[8.2/10] What a blast this is. I’m impressed both at how well WandaVision is able to replicate the 1950s sitcom vibe, especially for supernatural-themed comedies like Bewitched mixed with The Dick van Dyke show, while also including a subtle but palpable sense of existential terror beneath the three camera confines of the show.
I really enjoy how this first episode plays on the classic sitcom tropes: a couple not remembering an important date on the calendar, a wacky neighbor, a boss coming over for dinner who needs to be impressed. The show does a nice spin on them, while also feeling true to the sitcoms it’s paying homage to. I’m particularly stunned by the cast, who are able to replicate that acting style, and the editors and other behind the scenes craftsmen, who are able to replicate the rhythm, to such perfection.
What’s neat is that the episode works pretty perfectly separate and apart from its larger MCU connections as a solid old school sitcom pastiche. There’s a lot of nice setup and payoffs of gags, like Wanda repurposing a magazine's “Ways to please your man” article to distract her husband’s boss and his wife, or Vision singing “Yakety Yak” after decrying it earlier. Even the lobster door knocker routine was a fun and comical grace note to an earlier bit. As cornball as it is, there’s something charming about this sort of thing, right down to the “What do we actually do here?” gag about the computer company. And despite the light spoofing at play, this works as a solid meat and potatoes sitcom episode.
But the show goes a step further and has real fun with the fact that its leads are a self-described witch and a magical mechanical man respectively. There’s tons of amusing gags, starting with the intro, about the pair using their powers in trifling 1950s household sorts of ways. At the same time, it does well with the jokes about hiding their true identities. Vision writing off Wanda’s behavior as “European”, Wanda reassuring her neighbor that her husband is human, and Vision taking offense when a coworker tells him he’s a “walking computer” are all entertaining bits that make the most of the weird premise.
And yet, what really elevates this episode is the unnerving hints that there’s something terribly wrong going on here. It’s not hard to guess that after the events of Endgame, there’s still concerns about what happened to vision. The show plays with the melodic rhythms of the sitcom form to suggest something off at the edges here, in a really sharp way.
For instance, there’s an interstitial commercial featuring a Stark toaster, and not only does it feature the only bit of color in the black and white presentation with the beeping light, but the toasting takes just a beat too long for comfort. Likewise, the fact that Wanda and Vision can’t remember their story or how they got married is initially played for laughs, but then it becomes creepy when Mrs. Hart demands answers.
The peak of this comes when Mr. Hart chokes on his broccoli and the artifice freezes for a moment, leaving everyone paralyzed by the departure from how things work in this sort of situation. It’s a great piece of work, of a piece with the likes of Twin Peaks and Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared in its quiet horror.
I’ll refrain from speculating about who’s watching the broadcast we see or who’s in the monitoring room we seem to have an eye on, but the hints at what's really going on, and how that influences the images the audience witnesses, creates a great organic mystery and another layer to the proceedings.
Overall, this is a boffo debut for the series, and I’m excited to watch more!
[7.6/10] I didn’t like the sitcom material in this one as much as in the prior two episodes, but I liked the dramatic/horror material even better, so it balances out. It’s hard to say why the 1970s sitcom stuff didn’t work for me as well. It didn’t quite have the zip or the verve of the 50s and 60s parodies. Wanda wandering around her home with Geraldine, trying not to reveal that she’s pregnant or the weird stuff resulting from the combination of her powers and her labor didn’t have as much comic zing as the boss dinner or magic act.
But what it did have was some (I think) clever commentary on television conventions, like how quickly kids grow up on TV shows and how sitcoms used to come up with zany ways to try to hide actresses’ pregnancies so that they wouldn’t have to incorporate the babies or pregnancies into the show. There’s at least some high concept fun to be had.
It’s also a nice episode for the effects team. They come with a lot of creative ways to show Wanda’s powers tricking out while she’s having labor pains. I particularly enjoyed the appearance of the stork, replete with red smokes that fails to shoo it off, and an Untitled Goose Game-esque effort at blending into its surroundings.
But more than anything, I like the deeper confrontation of horror and tragedy that’s been lurking at the edges of the show coming to the fore. Details like Vision telling Wanda something seems wrong only for her to clip things back again gets your attention. The neighbors cutting through partitions and whispering about what they’re really doing here without spilling the beans feels freaky. And things come to a head when Wanda and Vision’s twins are born (a cute resolution to the “Billy vs. Tommy” debate by the way).
It introduces a note of grief to the proceedings, as the babies’ arrival isn’t just a cause for joy for Wanda, but also a reminder of her dead brother, her lost twin. There’s a subtle sense of grief running through the show, and maybe the sense that Wanda is trying to escape from it here, wherever here is.
It also gives us the clearest look at Geraldine, who is, apparently, not like the other residents of Westview. She knows about Ultron and seems to be trying to get through to Wanda in some way. It’s a striking conversation between them, one of the scariest in the show, with Wanda seeming downright frightened when the sanctity of her world seems to be threatened. There’s a certain sense that maybe the other residents are prisoners here, held captive by Wanda’s abilities and emotional turmoil, and I’m fascinated to see where that goes.
We also get the sense that Shield or some other governmental force is monitoring the situation, and perhaps that Geraldine was sent in to try to distract or get through to Wanda.
Overall, I am loving the concept here and the hints at the margins of what might be wrong with this scenario. I certainly don’t want to wait another week for more!
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
From the first scene we notice the unusually subdued colors, which successfully conveys a cold, sad mood, long before we realize that Kutner is dead. Many people were thoroughly shocked by his suicide, as I would have been, had I not been slightly spoiled by an article which said someone on House would commit suicide. Since House M.D. doesn't like to do the expected thing, I kinda predicted that it was Kutner who would kill himself. His discussion with Taub about suicide a few episodes before just seemed to point that way, if you knew what to look for. However, the last scene with House and Kutner in the previous episode had me convinced that his suicide would still be far away, which was some great misdirection by the writers.
I didn't really care about the medical mystery this episode, even though Meat Loaf turned in a nice performance, so my whole focus was on the drama side. For the first time in a long while they showed us a Gregory House who actually cared (as well as showed it) and was thoroughly shaken by what had occurred. Although he would never admit it, Kutner was so much like House it was sometimes scary. He took risks, had a similar sense of humor (Yes, a cat.), as well as keen intuition. In the end the fact there's no reason for Kutner's suicide makes this episode that much more chilling and realistic, which is probably the main reason for some of the hate this episode receives.
Throughout "Simple Explanation" one thing particularly stood out for me. The performances. Everyone was on top of their game this time. However, the Special Gold Acting Star™ with Sparkles (sold separately) goes to Peter Jacobson, who acted his ass off and actually made me cry when he broke down at the end, although the big funeral montage just before that might've had something to do with that... you know, weakened my defenses, which makes my crying in no way unmanly, I tells you.
Honestly, I thought the pilot was dull. Don't get me wrong, Tim Van Patten made it look gorgeous and the production is stunning (sets and costumes). Not to mention the big cast, but Ron Fitzgerald and Rolin Jones just didn't do their part with the story to make me say "Fuck the reviews, I'm gonna watch!" It's Boardwalk Empire meets True Detective, which sounds awesome if you're in high school. I just needed more.
Perry Mason is an established character. Either through Erle Stanley Gardner's books or Raymond Burr's turn as the character on TV, people know this character as a lawyer. So when it was announced this would be an origin story where the character would be a Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe gumshoe PI in the 1930s with war flashbacks, I was bummed. There was no reason for Fitzgerald and Jones to use the character if they had their own intentions and probably should've asked for the rights to one of the latter characters but then again, they were hired guns. But watching Mason be a drunk PI with a troubled past is rough because it's been done to often and to make an iconic TV character turn into that is just a waste of time and rather insulting to Gardner's character being unique from those other heroes.
Matthew Rhys is really great and I loved seeing Juliet Rylance as Della Street. And Shea Whigham. But, it's just not enough to commit me to it and like Yellowstone, it looks great but it isn't. Depending on how long it will take me to finish HBO titles I've been putting off (Treme, Luck, and Girls) I'll probably quit my subscription until Lovecraft Country comes out (and hopefully will get praise).
I also only watched the pilot for Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and it's also a noir tale set in the '30s with a female evangelist (who both don't appear in the pilot but are referenced). Perhaps TV shows just shouldn't do this setting or noir genre since neither impressed me enough to keep watching.
