Recently, we have all been spending more and more time indoors and so the television has become a hub for activity (particularly in my house). But I found myself rewatching the same old sitcoms again and again, as they were comforting when there was so much uncertainty. So I decided to branch out and watch something entirely new, something in a genre I had never watched before. Cue ‘WandaVision’.
I have never really watched anything from the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ (MCU) before and so I was slightly worried I wouldn’t get any of the references in the series. But I didn't have to worry, as a non-MCU viewer I was still able to follow the story and understand what was going on. Each episode follows different sitcoms through the decades - the first episode is based off of black-and-white sitcoms such as ‘I Love Lucy’, the second is also based on typical 60s black-and-white sitcoms like ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ (though we start to see the inclusion of colour), the third episode is completely in-colour, based on shows like ‘The Brady Bunch’ and so on. Again, I have never seen any of these shows before or been alive during the decades of television featured, but I still found it really interesting to watch the set and format change through time.
For viewers in a similar position to me, the basic premise of the story is that two characters from the fictional universe, Wanda (Elizabeth Olson) and Vision (Paul Bettany), are trying to settle into an idyllic suburban lifestyle whilst concealing their powers. Wanda (aka ‘The Scarlet Witch’) can alter reality and practice telekinesis. Vision is an android created by artificial intelligence, who featured heavily in one of Marvel’s most recent films (Avengers: Infinity War, 2018). As the series progresses, the couple realises that everything is not quite as perfect as it seems in their small town.
