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    Wandavision

    Really derivative, but you pretty much can't go wrong deriving from David Lynch, Rod Sterling, The Prisoner, Donna Reed, Dobey Gillis, and the Brady Bunch.

    It's been beautiful seeing how they captured each sitcom era. The only thing determining if this is a masterpiece is how good the ending is, and why they are living in a sitcom. In other words, why the different eras of sitcoms other than a way of saying "hey, let's remake I Dream of Jeannie and All in the Family."

    It's amazing at how the Olsen sister of the Olsen Twins captures each era perfectly. She's been so fun to watch, and it's been thrilling seeing when a storm cloud comes over her face after the sunny sitcom levity. One comment, one memory, and the darkness strikes.

    I love how they're just moving towards jump cuts now when she makes an "edit."

    Just like crappy music when you're young that seems like it will never go away, sitcoms were the only thing to watch for decades. Now, after subsequent decades of Miami Vice and The Sopranos and The Wire and Breaking Bad, it's fun to see the style being replayed knowing it's not the only style to see.






    #2
    It certainly picks up steam in episode 3.

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      #3
      I've really loved every episode so far (Dick van Dyke stuff was brilliant - props to the leads for nailing the performances), though I think the first two got a lot less interest from the family. Definitely though, this is all about sticking the landing.
      Last edited by matt j; 25-01-2021, 12:42.

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        #4
        We are watching it but I'm not completely into it. Mrs Thistle said it was one of those shows whose big play is "we've got a secret" but suspects the secret isn't going to be amazing.

        I haven't read any theory articles about it but I have noticed the faux adverts are for Hydra brand products in the last 2 episodes. Feels like it's going to be an artificial world created either by Wanda for self protection or by someone else to get information out of her.

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          #5
          I remarked to my wife that it felt a bit like when the Skrulls have Captain Marvel hooked up to the memory raiding device, only it appears that the Scarlet Witch is the device. Although I wouldn't put it past an evil Skrull or Kree angle given that they are being cued up as an adversary towards the end of the last phase. That would also tie in with SWORD (counters alien threats), the appearance of the world outside and some of the general weird shit.

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            #6
            It feels like it was designed to compel viewers to watch the various Easter Egg videos on YouTube, but I think it's sensible without that too.

            I'm generally frustrated by the "we've got a secret" shows, but they don't bother me so much if the main characters don't know any more about what is going on than the audience.

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              #7
              Well thay was interesting. The mystery deepens despite them telling us more about what is going on.

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                #8
                Episode 4 -
                ******************* stars
                Thankfully, as brilliant as hoped.

                NON-SPOILER SPOILER-FREE PART

                The best part was the whiteboard, where they were listing more questions than the audience would have.

                It's not a tv show, it's a show about tv, about our culture with tv, about what we want from tv, about what we expect from tv, about our lives and the lives of people on tv, about the differences between characters on tv and characters in real life, about what we see with tv, about the edits on tv, about sitting down and watching tv. This episode was like any great episode 4 in any great show, when it all gets real.

                Elizabeth Olsen is a goddess.

                She's not only covering a story, but covering 50 years worth of television. She's the bridge between Donna Reed and Skyler White. And Walter White and Tony Soprano. She's brought absolute ecstasy to the screen.

                ***************SPOIELER EP 4 SPOYUHLUHR EP 4 BELOWZ*******************************

                **************SPOILER PART BELOW SPOILER SPOILER BELOW**************


                Holy fuck. Is Vision alive or not?

                What a horrific scene. Of all the derivatives of the show, it's the Black Orpheus that matters the most. Only she goes to sitcom hell to rescue the man she loves.

                What a tragedy.

                Imagine losing the love of your life, and having the ability to bring them back.

                Imagine being God, having the powers to decide who lives and who dies, and always falling just a bit short of happiness. Or having happiness with a massive Thanos-sized caveat of reality.

                The jumpcuts, the edits are so immaculate, so essential to the story. Like Memento, this story goes to the reptilian depths of memory and existence.

                The best part of the Thanos Snap was the 5-year window, which has led to great stories.

                This show is an absolute miracle.

                And it's all about JERSEY.

                ************SPOILER OVER**********************

                ***********OVER SPOILER**********************




                Last edited by jason voorhees; 30-01-2021, 14:37.

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                  #9
                  I was quite pleased with myself that I worked out who Monica was in the wider Marvel universe.

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                    #10
                    Having read The Avengers back when she was the chairman as Captain Marvel (III) I was in on the ground floor with that one, but so what, as they say.

                    Great to see minor but fun characters brought in to the team trying to figure out what the devil is going on.

                    ******************SPOLIER********************





                    Dead Vision was a proper jump scare and Wanda seems to know exactly what she's doing, which just makes it worse. And Vision keeps working out something is wrong until she alters reality again. I suspect he might be the key to getting her to let go. Possibly also Dr Strange.

                    I wonder if they will work the "Your kids disappear when you don't think about them" idea that was part of the West Coast Avengers story about the twin boys being the missing parts of demon controlling villain Pandemonium's soul? (But not really!)






                    ************HERE ENDETH THE SPOLIER**********

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Episode 5

                      Non-Spoiler Part


                      It's kind of strange how this show leaves me with an complete feeling of doom that I haven't felt since the first season of Gomorra. It's ghoulishness grows with each episode and it's probably an even darker story than the Thanos snap. It's like when a horrific crime like the Iraq War leads to a more bizarre and twisted entity in ISIS, or when the Bush Years became the Q-Anon years. You see the impact of the Thanos Snap, and this mutated monstrosity of Westview that grew as a result. The lightness and episode intros only lead to a dread I haven't felt from a show, especially any Marvel or DC product.

                      SPOILER PART BELOW SPOILER PART BELOW

                      So now we see when Get Out peers out from the Sunken Place. Then they go there....I never thought an influence on this show would be Jorg Buttgereit's Nekromantik! It literally crossed into the necrophilia zone. It's creepiness pulsates second by second. Now, the colorful and funny sitcom scenes lead us to be conditioned to be ready to go into fight or flight mode....dad started drinking again. It's funny that Bray Wyatt of the WWE of all places was a year ahead of this , with his Firefly Fun House take on Pee Wee's Playhouse - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoR0c8ryAsA

                      Somewhere along the way, I learned not to be scared of the dark, because if there is a monster in the room and the lights are on, that means you can see the monster that much better before they eat you. At least if it's in the dark you'll only feel the teeth go into you. This show, with its bright colors and garish Jane Fonda workout electric blue leotards, means that you will be seeing every step of the spandex-wearing monster coming to eat you.

                      Now we see the sadness in the town characters, which replaces the gosh darn tootin whimsical melancholy of the doctor from a few episodes back with sunken place existential horror. The neighbor saying "should we take it from the top?" They know they are puppets, and like the "It's a Good Life" Twilight Zone episode with the kid, they all have to be on their fakest of fake best behavior - if they have the choice to do so. Again, the depths of what they are saying about sitcoms, all the while making the dark tents and muddy fields outside of The Hex seem like heaven with how much fun it is to see Darcy Lewis and Agent Woo and Monica Rambeau work together to figure out the mystery.

                      The acting with the Olsen sister and Paul Bettany is so awesome. Paul Bettany is so tragic, and it's sad to see his confusion. "You're my husband, and a father to our sons, isn't that enough?" It is enough for most dads, but here not knowing who you are before you ended up on a sitcom. This show is LOADED with subtext.

                      Then Quicksilver. With the actor from the X-Men Days of Future Past, not the Ultron movie.

                      Then the Scarlet Witch maybe not being in control of everything.

                      Great, miraculous show that has creeped me out like nothing in memory.

                      SPOILER OVER SPOILER OVER

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                        #12
                        Damn, it keeps getting better. And Wanda facing off against Sword = Magneto against the police in X-Men. You Homo Sapiens and your guns...

                        Definitely Multiverse of Madness going on here. That or Mephisto. Or Immortus. Or Mastermind. Or Magneto (see West Coast Avengers during and post Vision Quest). Or etc.

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                          #13
                          Really, really into this. The creepy overlaid on Family Ties/Growing Pains/Full House just works perfectly (as any child of the 80s could tell you).

                          I cracked up at the 'baby picture Vision' opening.

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                            #14
                            Destined for memehood, that one. Probably coupled with jump scare Vision...

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                              #15
                              The references to old shows are very specific. The 70s one was almost exactly the Brady Bunch house and the one in this episode was the Family Ties house.

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                                #16
                                That part of it is a bit over my head, to be honest. I'm aware of American sit-coms but never really watched any of them. It doesn't detract from the story and the impending feeling of everything building to a big blow-up though.

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                                  #17
                                  An alternative British sit-com timeline would be a vastly different thing.

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                                    #18
                                    I'm enjoying the formal exercise of recreating the different sitcom eras, but the whole MCU stuff is completely passing me by. Like, apparently the character introduced at the end of this episode is a) Pietro, and b) also an X-Men actor? I'm sure that's thrilling for Marvel fans but it means nothing to me.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Pietro is the one Marvel character to appear in both the X-Men films - the later ones - and the Disney/Marvel MCU films. But the X-Men films were made by Fox, covered a different time frame and had a different actor. Now that Disney owns Fox, it will bring the X-men into the MCU. (Along with the F4, who were previously controlled by Universal, I think) This appears to be a clever way to acknowledge all that.

                                      It was also a reference to how sitcoms used to often recast characters without explanation.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                        Pietro is the one Marvel character to appear in both the X-Men films - the later ones - and the Disney/Marvel MCU films. But the X-Men films were made by Fox, covered a different time frame and had a different actor. Now that Disney owns Fox, it will bring the X-men into the MCU. (Along with the F4, who were previously controlled by Universal, I think) This appears to be a clever way to acknowledge all that.

                                        It was also a reference to how sitcoms used to often recast characters without explanation.
                                        I understand all that, intellectually, I just don't care. There was a lot of stuff like this on the Mandalorian, actually, except I'm even less familiar with all the non-movie lore. It seems the Disney+ shows are very much going for people who are neck deep in it.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Evan Peters was a much better Quicksilver than Taylor-Johnson IMHO. His big scene in the Pentagon in DOFP was the outstanding one of the movie, possibly the whole X-Men series.

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                                            #22
                                            There's an interesting comment from Elizabeth Olsen about Wanda after Age of Ultron came out:
                                            *from Wikipedia
                                            Olsen felt Wanda was "overly stimulated" rather than "mentally insane" because "she has such a vast amount of knowledge that she's unable to learn how to control it. No one taught her how to control it properly... she can connect to this world and parallel worlds at the same time, and parallel times."
                                            This was evident in both the subsequent Avengers films and especially Captain America - Civil War. Coupled with grief she feels for Vision and her twin brother, whichever one she prefers, it makes for a very raw state of overwhelmed mind.

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                                              #23
                                              The revelation that she stole Vision's body was quite something.

                                              There's something very deep about the idea that all this is motivated by grief and what would happen if a being had the power to alter reality to counteract their own emotional trauma.

                                              Is there a reason why SWORD staff refer to him as The Vision?

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                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post

                                                I understand all that, intellectually, I just don't care. There was a lot of stuff like this on the Mandalorian, actually, except I'm even less familiar with all the non-movie lore. It seems the Disney+ shows are very much going for people who are neck deep in it.
                                                Well, tbh, that's what made The Mandalorian for me. Some kind of superficial "we'll call it Star Wars and then make up a whole load of random new crap" would have felt like a spurious rip-off.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                                  There's something very deep about the idea that all this is motivated by grief and what would happen if a being had the power to alter reality to counteract their own emotional trauma.
                                                  Legion did that do better effect, I thought.

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