When the Marvel first announced shows we’re going to be apart of the MCU on Disney +, we as the audience really did not have an idea about what these shows would entail. Now being just finished with the 3rd show in the lineup (Loki), I think a bit of a look back on these three shows, how they did and how Loki was finally the show to figure out the strengths of the MCU show and how to fully stick the landing of the season finale. There will be spoilers for the shows, so if you still need to catch up on any of the MCU shows, go do that first and then come back; the blog is not going anywhere.
Wandavision:
When the schedule was first created, Wandavison was not supposed to be the first MCU show shown on Disney +, but because plans had to change everywhere because COVID. Wandavison does a great job of using the relationship between Wanda and Vision in. Way to talk about the grief of losing a love one and the complicated feelings of working through said grief. All of the character interactions in Wandavison are such a strength for the show, unfortunately that is not the whole show.
A lot of the finale is kinda bogged down with action that is just okay, and not on the par with the MCU movies (which is totally understandable). There is also the whole B-Plot with the very generic bad guy of SWORD, who is unfortunately a very one-dimensional villain and not really rememberable. The show does introduce us to the grownup version of Monica Rambeau, and sets her up for the upcoming “The Marvels” movie. The positives definitley outweigh the negative with regards to the first (and probably only) season of Wandavison. The homage to sitcom television is really well done and makes it a unique part of the MCU It gives us what these shows can do that the movies can not do, which is be unique and different on a smaller scale without the large pressures that comes with being a MCU movie. Add on the character work done between Wanda and Vision and how distraught Wanda has become dealing with the grief of losing a loved one, it is a great addition to TV.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier:
This is the show that is the most like a MCU movie, which is both a good and bad thing. The action in TFatWS is the best out of these three shows. The opening episode has one of the best action scenes, even when compared to the movies where Falcon is flying around and chasing these bad guys through these valleys near the Libyan border. That opening episode did a great job of setting up what this series beats are going to be. Unfortunately the story really does not hold up its end of the bargain for this. In what I think is the most important of the three series in a cultural way, and how important the whole story with Sam becoming Captain America and everything with Isaiah Bradley being forced to become a super-soldier, with all the bad stuff that comes with it. These are topics that Marvel usually does not touch with a ten foot pole, so for them to not only talk about them but do it in a really good way is both surprising and a welcome change.
Everything else in the show falls flat. Just like with Wandavison, the villains leave a bit to be desired. The Flag Smashers could have been very interesting with the plot around how to deal with people who were snapped back and the sudden influx of all of those people back into society. Instead they are made to be uninteresting and the motives with them and The Power Broker (which is the most obvious reveal) do not have really any time spent on them. Just like with Wandavison, TFatWS does not stick the landing with its season finale and kinda struggles to the closing bell
I will say I enjoyed John Walker, and I think he will end up being a good villain for Captain America further down the line. In MCU history, some of the best villains are the ones who actually believe they are the heroes in their own story. John Walker could fit that bill perfectly.
Loki:
The most recently of the MCU Disney + shows and what I personally enjoyed the most. This is also going to have the biggest impact on the MCU than the other 2 shows right now. Tom Hiddleston does a fantastic job being this version fo Loki. This is where Loki shines where the other two shows either did not spend enough time on or were more heavy on action and that is character moments. All the dialogue between Loki, Mobius or Sylvie, also when Loki gets pruned and sent to the end of time and then discovers all of the other Lokis (shoutout to Richard E. Grant as Classic Loki and Alligator Loki, just fantastic). Nothing does a better job of showing this off than when Sylvie and Loki make it to the End of Time and talk to He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors is also just fantastic). Instead of the normal MCU fair of the big climax being a huge fight, instead it is 15 to 20 minutes of Jonathan Majors just chewing scenery with explaining everything and laying out the consequences of each choice that could be made.
That does not mean that this show is without faults. The action scenes that the show does have are okay, but nothing that is a great as the action from TFatWS. Where this show learns from the 2 shows that came before it is it knows where the strength is and where to put the focus at.
Loki also has the most interesting cliffhanger of the 3 MCU shows, with Loki now back in the TVA, but no one knows who he is and a picture of what is thought to be a variant of Kang in charge. Also the decision that Sylvie makes is what looks like to be the jumping off point for all of the multiverse stuff that has been discussed for a while.
Also I would be remiss to not mention the esthetics choice that was made with the TVA. Michael Waldron (series creator) described it as “Mad Men meets Blade Runner” and I think that is a perfect description for it. Kasra Farahani (Production Designer on Loki) describes it as a Mid-Century modernism with a mixture of that futuristic analog technology that is in sci-fi properties like Blade Runner. Farahani also goes into how the style brutalism has heavy influence on the design of the TVA. It shows how having a distinct style can be in itself just as important to a TV show or a movie as story and characters can be.
Looking forward to the future for the MCU shows, I hope that Disney looks at what Loki, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and Wandavison did with regards to characters and story and use these shows to tell stories they would not be able to do with the MCU expectations for movies. Use the Disney + platform to expand the stories in a more intimate way, while still using the movies as its platform for the big set pieces.
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