporters asks Sam if he's "Captain Falcon" now. If he is, maybe he should race in F-Zero and practice his Falcon Punch for Super Smash Bros.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Truth Review

TFATWS "Truth"

In its penultimate installment, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier got back into its wheelhouse for a moving and satisfying "calm before the storm" episode.

We begin in the only place we could after the heinous events at the end of last week's episode: with consequences for John Walker. Sam and Bucky confront the enraged, 'roided up, unrepentant Walker, and an exciting two-on-one fight ensues. The power sets on display land logically, but more than that, the motivations behind the fight have the spice of a proper build-up. The sequence is earned.

Henry Jackman breaks out his main theme from Captain America: Civil War, underlining superficial parallels the fight has with Steve and Bucky vs. Tony Stark in that film. Another MCU moment comes up when Sam uses his wings' rocket booster to force the shield out of Walker's hands; it's reminiscent of Tony and Peter Parker trying to wrest the Infinity Gauntlet off Thanos' arm in Avengers: Infinity War.

After Walker is stripped of his duties and military pension, he and his wife are approached by a quirky and enigmatic woman played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus (giving a performance not unlike her Arrested Development character). After visiting Lemar's family, Walker begins to make his own knock-off Captain America shield.

When I say the episode throws itself squarely in the show's wheelhouse, I mean that it largely gets away from the pokey Flag Smashers material and focuses on the areas of the show where its strengths most clearly reside: reckoning with the exploitation of Isaiah Bradley, the Wilson family drama in Louisiana, and the partnership between Sam and Bucky. Each element is tended to, as the episode prioritizes relatively quiet character moments after the initial action business has been dealt with. Even the telling detail of Bucky's right-handedness plays into this, and the bonding he and Sam engage in is genuinely touching.

Sam wrestles with the revelation of Bradley's all-too-predictable story, and the problematic nature of a Black man wielding a shield so loaded with nationalistic symbolism. Ultimately, he decides to "keep fighting", and get himself a sweet training montage. Sam practicing his shield throw is undeniably cool. Bucky also delivers a gift for Sam from Wakanda, that the show is teasing hard. Presumably it's a new wingsuit, to replace the one Walker tore apart. Wakanda has given Bucky a metal arm and Steve retractable "shields", but there's an extra resonance to the country giving gear to a Black superhero. (Granted, the Captain America shield is made of likely-stolen vibranium...)

Elsewhere, Bucky delivers Zemo to Ayo and the Dora Milaje, who intend to deliver him in turn to the Raft. We learn that Sharon Carter really is a villain, working with Batroc of all people. Come on, Sharon, this is the Hydra type of bullshit you took a stand against in Captain America: The Winter Soldier! And Karli and the other Flag Smashers begin their attack to delay a GRC vote on a resolution to repatriate thousands of blipped people to their original countries. Hmm, a terrorist attack to stop a vote, does that sound familiar? 8/10.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The Whole World is Watching Review

TFATWS "The Whole World is Watching"

The ideal Avenger ironically does not give in to revenge. The show has endeavored to give dimension to the John Walker character, in the wake of a truly deflating introduction. But this episode presents Walker in a downward spiral that leaves no doubt as to his unworthiness of Captain America's shield, in a final scene that touches on traumatic current events. Walker surreptitiously injects himself with the super soldier serum, and tragedy follows. In fact, the broad raison d'être of the episode seems to be showing how dangerous enhanced individuals can be.

We open in Wakanda (!), as Ayo tests the Winter Soldier code words on a newly descrambled Bucky. Bucky breaking down when he realizes Shuri's procedures worked is Sebastian Stan's best work on the show to date.

Speaking of Ayo, she and members of the Dora Milaje come to arrest Zemo but end up tangling with Walker, Lemar, Sam and Bucky - that is, everyone but Zemo, who everyone takes their eyes off as he makes a discreet exit. Really? The impulse to show off Dora Milaje fighting is an unimpeachable one, but the motivations behind the fight feel incomplete. Nevertheless, there is cool choreography - my favorite moment is one of the Dora doing a move right out of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon to remove Bucky's vibranium arm.

The script struggles to convey big ideas compactly, landing clunky lines that tell instead of show. In the cafe scene, Lemar supports his friend Walker by telling him he "consistently makes the right decisions" under fire. Is Lemar administrating a personnel review, or conversing with his friend? When the script is playing tic tac toe with inelegant thematic dialogue, this becomes a bit of an issue when so much of the core conflict of the show is ideological.

After a botched confrontation with Karli Morgenthau, Zemo finds and destroys most of the remaining serum, but Walker sneaks a vial and takes it in secret. Lemar reasons that taking the serum makes you "more of yourself", an insight familiar from Abraham Erskine's wonderful scene with Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger.

But after Lemar is captured, the ensuing rescue attempt finds Karli punching Lemar so hard his body breaks, and he dies. An enraged and empowered Walker corners Karli's fellow Flag Smasher Nico in a public plaza and brutally kills him with the shield. The moment finds Walker going Derek Chauvin on his unfortunate victim, an association made stronger by the horror of the bystanders, recording the incident on their smart phones.

The scene also parallels two moments from the MCU. In Black Panther, T'Challa angrily accosts Ulysses Klaue in Busan as onlookers watch, and is talked down from doing something drastic by being reminded that the world is watching. That phrasing is familiar from the title of this very episode. Secondly, when Steve Rogers prevails in battle over Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War, Steve lifts the shield in anger, and brings it down on Tony's armor rather than his face. Nico, though enhanced, has no such protection as Iron Man armor. At the time, Tony said that Steve didn't deserve the shield. Forget Steve, that sentiment absolutely applies to Walker.

With an ending that reflects very public police violence, there is weight to what the episode depicts. But the ideological conflict between our heroes and the Flag Smashers still doesn't fully land dramatically, and some of the dialogue is subpar. In any case, John Walker's time as Captain America should be coming to an end, leaving the job open for Sam. 6/10.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Power Broker Review

TFATWS "Power Broker"

The show gets a shot in the arm with the reintroduction of Daniel Bruhl's Helmut Zemo, whose status as an excellent villain is enhanced by his appearance here. The episode as a whole thrillingly engages with the canvas of the MCU, making for the show's best installment yet, though it's a couple of those very connections to the wider universe that prove puzzling.

John Walker is largely on the backburner this episode, but his outburst at the man at the Flag Smashers safe house highlights just how ridiculous the "costumed superhero" bit can be, especially when it's the wrong person in the costume. A sentiment, no doubt, Zemo would agree with. Zemo's anti-superhero ideology is drilled down on, establishing his motivation with laser precision. Zemo is integrated into Sam and Bucky's dynamic seamlessly, making for a great third wheel - not least during Marvin Gaye banter.

Henry Jackman again trots out his discordant Zemo theme. We also see "action Zemo" for the first time, and he gets his purple mask from the comics. Speaking of that, it is also revealed that Zemo is a Baron and part of a rich family. I get it, this brings the character closer to the comic villain Baron Zemo. But it doesn't fit with the Zemo of Captain America: Civil War. This level of resources devalues the presentation of his character in that movie as an obsessed ex-soldier. The Civil War Zemo simply works less well as the scion of an affluent family. It's another example of the MCU TV shows shunting characters closer to their comic incarnations, at the expense of the previous movies. I can live with all this, but it's not my absolute favorite trend.

Writer Derek Kolstad navigates a web of a lot of characters for Sam, Bucky, and Zemo to chase the trails of. There's even a John Wick moment when assassins are simultaneously alerted to bounties on their heads - appropriate because Kolstad is the creator of that film series.

The episode also brings back Sharon Carter, reinvented as... a tortured action hero! Sharon is given a lot of room to exercise her action chops, in notably brutal (for the MCU) fashion. She's still a fugitive, hiding out on Madripoor. I really don't understand why all of Steve Rogers' renegade team from Civil War was pardoned, but not her. Maybe it's because she was a CIA (and S.H.I.E.L.D.) agent?

Speaking of Civil War, there's even a "move your seat up" callback, which strikes me as gilding the lily. And more dramatically, Ayo (Florence Kasumba) of the Dora Milaje is on the scene, ready to avenge Zemo's murder of King T'Chaka! It's flourishes like that, plus the dynamic characterization of Zemo, and muscular action, that mark "Power Broker" as a standout episode. 8/10.

Stray observations:

- Bucky makes the distinction that he is not an Avenger while Sam is. Quite so, going by official team rosters and so forth. Of course, Bucky became an honorary Avenger during the Battle of Earth when Steve Rogers called out "Avengers, assemble."

- Zemo mentions that Sokovia is all but erased from the map. Notably, Wanda never updated us on this, but she had a lot on her plate, and Sokovian geopolitics never came up.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The Star-Spangled Man Review

TFATWS "The Star-Spangled Man"

In Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers' first tour of duty wasn't on the front lines of war, but on the stage. Captain America was trotted out as a walking piece of propaganda, a patriotic symbol shilling war bonds. The song and dance routine around him took the form of Alan Menken's wonderful "Star-Spangled Man with a Plan", an appellation echoed in this episode's title, and a melody echoed by a marching band. A significant part of this episode is concerned with clarifying the John Walker character. A seemingly stand-up soldier, he is a replacement symbol of an American superhero, but also a symbol of tone-deaf government marketing meetings.

Meanwhile, the symbolism of Sam Wilson's Falcon takes a hit, as his drone Redwing is destroyed by the Flag Smashers. And this, just after Redwing started taking to cooing and beeping like it's an astromech droid. The Flag Smashers remain somewhat opaque as villains, although there is time for their motivations to land more clearly. They are stealing vaccines (a timely gambit, that) for apparent delivery to struggling European resettlement camps. And they are led by a young woman played by Erin Kellyman. Between this and Enfys Nest in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Kellyman is typecast as someone who wears a scary mask.

And most cogently, the Flag Smashers are led by multiple super soldiers. An effective high-speed action sequence in Germany has Sam, Bucky, John, and his partner Lemar up against eight super soldiers; perhaps this gives a taste as to what the red herring threat of multiple Winter Soldiers would have been in Captain America: Civil War. This proliferation of people enhanced by Dr. Abraham Erskine's infamous serum leads Bucky to reveal to Sam and the audience a character named Isaiah, a Black super soldier active during the Korean War. 

In Isaiah's neighborhood, there's a loaded scene where cops accost Sam because he's having an animated conversation with Bucky. Things defuse when the cops realize these are Avengers. But nonetheless the moment represents a new step for the MCU, a step toward greater sociological realism. It's depressing, not for its inclusion, but for the fact that archaic racism remains an open wound in this country.

"The Star-Spangled Man" brings Sam and Bucky together without much pomp and circumstance. But it does set up their "buddy cop" bickering, and the running thread of Bucky's indignation that Sam gave up the Captain America shield. Sam and Bucky's back and forth on this will continue to give the show a vein of drama going forward. And forward is the way to Helmut Zemo's jail cell. 7/10.

Stray observation:

- John is played by Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt Russell, who of course played the main villain of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ego the Living Planet.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: New World Order Review

TFATWS "New World Order"

The expectation going into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is for a more "meat and potatoes" action show for the MCU, after the formal experimentation of WandaVision. And while that isn't inaccurate, it's also proving to be a reductive descriptor. Because by grounding the characters in a sometimes distressingly real world, and tapping into real anxieties, this show has found a dramatic vein to support the whiz-bang action sequences.

We begin with just such a big set-piece. Sam Wilson is tasked with extracting a hostage taken by none other than Georges Batroc, the Lemurian Star hijacker from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The mercenaries fly through the air in an extreme sports heist, brought to life with high-flying aerial footage that strongly recalls the Point Break remake. The sequence is an impressive opening salvo, a solo mission for Sam that more fully showcases his bag of tricks established in the films, including his drone Redwing and his wing shield.

A different shield looms large: Steve Rogers' vibranium shield he entrusted to Sam in Avengers: Endgame. Sam donates the shield to the Smithsonian, and he and pleasant-surprise guest star Rhodey take a walk in the updated Captain America exhibit. The iconography of the superhero surrounds them, and Sam's self-doubt comes into focus.

A trip to his native Louisiana, to his sister Sarah and her kids, opens up Sam's character after his existence in the movies almost always being defined in relation to Steve Rogers. Apparently without a nice, fat Avenger stipend, Sam stubbornly sets his mind on dissuading his sister from selling the family fishing boat. Elsewhere, Bucky struggles to reconcile his heinous past as the Winter Soldier.

And that's when a theme of this show becomes clear. I say this with a smile on my face, but: this show is kind of depressing! The Wilsons have financial problems, Bucky refuses to open up to his psychiatrist, terrorists are running amok. And the worst is saved for last. It's a truly deflating moment when the US government trots out their own "symbolic" Captain America, a doofy white man carrying the same shield Sam donated to the Smithsonian. The audience is 100% with Sam in his reaction. We feel for him to such a great extent that it stands out in the whole MCU.

Henry Jackman, who scored The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, makes the jump to TV to score this show. Delightfully, the Falcon theme he developed for The Winter Soldier is all over the show, alongside, of course, the eerie screech of his Winter Soldier motif. Dialogue scenes are shot with notably intimate close-ups, further involving the audience in the domestic character drama. And with the show taking the slow route building up to a "buddy" dynamic between Sam and Bucky, this premiere ably sets the tone for the show. 7/10.

WandaVision: The Series Finale Review

WandaVision "The Series Finale"

A common sentiment among MCU fans for years is that these characters are so strong, hangout stories with no action would be welcomed. WandaVision goes some way toward fulfilling that notion, but in its series finale, action comes crashing through the town of Westview. It's an almost jarring development, seeing so many powered characters exercising their abilities in combat, after so much of the season playing out sitcom tropes. And after the dust settles, "The Series Finale" wraps up the series with a poignant bow.

A lot of magic is exercised and changes hands in the episode. Wanda and Agatha take their magical duels to the skies, and in another pairing of power sets, Wanda's simulacra Vision and the white "sentient weapon" Vision also cut across the sky. Agatha absorbs Wanda's powers to varying degrees, emphasizing her belief that Wanda doesn't deserve her magic. 

But Wanda's magic is galvanized, and she levels up once again. She gains a new costume a little more reminiscent of her comics outfit, and ends up trapping Agatha in the Agnes sitcom character. During the fireworks that make up their witches' battle, Wanda throws a car like in Captain America: Civil War. And for the first time since Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wanda breaks out her old undercranked walk-up mind manipulation! 

Speaking of that movie, the two Visions' Ship of Theseus conversation cannot help but recall the wonderful philosophical discussion between Vision and Ultron in the Sokovian forest. Both Visions are shades and echoes of the original, while still retaining some essence of him. Both wield a mere approximation of the Mind Stone. Wanda's Vision achieves the classic Star Trek victory of using logic kung fu on a computer, and the white Vision flies to parts unknown.

Elsewhere, S.W.O.R.D. director Hayward begins an acquaintance with his comeuppance, after Darcy intercepts him. Her "have fun in prison!" is perfectly in character. As if to give Hayward's villainy a coup de grace, he sees two kids and his first instinct is to shoot them. Some of his bullets are ameliorated by Monica and her new "photonic" powers. As with Luke Cage, there is a loaded quality to a Black superhero with an immunity to bullets.

Monica uncovers that Evan Peters' Pietro is in fact a Westview resident bewitched by Agatha - the plot thickens for mutants coming into the MCU. The townsfolk regain their memories and confront Wanda, which proves quite uncomfortable for them. What is with Disney+ heroes and inadvertent magical choking? First Grogu, and now Wanda. In the aftermath, the people of Westview understandably look at Wanda with resentment, and Wanda and Monica's conversation brings a measure of closure to this disquieting aspect of the show. It's a tearjerking moment when Monica wonders as to the lengths she would go to be with her mother again.

More emotional moments are in store when it comes time for Wanda to say goodbye to Tommy, Billy, and Vision. In a poignant monologue, Vision reflects on the different forms he's taken, which also functions from Paul Bettany's perspective. The "voice without a body", referring to Jarvis, is a reminder of how far Bettany has come in the MCU. 

And WandaVision has come far as a show, in the finest tradition of multi-layered storytelling. The sitcom pastiche is a gimmick, but also one directly springing out of Wanda's childhood nostalgia. That word, nostalgia, means the pain of remembering home. A home that was destroyed by a Stark Industries warhead, always in her thoughts as Wanda built a new home in New Jersey. And now in a new chapter of her life, Wanda's rich story continues as her pain grows alongside her power. And over the course of this season, she has begun to process that pain. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- Time for some Darkhold talk. This "book of the damned" has information on the legendary figure of the Scarlet Witch, including her apparent destiny to destroy the world - whatever that may come to mean. It made its screen debut in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., connected to a Ghost Rider storyline. Later, Wanda is seen isolated in a cabin in a beautiful valley, Edward Norton Bruce Banner style. She's researching the Darkhold, presumably for a possible avenue for her children to live again. Significantly, a strain of Michael Giacchino's Doctor Strange theme plays over Wanda's research, probably setting up their team-up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But as to the provenance of the Darkhold, this is an extremely rare occurrence of an element from pre-WandaVision Marvel TV crossing over into the "mainstream" MCU, as opposed to the reverse.

- There are two allusions to The Wizard of Oz. Agatha's boots are seen under the car like she's the Wicked Witch of the East. And the movie theater marquee shows Oz the Great and Powerful playing, featuring Black Widow star Rachel Weisz, as that same Wicked Witch of the East!

- The white Vision's Mind Stone beam is colored blue, to differentiate from the other Vision. This is reminiscent of wight Viserion's blue fire breath in the latter episodes of Game of Thrones.

- The mid-credits scene features a Skrull making contact with Monica, making reference to an "old friend" of Maria Rambeau. That's got to be either Talos or Nick Fury inviting Monica to space.

- Paul Bettany has appeared in the first installment of all four MCU "phases". Iron Man (One), Iron Man 3 (Two), Captain America: Civil War (Three), WandaVision (Four).

WandaVision: Previously on Review

WandaVision "Previously on"

The universe of WandaVision has expanded gradually but surely, and the story begins to culminate by looking backward and filling in vital backstory in "Previously on". It's a tour de force episode that contextualizes the entire series both logistically and emotionally, making for a poignant and powerful episode of essential television viewing.

We open on a slice of backstory not for Wanda, but for Agatha Harkness. Her almost uncontrollable magical talent is showcased in 17th Century Salem when she crosses the line by the standards of her coven. But as Agatha's magic is presented as learned mastery, Wanda's magic is contrasted as not being from any book, any Malleus Maleficarum tone. It comes through pain, and choices born out of trauma.

Agatha guides Wanda to four periods of her life to understand, essentially, the full prelude to the creation of her sitcom version of Westview. First comes a traumatic tour of the moment Wanda and Pietro lost their parents, militant factions using Stark Industries ordnance just as was established in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It had been "TV night" in the Maximoff residence, drawn from their collection of sitcom DVDs. (I have that same edition of I Love Lucy Season 5. It's a great season.)

The family was watching The Dick Van Dyke Show at the moment it was forever torn asunder. So Wanda's recreation in Westview is a return to the comforting moments of her childhood. More than that, the last comforting moment.

Next comes the Hydra experiments that gave Wanda her powers, followed by a bonding scene between Wanda and Vision at Avengers HQ taking place shortly after Age of Ultron. In Wanda's room, she's watching Malcolm in the Middle while bearing the crushing weight of her brother's death, pulling from possibly the very same DVDs her family had in Sokovia. So the episode wonderfully demonstrates how TV was always a part of her life, always there for her, even in the Hydra-occupied castle. It's eminently relatable, like how WandaVision is here for us.

Finally, we see Wanda coming to Westview shortly after a traumatic trip to S.W.O.R.D. HQ and right before the events of the show started, deed in hand for the property where she creates her home with a construct of Vision. (It's a bit tricky to figure out when in the MCU timeline that deed would've been set up.) In the same burst of energy that reconstructs Vision and builds a house, the Westview hex/bubble roars into black and white life. And because of what this episode builds, we deeply understand what's behind this fateful moment, and why a 50s sitcom.

The other flourish of the episode sets up a new perspective on Wanda and her powers. We hear terms like "probability" and "chaos magic", familiar from the comic version of the character, only now spoken of in the MCU. We are given to understand that Wanda was born with powers, and the encounter with the Mind Stone in Loki's Sceptre only strongly enhanced what was already latent.

It's a retcon that may have mutant-shaped implications for the MCU. It's also a retcon that I'm not the biggest fan of. I personally prefer the version of the story where Wanda volunteers to make the total artificial jump from "normal person" to "enhanced", in order to compete with the Avengers, and specifically merchant of death Tony Stark. Implicit in comments that Wanda and Pietro are the first to survive Mind Stone experimentation is that it's quantifiable; that because of latent mutations they were exceptional to begin with. In that way, it's reminiscent of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 retcon that I'm also not overly fond of: that Peter Quill could handle the Power Stone not because of the power of friendship but because he's half Celestial. But in any case, it's still very much a workable arc, and it all culminates in the episode's ending. That, reader, is the first time the words "Scarlet Witch" have passed anyone's lips in the MCU.

In a mid-credits scene, Director Hayward powers up Vision's previously lifeless body, making for a Dr. Manhattan-like spectacle. So it appears Hayward was lying to Monica, Jimmy, and Darcy about Wanda stealing the body...

In "Previously on", WandaVision has its best episode yet, foregrounding the pain and power of the real Wanda Maximoff. Not a character in a sitcom, but an Avenger and superhero that has gained a real depth through this show. 9/10.

WandaVision: Breaking the Fourth Wall Review

WandaVision "Breaking the Fourth Wall"

"I've been watching WandaVision for the past week..." - Darcy Lewis

In Westview, reality is glitching. After Wanda's expansion of the bubble, it seems that her mastery over the town's reality is harder to maintain. This has the knock-on effect of a greater sense of self-awareness on her part, as delivered in direct address to the camera, The Office-style. Complete with cutaways and a new logo reminiscent of Modern Family, the WandaVision sitcom has adapted to a house style of the new millennium. And with it, the show balances humor and hexcraft in delivering its most dynamic episode yet.

The more modern format of the sitcom enhances the humor; see particularly Tommy and Billy's reactions to Wanda's non-explanation of what's been going on. There's also the sense that as TV history has progressed, the show-within-a-show version of Wanda is allowed to be more of a human being, more relatably imperfect.

Meanwhile, Monica Rambeau makes her way back into Westview, confronting Wanda and coming to realize that the rewriting of her cells is making her a "sentient weapon" in her own right. As they face off, they reckon with the central issue of the show: Wanda's villainous culpability in holding the townsfolk hostage. The show as a whole has challenged me, in the sense that as a big Wanda fan, I'm challenged by her decidedly non-heroic actions as presented in the show. As Wanda engages with that and flirts with owning it, it's an electric moment.

And that's not the only monkey wrench in the situation. It is revealed that Agnes is really the powerful witch Agatha Harkness. We're informed through song that she has been responsible for manipulating a lot of the situations in this situation comedy, not least of which, conjuring Pietro. So if nothing else, I am also relieved that the show may have an arch villain for Wanda to fight, besides herself.

Vision, aside with Darcy in the circus, also has a poignant moment as he pieces together the history that he can't remember. As Bruce Banner reinforced in Avengers: Infinity War, Vision is a "complex construct of overlays". Vision, in another new configuration of life, wonders, "What am I now?" Darcy offering that it must have been hard for Wanda to watch Vision be killed after having made the impossibly hard decision to kill him herself is another rich example of the show incorporating fan conversations of the characters' histories into the text of the MCU.

The episode is the broadest canvas yet for the show to display everything it can do: offbeat humor, poignant character moments, malevolent mystical atmosphere. It's also revealed that Agatha/Agnes killed Sparky the dog. I did think it was weird that dog just up and died! 8/10.

WandaVision: All-New Halloween Spooktacular! Review

WandaVision "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"

There is no leaving the town of Storybrooke from Once Upon a Time (another Disney-owned show), and so it is with WandaVision's Westview. So does that cast Wanda in the role of the Evil Queen, the imperious woman solely aware of the true nature of the town's reality...?

Stage-managing from that role, Wanda has created a town that runs on TV tropes, and the latest one embraced by WandaVision is the seasonal special. But while Halloween is right there in the title, tricking and treating is merely a launching pad for an askew escalation in Westview. Plot threads continue ticking on: Vision's suspicions about his reality; the S.W.O.R.D. agenda; the hostage townspeople; leading to a finale where Wanda expands Westview's borders even more, encompassing the S.W.O.R.D. operation and Darcy.

The latest meta touch in the show is Wanda, Vision, and Pietro wearing Halloween costumes that reference their iconic costumes from the comics. (Interestingly, the Vision Halloween costume is red makeup on Paul Bettany's normal face, as opposed to using Vision's purple face.) If these characters appeared in an 80s TV movie adaptation of the comics, these are not far from the costumes they likely would've worn.

But in a new twist, that meta quality extends to someone within Westview. Evan Peters' Pietro calls out the formulaic goals of his character in the context of a TV show, and comments on the sudden proliferation of kids. Unlike everyone else in the town, he is self-aware. And even as the show plays with the subtle differences in his and Wanda's memories of childhood (complete with cutaway to Wanda and Pietro as the Gretel and Hansel of Sokovia), it appears that this version of Pietro recalls dying in the very manner of the Aaron Taylor-Johnson Pietro.

Elsewhere, Maximoff kids Tommy and Billy develop powers (Pietro-like super-speed, and Wanda-like mind abilities), and Vision investigates hostage townspeople who appear to be glitching the closer to the outside world they are. He comes across one neighborhood where residents are stopped in their tracks, My Fair Lady style.

The moment where Vision ascends into the sky to observe the town is reminiscent of his birth in Avengers: Age of Ultron. High in Avengers Tower, he quietly contemplated the cityscape, making a silent connection with the mayfly members of humanity. As he said, "It's a pleasure to be among them", but does that pleasure extend to humans whose personalities have been suppressed? Vision risks his life to warn of the townsfolk's plight, but finds himself back in Wanda's reality-altering bubble, capping an episode of consistently intriguing intertextuality and supernatural unease. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- The 80s setting apparently does not retro-fy the video games Pietro plays with the kids, nor their Dance Dance Revolution setup. Speaking of video games, did I spot a kid in a Mortal Kombat Sub Zero costume?

- The local theater is called the Coronet, possibly an allusion to the theater in San Francisco that was one of the fewer than 40 to carry Star Wars the weekend of May 25, 1977. Playing are two Disney-owned films, The Incredibles and The Parent Trap (Original or remake? Unknown.). The former (co-starring Nick Fury himself, Samuel L. Jackson) features Dash Parr, a child with super-speed. The latter revolves around twins.

- Is that Night of the Living Dead being shown to (the newly materialized) kids?

WandaVision: On a Very Special Episode... Review

WandaVision "On a Very Special Episode..."

The Lopezes deploy a kitschy 80s theme song. The Maximoff kids continue rapidly growing, and gain and lose a dog named Sparky. But the cracks in Wanda's sitcom reality are ever more pronounced, and "On a Very Special Episode..." starts twisting the knife on Wanda's culpability in holding the people of Westview hostage, and ends on a whopper of a twist.

In Avengers: Endgame, a wonderful sequence saw the Avengers figuratively cast in the roles of screenwriters in a mind-numbing story-breaking session. They hashed out the mythology of the movies in order to formulate how their plot would go forward. As last week's episode of WandaVision established, Darcy, Jimmy, and Monica are cast in the roles of viewers, if not fans of the MCU in general. So we hear Monica's argument that Wanda would've won in one-on-one combat against Thanos if he hadn't called a bombardment from his ship. It's a righteous moment of vindication for Wanda's heroism as established in the movies - and Wanda sure needs it because a judgmental eye is cast on her actions in this show.

The episode continues to frame Wanda as almost the villain of her own show. We see footage of her stealing Vision's lifeless body (is this a step removed from necrophilia...?) for use in Westview. The party line from S.W.O.R.D. regarding her history with the Avengers is not flattering for her (even though as viewers we rightfully take Wanda's side in, for instance, the Lagos incident). Most disturbing of all, Vision unlocks the suppressed personality of his coworker Norm, held hostage as a marionette in Wanda's fantasy town.

Vision is more and more skeptical of his wife's role in fabricating their situation, and the two almost come to uncanny blows. Shortly afterward, the doorbell rings, and in walks Wanda's brother, played not by the MCU's Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but Evan Peters, who filled that role in three X-Men movies.

It's a stunning moment, opening the door for a multiverse officially bringing the X-Men into the MCU, and not only that, but potentially the very versions of those characters from movies like Days of Future Past and Dark Phoenix. I'll likely get more into this in the future, but this is a can of worms. Yes, I'm excited by the metaconnectivity and the opportunity for those actors to continue in their roles. But that's potentially outweighed by my protectiveness of the MCU's "purity". The quality control that's defined the MCU doesn't extend to the last 20 years of X-Men movies. Additionally, is the average viewer supposed to have seen multiple movies from an entire other cinematic universe for this twist to fully land?

Reservations aside, the shock appearance is a statement of intent that WandaVision's metanarrative knows few bounds. And with Wanda appearing outside the bubble for the first time, in her iconic outfit no less, the ground is laid for more and more action in this wonderfully strange season of television. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- This is the first time Captain Marvel's superhero name has been spoken in the MCU. On that subject, attention is drawn to the fact that Wanda doesn't have a superhero name, likely setting up the deployment of the Scarlet Witch moniker later. I've enjoyed the absence of that title to date, so we'll see how that goes.

- The scene where the boys implore Wanda to resurrect the fallen dog Sparky reminds me of the Nora Ephron movie Michael. William Hurt (the MCU's erstwhile General "Thunderbolt" Ross) demands John Travolta use his angelic powers to resurrect a dog who was killed in an accident.

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?!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Know Your Onions Review

AOS "Know Your Onions"

Still in 1931, the Agents are afforded opportunities for more period dress (this time for Simmons and Yo-Yo), and Coulson the chance to cut a Dillinger-esque figure with a tommy gun. This is all before another time window shifts everyone forward in time - by the looks of it, the next episode takes place in the 1950s. By only sticking in the same year for two episodes, the structure of the season comes into clearer focus, and lends things a *gasp* episodic quality?

Two of the major engines of this episode are the ongoing moral dilemma of saving Hydra to preserve the future, and on the comic relief side, letting Patton Oswalt loose with the kind of vintage lingo that gives the episode its title. When Oswalt's Ernest Koenig says that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s world of super soldier serum and advanced robotics is like "something out of the funny papers", the writers run the danger of being too cute.

Energized from the twist at the end of the premiere, the team must protect Wilfred "Freddy" Malick, even though he and his son will grow up to be Neo-Nazi tyrants. At the eleventh hour, Daisy breaks ranks and manipulates an impressionable Deke to "take the shot" and kill young Freddy. Deke channels Draco Malfoy and shrinks from the task, and afterward this mutinous episode is forgotten, so it feels extremely shoe-horned in... but I sympathize with writer Craig Titley. There needed to be some direct reckoning with the cognitive dissonance of the team's distasteful duty to protect Hydra's origin story. So it's good drama artificially wedged in the episode, but artificially wedged in nonetheless. It would have been wise to pull back on the schematic plotting and make this moment of high drama the emotional centerpiece of the episode.

The action centerpiece of the episode, on the other hand, is Enoch's fight with a semi-recovered Melinda May. This unlikely pairing is enhanced by a quirk of May's recovery giving her the same clipped voice patterns of a Chronicom.

The major canon connection is the mention of the super soldier serum's development by Abraham Erskine, and administration to Hydra's Johann Schmidt. These respectively, of course, are Stanley Tucci and Hugo Weaving's characters from Captain America: The First Avenger.

"Know Your Onions" features a typical episode's balance of humor and action, so when it goes very dramatic, that feels out of place without further development. 6/10.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The New Deal Review

AOS "The New Deal"

"Nineteen-thirties baseball reference." - Daisy Johnson

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back for its final season (or as the promotion puts it, The Final Mission), and it begins with a breath of new life for the series... ironically found from traveling into the past. ABC Marvel, accustomed to mounting a period production by way of Agent Carter, is starting Season 7 in the 1930s. (And the team passes the Bela Lugosi Dracula poster to prove it.) Aside from the superficial entertainment value of seeing Phil Coulson, Daisy Johnson, Alphonso Mackenzie, and Deke Shaw in vintage costumes, the show is on fine form as far as action, humor, and revelations go.

It makes perfect sense to have Coulson (albeit a Life Model Decoy replica of Coulson, but still) walk amongst his agency's origin story, given his historical neediness. Look no further than his geeking out at meeting future President Franklin Roosevelt (whose eventual New Deal gives the episode its double-meaning title). The action in the episode has some nice touches, like Daisy's inflicting a sonic uppercut on a Chronicom Hunter, and Mack using what basically amount to wrestling finishing moves on smaller human beings.

The episode runs through the standard season premiere playbook. There's a reveal for a new command center (read: new fancy set). Characters are established as easing back into an old status quo, or adapting to a new one. Coulson adjusts to his new synthetic third chance at life; Jemma Simmons guards her future knowledge and shows a bit of a sadistic streak; and Melinda May and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez are recovering from the events of the Season 6 finale.

There's a sense that some of these dynamics find the show repeating itself. As alluded to before, this is the second time Coulson has been brought back to life, after Project T.A.H.I.T.I. And Leo Fitz is missing yet again.

In any case, the episode ends with a fantastic twist: the team's new charge, who they must protect from Chronicom assassination, is none other than Gideon Malick's father as a young man, a future Head of Hydra! Suddenly this phase of the story clicks into focus, and I look forward to this being milked for drama next week.

A solid new status quo is established in the 1930s, topped by a devilishly clever twist. 7/10.