Phew, there certainly have been a lot of Marvel TV series, haven't there? And I'm not even counting all the ones outside the MCU phases featuring various Marvel characters (I do watch Agents of SHIELD in stages on Disney +, and it's enjoyable – but very long, so I'll take my own sweet time finishing it). Even if I limit myself to the miniseries that have been part of Marvel Phase Four so far, I'm starting to realise that I still have to divide my overview to two posts (sorry). I'll also only discuss the live-action series – I have seen the animated TV series What If... and liked it, but I don't have that much to say about it.
The TV series, I believe, are meant for a wider audience than the movies. As they're on Disney +, Disney are naturally hoping to bring new viewers in, not just the die-hard superhero fans who will watch anything Marvel (within reason). They try to achieve this by connecting their MCU TV series to other genres as well as the superhero genre. As I was reeled into the MCU in spite of superhero scepticism and appreciate the characters and inherent nerdiness of the MCU films more than the large action set pieces, this tactic works quite well with me, but I can understand why truer Marvel fans feel a bit short-changed when it comes to the actual superhero-ing. Also, the genre mix often leads to conflicting tones and story beats within a series.
WandaVision
Series set-up: Wanda Maximoff is living an idyllic life with her beloved android-husband Vision in the small town of Westview. But wait: isn't Vision dead? And why does the married couple's married life resemble episodes of old sit-coms? Something is very wrong here.
Additional genres channelled: Sit-com, mild supernatural chiller.
Overall impression: As I mentioned in my Loki review, I think this is my favourite of the Marvel TV shows. I do love "something's wrong with this picture" set-ups, and the revelations about what's going on are cleverly paced out: instead of explaining everything at the end, which could lead to an anti-climax as the explanation is seldom as fascinating as the mystery, the series gives us a number of reveals half-way, with some mystery remaining until the last episodes. Wanda and Vision are a sweet couple, and you keep hoping against hope that there will be a way for them to be together – but not at any cost. I liked the side characters too – among them the rookie FBI agent who was tasked to supervise Scott Lang in The Ant-Man and the Wasp and Monica, the daughter of Captain Marvel's flying buddy, now all grown up and somewhat directionless after her mother's death and five years of being dusted out of existence.
Any interesting villains? YouTube being YouTube, the catchy jingle "It was Agatha All Along" is difficult to avoid. It's hardly a twist that Wanda's friendly if nosy neighbour Agnes turns out to be fishy: in fact she's a rival witch, Agatha Harkness, seeking to boost her powers. At the same time, the jingle actually lies. Agatha is in for the ride, but she is not the one controlling events. So is she really the main villain of the story?
On the one hand, I understand comic-book fans' frustration when Agatha's boss from the comics failed to materialise, as they had every reason to believe he would. On the other, I'm personally relieved, as I don't like when stories get too sulphur-y. On the third hand, there is something of av evil-mastermind-shaped hole in the story. Is Wanda the villain of her own show? Later developments would suggest yes, but there's someting unsatisfying about this conclusion. On the plus side, whether she's a big deal villain-wise or not, Kathryn Hahn's Agatha was hilarious and I enjoyed her very much. The standard Government Agent Threat is barely worth a mention, though he does prove to have a case.
Can I watch it without having seen all the MCU movies? Strangely enough, seeing that it's so different in tone from the movies, this makes for an awkward jumping-on point for MCU content. Because if you share Thanos's lack of knowledge about Wanda ("I don't even know who you are"), how much are you going to care about her and Vision's love story?
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Series set-up: Sam Wilson aka Falcon was handed Captain America's shield by Steve Rogers at the end of Endgame, but he feels it's impossible to fill his friend's shoes and donates the shield to a museum. To his consternation, however, a new Captain America is chosen by the government soon afterwards. Meanwhile, Bucky Barnes is trying to come to terms with his past as the brain-washed Hydra agent the Winter Soldier. The two team up against a terrorist group called The Flag Smashers.
Additional genres channelled: Buddy-cop movie, political thriller.
Overall impression: Look, I like Sam. I like Bucky even more. But this was a preach-fest of a series. The revelation that there was another super soldier besides Steve Rogers, Isaiah Bradley, who ended up behind bars because of racism (he's black), felt very forced, and I didn't like the implication that Steve had it easy because he was a blue-eyed whitey, because he didn't. I understood why Steve gifted the shield to Sam in Endgame – Captain America has to be pure of heart, and Sam fitted that bill better than Bucky – but if Sam was going to get all weird about it, I agree with many fans that Bucky would have been a better choice.
And that's not all. We're meant to dislike the ersatz Captain America John Walker, but he seems a nice enough guy, and when he loses his temper and kills a Flag Smasher (with the shield – not the best PR) I for one could fully understand him. Sam and Bucky seem intent on feeling insulted by him when no insult is meant. On the other hand, the series tries to make us sympathise with the leader of the Flag Smashers, as Sam seems to do, but I wasn't on board for it (see below). In the finale, Sam downright lectures a group of senators for having failed to handle the re-appearance of half the population in a correct manner, but all the advice he has for them moving forward is "do better". Ugh. This is why superheroes should stay out of politics.
Any interesting villains? Well, Zemo returned, and was the saving grace of this series besides Bucky. He managed in his unobtrusive way to forward his goal of reducing the number of super-enhanced individuals in the world quite a bit, though why he has a grudge against super soldiers and the like rather than big human-hating robots is still a mystery to me.
But Karli Morgenthau, the girl-leader of the Flag Smashers, was really annoying. I have very little sympathy with self-righteous young girls whose wrong-headed efforts to make the world a better place according to them mean making it worse for a large chunk of the population who are not "on message". Karli rightdown kills people, but Sam is still irritatingly soft on her. In the side cast, we have the introduction of the Power Broker, but seeing as there was only one suspect who could possibly be the Power Broker it led to the biggest villain non-twist since Incredibles 2.
Can I watch it without having seen all the MCU movies? When it comes to the returning characters, I think it's possible to become engaged in Sam and Bucky without having seen the previous movies where they star. The political context is very MCU-specific though, so viewers who want to start their MCU viewing with this series probably need some sort of primer to realise what the conflicts are about.
Loki
Series set-up: In Endgame, Loki managed to escape with the Tesseract (containing an Infinity Stone) when the Avengers travelled back in time. But he wasn't supposed to do that... Therefore, he's apprehended by an agency policing the timeline, the TVA, and threatened with "pruning". But a TVA agent saves him as he thinks that Loki could prove useful in stopping another, more dangerous, Loki variant.
Additional genres channelled: Buddy-cop movie; quippy, geeky sci-fi à la Doctor Who.
Overall impression: I'll refer to my review of the show here. In some ways, I was disappointed – my expectations were probably too high – but it was still an entertaining watch with plenty of Loki in it. I'm glad there will be a series two, and I might rewatch series one soon.
Any interesting villains? He took his time in making an appearance, but I really liked He Who Remains (actually a variant of the Marvel comic book villain Kang the Conqueror), played with a lot of verve by Jonathan Majors. A variant of Kang might actually turn out to be the next Big Bad in the MCU after Thanos, who knows? It will be hard to connect him to all the other stuff going on within Phase Four at the moment, though. The side-villains Judge Renslayer (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Martha's sister in Doctor Who) and the scarily up-beat animated Miss Minutes were also good.
Can I watch it without having seen all the MCU movies? I'd recommend watching at least the Thor movies and the first Avengers movie before tackling this series. For a more detailed answer, see the end of this previous post.
Next time I dip into Marvel, I'll write about Hawkeye, Moon Knight and Ms Marvel. Preferably before She-Hulk airs.
