Reflections after a year of MCU on Disney+

[owlmoose]

It's 2022, and we've now had a year of MCU content on Disney+, so I thought it would be fun to take a step back and look at the shows, individually and as a whole, to compare and contrast them and think about what's coming next. Note: I have not yet seen Spider-Man: No Way Home, so please no spoilers for that in comments. I haven't seen Eternals either, but I don't care as much about that. Everything else that came out in 2021 is fair game. Thanks!

With so much content and so many characters to play with, Marvel has the opportunity to try new things, take stories in new directions, bend genres and expectations. And to a certain extent, I feel like they've done that, especially with these long-form shows. You think WandaVision is a romcom sitcom, until it turns out to secretly have been horror from the beginning. Of the 2021 shows, The Falcon & the Winter Soldier is the one that fits best under the "superhero as genre" umbrella, being basically action with a twist of political intrigue, appropriate for an entry under the Captain America umbrella. Loki defies easy categorization, changing genres from buddy cop show to dark and gritty adventure, by the end landing solidly in the realm of cosmic Marvel, which seems to be a world unto itself. As an anthology show, What If also spans genres, but by episode rather than twisting around over time, with some action, some horror, some comedy, some drama, sometimes all four thrown together into the blender. Last but not least, Hawkeye is primarily an action comedy, a little less lighthearted than the trailers would suggest, but I'd still be comfortable slotting it into that category. So definitely some differences, but all recognizably what we've come to think of as Marvel. Contains spoilers for all five shows (but nothing else that came out in 2021).

WandaVision One undeniable thing about WandaVision: it's a master class in the history of the white Hollywood sitcom. The sets, the costumes, the sensibility -- it's all there, marching through the decades from the 1950s through Modern Family. And then (sing it with me) it was a horror show all along! Another thing I appreciate about WandaVision is the way it uses the conventions of the sitcom against the audience, causing us to accept awkward and awful things as just part of the story rather than the red flags they are, because of course awkward and awful things happen to people who are living in a sitcom (see also: Season 1 of The Good Place).

This is the only show of the four that I didn't watch as it was airing. In this case, I think it probably improved the experience to watch the whole show over the space of less than a week -- the episodes are short, very bingeable, and I think it flowed better without a week's gap in between to stew over all the possibilities. (Loki, Hawkeye and What If? worked well week to week; I think The Falcon & the Winter Soldier would have also been improved by a binge watch.) Like many people, I think it was let down a bit by its ending, although I understand that was at least partially due to COVID protocols forcing changes in the production schedule. Still, it wasn't ever not going to end in a big CGI showdown between Wanda and Agatha, and that's kind of too bad. Overall, though, I enjoyed it -- the romance between Wanda and Vision was wonderful, Agatha was a good villain for this setup (although I'm not convinced her character can carry a whole show), and I loved the interactions with Darcy, Monica, and Jimmy (now there is a whole show I would watch).

The Falcon & the Winter Soldier: This is the Disney+ MCU show I was most anticipating, because of course I was -- my love for Steve Rogers and Captain America was my way into this fandom, Sam Wilson is easily one of my top characters, and the idea of a show that focused on him and his relationship with Bucky was like catnip. While I ultimately enjoyed it, of the shows we've seen so far I think it was the least well executed, and had the most things that fell flat for me. Possibly its reach exceeded its grasp: it's the show that engaged the most with real-world issues -- racism, inequitable distribution of resources, when violent protest and government-sanctioned use of force is and is not appropriate -- and unfortunately it didn't always hit the mark. I was especially disappointed with the direction they took the Flag Smashers. The story was so close to making a statement about resistance and what lines should and should not be crossed... and then Karli so thoroughly obliterated the line that all the shades of gray were obliterated, taking away any sense of a real moral dilemma.

That said, the growing friendship between Bucky and Sam was great, as was both of them growing into their new circumstances. I suspect this show suffered a bit from being first, or close to first, in terms of the MCU team figuring out how to tell a story in an episodic medium rather than writing a six-hour movie. As mentioned above, I think this would have worked better as a binge watch, and I think it's notable that the first two Disney+ shows are the ones that had this problem, moreso than any of the others.

Loki: This would seem to be the most widely-liked of the bunch, and I can certainly understand why. It's probably my favorite, too. Tom Hiddleston was born to play this role, and he clearly loves doing it. His chemistry with Owen Wilson and with Sophia Di Martino was incredible. The mysteries of the Time Bureau, and how they both were and were not resolved, were fascinating. But I suspect that one reason folks in general responded better to Loki overall than some of the other shows is that this show had the clearest idea of what it wanted to do. The character of Loki went on a very specific journey to grow his character in a very specific way, and the story never lost sight of that. It's also the show with the strongest connection to the overall storyline of the MCU, being the introduction of the multiverse. So between those two things, it had the strongest focus. Whether that focus worked for you or not (for me it did), I think it made for a stronger production overall.

What If?: By its nature, an anthology show is going to be uneven. And how much any given person is going to enjoy each new AU likely depends on which characters you love and are dying to revisit. For example, anything that gives me more Peggy Carter and Peggy/Steve is going to make me happy. Any content that focuses primarily on Dr. Strange or zombies has a steeper hill to climb. So it should be no surprise that the first episode was one of my favorites, while I didn't like those other two nearly as much. The series didn't lack for interesting ideas -- I thought all of them were worth exploring, even the episodes I didn't love. It all came down to character work and execution. Probably the best episode was T'Challa as Star Lord, not just for Chadwick Boseman's performance, but because the writing took a really hard look at how he and the universe would change and came up with so many fascinating possibilities. Plus, it was funny, in a way that the actual Guardians movies tend not to be for me.

The overarching theme of the Watcher coming closer and closer to the action was interesting. Jeffrey Wright is always an excellent casting choice, and I enjoyed the way he developed the character from detached observer to director of the action. Not everything about the finale worked -- I especially wish they had shown the Gamora episode in order, rather than having her appear out of nowhere among the Watcher's superteam -- but I liked the concept of it. I understand that this show, like Loki, is getting another season, and I look forward to seeing what new ideas they explore, and which of the stories in this first season get greater development.

Hawkeye: I kept forgetting that this show was happening because I was so unenthusiastic about it... until the first trailers dropped and promised a Die Hard-style Christmas action comedy with lots of Kate Bishop. Fortunately, that's more or less what we got, with the bonus of introducing and developing Echo, who I'm very glad is getting her own show. Hailee Stanfield -- who between this show and Arcane is having a banner year -- is a brilliant Kate, and her relationship with Hawkeye was drawn perfectly. I don't dislike Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye with the same intensity as much of MCU fandom -- I enjoyed what I read of the Fraction/Aja comics run, but their disaster boy isn't the one true Hawkeye for me in the same way he are for a lot of people. Actually, I find the "secret family man" take on the character interesting as well, in a whole different way, and one of the things I liked about this show was the way it developed Laura's character. So he works for me here, especially as a middle-aged guy who's showing his age and dealing with hearing loss, brought on by years of pushing himself to his physical limits. Another thing I liked was bringing Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin fully into the MCU -- he owns that role. I can't imagine they brought him back for a single episode of a Disney+ series, so I have faith that he survived that encounter, and we'll see him again.

Anyway, it was nice to end the year with a show that was a little lighter, a little more fun, with stakes that were personal rather than epic, and I hope we see more Disney+ shows that take that route.

I don't know that I have any grand statement takeaway from all this. I do wonder how long Marvel/Disney can keep this up, juggling this many properties across at least two different platforms. Part of me likes the idea of one big grand narrative, but in other ways the thought is exhausting. But the experiment is off to at least a reasonable start, and I'm curious to see what will happen next.