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I’ve been holding off writing about Marvel’s Wandvision because for once I wanted to wait until the series was done before giving any thoughts. A novel concept for me with my long history of early impressions here in this blog, some of which bore out nicely and some of which, well, did not. But nine episodes? I could wait nine episodes, even if that meant nine weeks.
And honestly it still hasn’t been a week since the finale but the spoiler tags are largely ripped away and the interviews have begun. Of particular interest to me are two which were given by director Matt Shakman and head writer Jac Shaeffer concerning the development and execution of what became a very ambitious project. Of course don’t click these links or even read this blog further if you still haven’t watched and want to go in blind:
Matt Shakman talks cut story bits
Jac Shaeffer on Wandavision development
There are people who love the Wandavision finale, people who are satisfied, and people who hated it, at least one of my acquaintance who stated it retroactively ruined the entire show for him. He did not explain why, but man does that ever bring up one of the greatest terrors there is for a creative: endings. Especially for a popular property that has speculations running rampant and people gnashing for answers, and in some cases all the gods there may be help you if you don’t end up giving them the answers they wanted. Collider’s tongue-in-cheek piece is a useful reality check. As for myself, I won’t argue there was flawless execution, and perhaps the writers knowingly toyed with our expectations, but on the other hand it’s interesting to note the implication or even outright confirmation that there were things even they wished they could have done but circumstances dictated they were not to be. I liked what I was given a lot. It was emotional, it was thematic, and it was true to the title characters. To me it’s perhaps a miracle (“and there is nothing more horrifying than a miracle”) that the finale hung together as well as it did what with a global pandemic coming along and derailing post-production and most any thought of reshoots.
And if the path there ended up being strewn with red herrings (both intentional and ones that were merely a result of overactive theorizing), I still found it quite an enjoyable journey full of attention to detail and creative use of media to tell the story, and some fine acting as well. If anything I am pleased to note that the creators are mortal men and women after all because for awhile there I was caught up in a bit of my own grief that they were using some of the same elements I’ve been using in a far more coherent and and effective way. You get these little splits when you’re a writer experiencing good stuff. The bad stuff you just laugh or groan at, the good stuff you enjoy but also groan in a different way because part of you is convinced you’ll never do anything even half as decent. Then, thankfully, sometimes you get peeks behind the curtain and realize that it’s not nearly as effortless as it can seem and the creators have wrestled with their own doubts and disappointments along the way, and in the end just have done the best they could to tell the story they wanted to tell.
It’s a magic act. Did you see the wires? Did you see the (wo)man behind the curtain? And if so, did you care?
Flourish.