Any Marvel fan remembers the moment they first saw Captain America wield Mjolnir in Avengers: Endgame – promptly following by entire audiences losing their minds in unison. It was the same for Hulk battering Loki’s face into a floor tile in Avengers Assemble, or the stunned silence that accompanied Thanos’s universe-shattering snap in Infinity War. When Edgar Wright asked Empire readers to send in their all-time-greatest cinema experiences for the latest issue, all of these scenes popped up for a reason – in recent years, the MCU has proven particularly adept at giving us moments. Not just memorable plot turns, but indelible images and perfectly-handled payoffs that united audiences in shared outbursts of joy, disbelief, or both.
That’s the very thing we’re all missing right now – not just the movies that remain long-delayed amid the Coronavirus pandemic, but the feeling of everyone experiencing something simultaneously. For nearly a year, it’s been impossible to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with a packed audience in front of the big screen, and while streaming has kept us all going through lockdown, sitting separately in our homes with infinite choice of what to watch and when only gives us the movies – not the moments. But while it’s not quite the same, there’s one show right now that’s finally giving Marvel fans something akin to a moment every week: the episode-by-episode rollout of WandaVision.
For a moment, let’s make like Wanda Maximoff and hit rewind. Three weeks ago, the initial two episodes of the series dropped on Disney+ – the first of the streaming service’s long list of upcoming MCU shows, and the official starting point for Phase 4 since Black Widow remains an oft-delayed cinema release. Those opening instalments were, for the most part, carefully-crafted homages to vintage ‘50s and ‘60s American sitcoms, lovingly recreated with period-appropriate sets and clothing, broad performances from the cast, and even a live studio audience. But they were also shot through with a sense of Lynchian unease, peeking behind the façade of picket-fence America – brilliantly scripted so that every other line of dialogue is freighted with unsettling double-meaning for an audience well-aware that there’s no way Wanda Maximoff and Vision are actually living in a sitcom. For one, they’re Avengers. For two, he’s dead. While those episodes immediately poked holes in the fabric of the show’s artificial ‘reality’, pointing at a much bigger picture without revealing all the details, some still accused WandaVision of being a slow burn.
Like a Steak Diane, there was plenty to chew on in _WandaVision_ right from the off.
It’s an odd criticism – partly because the show, with its snappy episode runtimes and tantalising mysteries, is far from slow. (Surely the MCU has earned audiences’ trust by now, no?) Within the opening two-episode drop came all kinds of little reveals – that someone out in the real world is watching, that S.W.O.R.D. is coming, and that Wanda is effectively her own showrunner. Like a Steak Diane, there was plenty to chew on right from the off. But beyond that, the sitcom trappings themselves proved incredibly multilayered too. It’s not just quirky imitation – it’s both an exploration of the constructed reality of TV comedy and a commentary on the unattainability of the perfect lifestyle projected in family sitcoms, all while constantly picking at the scabs of Wanda’s trauma in the wake of Vision’s death. When she reacts to her sudden pregnancy in Episode 2 by asking, “Vision, is this really happening?” and he assures her that it is, it’s heartbreaking – a sitcom beat that would ordinarily ring as a happy ending, but one that plays to the knowing Marvel audience as anything but: there’s no way this is really happening.
That acknowledgement of us, the audience, as a participatory figure in the show itself puts paid to the other strange argument that emerged in the early weeks of WandaVision: would we all care if this wasn’t Marvel? It’s a moot point – the fact that it’s part of the MCU is key to the construct of the show, the central point of its mystery. Its entire premise and its execution plays directly to an audience well-versed in a story previously established across 23 films – one that makes it clear that Wanda and Vision starring in a 1950s sitcom is far from normality. How exactly it fits into that wider universe is the big reveal, and every instalment offers up vital jigsaw pieces.
Most importantly, with its week-by-week roll-out and the gradual unfurling of its core conceit, WandaVision is finally giving us moments again – as close to the collective experience we’re all craving as we’re able to get right now. At 8am every Friday (or midnight, for late-night American viewers), the MCU hardcore gathers in unison to watch the latest episode as its debuts – and over the next 24 hours, the internet reacts separately but together to the same twists and turns. ‘Pietro’ and ‘Ultron’ were trending for days in the wake of Episode 3. Twitter was awash with screengrabs of Jimmy Woo’s whiteboard after Episode 4, the loveable FBI agent asking all the same questions as the audience (another brilliant way the show communicates that we’re all figuring this together). And for anyone who hasn’t seen the revelation-packed Episode 5 yet? Well, you’ll want to steer well clear of Twitter until you have. If anyone accused WandaVision of being slow to start, they surely aren’t now. It would, of course, be thrilling to binge the whole season in one go – but there wouldn’t be that sense of everyone experiencing it at the same time, of all being at the same part in the story with no knowledge of what comes next. It’s part of the joy of the weekly WandaVision Spoiler Special podcasts we record – every Friday evening, Team Empire gathers to pore over the latest developments, ponder on what it might mean, and return the next week to discover we were all hilariously off the mark.
Weekly episode drops are hardly anything new – if anything they’re an antiquated tradition in the streaming era. Even in the pandemic, other shows have arrived this way, from The Mandalorian to the wholesome delights of the Great British Bake Off. But with WandaVision being a mystery show at heart – perfect for picking apart clues in the wait between instalments – the sense of being part of a communal audience comes across even more strongly. While cinemas remain closed in many parts of the world, this digital-watercooler storytelling is the most satisfying viewing experience possible during the pandemic. For now, I’ll gladly take WandaVision piece by piece.