Thread by @varadmehta

I had no idea Disney was doing a Marvel-branded Harry Potter show. Props to them for keeping it under wraps the whole time.

"WandaVision" > "The Mandalorian" and I don't think it's all that close.

Writing, concept, execution - "WandaVision" beats "The Mandalorian" in all those regards, but probably the main reason I prefer it is that I have no investment in the Marvel universe, so I don't care about the gratuitous fan wank stuff either way. Which no doubt makes it easier.

Like, I don't give a farthing that the FBI agent from "Ant-Man" is in it, or that it's the daughter of Captain Marvel's pal, or hey, look, it's Natalie Portman's kooky friend from "Thor." I mean, I know who they are, and I know all the continuity. But I'm indifferent to it.

With "The Mandalorian," as with Disney Wars in general, you get continuity and callbacks and throwbacks every other scene and it's incredibly in your face. Or at least to me. Because I know it like the back of my hand. So that already makes it feel gratuitous.

And then you add in the "we need to appease the fans because we alienated them so much with the sequels, so let's throw in reminders of the movies they do like every two minutes" factor, and it gets obnoxious and tedious fast.

Not to mention that the second season became one pointless slaughter of stormtroopers after another. Which made it even more obnoxious and tedious. And then you throw in that whole idiocy with Luke, which I will never forgive. Never, ever, never.

Don't get me wrong, I like "The Mandalorian," and it has some good ideas and did some good things (like bringing the cartoon continuity to live action). But I have some serious issues with it and think it could be a lot better if it didn't try so to rectify things it can't.

Anyway, back to "WandaVision." I just liked the conceit of it. Framing it around the sitcoms and presenting the WandaVerse as one was an inspired idea. I wonder how many viewers recognized all the shows. I suspect not that many, especially the early ones.

There was "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "I Love Lucy" in the first episode, "Bewitched" in the first and second, the third was "The Brady Bunch," the fourth was a combo of "Growing Pains" and "Family Ties" for the most part, it seemed. Then "Malcolm in the Middle" in the fifth.

After that it got fuzzy. Funnily enough, I had a better grasp on the early shows (thanks, 1970s and '80s childhood!) than the later ones. I have no idea what program was being imitated in the seventh episode when they all talked to the camera. It was like one of those VH1 things.

I don't know anything about Jac Schaeffer, the writer and creator of "WandaVision," but she has to be Gen X. No Millennial would have been able to recreate those early sitcoms so accurately because they didn't grow up watching them like we did.

"Modern Family" by way of "The Office" (two shows, obviously, I've never watched), I'm informed by @tsrblke and @CatholicSmark.

https://twitter.com/varadmehta/status/1368772866804695041

Case in point re: my comments about continuity. I had no idea Kathryn Hahn's character was going to turn out to be someone from the comics. Marvel fans probably had it figured out in part one, and those that didn't were probably delighted at the reveal. I was just, "That's nice."

Now, I won't say it didn't have flaws. For one thing, some of the secondary characters get lost in the shuffle in the last couple of episodes. We barely see Evan Peters and Kat Dennings, for example. The memory conceit in part eight was overly Harry Potter.

The "real world" part of the story seemed undercooked. SWORD seemed like another SHIELD. Which, well, been there done that. After the director guy tried to kill Wanda the first time I half expected the Doctor to show up yelling at the Brigadier and his shoot first mindset.

The Stark Industries toaster was a nice touch.

All Wanda wants is to get married, settle down, and raise her family in a nice, quiet suburb. Just like any red-blooded American girl who is real a super-being from somewhere in Europe. She and Diana should get together for a chat over some tea.

https://twitter.com/varadmehta/status/1350275493229178881

I didn't see anything that looked like a nod to the forthcoming Falcon and Winter Soldier show, but maybe it just wasn't obvious yet.

So I enjoyed "WandaVision" a lot. There are things that could be better, but overall I thought it did much more right than wrong. And it again demonstrates that Disney has a much better grasp of the MCU than it does the SWU. Which, if anything about it should bug me, is that.