A place for Marvel/Star Wars Disney+ shows.

Secret Invasion, or: How Not To Do a Spy Or Any Other Miniseries by selenak.
Now, rather than going on a rant of how Secret Invasion is bad, I'd rather go for a bit of why it failed (and why Hawkeye did succeed) (for me, as always this is subjective). Because it's not that there are new characters with a narrative focus (both shows have those) and new relationships in addition to the movie established ones. Or the inherent clichés or sillness of the premise (part of the parcel).

FILM CRITIC HULK has been a favorite of mine for years. And he's actually been writing weekly about the show. He comes at it more from an all-encompassing story and cinematic critique, which given the nature of the show's setup is something I really appreciate. Less "oooohhhh who's the Big Bad and did you see that Easter egg??", more how they're constructing their story and the tools they're using to do so, plus obviously what tv tropes they're referencing.



Water Cooler-ing With WANDAVISION
The second they emerged onto the street at night I as like “Oooh i hope this show gets more noir,” and then beekeeper man shows up out of the sewer and you appropriately get just enough of those Lynchian vibes where it’s like “teh fuq?” But what’s telling is that, in an abstract way, the show immediately gives away a huge part of the game. Wanda doesn’t like this so rather than investigate, she basically rewinds time, goes back into sitcom world and in another Pleasantville-ian stroke, it now becomes a color world.

Watercoolering With WANDAVISION - Ep. 3 - NOW IN COLOR
Virtually ever moment just has the characters reaction to something strange, like the hedge clippers thing, and they go “that’s weird!” and move the fuck on to some new distraction (they’ve done this like fourteen times in three episodes and I am EXHAUSTED by it. These are insane levels of plot-blocking).

Watercoolering With WANDAVISION - Ep. 4 - We Interrupt This Program
Again, a mystery is not presenting endless vague-ness, it is establishing a driving question, having people try to answer it, and changing the scope of that understanding based on newly evolving information. Here we finally get all that. And even more.

Watercoolering With WANDAVISION - EPISODE 5
I’m seeing a lot of how this show gets talked about on social media and I’m realizing how much it plays into “what people see and don’t see.” For instance, everyone is talking about the shifts in performance when Wanda and Vision “get real.” And they should! They are good at it! But the thing that I really love is how good the cinematography is at effecting mood. Watch the camera placement shifts and subtle changes in light, particularly when they go for close-ups.

Watercoolering With WANDAVISION - Ep. 6 - All-New Halloween Spooktacular
First off, I want to take a second to say how much they’re nailing the cinematography of this show. While the effectiveness of the writing sort of goes in and out, the stylistic approach of the camera work has been ON POINT every step of the way. And this week’s “90’s episode’ is probably the best work yet, in that it so absolutely fucking nailed the Malcolm In The Middle sensibility and joke style (though I have a fun caveat about that at the bottom). But it’s not just the show’s ability to capture pastiche of sitcom - it’s when they know how to break it and use traditional camera work to bring us close to intimate moments in all the right ways.

Watercoolering With WANDAVISION - Ep. 7 - Breaking The Fourth Wall
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Assume spoilers including ep7 in the comments. (I'm turning comment notifications off, as I'll be on ep six for several more weeks)