Yes, the series is over (probably for good), but that doesn't mean the party has to end just yet.
That's right, here's the post you never knew you needed:
The One And Only WandaVision Awards!
Just what are WandaVision Awards? Well, they're basically me picking what I like the best out of made up categories that pertain to the WandaVision series now completely available on Disney+, and then me making way more than is necessary out of them. You know, like most award shows.
If you have yet to watch a single episode of WandaVision, then this sentence right here serves as the obligatory spoiler alert, although, in this case, it might seem even more disjointed than in previous posts, simply because things will be out of context even more than normal.
Got that? Good. It's time to get on with the show.
First up on the list (in totally and completely random order):
Best Funny Quote
Because this series was six decades worth of sitcoms made by Marvel, there was a ton of humorous quotes. But since this is an awards show, I've done all the hard work and narrowed down the nominees to five. They are (again in no particular order):
A. Oh! Somebody better be bleeding, broken or on fire.—Wanda Maximoff
B. I'm feeling pukey!—Vision
C. Who's The Popsicle?—Pietro (Fietro) Maximoff
D. So you're saying the universe created a sitcom starring two Avengers?—FBI Agent James Woo
E. Don't mind me. I'm just looking for your dark liquor. Not for me. For the twins. What kind of babysitter do you think I am?—Agnes/Agatha Harkness
In reality, this category could have been a duel between anything Agnes says in any episode, and Fietro, particularly from Episode 6. However, since I'm forcing myself under penalty of (pick a punishment) to just one, that's what I've done.
The winner for Best Funny Quote in WandaVision is:
C. Who's the popsicle?—Pietro (Fietro) Maximoff.
The line comes at the end of Episode 5, when Wanda opens the door and finds "her brother" Pietro at the door. The first five times I heard it, I couldn't stop laughing. The way actor Evan Peters delivers it is just hilarious, and it breaks a palpable tension for both Wanda and Vision, who had just been arguing rather vehemently, and for the audience, too, who at this point was expecting some kind of major cameo appearance.
While it didn't quite turn out the way many fan theorists hoped, demanded or expected, Pietro showing up on the doorstep was an amazing moment which required a masterful delivery to end the episode on and Peters nailed it.
Next up:
Best Dramatic Quote
I figure, might as well put the best quotes categories back to back. Again, there were quite a few to choose from. The nominees are:
A. I'm not afraid of you Wanda. I lost the person closest to me, too. The worst thing I can think of has already happened to me and I can't change it. I can't undo it. I can't control this pain anymore and I don't think I want to, because it's my truth.—Monica Rambeau
B. What I do know is I've been watching WandaVsion for the past week, and the love you two have is real. You belong together.—Doctor Darcy Lewis
C. I can't feel you. I can't feel you.—Wanda Maximoff
D. Well, because it can't all be sorrow, can it? I've always been alone, so I don't feel the lack. It's all I've ever known. I've never experienced loss because I have never had a loved one to lose. But what is grief, if not love persevering?—Vision
E. So, to recap. Parents dead, brother dead, Vision dead. What happened when he wasn't there to pull you back from the darkness, Wanda? Come on, Wanda! You're on the precipice. You are right there! Tell me how you did it. Vision was gone. But you wanted him back.—Agnes/Agatha Harkness.
All five of these quotes come from either Episode 7 or 8, where the drama ratcheted up quite a bit. Episode 8, in particular, was just a bombardment of important, pivotal moments. But, never one to shy away from a challenge, I present to you my choice for the winner of Best Dramatic quote:
D. ...But what is grief, if not love persevering?—Vision
While social media and memes managed to mock this quote in one way or another, I'm still picking it, because these words uttered by Vision to a distraught Wanda drowning in grief was the moment she started to fall in love with him. Vision probably already had feelings for her, how that's even possible for a synthetic being, but being the non-human in the room, he still found the perfect thing to say.
Best Commercial
Just as the sitcom styles and formats changed with each decade for WandaVision the show-within-the show, so, too, did the commercials, which appeared once per sit-com episode. There were six altogether, so I'm leaving one out in offering up only five, which I will explain after the announcement of the winner.
The nominees for Best Commercial are:
A. The ToastMate 2000
B. Strücker Watch
C. Hydra Soak
D. Lagos Brand Paper Towels
E. Nexus
All of the above were great, in my opinion. As period pieces themselves, they were dead on in tone and form. They were also chocked full of Easter Eggs for those fans looking for every clue of what was happening or to come in every nook and cranny possible.
I enjoyed them all, but there can only be one winner. Thus, the winner of the Best Commercial in WandaVision is:
E. Nexus.
It's sad, but drug commercials seem to personify the time period we're in, and Nexus just hits to the center of both the world of WandaVision, and our own.
Oh. The commercial not listed? Yo-Magic. I was okay with it until the poor kid on the deserted island essentially died of starvation because he was too weak to open up the dang yogurt cover. I guess I just found it too over the top.
Agree to disagree.
Moving on...
This next category is kind of a hybrid, since I couldn't decide what to call it. So much of what became of WandaVision outside of the show itself was caught up in fan theories, especially surrounding potential appearances from characters within and without the MCU. Disney acquired Fox Studios towards the end of 2019, and since WandaVision was the first MCU project produced after that, it became ground zero (because of fans, not the show itself, really) for all things multiverse, mutants, and/or how to bridge the gap between the MCU properties and the previous Fox owned movies—The X-men and Fantastic Four.
There were so many feints, red herrings and so forth, in the first seven episodes that the actual major level cameos were minimal, while the trolling (which fans mainly put upon themselves) was maximized.
So, I guess I'm going to call this category—
Best Cameo/No Cameo
—though most if it has something to do with the show trolling fans hard without really trying or always meaning to.
Okay. 'Nuff said. Here are the nominees:
A. Pietro (Fietro) Maximoff/Ralph Bohner
B. Reed Richards, Blue Marvel, any science guy remotely having to do with an aerospace engineer
C. Mephisto, Nightmare, Grim Reaper, Master Pandemonium, Clea, or any other big bad of Marvel Comics
D. Pick an X-Man, any X-Man.
E. Doctor Strange
Since there's a dual nature to this category, there's really only one choice in my mind, and that's the actual cameo that occurred, that ended up trolling fans hard. Maybe not the hardest, that would probably go to the aerospace engineer, but regardless, my winner for Best Cameo/No Cameo is:
A. Pietro (Fietro) Maximoff/Ralph Bohner
An actual Westview resident who would have initially been under the spell of Wanda's Hex, the much mentioned but never seen Ralph (because we didn't know who he really was—and may still not know, mind you) became Agatha Harkness' patsy, who trolled Wanda while trolling the rest of us. That's a lot of trolling, and a lot of meta, I might add.
Readers may have noted that I didn't include characters such as Monica Rambeau, Darcy Lewis, James Woo or Agatha Harkness as guests appearances or cameos. The reason for this is, while all were great in their own way and a delight to have on the show, some (Monica and Agatha) were largely expected or didn't really rise to the level of major cameo that either happened or didn't.
For an awards show, I seem to be doing a lot of explaining. There's a lot to explain, which goes to just how layered, complex and jam packed this nine episode series was.
At any rate, it's time for the next category.
Best Effects
Given the nature of WandaVision and its sheer level of ambition, I've chosen to generalize all effects—visual, digital, special, what have you, into one, so as to not exclude any particular kind. I will no doubt exclude something, simply because I'm choosing five, anyway.
Nominees for this category are:
A. Wire effects: Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience
B. The Hex (multiple episodes)
C. White Vision's Energy Beam: The Series Finale
D. Monica Rambeau blasted across half of New Jersey: We Interrupt This Program
E. Witches being sucked of their powers and energy: Previously On
I left out a lot, and some of these I've chosen might seem fairly trivial given the ones I did leave out (like all of the aerial battle sequences in the finale).
What can I say. My show. My nominees.
That's not to say, however, that all of the effects were not spectacular. They were incredible. So much of it was seamless, that it was hard to know just what was happening.
Here's my winning choice for Best Effects:
C. White Vision's Energy Beam.
It's cool. So is the sound effect that accompanies it.
Just so you know, my original first choice was A., because the type of wire effects they did in the First Episode was awesome. I guess I'm just a sucker for energy beams.
Best Theme Song (Lyrics)
Like the quotes categories, there will be two of these, mainly because it was hard for me to choose just one. I know, breaking my own rules. I refer you to the statement already made above about who's show this is.
I'm not going to quote all the lyrics from every theme song here, though I really want to, but this post will probably be long enough as is. I will still quote the winning song lyrics, however.
Like the Best Commercial category, there will be a theme song left out, which I will reference below. Hazards of having only five nominees.
Nominees for Best Theme Song (Lyrics) are:
A. Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience
B. Don't Touch That Dial
C. Now In Color
D. On A Very Special Episode...
E. All-New Halloween Spooktacular!
Like the visual style and content of the sitcom era being portrayed in each of these episodes, the different theme songs, in this case, the lyrics, followed suit. As I've been repeatedly saying in one way or another for virtually everything so far, each set of lyrics was spectacular. Some of it was sparse, as in Don't Touch That Dial, but each helped set the tone of the episode it was attached to.
The one I liked the best, I believe, happens to be the longest. At least, it seems like it's jam packed with words, all meaningful.
The winner for Best Theme Song (Lyrics) is:
D. On A Very Special Episode...
Here are the lyrics.
You wander the world with a vision of what life could be
But then the years come and teach you to just wait and see
Forces may try to pull us apart
but nothing can phase me if you're in my heart
Crossing our fingers, singing a song—
We're making it up as we go along
Through the highs and the lows, we'll be right, we'll be wrong—
We're making it up as we go along
And there will be days we won't know which way to go
But we'll take it higher, you're all I desire
When the going gets tough, when push comes to shove
We're making it up
'Cause we got love
We got love
We got love
We got love
Baby we got...
...WandaVision
Which theme song (lyrics) wasn't even nominated? Well, it's the one for Breaking The Fourth Wall, simply because there's no lyrics at all, unless you count the words shown on screen during the theme song, in which case, it's mainly Wanda over and over again.
Note. No, Agatha All Along wasn't a part of this category, or the next, for that matter. It's an incredible piece of music, very fun, absolutely, but I was going for episode theme songs here, not character theme songs. Agatha's kind of the only one who has one, anyway.
Best Theme Song (Music)
Nominees:
A. Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience
B. Don't Touch That Dial
C. Now In Color
D. On A Very Special Episode...
E. All-New Halloween Spooktacular!
Like the lyrics, the melodies also matched the decade they were created for. Some were relatively light and simple, but one had quite a bit of instrumentation, which happened to be my favorite. The winner of Best Theme Song (Music):
D. On A Very Special Episode...
Yep. That makes the theme song for that episode a double winner. If I had a vocals category, it would win, too, because the harmonizing of the male and female voices are outstanding.
Again, the odd song out on this one was from Breaking The Fourth Wall. It was there for fans of a sitcom called Happy Endings which a crew member or two had worked on. I've never seen it, so there's literally no connection for me. I'll leave it at, since this is all my own personal preferences anyway.
Also, I should mention Agatha All Along was great musically. I really like it a lot. It's just not an episode theme song, and I think it got all the attention it rightfully merits by many more than this awards show will see.
Okay. We're down to the final three categories.
This next one also has a twin, and you'll see why in a moment.
Best Dramatic Acting
WandaVision leant itself to a spectrum of acting demands, and in my opinion, all of the performances were so well done. There was a delineation, though, between dramatic and comedic acting, even if actors managed to bounce back and forth between the two. I feel like this is a way to give more than one person their due, based on the material they were mostly given.
Nominees for Best Dramatic Acting:
A. Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
B. Paul Bettany as Vision/The Vision
C. Kathryn Hahn as Agnes/Agatha Harkness
D. Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau
E. Josh Stamberg as SWORD Acting Director Tyler Hayward
While there were plenty of great performances, this one just has to go to the one person on this list with the greatest body of dramatic work throughout the episodes.
A. Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
The range of voice inflections, facial expressions, body language, that Elizabeth Olsen emotes is stunning. Just when I thought it wasn't possible to portray one kind of emotion any deeper or stronger, she did it. From one heartbreaking moment to the next, she just put it all out there.
Best Comedic Acting
Since I more or less explained this with the last category, here are the nominees:
A. Evan Peters as Pietro (Fietro) Maximoff/Ralph Bohner
B. Kathryn Hahn as Agnes/Agatha Harkness
C. Paul Bettany as Vision/The Vision
D. Randall Parks as FBI Agent James Woo
E. Kat Dennings as Doctor Darcy Lewis
Again, I think the nod on this one has to go to the one who had the most comedic work throughout the series, even though for one entire episode, I'm also inclined to give it to someone else, just because their delivery resonated so much.
The winner:
B. Kathryn Hahn as Agnes/Agatha Harkness
There's no denying that she's just marvelous. Her timing, her over the top facial expressions, wonderful. Her more dramatic acting was bar none, too. Had there been more of it, she may have won both acting categories, she was that good.
Since there aren't any runner ups, I will just mention that the episode stealing comedic acting I was referring to above was done by Evan Peters. His turn as the fake Pietro in Episode 5 is just hilarious. I've commented before that I was not a fan of Peter Maximoff in the latter X-Men movies, but his Uncle P version was non-stop fun.
Last but not least, the final category for the WandaVision Awards is:
Best Episode
This is going to be the toughest. That's not why it's last. Not on purpose anyway. I loved nearly all of the episodes in one way or another. In any given moment, depending on day and mood, I could choose any of a number of them and be okay with it winning until I changed my mind.
I think most of them were that good.
The nominees are:
A. Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience
B. Don't Touch That Dial
C. Now In Color
D. On A Very Special Episode...
E. Previously On
I've stated in a previous post that I would love nothing more than to see Wanda and Vision starring in episodes of sitcoms for as many years as possible. It's not to be, but if it were, I would watch them. If that's all WandaVision had been, without any hint of craziness other than wondering how in the world they got there, I would be content.
Based on all that, you can probably see that I'm leaning towards one of the episodes with at least part of it being a sitcom. I am, even though Episode 8, Previously On, is so heart wrenching, and reveals essentially everything about how and why the sitcom world came to be in the first place. That episode makes it very difficult to go back and watch those earlier sitcom-heavy ones in the same light that I first saw them.
All that said, the winner of Best Episode is:
B. Don't Touch That Dial
I think it has the best character performances from all the major players (excluding Pietro Maximoff/Ralph Bohner, who isn't introduced until Episode 5). Vision is hilarious in this, but so is Agnes, and we're introduced to Monica Rambeau as Geraldine, who I really enjoyed in her turns within the Hex.
I really enjoyed the magic show Wanda and Vision performed as Illusion and Glamor. I was surprised to see Wanda's baby bump appear near the end of the episode, and then thought it was absolutely cool and appropriate when the whole scene changed magically from black and white to technicolor.
Also in this episode emerged the mysteries of the colored helicopter, the voice on the radio, and the beekeeper who was rewound into oblivion.
Maybe that guy will get his own show. Or not. He literally disappeared from everyone's memory after the rewind.
Thanks For Tuning In
Well, that's it for The One And Only WandaVision Awards show. If you haven't seen all of the episodes, I highly recommend and encourage you to do so. The sooner the better. I think such a high standard was set with it that I can't wait to see what the next Marvel Studio offerings, on and off Disney+ can do to match, or at least extend, what WandaVision did.
Next up is The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, which makes its debut next Friday, March 19 on Disney+. In the meantime, if you're into behind-the-scenes documentaries, there is one available for WandaVision to watch.
Yeah, I saw it. I think it's well worth checking out, too, if not so much for the making of the show itself, but for the insights into why certain things were done, which might also explain why other things were not.
Like 90% of all fan theories.
Sorry, guys. Don't worry, though. There's certainly way more ahead.
All images source—WandaVision Images Media Kit on Disney.com