Finally, Marvel finds the right format for the elongated stories on which its characters are based and that require the longest duration that the television format offers.

And yet, this mini-series prefers to be justified again by the (not even interesting) later mapping of other materials. It doesn't take the potential of its particular formalisation to the fullest, which here was even more justified and requested, as it is the television structure itself the structural element of the entire series, from the title.

Even in the transition between different sitcoms that each episode presents, we recognise the parallels with the protagonist's own mental and relational situation (with Vision). Where the optimism of what appears to be an idealised life from the 1950s in which the series begins, gives way to a more ironic and (in a way) realistic look at the relationships in question in the 2000s, as the same relationship between Wanda and Vision evolves in the turmoil that she herself created. Even the occasional television ad, appropriating the concerns of each era to equally illustrate some aspect of Wanda's memories, reveals the brilliance of the series proposal. Despite the parallel realities, mystical powers and cybernetic beings, even in the intentionally accelerated evolution of the relationship we recognise a point of realism, to which the actors themselves contribute to a large extent. Olsen and Bettany carry most of the work, in undeniable chemistry and a fun and engaging adaption to each new role.

At specific times, it's even interesting to see an almost metalinguistic exercise in the way we follow the different episodes of the series that Wanda creates. , where we start watching the backstage for the series during the episodes themselves. When the secondary actors question whether they should repeat the scene from the beginning, question the lack of children in the city, or stop their activity in the background, we gradually realise what the strange events might signify, without needing any explanation that the series, from the fourth episode, gives us.

That's how the big and frankly unnecessary flaw in the series arises. After three mysterious but exciting episodes, we go back to the beginning to establish a series of parallel events and characters that in no way contribute, in fact, to the main narrative. If we even accompany Vision discovering what's going on in the city, the series has already revealed it to us (less interestingly). This gives these scenes the sense of an obligatory addition for the establishment of future characters for subsequent films and/or series that take away the narrative interest of the current ones.

In fact, when there was a transition to "reality", to the secondary narrative, there was not a single time when my eyes wouldn't roll. Because we're so well involved in Wanda's twisted mind and inability to settle for her own grief, we are simply not interested in anything else. Because we want Wanda to undo the consequences of her own actions from the start, or simply to watch her fail tragically and, thus, only see in the end the consequences of all this parallel creation that brings more (personal) consequences than initially we have notion.

And in the seventh episode, we are already denoting an obvious way of illustrating narratively the conflict within Wanda, where other characters try to prevent her with common speeches, at the same time that Vision continues to participate in the sitcom structure. Thus, even more strange transitions and editions are revealed in a series that, at this point, lost its initially so well placed focus. Even more so when we realize that, regardless of what Wanda created, there are larger forces at play that draw much of the drama up to that point. Wanda ceases to be the vulnerable character that since its first appearance we know to be, to be (again) another piece in the limitless puzzle of this universe.

Thus, Marvel continues to miss the potential of a commitment to unveiling the tools it has by now mastered, preferring to use them superficially to attract the attention of the audience and then, just giving them more of what they already know and are ready to accept. The elongated flashback of the penultimate episode shows so obviously this, illustrating the story that we already know without experimenting with the meta-structure explored until the middle of the series. And the last episode is the typical third act of any of the twenty and three previous movies, where the clever use of television setbacks gives way to unmeasured visual effects. Still, the series beginning pulled out some of my most sincere smiles of recent times. Perhaps in a parallel universe, we could have received the definitive result of what was proposed to us.