I rewatched Marvel’s WandaVision in one sitting and here’s what I thought…

It’s coming up to a year since Marvel’s WandaVision first graced our screens on Disney+ way back in January 2021, exploring the world of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and her seemingly resurrected husband Vision (Paul Bettany) post-Avengers: Endgame.

Whilst Marvel has continued to produce a mixed bag of content (from the revolutionary Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to the more formulaic The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) it’s WandaVision that appears to have catalyzed a shift in Marvel’s approach, making it one of the most interesting pieces of television in recent years.

Eight months after the WandaVision series ended, I recently chose to sit and relive the nine episode show, all 5 hours and 46 minutes on a random Tuesday. Here is a quick rundown of my main thoughts after doing so… SPOILERS AHEAD!

Does WandaVision still work the second time around?

Overwhelmingly, my main reaction to rewatching WandaVision was that the show was, and remains nearly a year later, an absolute masterpiece. From the very beginning the series is dynamically different and despite knowing in retrospect the full story of Wanda’s gut-wrenching trauma coupled with the revelation of ‘Agnes’ as the villainous Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), it is endlessly entertaining from start to finish.

The initial novelty of Wanda and Vision living in their bizarre, rapidly changing sitcom world is just as fascinating the second time around and is in fact fantastically interesting to hold a magnifying glass to with the knowledge of reality in place. This is evident from the very first episode “Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience”, where the originally disorienting and confusing scene of Mr. Hart’s (Fred Melame) choking during dinner can be viewed with much more clarity, understanding that the incident was the result of one of two things:

Wanda subconsciously caused Mr. Hart to choke in order to stop him from asking prying questions about her and Vision’s lives that they just couldn’t answer, or Agatha herself took action to prevent Mr. Hart from exposing the illusion of the WandaVision sitcom well before she had been able to uncover the truth behind Wanda’s powers that she so desperately craved.

Either way, the painful reaction of Mrs. Hart as she hysterically begs “stop it” over and over is made clearer and more harrowing with hindsight, understood as Westview resident Sharon Davis’ (Debra Jo Rupp) supressed personality breaching the surface of her sitcom persona, pleading with Wanda (who she believes is actively responsible for Mr. Hart’s suffering as part of the ‘scene’) to spare the life of her Westview husband Todd who ‘plays’ the choking man.

Spotting the WandaVision Easter eggs

Hidden messages and fleeting moments such as the famous Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) card trick Easter egg (Episode 4: “We Interrupt This Programme”) are much more spottable in a second run through and it spurs a critical eye throughout the series that draws out a number of things that may have gone unnoticed in the first viewing.

This is certainly true for the iconic Halloween episode, “All-New Halloween Spooktacular” with things taking a twist in Pietro’s presence. One Easter egg in this episode is the movies being played at the Westview cinema: The Incredibles and The Parent Trap. The former is a clear reference to the super-powered  titular family’s parallels with the super-powered  family of WandaVision consisting of Wanda, Vision, Billy, and Tommy (and Pietro (Evan Peters) by extension).

The latter, however, is more interesting and is almost only understandable having completed the series once before, with The Parent Trap telling the story of two separated-at-birth identical twins switching lives. This mirrors the way that this ‘version’ of Pietro takes on the role the original (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), lying to those around him to maintain the illusion that he is truly who he says he is, Wanda’s brother. Brian Tallerico of the Vulture website does an incredible job of detailing every one of these clever hidden moments in WandaVision, particularly helpful to those of us who are not as familiar with all the minutiae of the Marvel comics.

How does WandaVision compare to Loki and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier?

Whilst this is entirely opinion based, I ultimately think that WandaVision beats out both of Marvel’s later television projects. Although each is incredibly different and serves different purposes in the overarching Marvel universe, WandaVision feels like a breath of fresh air. The first time around it felt simultaneously like nothing I’d ever seen before and everything I’d seen before as a huge fan of American sitcoms and their comforting nature.

The second time around (after watching the two other shows), the feelings remained the same, that it was a strange comfort amidst the classically Marvel, grittier The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the complex, Guardians of the Galaxy/Doctor Strange-esque lovechild Loki. Whilst both these Marvel pieces had some light-heartedness reminiscent of the Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany series, WandaVision did lightness and brightness in an unnerving way, coupling it with true heartbreak and traumatic sadness for an otherwise seemingly invincible woman to make it an entirely unique show.

WandaVision is genuinely and truly a thrilling piece of television that feels made to watch over and over and over again.