WandaVision first 2 episodes and sitcom approach ranting [for Omni]

Cafe Society
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What Exit?, I pulled this from the main WandaVision thread.

One of the more common discussion points in the blogosphere so far has been Disney’s decision to release only the first 2 episodes in the first week instead of releasing the first 3 or 4. There’s also the discussion about dropping all of them, but that’s a bit different debate. From my point of view, releasing the first 2 was the worst possible decision.

For those of us put off by the spoof conceit it was basically a double dose of bad medicine. There’s creative/artistic reasons to make the real world reveal very slow developing which can be debated, but they had to know that the first 3 episodes would be divisive and that they’d lose people along the way. It would have made more sense to either drop them all one week at a time, making it a short 25 minute diversion each week with a promise of more, or drop the first 3 so that you could leave off with the view of the fake world from the outside when Geraldine gets ejected. The way that did it made this a really rough onboarding experience for about half the population.

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As one of my friends pointed out, they were taking a gamble on the good faith of Marvel fans. It was a big gamble. I found the first 20 minutes almost intolerable. I think the thing that bothered me most about it was Wanda’s utter lack of agency. But that’s consistent with the times, right? Then I noticed in the 60s she had a little more agency. So I’m thinking, I see where they are going with this. I can hang on a little longer. Then episode 4 blew the doors off. I’m on board now.

But were the first two episodes enjoyable? Not particularly. I’m not sure how they could have fixed this problem without ruining the suspense. In the very least they could have made the sitcoms more entertaining.

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That would have betrayed the period treatment. Sitcoms in the 50’s and 60s were atrocious, so in that regard it was faithful.

I suppose Disney was right that all the trust and faith that Marvel fans had for the IP would pay off. It’s literally the only thing that kept me watching until things got interesting. Still, I’m bitter about it and you couldn’t pay me to go back and watch the first 3 episodes. I get it…but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it.

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And those of us who enjoyed the approach, including the first episodes, and how they were dropped, also get it: you didn’t like the first episodes. Really we get it. It is a valid take for you to have. Some of us don’t share it. It worked for us. And that’s okay.

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What’s your bloody point?

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…that from our point of view we thought dropping only the first two episodes was just fine? I mean, it was divisive, but great things are often divisive? That its okay that it didn’t work for you, but for many of us it worked just fine?

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Obviously for someone who gobbled up the sitcom charade the release schedule is fine. You were going to be happy no matter what, good for you. What purpose are you serving by constantly coming at those who didn’t? Seriously, what’s with this reflex?

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: WandaVision on Disney +. Open spoilers

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I’m one of those who didn’t like the first two episodes. For me, they didn’t play as spoofs, or clever twists, or Twilight Zone distortions of stodgy, mediocre period sitcoms. They just played like straight forward, stodgy, mediocre period sitcoms.

But, because they both dropped on the same day, I was able to watch them as essentially one pilot episode. After that “single” episode, I thought the show just wasn’t actually entertaining, but they were clearly setting something up, so I was willing to give it another try. The “second” episode wasn’t any better at first, but the weirdness started to come out more, and then the breakthrough at the end, when the plot finally kicked in, hooked me. And the third week was a bravura episode, that made trudging through the earlier episodes worthwhile.

If they had instead aired the first two episodes over two weeks, I would have found the first week an unrewarding trudge, given the show a second chance the next week and gotten the same unrewarding trudge. Honestly, I probably would have stayed for the third week, but I’m betting a lot of folks wouldn’t have.

I mentioned in the Other Thread that I’m just not sure what the best approach would have been. I think the first two episodes were a trudge to endure, but I also think you need that trudge for the end of Episode 3 and the rest of the series to hit the way they do, and I thought they really hit.

I don’t really know how to square that circle any better than they did.

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Disagree. I’d rather knock out stuff I don’t like in one shot, similar to eating the less desirable food in a dish first and as quickly as possible. Having to wait for something I didn’t like would just feel even more disappointing. I was already put off by the show by the time the 3rd episode rolled around, it was make or break, but kept feeling like it still might redeem itself, which they offered a glimpse off at the end of 3, only over a week’s time. I was delighted by episode 4.

It honestly feels like, to me, that they did a focus group of this, saw the negative reaction from some people, then released them in the way that would lose the least people.

If I could do it all over, I probably would have waited til it was over and binged it.

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I also think that if they had released all 3, with the immediate gratification of the payoff of the end of the third, then it would have lost out quite a bit of the internet speculation over that week.

We all sat around for a week wondering what was going on, what was going to happen next, discussing it with our friends and online. If that had been revealed with the first release as to what was happening, I think it would have cheapened the reveal.

I actually did find the sit-com episodes to be entertaining in and of themselves, I really entered with almost no expectations. I don’t know that I would have sat through an entire season of mock sit-coms, but for what it was, I thought it was well done.

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Agree 100% on all points. The confused speculation has driven the enjoyment of this show, and the first two ep drop point then weekly maximized the “water cooler” enjoyment - for me and I’d WAG by most. It hooked me anyway.

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I think the first two episodes just tried to be too subtle and the third barely sufficed. The audience will generally go along with a narrative conceit if it’s done well and there’s a promising payoff, but the first two episodes weren’t great on their own and so underplayed the bigger story that I was ready to walk away from what looked like a bad parody series. I’m glad it’s on a better footing now, but the start of the series is a great example, to me, of how not to do a slow burn.

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It hooked me as well. Part of it was enjoying the parodies, part of it was seeing something was off & trying to puzzle it out.

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It hooked me simply because

a) MCU has never let me down
b) I wanted to see where they would take it

Did I specifically enjoy those two episodes as they played? nah - but in these things, its all about the little clues that will pay off on a rewatch once its all said and done.

THis show was never about a ‘new viewer that has no knowledge of the MCU’ -

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What are you basing this on? I’ve read a half-dozen or so of the most popular TV/comic blogs and listened to 2 different podcasts that reviewed the show and it was pretty universally panned after the opening week. Obviously there are people who liked it, but I can’t see how this simmering dissatisfaction from a big contingent of the viewers over the course of 2 weeks helped the momentum of the show.

Here’s an example: Review: WANDAVISION, loaded with style but a tepid beginning - The Beat (comicsbeat.com)

Speaking of pace, that is a bit of the problem at the outset. While I quite like the concept itself, it really starts to wear thin pretty fast come the second episode, which centers itself on a mishap that leads to only a slightly amusing payoff. Though the bigger cardinal sin of that second installment is that very little actually happens, and when you only have nine episodes of total runway to work with, biding time seems like an unaffordable luxury. Thankfully, the third episode picks up the tempo somewhat, but it has a strange lopsided structure, a bit of a hybrid between the lackadaisical comedy of errors of the second episode and presumably where the rest of the series is likely headed.

There’s shreds of neat weirdness on the margins that’s appealing (though any comparisons to David Lynch are patently absurd), and Olsen and Bettany are always a pleasure to watch, but it’s hard to not be a little let down by the decompressed approach at its inception, given that was among the biggest problems facing the previous iteration of Marvel TV shows. Still, by the end of episode 3, I’m intrigued enough to want to know more. Enough to pay the regular subscription fee? Jury is still out on that one!

I just can’t see how all these reviews saying the same basic thing can be spun to be a advantage for the show. “Tepid” isn’t drawing in new viewers.

I can’t figure out how forcing some people to stew in their dissatisfaction for 2 weeks is smart programming. Dropping the first 2 episodes together feels like a half measure. Like they knew it was too slow a start to stretch it out the sitcom stuff for 4 full weeks, but they also knew they only had 9 episodes so dropping the first 3 at once wouldn’t allow them to capture that needed 3rd month of subscription fees.

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Sometimes podcasts do not capture what viewers think.

Episode 1 100% on RottenTomatoes. Same 100% for ep 2. Ep 3 got 85%. 4 90%.

Of course my WAG of others is a wild assed guess based on people I know. My basis for what I thought? Huh? Tough to provide a cite …

Clearly those who did not like feel very strongly about it though. And have a very hard time comprehending that others might think otherwise.

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What is your problem?

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Yeah the first 2 episodes were a slog to get through. The payoff was incredible, but I have absolutely no desire to watch the first two episodes again. The main problem I had is that they weren’t parodies. They were straight on deadpan bad sitcoms. They were not funny in their own right. I was 50/50 in deciding if I was actually going to stick with the series or not, the only reason I continued to watch is that reviewers who had seen more episodes were very positive.

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How much time you got, doc?

Oh. In this thread? I got no problem. Just finding your intensity and hostility on this a bit much.

And then questioning what I am basing a statement that it hooked me and that “my WAG is most” on?

No one is trying to tell you that your experience of those episodes is invalid. Not getting the anger you have that others experienced it otherwise.

In any case, yes the double ep first drop got 100% on RottenTomatoes.

Ratings don’t quite apply here but metrics such as they are show the first eps pulling people in, not getting many to drop. Not quite at Mandolorian levels but close. Doing better than Stranger Things did and gaining viewership weekly.

Why did those eps work for me? Someone who never saw Age of Ultron and had no investment in these characters?

For many reasons.

First because we had no idea what was going on and where they were going to go with this. It used the most formulaic sit com tropes to create something that was far from formulaic.

To me that paradox continued in Wanda and Vision playing character tropes actually allowing for the characters to be developed. I became more invested in these characters, their arcs, what they know and don’t know, their whys, than I have any character in any MCU movie.

It likely also helped that I enjoyed those old sit coms. To me I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and even Bewitched were part of the Golden Age, and catching even a few of the specific references and how they subverted them into The Twilight Zone, was a blast.

Again, I’ve not seen any movie that had Wanda and Vision as big parts. I was not invested in them at all before. And this method of building has me feeling Wanda’s grief, for her problems dealing with it, and caring about it in ways that few shows get me feeling. If she ends up going Dark Side it will work as the tragic arc in ways that Anakin’s never did for me.

I certainly respect that it did not work for everyone.