Television...redux

I found it easier to work and to write when I didn't have the internet to distract me.

1. Saw WandaVision, which has Nine Episodes - to date only five have aired.

I'm not sure it works as well if you are unfamiliar with the films. Although, it may provide more suspense?

I am familiar with the films - and have seen the critical ones more than once - possibly because I adored Robert Downy Jr's take on Tony Stark, Chris Evans on Captain America, Jeremy Renner's on Hawkeye, Natasha Richardson's Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth's Hulk and Thor. I liked how they did it. (I don't always - I was brutally disappointed in the Batman films...with few exceptions. And in the Superman (with few exceptions) and the Wonder Woman (with few exceptions), and in the Fantastic Four (no exceptions) and Spiderman (few exceptions), and most of the X-men films (the only one I loved was Days of Future Past and Logan, everything else...ugh.)

I'm picky when it comes to this stuff - because I have a weakness for it.
I love stories about people with superpowers. Not everyone does. Some people like stories about pirates..I'm kind of ambivalent to be honest, others love stories about highlanders (also ambivalent), others love war movies (appeal is completely lost on me), others about people who work in diners...

Anyhow - this one is admittedly unique. It's kind of a show within a show. Wanda Maximov aka Scarlett Witch can manipulate the fabric of reality with a hex. She can literally rewrite reality if she so desires. Here she's rewritten the reality of the small town of Westville - turning everyone in town into one of her sitcom creations. They all play roles in her situation comedy. But she seems to be oblivious to the fact that they are doing so, or is she? The situation comedy format starts in the 1950s, jumps to the 60s then to the 70s then to the 80s, complete with front and end credits, sets, wardrobe, etc. She literally is rewriting reality to look like a sitcom, and each time she feels threatened or challenged, she changes the time period, the sets, everything.

I've never seen anything quite like it - but it takes the whole concept of the meta-narrative to the next level. I mean the 70s set looked like the Brady Bunch's House, and the 1980s set reminded me of my childhood home. And the 1950s set looked like Bewitched.

The cast is quite good. Olson and Lucas hold it together well, and Olson makes Wanda likable and kind of amusing at the same time.

2. Speaking of meta narratives...Legacies mini-musical performance of "The Vampire Diaries" was well done. Apparently the executive producer sent clips from it to the actors from the Vamp Diaries - and they posted small references to it on Twitter. Making the fans think they'd get a S9 of TVD.
( Read more... )

The big difference between Vamp Diaries and Legacies - which shows how things have changed is ...Legacies is far more diverse in its casting choices. And is getting better at featuring the diverse cast as it moves forward. Depicting how much things have truly changed. Vamp Diaries lasted longer than Buffy, in the much the same way that Supernatural did - because they weren't quite as expensive to make, didn't wear out the cast, and weren't as well written. They just wanted to be supernatural soap operas or fun shows. ( Read more... )

At any rate - I feel an odd desire to binge-watch Vamp Diaries. LOL!