Thoughts on WandaVision — More than Just a Theme Park
— Ananthu Sajith
Disclaimer: This piece may contain some spoilers. Proceed with caution.
Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest living directors, once compared the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to a theme park in an interview with Empire magazine. In his words, “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.” After reeling from the emotional rollercoaster that was Episode 8 of WandaVision, this couldn’t be further from the truth. With all due respect, the amount of character development that the protagonist Wanda has gone through throughout this series is a clear negation of his claims.
The series starts with Wanda living the life she always dreamt of, heavily influenced by early 80’s and 90’s American TV shows. The studio chose to go with an experimental approach in telling the story of WandaVision. The events taking place in Westview are presented as a TV show to those observing outside the town (and also the viewers, thereby breaking the fourth wall indirectly). The way the opening title of the show changes with the style of TV shows throughout the years is interesting, to say the least.
The show revolves around Wanda and the effect of grief on a person’s life. Episode 8 specifically delves into her childhood and does a brilliant job of building her psyche as a character in the MCU as well as showcasing her traumatic life. After losing her parents and brother, she has nobody to call her own or rely on which makes her an emotional mess. Eventually, Vision tries to comfort her for her loss and they develop feelings for each other. There is a defining moment in the series where her soon-to-be “husband”, Vision says, “What is grief if not love persevering?” while she is mourning the death of her twin brother.
During the events of Infinity War and Endgame, Wanda was forced to watch her lover die twice, and on returning from the snap, she saw Vision’s body dismantled completely. She had to come to terms with the reality that she was now living in a world where he was no more. On visiting the plot of land that he had bought for her “to grow old in”, her mind was overcome with grief, leading to her unleashing the full extent of her powers, creating an alternate reality where she lives a happy life with the Vision.
The show does an effective job of diving into human psychology and exploring the intense effects that grief has on a person’s mind. Despite being a super-powered individual, Wanda experiences the different stages of grief, the most prominent one being denial. In the human-ness of her emotions, she creates a utopia for herself with her powers, parallel to how people create one in their heads using their imagination. This is symbolic of the troubles most people in grief face without proper counselling.
In true Marvel fashion, the show is filled with easter eggs pointing to events throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The reveal of the Halloween costumes of the characters in the show during the special episode was a fun little nod to the actual costumes their comic-book counterpart fought crime in.
To summarise, I feel that WandaVision is a weird and beautiful TV show produced by Marvel Studios where they’ve tried their best to bring a character from the big screen to the small screen.
