WandaVision has allowed Kathryn Hahn to deliver her best work

[TMC]

https://slate.com/culture/2021/02/wa...-emmy-plz.html

"Hahn is an actress who has never given a bad performance, even in bad movies, and as WandaVision shows its cards, it’s only become more clear that this is some of her best work yet," says Sam Adams. "As Agnes, Hahn is not only playing two roles—'Agnes,' and the actual witch behind her, Agatha Harkness—but balancing two diametrically opposite character types. Agnes is the comic sidekick—she arrives to deliver a punchline or two, and to be the hammy foil to Wanda’s straight man—but Agatha appears to be the villain (or at least a villain), complete with a song in which she begins to reveal her evil plan. (Hahn herself sings the refrain, 'It’s been Agatha all along.') This is perfectly matched to Hahn’s sharp comic energy, which, while always fun, is also all the more captivating for always feeling a little dangerous. For most of the show, that edge manifests in the hints here and there that life in Westview is not all that it seems, such as Agnes’ break in behavior in the fifth episode when she asks Wanda if she should try acting out a scene again or when, in the third episode, she and another neighbor, Herb, seem to be hiding broader knowledge of what’s going on and, more to point, afraid of the consequences of breaking the illusion."

ALSO:

• It's about time Kathryn Hahn is appreciated: "Since the premiere of WandaVision, Kathryn Hahn has been killing it," says Lindsey Romain. "She brilliantly occupied the role of a ’50s/’60s housewife in the pilot. (Begone, Ralph, no one cares about you. And if you happen to matter eventually—guess what, I extra don’t care.) If anyone could inhabit the role of a sitcom character, it was Hahn. The actress stole the show in TV comedies like Girls, Parks and Recreation, Children’s Hospital, Bob’s Burgers, Transparent, and more. (Here’s where I also tell you to quit everything you’re doing and watch I Love Dick, one of my favorite shows ever.) That’s not to mention her filmic contributions. Anchorman, Step Brothers, Our Idiot Brother, We’re the Millers, Bad Moms? As well as brilliant dramatic work in Captain Fantastic and Private Life? Hahn knows what the hell she’s doing. Let’s take a minute to appreciate her perfect performance in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, for instance. If anything, we should be grateful she took the time to gift us with a nuanced MCU villain (?). Although it sucks that it takes decades-worth of hard work for someone to finally be appreciated because of their mainstream contributions. But that’s endemic of a larger problem. I don’t blame Kathryn Hahn for utilizing this space, And for making it extremely witchy in the process."
• Teyonah Parris is glad Marvel revealed she was playing Rambeau at Comic-Con 2019 instead of waiting until episode four’s confirmation: “Kevin Feige got on stage at Comic-Con and was like, ‘Monica!’ So I don’t know that they ever thought anything different,” Parris explains. “That was one of the most amazing, fun things to have experienced, especially now that we’re all in a pandemic and quarantine.”
• Parris on her WandaVision evolution: "I did the 60s and 70s (episodes), so that was a lot of fun," she says. "I didn’t miss the girdles and the nylons of the 60s, but that was based on the wardrobe comfortability level. With the 70s, that was just really fun. The style of acting, I suppose, was challenging because it’s inherently antithetical to what I believe to be truthful acting. The challenge was finding the truthfulness in this style. Once we got to modern-day Monica, [the acting] is more straightforward. And so there were parts of the sitcom world that I missed, but it was still fun to watch Lizzie (Olsen) and Paul (Bettany) and Kathryn (Hahn) in that sitcom world. It’s a lot of character work and style work that they had to do to accomplish the authenticity in each sitcom decade. So I’ll leave that to them — they’re doing an excellent job with it (laughs)."
• Parris on being a Black female superhero: "It’s no secret to any of us that it’s not often we get to see Black people in the superhero aspects, but particularly Black women," she says. "I would say there’s been a disproportionate amount of men to women, and that’s in everything in life, if we’re honest. So being a Black female superhero is really exciting for me because, especially in this context, being in a show where you’re in people’s homes, I get the opportunity for people to see this Black woman and to empathize with her, to get to know her. They begin to engage with her humanity. And I think that’s so important, and it’s important for young kids of color to see people that look like them — young Black girls, young Black boys and just everyone — to be able to have that opportunity to see people that look like them, or not, and to get to know who they are, engage with them. That’s really an honor."
• Why WandaVision paid homage to Happy Endings: "ABC’s Happy Endings only ran for three seasons, but those three seasons packed more jokes than most sitcoms do in five," says Josh Kurp. "Created by David Caspe, the ABC comedy starred Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans Jr., and Casey Wilson, and was produced by, among others, Anthony and Joe Russo. They also directed episodes of Community and Arrested Development, as well as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and two of the five highest-grossing movies of all-time, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The Marvel connection is likely the reasoning behind the delightful and unexpected Happy Endings homage. Or maybe the world is finally coming around to the show’s rapid-fire brilliance."
• WandaVision's slow rollout helps the show tackle grief: "We’ve seen superheroes die and the impact of that loss on their friends and the world at large," says Jason Tabrys. "Endgame deals with this constantly — showing a world shattered by the loss of half the population and an Avengers team dealing, at various points, with the loss of key members like Natasha, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Vision. Spider-Man: Far From Home is obviously driven, largely, by Peter Parker’s grief over the loss of his mentor in Tony. We’ve also seen heroes hobbled by the loss of someone they love — Bruce Wayne, in particular. But WandaVision is doing something different, sitting with the pain and showing the personal devastation and mental health impact in full. For all its quirk and cheeriness at the start, the show’s commitment to being a meditation on grief and loss stands out as its most daring and revolutionary part. WandaVision is pioneering a new level of human emotion and exploration for cowls and capes fiction that can help to broaden the reach of these things beyond escapist fantasy. The MCU needs to keep its eyes fixed on the stars but it also needs to continue keeping one foot on the ground, showing the vulnerabilities of its heroes as they wrestle with relatable and tangible things in the midst of planetary and superhuman challenges. It can never lose sight of the need to keep pushing boundaries there, same as it does with the boundaries of scale and spectacle."
• WandaVision has solved a mystery Modern Family never could
• How WandaVision could introduce Marvel's Mutants
• WandaVision is like The Matrix, but from the Machines' perspective

WandaVision and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina both delve intouour relationship with television and nostalgia

"Dramatically different as Wanda Maximofff and Sabrina Spellman’s respective paths to the small screen were, the most recent seasons of both Disney+’s WandaVision and Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina have been particularly keen on telling stories about our relationships with television and nostalgia," says Charles Pulliam-Moore. He adds: "What’s fascinating about Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and WandaVision’s forays into meta-storytelling is how the two series found different ways to turn the nostalgia we feel into the very literal menaces threatening heroes we’re meant to cheer for. When Sabrina first steps into the Endless’ sitcom universe through a mirror, the show’s comedic callbacks to its ABC predecessor mean little to her because she’s got no real frame of reference for them outside of her own reality. To Sabrina, the Endless’ inescapable TV set and her aunts being portrayed by women she doesn’t recognize is the sort of mildly concerning twist of fate she’s grown accustomed to encountering as she flits across dimensions. To audiences, though, it was all meant to be a set of silly in-jokes harkening back to the days when millions of people made a point of watching whatever blocks of programming ABC aired on Friday nights."

Elizabeth Olsen says she's "very aware" that nepotism helped booster her career

"Nepotism is a thing and I'm very aware of it," the WandaVision star and younger sister of Full House's Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen tells Grazia magazine. Olsen was adamant, however, that she's not trying to take advantage of her sisters' fame, adding: "And of course, I've always wanted to do it alone."

Kat Dennings: Marvel sent a list of things "we can't say" about WandaVision

Dennings made the revelation while appearing virtually on Ellen, after DJ Stephen "tWitch" Boss said he was a big fan of the series. "You know, (Marvel) sends us a thing of what we can't say, instead of what we can say," Dennings replied to Boss with a laugh.

WandaVision is finally a Marvel project for people who are turned off by Marvel

"Last week’s buzzy episode of WandaVision ended with a game-changing twist when it comes to the Marvel universe and its superheroes. A big twist! Huge! Nothing in the Marvelverse will ever be the same!" says Kevin Fallon. "I did not understand this twist in any way, shape, or form. But, oh boy, did I love it anyway. As an entertainment force, Marvel is overwhelming. Intimidating, even. There’s so damn much of it. There’s so much passion and devotion in its fanbase. As the years go by, the content churn intensifies, and the existing fan engagement deepens. What is ostensibly one of the biggest mass-market franchises in entertainment has become increasingly inaccessible to those with a more casual relationship to all things Avengers. That’s all a naval-gazing way to say I have come to not really like the Marvel universe. Yet, I love WandaVision. Is the Disney+ series, which filters a complicated mystery surrounding two of its marquee characters—Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany’s The Vision—through the prism of classic TV sitcoms through the decades, finally a Marvel project for people who don’t like Marvel?"

ALSO:

• Randall Park says it would be a "dream come true" if Agent Jimmy Woo becomes more prominent in the MCU: "My hope is that, yeah, Jimmy will be will be out there a lot and you’ll see him a lot to the point where I’ll be like, Wait a minute, wait a minute. What happened when? That would be a dream come true."
• WandaVision is perfectly mirroring the progression of sitcoms from the 1990s to 2000s
• What are the commercials in WandaVision telling us?
• The WandaVision commercials hint at darker things to come

WandaVision debuts at No. 6 on Nielsen's Streaming Top 10

For the week of Jan. 11-17, WandaVision's first two episodes ranked sixth behind five Netflix series: Bridgerton, Cobra Kai, Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer, Lupin and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

WandaVision's big Episode 5 reveal had long been in the works

"We were like, how in the world are we going to make this make logical sense?" showrunner Jac Schaeffer tells Marvel.com. "Like, how do we justify this? Because that's the thing, you can hatch a million great ideas, but to make them land, to make them be grounded, to make them feel organic to the larger story."

WandaVision's anti-binge strategy is paying off, keeping viewers hooked

"If WandaVision had dropped its entire season all at once instead of teasing its mystery out over weeks of storytelling, what would we make of it?" asks Caroline Framke, noting that it took a few weeks for WandaVision to reveal the basic reality in which it takes place. The big reveal in the Feb. 5 episode, says Framke, "is already tearing through the internet as fans try to figure out what it means, which is by design. Not only does WandaVision inspire recaps, but it encourages meticulous searching through its sets, costumes and dialogue for Easter eggs that might unlock dormant Marvel mysteries. It invites its audience to comb through its every word and do double-takes at potential connections to broader stories. If Marvel and Disney Plus had decided to debut the entire season at once, there’s no way WandaVision could sustain that kind of interest for very long. This kind of rollout isn’t just tactical for the show’s storytelling, but a crucial way for it to establish an ongoing presence in a pop culture landscape with an increasingly short attention span." Framke adds: "More recently, after years of launching entire seasons on a single day and daring viewers to keep up, streaming seems to be taking a step back towards the broadcast television model it once rejected. Hulu has favored a mix-and-match approach, releasing entire seasons of shows with audiences that might be more inclined to marathon (see: PEN15) while meting out others that are likelier to grab more eyes as they go (see: The Great). Amazon does weekly airings for shows like The Boys, which now has its own devoted fandom. Relative newcomers Apple Plus and HBO Max have indicated they’re not tied to the binge-model, with Apple shifting something like Dickinson to weekly airings in its second season, while HBO Max’s addictive thriller The Flight Attendant benefitted from a unique strategy of releasing a couple episodes per week until the finale. Even Netflix has experimented with staggered releases, most notably with competition reality shows like Great British Baking Show and Rhythm + Flow that thrive off more sustained cliffhangers. It’s been interesting, and more than a little amusing, to watch streaming networks play around with their release strategies to the point that they’re looking an awful lot like the basic television models they once bragged about subverting. It’s also undeniably effective when their shows feature especially ambitious or otherwise noteworthy moments that might not otherwise get as much attention when released as part of a package deal. Before WandaVision, for instance, Disney Plus learned the value of a weekly show with The Mandalorian.”

ALSO:

• WandaVision deserves credit for understanding its audience's expectations: "WandaVision is the rare instance of an MCU product that both stakes out new, exciting territory and satisfies the ongoing health of the multibillion-dollar behemoth," says Miles Surrey. "It’s a loopy tribute to the sitcoms of decades past, and it’s also a show about superheroes in a vast universe of them. For anyone tiring of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) living in a black-and-white ’50s sitcom, the premiere ended with the reveal that someone was literally watching them through a TV screen. Even more unsubtly, the third episode name-dropped Ultron and revealed that a paramilitary base has been set up outside of the superhero couple’s New Jersey town."
• WandaVision offers a new perspective that give the MCU the advantage of unfamiliarity once again: "When Iron Man kicked off the MCU in 2008, there were a lot of questions about the nature of the world Marvel Studios was building," says Richard Newby. "What was the history of it? What heroes had already made their mark? What was the Avengers Initiative leading to? Of course, comic fans had a certain amount of familiarity and insight, but given the nature of adaptations and the broad liberties taken previously in Marvel movies, there really was no telling what we were in store for back then. In 2008, the very idea of seeing Bucky (Sebastian Stan) gunning down Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) minions alongside Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) seemed beyond even a pipe dream. It wasn’t even on our minds. While we’re not in exactly the same scenario in 2021 as we were 13 years ago, the five-year time jump in Endgame has allowed questions about the future and the nature of the world Marvel Studios is continuing to build to arise yet again."
• WandaVision is all about the gray area: "Marvel and Disney+’s WandaVision is giving us layer after layer each week," says Rachel Leishman, "and the most recent episode proves yet again that labeling anyone as a straight up 'villain' doesn’t necessarily work."
• Jac Schaeffer is committed to turning Wanda into a fully-realized woman: "We’ve seen her big power — the head tilt that scares everyone and is so amazing,” Schaeffer tells IndieWire. “We haven’t really seen her joy. We’ve never had an opportunity to see her be funny and to see her be in mundane circumstances.”
• If the Luke Skywalker-style surprise Elizabeth Olsen alluded to happened in Episode 5, she undersold the moment
• Kat Dennings on returning to the MCU: "I had no expectations of ever coming back, so I was just thrilled"

Randall Park said "I'm in. No questions asked" when approached to join WandaVision

"Well, when they first said, 'We want to bring Jimmy back,' I was like, 'I'm in. No questions asked. I don't care what it is,'" Park tells EW. "I'm gonna do it because I just love Marvel, and I had so much fun on Ant-Man and the Wasp. Then when they broke down the show, I was even more excited. I did not expect anything like this, so I was very thrilled to be a part of it. But (I was) also wondering a little bit how they would pull it off because it is such a big swing, you know? But they did it. It's just so incredible to watch." ALSO: Park talks mastering Jimmy Woo's card trick.

Elizabeth Olsen teases a "Luke Skywalker"-like moment on WandaVision

Asked if the Disney+ series could have a similar surprising Marvel Cinematic Universe cameo as The Mandalorian, Olsen told TVLine "Yes," adding without revealing details: “I’m really excited.” ALSO: Kevin Smith believes WandaVision dropped a huge hint on how the Fantastic Four will join the MCU.

WandaVision's ambition as a mystery-box show seems out of place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

"Move beyond the series’ (excellent, charismatic, and legitimately funny) mimicry of classic sitcom tropes, and it’s pretty clearly the Marvel version of a mystery-box show, with lead characters trapped—to varying degrees of awareness—in a sort of epiphanic, invisible prison," says William Hughes of Marvel's WandaVision. "It’s Lost, but in soothing Brady Bunch color tones. Westworld with a laugh track. The Prisoner, if No. 6 was trapped in Dick Van Dyke’s kitchen. It’s a fantastic premise, honestly, one informed by Wanda Maximoff and Vision’s complicated comic book history, as well as 70 years of beloved sitcom sandboxes for the show’s cast and crew to play in. But it also sits in direct opposition to the MCU ethos, which can tolerate a mystery for exactly as long as it takes its antsiest audience member to start to squirm. To withhold information—to withhold anything—is counter to what turned these films into a pop culture institution, and that necessity to provide gives WandaVision the sense of a show being pulled in even more directions than its already bifurcated premise might suggest. Black-and-white trappings or no, WandaVision exists fully within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in the MCU, even the subtlety must arrive in capital letters." Hughes adds: "Part of the genius of the Marvel films is the universality with which they can be read. Hundreds of millions of people can go see an Avengers movie and walk away with almost identical comprehension of what happened on the screen, for all the chaos of the battles and the dozens of named characters fighting it out. (To the point that, when the films do indulge in a bit of rare ambiguity, as with the time-tossed epilogue of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, the debates that crop up online can be immediate and fierce.) The franchise’s clarity is a virtue, but not, necessarily, when there’s a mystery afoot. WandaVision understands that it must, by the strictures of its genre, hide, obfuscate, and tease—but consistently does so by shouting, 'Clue! Go Google this clue!' at the top of its lungs. It’s as subtle as a bunch of magic rocks shoved into a golden mitten; worse, these intrusions often distract from the legitimately wonderful work its leads are doing in their homage to classic comedy styles. None of this makes WandaVision a bad show, really, even a little...But it does make for a lousy mystery. Lost, the show that helped codify this genre in modern TV, took a lot of flack over the years for not knowing where it was going for pretty much most of its running time. WandaVision has the opposite problem: You can almost imagine the spreadsheet it’s pulling its meta-plot elements from, algorithmically sprinkling a few details into the mix every week to keep the audience content."

ALSO:

• How the 1980s syndicated sitcom Out of This World inspired WandaVision: "Out of this World premiered in 1987," says Mike Ryan of the Maureen Flannigan-led sitcom that lasted four seasons. "It was a weird show that aired during weird parts of the day, which differed depending where you lived. In 1987, NBC-owned stations tried starting prime time a half-hour early and Out of This World was part of this one-season experiment. After, it continued on in syndication for three more seasons. The plot was about a 13-year-old girl named Evie who learns that her father is an alien, so, being half-alien, she has alien powers that get he into a lot of wacky situations. In retrospect, it was a very weird show. And in retrospect, yes, it makes total sense how a show like that could have at least some influence on a show like WandaVision." Head writer Jac Schaeffer says she was particularly inspired by the pilot of Out of This World, when Evie obtains her powers. "It’s really a really weird moment," says Schaeffer. "You’re in this silly little sitcom and everything is very twee and unexpected. And then I think she’s holding something. I want to go back and look at it. She’s holding cards or something, and she suddenly drops them and then puts her hands together, and it’s really weird and creepy. And that was a big influence on me, with the rupture of the sitcom tone." So what from Out of this World did Schaeffer put in WandaVision? "Just that everything could be so canned," she says. "And then also, and this is me projecting, but when she got her powers, it was her birthday and I think it was her 12th or 13th birthday? So there was a kind of a subversive, reaching puberty thing that I sort of put on it. And so there was a psychological element to it. So, yeah, all of that is part of the fabric of the weirdness of WandaVision, from the role that I had in it."
• Kathryn Hahn says the truth of her character may not be what fans are expecting: “I can safely say that there are so many levels of surprises, and so many layers, that people will not see coming,” she teases. “I am just so excited for fans — and people that are new to this world — to go on the ride. It’s just a real, multi-level trip, and I’m so excited for people to go on the journey.”
• Emma Caulfield is happy to work on a show with a script she loves: "You know, you get a lot of bad scripts, and you end up doing projects you don’t want to do because you’ve got a mortgage, or you’ve set up a certain way of living and you have to keep going," she says. "With WandaVision, it felt like a chance to something that I love, and somebody that made me excited."
• Caulfield admits she didn't get a potential Buffy reference until it was pointed out to her
• Dear Marvel Studios: Please avoid this WandaVision trope hinted at in Episode 4
• Why WandaVision brought in Randall Park and Kat Dennings from the MCU

Some people are shocked that Elizabeth Olsen is related to Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen

The WandaVision star recently discussing how being the little sister of the Full House alums benefitted her career left many of her fans stunned that she was even related to the Olsen twins. ALSO: Marvel releases WandaVision's "the song of the summer for Westview."