7 Problems With WandaVision That Nobody Wants To Admit
WandaVision is one of the best things in the MCU, but it still has a lot of problems.
After a 2020 completely devoid of any new MCU content, thanks to the pandemic pushing back the releases of films like Black Widow and Eternals, fans of the franchise were eager to dive back into the stories of their favourite superheroes after such a long time away.
And, in January of this year, Marvel made a stunning comeback with the Disney+ original series WandaVision.
The show pitched itself as being much stranger than previous MCU instalments, following Avengers Wanda Maximoff and The Vision as they find themselves living in a world modelled on American sitcoms from the 1950s through to the 2010s. The slowly unfolding nature of the show, as well as its unique setting, earned it some much deserved praise from fans.
But even the best shows have problems and WandaVision has issues that threatened to undermine the themes that it strove to portray. Despite its ambitions of being something different from the rest of the franchise, it can't help but fall into some of the traps that previous MCU properties also have.
Let's take a look at the seven things that WandaVision drops the ball on.
7. Agatha Harkness Had Generic Motivations
Kathryn Hahn’s nosy neighbour Agnes was one of the standout residents of Westview, acting as an outgoing foil to the more reserved Wanda and keeping viewers guessing as to her true identity. The reveal that she was actually a long-lived and powerful witch known as Agatha Harkness, complete with an iconic theme song, was a truly impactful moment in the show.
The problem is that once Agatha is revealed as the main villain, her motivations aren’t particularly interesting. She wants to steal Wanda’s magic so she can be more powerful, which is far too close to the generic goals of the more forgettable MCU villains.
Instead of the more multi-layered antagonists that we’ve seen in Phase 3 and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we get an antagonist who has decided to do evil things for very thin reasons, and it feels like a waste of what could have been a really interesting character for Wanda to face off against.
Hahn still plays the role to perfection even as the characterisation starts to slip but you can’t help but think that she deserved something more to sink her teeth into.