WandaVision is bonkers but now I’m a fan of the MCU

The new Disney+ TV show might be more rewarding if you have more than a passing knowledge of the superhero world, but it’s still magical to watch

Expecting a baby: Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda and Paul Bettany as Vision in ‘WandaVision’ on Disney+ (Courtesy of Marvel Studios)

I’ve never seen Avengers. I’ve never wanted to. With two young children, I have enough crashing and banging at home. But there was something about the trailers for WandaVision that seemed intriguing – it was like The Truman Show meets The Stepford Wives meets The Twilight Zone.

Three episodes in, I’m hooked. The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) first Disney+ series is a parody of the family sitcom; each episode is set in a different decade of TV, starting in the 1950s. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany – whose chemistry is unmistakable – are brilliant as two married superheroes, Wanda Maximoff and Vision, living in suburban bliss.  

I’m reliably informed that it’s all part of a complex tapestry of the MCU: the series takes place after the events in Avengers Endgame (2019) and sets up the “Phase Four” film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), in which Olsen will reprise her role as Wanda. But it’s still magical to watch WandaVision as a standalone TV spin-off.