Wandavision squee!
Aug. 13th, 2026 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe moral of this post is: if you wait long enough (about five years), Disney will show WandaVision on ITVX as part of its efforts to get people to sign up to Disney+ and you will get to see it even though you are a stubborn, tight-fisted pleb. I’ve tried avoiding spoilers over the years, but haven’t fully managed, so I think I know where this is going, but anyway, I squeed to get to see it for myself, I am still squeeing.
1.1 – Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience was a delight, just a pitch perfect pastiche of Bewitched with a dash of I Love Lucy and shows I probably don’t know about, down to the screen ratio, the black and white and the canned laughter at the couple’s conundrums. The music was exquisite. The mystery of the date was a nice bit of foreshadowing for the fact that they couldn’t remember when or why they’d moved into town (shown in a quick set-up montage), or if they’d got married. There was the mystery too of what Vision’s company actually did.
Olson and Bettany were marvellous. Agnes was all that fandom said she’d be (and that Hahn’s body of work suggested). And the boss was a Hey! It’s that Guy, and his missus was her off That 70’s show. And I enjoyed the knowing tone of the Stark advert, the elevated FX that was somehow in keeping with the 50s/60s vibe (Vision keeping up his human face as an act, Wanda making everything fly – best of all, the lobster ending up on the front door.) I did chuckle quite a bit, if not as much as the canned laughter.
There was an archness about the prejudices of the time – ‘oh, my Sekovian wife is European’ said the husband with the English accent. But all this was threatened by an underlying melancholy, with us knowing why it exists. That scene where the boss was choking, the repeated ‘stop it’ and Vision saving him was the most powerful, and then we had the boss’s very odd reaction, all supported by the final scene where it’s all a TV show, where Wanda and Vision are the stars, watched on a set in a world that is far more MCUish. But also playing with the history of TV!
1.2 - Don’t Touch The Dial
This expanded the world/Westview a lot, taking us upstairs for starters, to the bedroom with its twin beds and threatening noises that they put down to the branches hitting the window, as Wanda switched the twin beds into a double. Pitch perfect cartoon credits that introduced a lot of characters we’d meet, some of whom had already appeared. Then we had the set-up of the talent show, both of them separating to do womanly/manly things. And then the bright red of a helicopter in the rose bushes, before Agnes turned up, ready to take Wanda to meet Dottie (EMMA CAULFIELD) of whom all the planning committee was scared.
The theme seemed to be about fitting in, with outsider Vision trying to get in with the neighbourhood watch, which led to him taking chewing gum – loved the cartoonish insert of it doing his innards harm.
I don’t remember when the ad break featuring the same actors as in last episode’s ad happened, but I did register that the Germanic watch company had a Hydra connection. (If the name of the company itself was meant to signify something, my MCU lore is worse than it was and I never got in as deep as some.) Wanda was trying to get over well with Dottie, but then there was weirdness over the radio and a voice calling out to Wanda (I thought it might be Steve’s), Dottie got distressed and eventually got cut, drawing red blood, again, shocking in the black and white world.
At the talent show, Wanda was worried about where Vision was, and when he turned up he was dishevelled and acting drunk. He kept showing off his powers and Wanda had to use hers to create plausible excuses. She just about got away with it if nobody was watching closely, and then got rid of the gum backstage. The couple were brought back up to the front and given an award for being so funny.
Agnes seemed to be performing the most – I suspect we’ll never see the punchline of a husband. Dottie was giving off cult leader vibes, especially how she got everyone to repeat ‘for the children’. Did we see any children in Westview?
Back at home, Wanda and Vision debriefed, concluding that they seemed to have fitted in ‘with a few modifications’. Suddenly Wanda was visibly pregnant, then the noises from outside started again, and out they went, and saw a person (a man?) in a beekeeper’s suit coming out of a manhole, with a symbol we’d seen before. Wanda reacted with particular dread, used her magic and made the show rewind, suggesting she’s in control of all this, if not the colours and the outside sounds. Vision gained colour, as did the house and she, with reddish tones again being dominant. Very mysterious.
With such short episodes, I was sure I’d be gobbling them up. Well, that was the plan, then live sporting events and life happened.
1.1 – Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience was a delight, just a pitch perfect pastiche of Bewitched with a dash of I Love Lucy and shows I probably don’t know about, down to the screen ratio, the black and white and the canned laughter at the couple’s conundrums. The music was exquisite. The mystery of the date was a nice bit of foreshadowing for the fact that they couldn’t remember when or why they’d moved into town (shown in a quick set-up montage), or if they’d got married. There was the mystery too of what Vision’s company actually did.
Olson and Bettany were marvellous. Agnes was all that fandom said she’d be (and that Hahn’s body of work suggested). And the boss was a Hey! It’s that Guy, and his missus was her off That 70’s show. And I enjoyed the knowing tone of the Stark advert, the elevated FX that was somehow in keeping with the 50s/60s vibe (Vision keeping up his human face as an act, Wanda making everything fly – best of all, the lobster ending up on the front door.) I did chuckle quite a bit, if not as much as the canned laughter.
There was an archness about the prejudices of the time – ‘oh, my Sekovian wife is European’ said the husband with the English accent. But all this was threatened by an underlying melancholy, with us knowing why it exists. That scene where the boss was choking, the repeated ‘stop it’ and Vision saving him was the most powerful, and then we had the boss’s very odd reaction, all supported by the final scene where it’s all a TV show, where Wanda and Vision are the stars, watched on a set in a world that is far more MCUish. But also playing with the history of TV!
1.2 - Don’t Touch The Dial
This expanded the world/Westview a lot, taking us upstairs for starters, to the bedroom with its twin beds and threatening noises that they put down to the branches hitting the window, as Wanda switched the twin beds into a double. Pitch perfect cartoon credits that introduced a lot of characters we’d meet, some of whom had already appeared. Then we had the set-up of the talent show, both of them separating to do womanly/manly things. And then the bright red of a helicopter in the rose bushes, before Agnes turned up, ready to take Wanda to meet Dottie (EMMA CAULFIELD) of whom all the planning committee was scared.
The theme seemed to be about fitting in, with outsider Vision trying to get in with the neighbourhood watch, which led to him taking chewing gum – loved the cartoonish insert of it doing his innards harm.
I don’t remember when the ad break featuring the same actors as in last episode’s ad happened, but I did register that the Germanic watch company had a Hydra connection. (If the name of the company itself was meant to signify something, my MCU lore is worse than it was and I never got in as deep as some.) Wanda was trying to get over well with Dottie, but then there was weirdness over the radio and a voice calling out to Wanda (I thought it might be Steve’s), Dottie got distressed and eventually got cut, drawing red blood, again, shocking in the black and white world.
At the talent show, Wanda was worried about where Vision was, and when he turned up he was dishevelled and acting drunk. He kept showing off his powers and Wanda had to use hers to create plausible excuses. She just about got away with it if nobody was watching closely, and then got rid of the gum backstage. The couple were brought back up to the front and given an award for being so funny.
Agnes seemed to be performing the most – I suspect we’ll never see the punchline of a husband. Dottie was giving off cult leader vibes, especially how she got everyone to repeat ‘for the children’. Did we see any children in Westview?
Back at home, Wanda and Vision debriefed, concluding that they seemed to have fitted in ‘with a few modifications’. Suddenly Wanda was visibly pregnant, then the noises from outside started again, and out they went, and saw a person (a man?) in a beekeeper’s suit coming out of a manhole, with a symbol we’d seen before. Wanda reacted with particular dread, used her magic and made the show rewind, suggesting she’s in control of all this, if not the colours and the outside sounds. Vision gained colour, as did the house and she, with reddish tones again being dominant. Very mysterious.
With such short episodes, I was sure I’d be gobbling them up. Well, that was the plan, then live sporting events and life happened.
