WandaVision and The Mandalorian (Season 2)
I submitted to the Mouse for a month again, like last year, so I can marathon the second season of The Mandalorian and also WandaVision, now that it's finished. A few thoughts:
WandaVision At first I was reminded a bit of the first season of Legion, in that the show used a corner of a big fictional universe to get experimental in. Some of the sitcom formats I even recognized, but whether or not I did, it was smartly done, and Elizabeth Olsen was fantastic throughout, as each episode let her play both sitcom!heroine Wanda (with the period-appropriate mannerisms) and actual Wanda increasingly breaking through. And of course I enjoyed seeing Darcy and Jimmy Wu again, and meeting adult Monica Rambeau. On the other hand, and yes, there's a "but" coming: ending it all with the standard superpowered battles was a swerve back to conventionality, and letting Monica declare "they'll never know what you've sacrificed for them" was a lousy way to exculpate Wanda (who, yes, didn't accept it, but I'd feel better if I thought the writers were agreeing with her instead of agreeing with Monica on this) for holding a town hostage and tormenting them for weeks. Mind you: it's par the course for Marvel hero(ine)s to screw up and, no matter their intentions, cause great damage to other people. (See also: Ultron. Which was Tony, Bruce, and, oh, yeah, Wanda.) Also, it's not entirely clear when Wanda becomes fully aware of what she's done and continues to do. I thought at the latest when Monica mentions Ultron,with the rewind Wanda does earlier being more an instinctive, subconscious action, but otoh the finale seems to want to give me the impression she didn't realize what she was doing to the townspeople until the woman begged her to let her see her child, at which point Wanda lifted the enchantment. There's some ambiguity there of her possibly assuming the townspeople (except for Monica, obviously, and the earlier SWORD operative, and later Not!Pietro) were people she had created and that the sitcom selves were the genuine article. Still, I think what frustrates me is that Wanda has the potential of being a messed up antiheroine, but the MCU after first letting her commit dark actions then always pulls back and lets other characters tell us we're not supposed to hold them against her/they were not her fault, with only the villainous characters continuing to blame her. Case in point: Steve, about Wanda (in her mid 20s if I have the timeline right): She's just a kid. (Also bad people blaming Wanda for Lagos, which was not her intention, but pointedly no one ever after Ultron bringing up Johannesburg, which was definitely all Wanda, all the time.) And here in this show, it's left to the two villains, Heywood and Agatha, to bring up Wanda volunteering for Hydra and calling her a hostage taker, while all the sympathetic characters (Monica, Darcy, Jimmy Wu) understand she's acting from grief and don't blame her. Yes, the show doesn't make the townspeople forgive her, but then there's Monica's sentence, and I just wish the writers hadn't let her say that.
All this being said, I still liked the show a lot. As mentioned before, Elizabeth Olsen's performance was a revelation, and the conversation between the two Visions was the first time since Ultron that the otherness of Vision-the-AI was there for me again, instead of Vision just coming across as a socially clueless guy. And my superpower battle nag above not withstanding, Agatha the evil witch was hilarious and gloriously committed to her camp villainy, from the "it was Agatha all along" montage onwards. (Her earlier self Agnes was also very entertaining.) My favourite fourth wall breaking gag was probably "She recast Pietro?!?", and the series even finding an in-universe excuse to use the X-Men movies actor for Wanda's faux twin. (Yes, I would have liked it if it had been real Peter Maximoff from the X-Men movieverse there through some nexus shenanigans a la the Spiderpeople convergence from Into the Spiderverse, but otoh this would have led to some greater plot complications which at a point when they were gathering towards the big showdown they didn't need.) And, again, my complaints not withstanding, each and every scene when one of the townspeople was allowed to resurface from their sitcom persona, the actors played the horror of their situation in a visceral, incredibly sympathetic fashion.
The Mandalorian, Season 2: continued to be my hands down favourite post Return of the Jedi set incarnation of Star Wars. (This doesn't just include the sequels but also the few novels I did read which are now ex-canonized.) Of course, the Clone Wars fan in me squeed to see first Bo-Katan (and Katee Sackhoff), then Ahsoka in live action. And while I never got the fascination with Boba Fett in the OT days, the prequels had me feel sorry for the kid as of the ending of Attack of the Clones, and The Clone Wars made him real to me, so encountering an adult version of him that is actually impressive was neat. But even all that aside, the series' commitment to its Western-in-space tropes with an SW twist, and all built around the bond between a gunslinger and a muppet, excuse me, toddler in Yoda form, is lovely. Even the occasional black humor (no, Grogu, you may not eat the sentient froglets!) worked for me. And the episode with Mayfeld gave me what I'd been missing in the sequels with their refusal to explore Finn's stormtrooper past. See, it's possible to show the imperials as people without lessening the evil of their actions. (BTW, the conversation between Mayfeld and his former superior was chilling to me in a way that it might not have been ten, let alone twenty years ago, because Evil Superior's evil monologue about how people, disillusioned with republics, would turn to "order" again sure as hell is far more threatening when you're living in an era where everyone on the globe, authoritarianism has been voted for by millions of people.
The episode with Ahsoka felt like a crossover with a show that doesn't exist (yet). Her refusing to teach Grogu because of Anakin - not just because of Vader, also because she's seen what it does if you separate a child from its beloved caretaker - came across as IC, but I do wonder why no one on this show - Din, Ahsoka, and finally Luke (him showing up at the end was the only thing which I was spoiled for, alas; thanks a lot, twitter!) - brought up the obvious: since Grogu ages as slowly as he does, whoever takes care of him will have to deal with Grogu as a child for probably their remaining natural life span, unless they're of a similar long lived species. So how long is that teaching thing supposed to last anyway? (I mean, obviously Grogu won't stay with Luke. The show will either make a time jump or find another plot reason for Grogu and Din to be reunited, because it knows what its heart is. But on a Watsonian level, I want to know what they're thinking.)
Rosario Dawson's voice is not Ashley Eckstein's, but her take on Ahsoka felt like a plausible older version to me, and I'm of course thrilled it's now screen canon she survived the entire OT. #AhsokaLives
Since I have the rest of the month to explore Disney+, any recs since last year? This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1437001.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
WandaVision At first I was reminded a bit of the first season of Legion, in that the show used a corner of a big fictional universe to get experimental in. Some of the sitcom formats I even recognized, but whether or not I did, it was smartly done, and Elizabeth Olsen was fantastic throughout, as each episode let her play both sitcom!heroine Wanda (with the period-appropriate mannerisms) and actual Wanda increasingly breaking through. And of course I enjoyed seeing Darcy and Jimmy Wu again, and meeting adult Monica Rambeau. On the other hand, and yes, there's a "but" coming: ending it all with the standard superpowered battles was a swerve back to conventionality, and letting Monica declare "they'll never know what you've sacrificed for them" was a lousy way to exculpate Wanda (who, yes, didn't accept it, but I'd feel better if I thought the writers were agreeing with her instead of agreeing with Monica on this) for holding a town hostage and tormenting them for weeks. Mind you: it's par the course for Marvel hero(ine)s to screw up and, no matter their intentions, cause great damage to other people. (See also: Ultron. Which was Tony, Bruce, and, oh, yeah, Wanda.) Also, it's not entirely clear when Wanda becomes fully aware of what she's done and continues to do. I thought at the latest when Monica mentions Ultron,with the rewind Wanda does earlier being more an instinctive, subconscious action, but otoh the finale seems to want to give me the impression she didn't realize what she was doing to the townspeople until the woman begged her to let her see her child, at which point Wanda lifted the enchantment. There's some ambiguity there of her possibly assuming the townspeople (except for Monica, obviously, and the earlier SWORD operative, and later Not!Pietro) were people she had created and that the sitcom selves were the genuine article. Still, I think what frustrates me is that Wanda has the potential of being a messed up antiheroine, but the MCU after first letting her commit dark actions then always pulls back and lets other characters tell us we're not supposed to hold them against her/they were not her fault, with only the villainous characters continuing to blame her. Case in point: Steve, about Wanda (in her mid 20s if I have the timeline right): She's just a kid. (Also bad people blaming Wanda for Lagos, which was not her intention, but pointedly no one ever after Ultron bringing up Johannesburg, which was definitely all Wanda, all the time.) And here in this show, it's left to the two villains, Heywood and Agatha, to bring up Wanda volunteering for Hydra and calling her a hostage taker, while all the sympathetic characters (Monica, Darcy, Jimmy Wu) understand she's acting from grief and don't blame her. Yes, the show doesn't make the townspeople forgive her, but then there's Monica's sentence, and I just wish the writers hadn't let her say that.
All this being said, I still liked the show a lot. As mentioned before, Elizabeth Olsen's performance was a revelation, and the conversation between the two Visions was the first time since Ultron that the otherness of Vision-the-AI was there for me again, instead of Vision just coming across as a socially clueless guy. And my superpower battle nag above not withstanding, Agatha the evil witch was hilarious and gloriously committed to her camp villainy, from the "it was Agatha all along" montage onwards. (Her earlier self Agnes was also very entertaining.) My favourite fourth wall breaking gag was probably "She recast Pietro?!?", and the series even finding an in-universe excuse to use the X-Men movies actor for Wanda's faux twin. (Yes, I would have liked it if it had been real Peter Maximoff from the X-Men movieverse there through some nexus shenanigans a la the Spiderpeople convergence from Into the Spiderverse, but otoh this would have led to some greater plot complications which at a point when they were gathering towards the big showdown they didn't need.) And, again, my complaints not withstanding, each and every scene when one of the townspeople was allowed to resurface from their sitcom persona, the actors played the horror of their situation in a visceral, incredibly sympathetic fashion.
The Mandalorian, Season 2: continued to be my hands down favourite post Return of the Jedi set incarnation of Star Wars. (This doesn't just include the sequels but also the few novels I did read which are now ex-canonized.) Of course, the Clone Wars fan in me squeed to see first Bo-Katan (and Katee Sackhoff), then Ahsoka in live action. And while I never got the fascination with Boba Fett in the OT days, the prequels had me feel sorry for the kid as of the ending of Attack of the Clones, and The Clone Wars made him real to me, so encountering an adult version of him that is actually impressive was neat. But even all that aside, the series' commitment to its Western-in-space tropes with an SW twist, and all built around the bond between a gunslinger and a muppet, excuse me, toddler in Yoda form, is lovely. Even the occasional black humor (no, Grogu, you may not eat the sentient froglets!) worked for me. And the episode with Mayfeld gave me what I'd been missing in the sequels with their refusal to explore Finn's stormtrooper past. See, it's possible to show the imperials as people without lessening the evil of their actions. (BTW, the conversation between Mayfeld and his former superior was chilling to me in a way that it might not have been ten, let alone twenty years ago, because Evil Superior's evil monologue about how people, disillusioned with republics, would turn to "order" again sure as hell is far more threatening when you're living in an era where everyone on the globe, authoritarianism has been voted for by millions of people.
The episode with Ahsoka felt like a crossover with a show that doesn't exist (yet). Her refusing to teach Grogu because of Anakin - not just because of Vader, also because she's seen what it does if you separate a child from its beloved caretaker - came across as IC, but I do wonder why no one on this show - Din, Ahsoka, and finally Luke (him showing up at the end was the only thing which I was spoiled for, alas; thanks a lot, twitter!) - brought up the obvious: since Grogu ages as slowly as he does, whoever takes care of him will have to deal with Grogu as a child for probably their remaining natural life span, unless they're of a similar long lived species. So how long is that teaching thing supposed to last anyway? (I mean, obviously Grogu won't stay with Luke. The show will either make a time jump or find another plot reason for Grogu and Din to be reunited, because it knows what its heart is. But on a Watsonian level, I want to know what they're thinking.)
Rosario Dawson's voice is not Ashley Eckstein's, but her take on Ahsoka felt like a plausible older version to me, and I'm of course thrilled it's now screen canon she survived the entire OT. #AhsokaLives
Since I have the rest of the month to explore Disney+, any recs since last year? This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1437001.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.