Watercoolering With WANDAVISION - Ep. 8 - Previously On… (Patreon)

So is Wandavision good or bad?

I was asked this recently I realized how much I was unable to give a straight answer. Now, I’ll be honest in that I don’t really like the framing of this question because it leads to a lot of problems with critical dialogue. Yes, I understand the fundamental essence behind the question, in that good and bad reviews are really about people asking “should I watch this?” as in, “Will it be a good use of my time and or money?” and on a deeper level, “Will I get what I want out of this?” So it makes so sense that it big blanket recommendations of saying something is good and bad would work just like this.

After all, it’s essentially what makes word of mouth work, which is more the driving force of consumption than ever before. Even for me. I’ll hear critics rave about Judas and the Black Messiah or Nomadland from the festival circuit and say to myself “oh, okay that’s on the list.” (But FWIW, at I genuinely trust no one’s recommendation and remove all sense of expectations from everything I ever see. Yes it’s possible and yes it’s great. Especially given that I have no interest in being an arbiter of hype). But the obvious problem is that few things in media fit so snugly into the pure great and pure bad camps. A great film can have problematic aspects. A misguided film can be a bonkers delight to watch. A workman-like and well-polished production can be an utter bore if doesn’t understand dramatic writing. There’s an endless spectrum to this. And it’s why I enjoy writing about the medium so damn much. And what makes Wandavision so interesting is that it’s doesn’t fit into any commonplace system of appraisal.

For one, it’s not something that can be recommended in isolation. It’s intensely dependent on other MCU material, which is material the majority of its audience really, really likes. Because of this, the raison d'être is to feed the continued hunger for MCU. Likewise, the reason for people to watch is because of its very existence. More over, any discussion about whether it’s good or bad feels moot because it’s such a stalwart example of the kind of show that has good and bad. But the other problem is that it’s increasingly hard to talk about a show that has those kind of qualities. To wit, I love this breakdown of how the “fandom effect” shortens timelines of response, isolates you, and magnifies the loudest of pure good and pure bad voices. In essence, we lost the space of moderation. which is precisely why a space like this matters so damn much to me. So today, like every week, we get episode that highlights a lot of things both good and bad, but sometimes at the same exact time

So now then.

“Previously On” is ostensibly meant to be the “big reveal” episode of the show… Well, sort of. The Big Reveal of Agatha technically came just at the end of episode prior, but now is the episode where we go back and time and explain all the things that have been happening! Well, sort of. Because the show already did this in a logistical sense in episode four in order to give us an outsider view of the sitcom story w/r/t Monica trying to enter the town. So really, what this episode is now meant to answer are just the different questions that come with latest reveal. Who is Agatha? What does she want? What were motivations in all her hijinks?

We begin the episode thinking we’re going to get a lot these motivations because we start in a flashback with her character (and who doesn’t like a “Salem Massachusetts 1693” title card?). But the scene ends up being a weird, vague back and forth with her coven. It seems she took some power she shouldn’t have or something? And she ends up using it and killing her coven. That’s end of the exploration of her character. Sure, I bet I could look something up, but I want to stay within the text of the show. And sure, the episode gives us a lot of lip-service about HOW she interfered in little ways here and there, but really all it really ends up revealing is her goal (and not so much her motivation). And her goal it seems is to figure out what the fuck is going on with Wanda and this crazy town of hers…

And so begins a metaphysical journey through Wanda’s memories to figure out that. We go through the past and understand her history with comforting sitcoms and the loss of her parents, we see her first real moments with Vision when dealing with the grief of her brother (it’s a good scene btw), we see the moments after his death with his body spread out on the table, and then we see the big moment where Wanda create the sitcom reality in the lot of what was was SUPPOSED to be their house and it’s all a huge, uncontrolled manifestation of her grief. And it’s something she falls into comforting relief with… As I write this all out, there is way that this all makes sense on paper and could be compelling.

*quiet voice*

… But the episode is itself is clunky.

But it’s not just for tangible and obvious reasons. A lot of it has to do with the set-up (which we’ll get to). But I dunno, I really felt it on the surface level of some things, too. Granted, mileage tends to vary on these sorts of things. There’s some viewers who hate ANY kind of form of direct storytelling (If so, I can’t imagine they’re watching much MCU). Many don’t mind at all. In the grand scheme of things, I tend to the kind of critic who falls in the latter camp and yells “Be Explicit! Say what you mean!” But being explicit still requires the core dramatization to back that up. It also requires the tact to spring those moments at the most dramatically opportune times so they feel like catharsis. But for a lot of this episode, it feels like so many moments land with a deadening thud. Particularly the length and focus of the opening scene in Slovokia.

But before we get into that, lets look at an example of what works. Because Wanda’s scene with Vision (post brother death) is top grade work. We’re given context for what’s happening. The insert of the sitcom feels more organic and tangential here, especially the lighthearted way it disarms the subject matter. Vision plainly asks with deadpan curiosity, “It is funny because of the grievous injury the man just suffered?” But it’s also using that great joke to get at a REAL thing, which is how sitcoms never show the reality of pain. And it all serves as set-up before Vision delivers that stalwart line “what is grief but the love persevering?” It’s not just clever line, it informs the way we come to understand the story… But the other scenes aren’t so lucky. Not just because many of them lack that critical sense of grace, but because they expose the clunkiness of the larger conceit in and of itself.

Think about it. How much of all of the information in these scenes feels so weirdly secondary to whatever Agnes is really after? There’s all this commentary and I can’t shake the question, “in terms of plot, why is this happening?” Because I know why it’s happening for the audience. It’s the time where the show just lays all the teased cards on the table. But it’s an investigation where I don’t even really understand the dramatic driving question, which again, is why you need clearly expressed motivation. It’s utterly important Mamet rules of drama that i mentioned last week (who wants what? what happens if they don’t get it? why now?”). But here, like so much of this show, I just have to go along with it. Much like Wanda is doing herself in the episode (again, i can question why). But the lack of dramatic purpose is hurt by a deeper paradox in terms of how it was set-up. And that’s because of the teasing approach, none of this actually feels like “reveals” at all.

Take the big first memory of “ TV Night.” This is what most people speculated was the case from the very first episode of the show. As I pointed out then, this wasn’t about making inductive conclusions from text. This was just deducing what HAD to be true based on very existence scenario in front of us. And now you get to say “called it” with regards to something that really had no other justification. Same goes for the fact we already truly knew this was all about grief. Again, the show just teased these exact grief based dramatic constructions. We’ve even seen her do these exact kind of chaotic expansions before. We’ve seen all of this in every moment. And now in the ending scene, we’re just finally seeing the full visual articulation of the thing we’ve seen versions of all along. In essence, all that’s happening is that we’re just finally just saying “yes, this the conceit” after saying but “maaaaaaaybe it’s not the conceit!” for seven darn weeks.

Agnes even evokes the tiring nature of this wait, “I was so patient…” she says, unwittingly revealing how much we’re waiting, too. But we were always waiting for things we were already forced to understand. And meanwhile, it seems we were being hid from the actual questions that we (apparently) should have been asking all along…

The big exclimations at the end of “you’re a scarlet witch!” and “chaos magic!” and my big reaction was “oh, i guess that was a question we were supposed to have?” The truth is it’s just a symptom of the muddying space of everything. This tweet shows the funny problem of knowing that about her from day one, but also not even knowing that was a deal. The ordering of our understanding is so strange. The same is true for the way the episode shows us that she *didn’t* actually steal Vision’s body and rough the place up (but we already innately understand this because we know SWORD dude is bad and wanted his body). Everything about the ordering of information is muddy. This is because when you only understand mystery as “the mystery box,” that is only understand it in terms of vagueness and teasing, then you don’t know how to plant a driving question, nor misdirect… you just know how to hide the core conceit.

And keep hiding it over and over again.

I want to be clear that all of this is not said without empathy. Reveals are fucking hard. As is constructing a mystery on any level. But that’s the reason you you gotta do the work of being inside the head of your audience / understand dramatic structure in order to have a fighting chance. And it’s not that I don’t think think the writers are smart, they’re very smart in the way many might glance over. It’s like they’re very good at being “easter egg smart” and making clever moments like this. And more over I want to insist this is the kind of detail that writing teams put an insane amount of work into. You sit in rooms and create parallels / call backs and do it constantly in the process of editing. But again, drawing symmetry of meaning isn’t the same thing as staging an evolution of a dramatic experience. Otherwise, you just end up dancing around the edges of your own intentions. I mean…

A scarlet witch! Chaos magic! The problem is these terms are ostensibly the point of the investigation of the episode, but outside of what I already know from lore - what does it *really* mean to be a scarlet witch? What does it really mean to hold chaos magic? As always, I can guess. But as always, the real answer gets punted and we’re told to “please stand by.”

… But I miss catharsis.

RANDOM THOUGHTS!

-I mentioned the moment of “Salem Massachusetts 1693” and my disappointment at how the exploration gets cut short - and I realized just how much this show (and a lot of the MCU) is always AIMING at stuff I like, but rarely going the distance with it.

-With that, there’s obviously some sort of allusion going on in this Salem scene, all about where Agatha stole her powers, but 1) I don’t want to look it up and 2) I don’t really get much out of the relationships in this? Particularly the person who is ostensibly her mom figure? See that’s the thing. You don’t alway shave to understand the logics of everything happening in a scene, but understanding the relationships is really important. This all felt like a teasing / evasive dodge.

-Also within that scene, why does Coven mom shoot Agatha with the same magic shit right after everyone else died? Like, what the fuck did she think would happen different?

-Disappointed we didn’t see IRL Sy Abelman in the sad town.

-I was thinking about the big hub last week where it turns out thousands and thousands of people didn’t know Elizabeth Olsen was the younger sister of the Olsen twins and my first thought was, “What? Where were you all during the Martha Marcy May Marlene press coverage where it was all people talked about?!?!” And then I remembered that it was not only a tiny movie that didn’t get much attention outside of people who cared, but also because that was 10 damn years ago and the people saying this were probably like ten years old and everything keeps moving faster and faster and mortality creeps into every moment of life now and we’re all just dust in the wind wow that’s a great phrase someone should write a song about it.

-Why the fuck were people saying Magneto was going to show up? Again, the fan industrial complex doesn’t seem to be slowing down, but in fact gaining momentum at the complete like of major characters who have yet to pop in. They understand that they aren’t coming, right? That the shows aren’t going to be like that? I mean, is this situation going to go nuclear?

-To my point of ordering information and hiding conceits, why couldn't TV NIGHT have been the opening moment of the show? Or even episode five? What would it have really been hiding?

-Look, I like this show and in particular l like the actors on it, but the thing about these uber-popular shows crossing with marvel fandom is that I’ve seen an insane amount of “THEY MUST GIVE AN EMMY! to [insert character] for [what might be the most basic amount of dramatic expression]… I dunno. It’s like that post I put with extremes of fandom. And it’s not so much that I don’t like that people love and support these moments. It’s that it makes me want to open up so many incredible other things to people… I mean, I’ve been rewatching BoJack Horseman a lot and just thinking about shows that do and don’t get watched on mass levels and why and what we all really need to be hearing… but maybe people just want to stay in the safe medium space instead of plumbing the depths of that which truly ploughs and harrows the soul with the fire of ecstatic meaning… and it sort of brings us to the last subject…

-So! It *actually being* is Wanda who was responsible for the chaos magic sitcom creation is worth mentioning for a couple reasons. The first is again, how this sort of makes a mess of dramatic back and forth understanding of “it was Wanda” AKA what we basically knew all along. I’ve talked about this a lot so it’s less important.

More important is the fact it takes us away from the problematic “nothing’s ever your fault” thematic core that runs through a lot of the MCU (whether Tony Stark in Ultron / Peter Parker is his first movie / etc.). It’s often a part of how much these properties love to raise questions about subject, but never really get into the mess of them, nor really have character change their behavior, and certainly not bring any meaning to the questions as a result of dramatic action. For example, even if they avoided it with a bad choice a the end, I still think about it in this episode when we see the Stark industries bomb that dropped and killed her parents. I think “Oh right, that’s what happened,” because of how little it ever got dealt with in the story. They just teamed up with the Avengers cause Ultron was going to murder the entire planet. And so much of that conflict and point of that got deflated in its wake.

So the real thing about the sitcom being “chaos magic” is that it sort of seems to fall right in between the two instincts, which also feels familiar. Wanda’s not entirely a puppet, but she’s not entirely in control either. And worse, the power of the moment seems to be ignoring a lot of the pain she’s causing and evil of the prior episodes (it’s all just because she’s in GRIEF dammit!). And it really feels weird. I know so much of the MCU is about having your cake and eating it, too, but I don’t know if this is going to dealt with. It’s also ignoring the most important parts of all artistic investigation. I mean…

What does this show actually have to say about grief other than the fact that it is exists and that it is powerful?

I don’t know yet.

And at this point, I worry I won’t ever know.

<3 HULK