WandaVision: Program - Feb 1

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Well, it works, but it also sucks. Hooray for WandaVision, then? Kind of sort of, so let us talk about it.

Firstly, I must admit, for me the WV show was spoiled a bit beforehand…by ‘Bliss’. In this instance, ‘Bliss’ is an upcoming 2021 film about a man, (played by Owen Wilson), whose life is in a disarray, until he meets a beautiful woman, (played by Salma Hayek), who tries to convince him that he lives in artificial simulation. Cough. Bliss is released on Feb 5, 2021, and already some similarities to WV are obvious, even though info about it, (it is being released by Amazon studios), is scarce. Even though, judging by the trailer, it is evident that Salma’s character – Isabel – is morally ambiguous, (though neither outright good nor evil at this point), and that Owen’s character – Greg – will have to make a choice, a life with Isabel or a life with his daughter. Pause.

Yeah, at this point WV and ‘Bliss’ appear to be diverging – yes, Wanda is wearing pants in this relationship, (remember the episode 1x02?), just as Isabel seems to be the woman in charge in ‘Bliss’, but so far there’s no evidence of Vision having to make a choice just as Greg is going to do in ‘Bliss’, but on the other hand, as we have seen in the episode 1x04 Vision might be dead.

…Ok, Vision is a synthezoid, so I am not quite certain that the terms ‘alive’ and ‘dead’ may be properly applicable to him, but Disney & MCU make the rules, and when we last saw him Vision appeared to be technically dead, or offline, rather than alive and/or online instead. Where does this leave us?

Well, within MCU – roughly in the same time period that went down during the second Tom Holland Spider-Man movie, aka ‘Far From Home’. Apparently, while everyone’s neighbourhood’s friendliest manly-bug fought abroad in Europe, back in the good old U.S. of A. the brave men and women of S.W.O.R.D. are dealing with Wanda & Vision…pause again.

Here I am calling out that while in the Marvel comics S.W.O.R.D. is essentially S.H.I.E.L.D. in space, (slash space CIA, if you care), in MCU S.W.O.R.D. appears to be S.H.I.E.L.D., period, regardless of whatever it is that Nick Fury is doing in space, (as shown in the abovementioned ‘Far From Home’ film, remember?). Since the AoS finale showed S.H.I.E.L.D. getting back on its’ feet, why the reinvented S.W.O.R.D.? Sigh…

My take is that after its’ extended 7-season run, AoS had overstayed its’ finale; I’m betting that it was supposed to be no more than 3 seasons long, (as Disney shows tends to be), and by ‘more than’ doubling its’ length, AoS got stretched too thin; the finale, with everyone, (even Deke Shaw?) getting their piece of happy ending, was taken from the initial 3-season plan and it didn’t really mesh with the actual show; plus, as we have talked before, the cast, (and the crew?) of AoS might’ve overstayed their welcome and had had their fill of AoS, of MCU, of each other, and so on, so now S.H.I.E.L.D. just ain’t coming back, even though right now, with WV, the situation is perfect for its’ return. Instead, we got a not-quite-necessary S.H.I.E.L.D. clone…and a full roster of AoS – and Marvel - characters that are not coming back, most likely, no matter how many accolades were sung about Chloe Bennett’s Daisy/Quake, for example, and her relationship with Daniel Sousa. Back to WV?

Well, as we know, ‘Program’ wasn’t really about the titular characters at all; rather, we got reintroduced to such old MCU characters as Darcy Lewis – now a doctor of science, agent Jimmy Woo of FBI, and Monica Rambeau, formerly Lieutenant Trouble, and now all grown up. The WV episode 1x03 showed us the latter confronting Wanda ‘The Scarlet Witch’ Maximoff and being kicked out of Westview; the episode 1x04 showed us the same event – and several others – from the outsider’s P.O.V., which is very different…from what we have seen in WV so far. Otherwise, MCU’s S.W.O.R.D. is both a clone of the old MCU’s S.H.I.E.L.D., and WV itself is turning from stranger waters to the ones that are more familiar.

To elaborate, ever since MCU’s ‘Spider-Man 2: Far From Home’, people commented that MCU tended to become familiar, and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man’s story was very similar to Tony Stark’s – it’s ‘a Hero’s Journey’ cliché, nothing more, nothing less. Yes, clichés work for a reason, (and they become clichés for a reason), but… Here, in WV, we got titular characters being an unfamiliar setting – a sitcom comedy – doing atypical characters – comedy characters – but slowly they’re beginning to move into something that is much more familiar by Marvel’s standards in this case – there’s some sort of a phantom menace – maybe Hydra, maybe Mephisto or one of his minions, maybe some leftover from Thanos or Ultron or whatever – that is harassing civilians, and the brave people of S.H.I.E.L.D. – er, S.W.O.R.D. – rise to meet the challenge. Wanda’s conflict with Monica is not too different from the conflict Steve developed with Tony…eventually…with the main deviation being…not the gender issue, but the fact that Wanda has the actual chops to become a proper villain instead.

No, seriously, think about it: when Wanda was introduced in MCU, she worked for Ultron, who was a proper villain. It was Pietro who had his big redemption/self-sacrifice moment in A: AoU, and not Wanda. Instead, it were Wanda’s actions in the CA: CW film that instigated the movie’s titular civil war, and I believe that it was Wanda who sent the first blow in that film’s big fight in the German airport. Even in the A: E film Wanda was shown in a rather dark light, a fight with Thanos or not, so there is no reason as to why Wanda’s cannot do a proper Anakin Skywalker and go full Darth Vader in WV. How will Vision handle this, and is it really Vision with Wanda in Westview at all, has to be revealed yet.

As for the new twins – Billy and Tommy – we have talked about them when we discussed the episode 1x03, and so far, there is no new information about them either. So far, they are just lying there in their cribs…and if anything happens to them, Wanda will go full house of M…only she supposedly already did some time between ‘Endgame’ and the events in WV, so again, more details are needed before we make any more conclusions about as to what is going on in WV, (aside from the obvious).

Therefore, for now, this is it. See you all soon!